Culbert Report

There is ample supply of free parking in Moscow.  Sidewalks, when not being used as alternate routes for automotive traffic, can double as parking places.  Also... Dan and I, pretty early on, have been forced to shed our Boulder pedestrian mentality.  Cars will actually speed up to hit you here, I think it's a kind of local game they enjoy.  At any rate, we've gone almost overnight from not even looking before we cross a main thoroughfare while texting a friend on our cell phones, to dodging cars hurtling down the sidewalk.   -rkc

6:00 came early Thursday morning, as we took to the road headed to DIA for the first part of our journey to the Motherland.  Now, almost 40 hours later, we're happily situated in Moscow, Russia, with our teammates Chris and Liz, steadily adjusting to the time change (10 hours ahead of Colorado.) Due to a logistical change, we will be staying with our gracious hosts during this initial jaunt to Russia and transitioning to life with a Russian family in the early fall.  We were so thankful for our new room, recently converted from Chris and Liz's office, and our full sized air matress, especially luxurious after 30 some hours of travel! Bright and early this morning, I woke full of energy, ready for the big city!  Having the apartment primarily to myself - as nobody else seemed quite as energetic at 4:30 this morning, I collected some thoughts about our first day that I'd like to share with you now. It's been a long time since Dan and I have been in Russia.  Our full half ...

Introducing Susan Boyle If you have yet to see this clip from Britain's Got Talent, (click here ,) you may be one of the few remaining world citizens.  Susan Boyle, with over 3 million views (and still climbing) for her BGT debut, has stepped literally overnight from obscurity into fame.  And bravo.  From the thunderous explosion of applause after Susan's first line, to the audible gasp of surprise I emitted during my first viewing, we recognize that we have stumbled across a moment in our human experience that will stay with us for quite some time.  Unexpected, to say the least, Susan's vocal timbre instantly quells the rolling eyes, the smug whispers of audience members caught on tape during Susan's quirky answers to questions during the judges' initial interview.  It's not only the shock of these two very different selves emerging from this one person, but the delight in discovering something astoudingly beautiful in a very unexpected vessel.  In Susan...

Recently I've been thinking a lot about miracles. We throw the term around quite a bit. When asking my husband to define miracle, he appropriately replied, "happy, happy things that happen, especially at Christmas!" Precisely, I thought. This exactly summarizes what we would like miracles to be. Two summers ago, Colorado was bursting at the seams with the miraculous: "It's a miracle that the Colorado Rockies made it to the World Series!" Also miraculous, our ability to come up with such a catchy term marking the month of their success on such a short amount of time, " Rocktober ." Although the Rockies' success was yes, far-fetched and incredibly unlikely, miracle is still a bit too hyperbolic to use in this instance. Wikipedia (well reputed source on miracles) tells us that a miracle "is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated w...

We've recently enjoyed the company of some dear friends of ours out in the bustling metropolis of Junction City, Oregon.  Our friends were delighted to introduce us to their darling girl, Elizabeth, whom we hadn't had the opportunity to meet these last six months of her existence.  While we savored watching her small hands, busy feet, and endlessly changing (often humorous) expressions, we enjoyed so much more watching these new parents glow in the joy of their daughter. As visits with these dear friends are rich, but seldom, we jokingly began a yarn of folklore to assuage the sadness of living far apart, missing more moments with Elizabeth, the new source of daily life and chaos for our friends:  Crazy Uncle Dan.  Crazy Uncle Dan lives in Russia and does Crazy Uncle Dan things, like hanging his wet clothes on the clothesline outside in negative 40 degree weather, then shattering his jeans when he tries to put them on immediately after taking them off the line.  Or like learnin...

An attempt to modernize this moment in the gospel of Luke. Herd of Pigs Luke 8:26-39      It was that same smell that always smacks into you on that same corner: that revolting blend of stale alcohol and dried urine. We always quickened our pace around that corner, a sort of unspoken pact, anxious to get to the light and cross to the cleaner side of the street. But he was there today, marinating in his own filthy odor and trash. As he sensed our approach, he began spewing his senseless fragments:      “Adime t’day? Shum change?”      “How abow shum help for a body down on he sluck.”      “You kids got shum money?”      I looked over at my brother, who stood staring unabashedly at the desolate man. This corner, this man, seemed, for my brother, as much a part of our Friday routine as swimming at the Y, candy at Michelle’s, and reading magazines at the library. I could see the subtle fascination creep over his face. He just lives like that. Lives. Why doesn’t he do something for...

Our family has some close friends who are caught with two houses. They built a new, fancy, house to sell right before the bottom fell out of the housing market. Now they are paying two mortgages and have had to put both of their homes on the market. A falling stock market is taking care of whatever else might be left. I should mention that they are very Christ-like people. It's easy to tell that they know God in a very intimate way. A couple nights ago they came over from dinner. The husband, Jack, told us about his recent trip to their financial advisor. He described it, with a hint of southern drawl, something like this: Financial Advisor: "There's some cash left over in here. Do you want to pull it out? Do you need it?" Jack: "Nope." FA: "Ok, 'cause I want to invest it and it might be tied up for a little while." J: "Ok, that sounds good." FA: "I want to make sure you feel comfortable about doing this. How do y...