This is the elevator that goes up to our flat. It can hold up to three people or two people and a backpack. Its great for building community.

This is the entry way of our flat. Every time you enter a house you take off your coat and shoes and put on house slippers. Each Russian home providers house slippers for guests. This practice keeps the floors very clean a stark contrast to the streets which are covered in slimy black slush.

My messy room. This room doubles as my office, Mike’s office and storage for household linens.

Our WC. This is the only toilet in our flat. All six of us use it and it is available most of the time believe it or not. There is little intensive to spend long periods of time in the Water Closet.

Russian homes do not have thermostats like we do in the West. Instead they have these radiators in almost every room. The radiators are kept warm from hot water pumped in from a central heating station. The CHS set the temperature for several buildings or even a whole block.

The system is very soviet but it keeps the flats much warmer than my house in Belton. The downside is that in the Spring when it gets warmer the radiator might still be on and the house can become unbearably hot.

This bathroom doubles as a laundry room and has no toilet. We are blessed to have both a washer and a dryer. It is uncommon for Russian homes to have a washer and dryers are very rare.

Here we are having tea. This is a common Russian custom to have “Chi” after dinner. The Cantrell’s don’t have a TV and the fellowship is sweet and frequent. We have a fun game where everyone talks in Russian and Thomas reads random phrases out of  a Russian phrase book. Everyone laughs a lot when I do this. Not sure if its my pronunciation of Russian or what what.

This is our living room. As you can see it has a western “open design.” This is  uncommon and was actually added to the apartment by the previous owners who were American. It is great for prayer meetings.

I wish you could experience a Russian prayer meeting. Take Korean style prayer and multiply it by two hours. Two hours seems to be the norm for prayer meetings in our Russian church and they sometimes will have more than one prayer meeting a day. I met with a guy a few days ago who was hoping to start 24 hour prayer inside the Metro stations.

Related posts:

1. My Russian Family I would like to introduce you to my Russian family...
2. What I Learned in Russia I learned a lot in Russia. Here are some of...
3. I am Going to Russia! Married people often tell me how they miss the freedom...

Married people often tell me how they miss the freedom they had when they were single. Well I am single and I have done very little with this supposed freedom.

Well no more.

Russia

Antioch Belton is sending me to Russia from Feb 25 through March 25. I will be working with Mir a Russian charity that serves orphans. I will be shooting a documentary, building websites, fixing computers, teaching about technology, and sharing the Good News with everyone I can.

I am excited to see what God is going to do. The last time we went to Russia we went with few plans and then tried to hang on while God did amazing things. I expect He will do the same this time. This blog will be the best place to keep up with what is going on. I’ll be posting videos, photos and prayer requests as often as possible.

Scotland and California

After Russia I will visit Joe Ewen, the Mings and Jessica Heaton in Scotland. I will build their church a website and do some tech training. After leaving Scotland I will swing by Mount Hermon for a writers conference. This is the biggest Christian writers conference in the world and it is my last best chance to get a traditional publisher for my book . If they turn me down, I will publish Digital Cancer without them.

I will also be seeking the Lord about the next season of my life. When I get back I don’t know where I will live. Belton, New Zeland, Austin and California are all on the table. Maybe I’ll fall in love with Russia or Scotland and want to stay. I have no idea where God will call me to next.

God willing, I will be back in Austin April 8th.

Please Pray

• Boldness to share the Gospel.
• Grace and time to learn Russian.
• A heart submitted to His Lordship.
• Provision
• A publisher
• Ears to hear.

My budget for the missions part of this trip is $2600, including the flight across the pond, which is not bad for over a month over sees. Mount Hermon will cost another $1200.  If you would like to help send me to Russia you can make the check payable to:

Antioch Community Church
C/O Thomas Umstattd Jr.
P.O. Box 972
Belton, TX 76513

If you would like to get email updates from me please sign up for my email newsletter .

Related posts:

1. Safe in Russia I have now been in Russia for four days and...
2. What I Learned in Russia I learned a lot in Russia. Here are some of...
3. Photos from Russia Photos from my recent trip to Saint Petersburg Russia. ...

Hello everyone. Today marks my 100th post. WooHoo!

Thank you for all of your feedback and support. Out of the 100 posts I have received over 230 comments. There would be no point to this blog if you were not here to read it. Thank you.

Goodbye 2008

2008 was a difficult year in many ways. Many things died this year. Ron Paul’s hopes to win the primary, Brook Audio, and my Grandfather among others.

Hello 2009

On the plus side 2009 seems to be the year of New Beginnings. I am rethinking my life. Every part of it. There are a lot of things on the table right now.

Questions for 2009

• I am thinking about moving to either New Zealand or Austin, TX. What do you think?
• What do you think about me getting an MBA at UT Austin or Acton ?
• The publishing industry is in a panic and not putting out many new books right now. Should I self publish Digital Cancer?

9 Predictions for 2009

1. Obama will pass the Fairness act but it will only apply to political talk. It will be the best thing to happen to the conservative movement. Conservative talk radio needs to die.
2. 5 of my current blog readers will start their own Podcasts. One will hit the big dim with his or her podcast.
3. There will be continued violence in the middle east. (I need at least one to be right
4. Texas will experience a major natural disaster of some kind.
5. The economy will end 2009 at about the same strength it began 2009.
6. Apple will buy Adobe.
7. Obama will maintain ridiculously high support ratings while failing to get anything done other than the fairness act.
8. Another Patriot Academy alum will declare intentions to run for something (no it won’t be me .
9. Half of you will start using Twitter .

Related posts:

1. Expelled: Best Movie of the Year… so far This weekend we watched Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. All I...
2. Most Popular Posts (Year 1) Most Discussed The Sin of Sarcasm? Generation Y & The...
3. Hello 2010 (Thomas’ New Years Predictions) Last year I made 9 predictions about 2009. Here are...

But his blue collar was not to last. The guys in the white lab coats were puzzled over how to fix a machine for making puffed rice. Bob overheard them talking about their frustrations with the machine and decided to take a look.

Bob, a man with no college education, drew up some drawings on how to fix the rice puffing machine. The researchers tried his solution. It worked. Bob got promoted. Around that time he married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Duncan.

Captain Crunch

Robert worked at Quaker till 1983, during which he was awarded roughly two dozen patents. He the team that developed Captain Crunch. He received the 1965 Fredus N. Peters Award from the Quaker Oats Company for his work on the Captain Crunch Machine and Recipe.

He was always fiddling. His children grew up eating cereal out of plain white boxes labeled A, B and C. Before school they had to suffer an interrogation as to which cereal they liked best and why. "They all taste the same" and "I like them all" were not acceptable answers.

Original Captain Crunch Doll & 1965 Fredus N. Peters Award

Captain Crunch was one of the first cereals to use oil in the recipe. Take a piece and squeeze it between your fingers to see for yourself. The oil delivers the flavor to your tongue making Captain Crunch one of the best tasting and best selling cereals. It also caused problems early on getting the cereal to bake correctly. Captain Crunch was optimized for taste, not health.

Captain Crunch was also known in the early days for including a small toy in every box. I remember loving getting the toys as a kid.

Bob the inventor of captain crunch and contributor to Life Cereal invented a third cereal. He called it Tippy Canoes and the cereal pieces were shaped like canoes that would float along the surface of the milk.  He and the others who tried the test versions considered it his best cereal but the Quaker Oats executives did not agree.  Or at least not enough to risk a million dollar product launch.

A long time resident of Des Plaines, Bob was a member of the 1st Congregational Church of Des Plaines. He is survived by two sisters, Lorraine Schmitz of Concord, California, and Marion Meyer of Buffalo, Michigan.

He is also survived by his three children:

1. Robert Rountree Reinhart Jr. and his wife Beth, of Roseville, Minnesota
2. Gregory Duncan Reinhart and his wife Ruth, of College Station, Texas
3. Virginia Ruth (Ginger) Umstattd and her husband Tom, of Austin, Texas

Bob is survived by ten grandchildren:

1. Andrea Reinhart Marston
2. Jessica Reinhart Lind
3. Rebecca Reinhart
4. Katherine Reinhart
5. Timothy Reinhart
6. Thomas Umstattd, Jr.
7. Cynthia Umstattd
8. David Umstattd
9. William Umstattd
10. John Umstattd

Bob Reinhart was my grandfather and I will miss him. My pantry is full of Life Cerial that I eat it in his honor. I apologize for my lack of posts these last couple weeks. During the chaos of the last two weeks I let this blog slip.

No related posts.

New Business
I now setup websites for Author’s and businesses. Many of them are paying to much for golden handcuff sites. Others have no site at all. What I like about WordPress is that my clients can update the site as easily as they can ask me to do it for them. They like this too because they can keep their site current.

Some wordpress sites I have made include:

• PeerlessRoofing.com Great roofing & remodeling company in the Temple Belton TX area.
  
• RenaeBrumbaugh.com An expository daily devotional.
• AustinRhetoricClub.org My favorite debate club ever
• GreatShalom.org An Austin radio show about healing, homeschooling & health. A podcast is coming soon so that you non Austinites can listen in.
• CaltarionChronicles.com David Umstattd’s blog about a book he is writing.
• JenniferLackey.com A friend of mine. She is smart and too busy to update her blog.

Thomas Camp
I have started an internship program with my businesses called Thomas Camp. Paul Hastings is my first attendee. He is learning about marketing, web design, book keeping, organization, cooking and vacuum repair. Follow his blog for day by day rundown of Thomas Camp.

BrookAudio.com
We will be launching BrookAudio.com today! If you love Audiobooks you will love this site. Brook Audio: Turn your car into a classroom by bringing to the classic audiobooks on the road.

Writers Conference
By God’s gracious provision I have pulled together the funds to go to the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference in New Mexico next week. It is the second biggest writers conference and my best chance to get a publisher all year. At the conference I will get a chance to "pitch" my book to publishers.  Pray that I get favor.

Courtship Blog
Over the last several weeks I have talked to dozens of homeschool moms and a handful of homeschool dads from all over Texas about courtship.  Many of them are concerned that courtship is not working very well to get young people married, particularly young women.

I have also talked with people from all over the world including a member to the Chinese underground church to an Indian who grew up in Singapore about different methods of courtship in other cultures. I have heard about betrothal, courtship, Christian dating, arranged marriage, and even "dateship."

I will start a new blog soon that will examine the obstacles to modern courtship and then discuss solutions. My hope is to spark a dialogue as we pioneer this new approach to marriage. I will post a link once the blog is up and ready to go.

Grandfather
On a sad note we are concerned that my grandfather is dying. Please pray for him. He is not born again as far as we know.

I think thats it. Let me know if I forgot anything. Sorry for all the personal posts.

Related posts:

1. New Site: PracticalCourtship.com I have started a new website Practical Courtship! The goal...

It has now been almost three weeks since my dad’s heart operation. He just seems a lot healthier now that his heart is getting 25% more blood. But, I can tell he doesn’t have as much steam as he used to before the heart attack. I have spent a lot of time at home these last few weeks and my parents are both feeling better overall. But I can tell they are not as young as they used to be. Parenting young children is not as easy at age 51 as it was at age 30.

My dad has orders from his doctors to take it easy and reduce his amount of stress. Not easy for a soccer coach, basketball coach, debate coach, manager of multiple companies, CPA, real estate investor, husband, father of five and son of an elderly mother. Compounding his stress is the fact that our house is in the middle of a renovation that stalled shortly after his surgery. We have been without a kitchen table for almost two months now.

I am just now beginning to appreciate what an amazing father I have. I never realized how much he did for my family and for others because he never complained about it. In fact the only thing I have heard him complain about is his ongoing lawsuit with AT&T.

It is hard for my dad to cut back. If I were in his position I would see the need to "take it easy" as an affront to my masculinity. Avoiding work is for old women. I feel that work is part of our identity as men. But as we age our work transitions from labor to supervision and advise. This transition is being forced on my dad.

Another challenge is conflicting medical advice. One the one side are rude medical doctors who advocate chemical solutions to medical problems.  On the other are naturopaths who advocate cleansing the body of toxins and helping it heal itself. These schools of thought are mutually exclusive. Who’s right? Only God knows.

I now have another reason to visit my home in Austin. I used to go because I didn’t want to miss out on my brothers growing into men. But now, I value my time with my parents because I don’t know how much time with them I have left. Maybe a year maybe thirty. Only God knows. Either way it is a sobering thought.

Overall, God has showed us his soverengty, provision and mercy throughout this whole situation. This has been a tough season for me for multiple reasons. But, God has recently given me peace again. I have been convinced that I can handle anything with God and nothing without Him. Thanks again for your prayer and support. I thank God for you all.

No related posts.

As a child I thought of my parents as infallible and immortal. I remember the first time I saw my mom drop something in the kitchen. I was shocked. Moms don’t drop wet plates! Dad’s don’t get heart attacks! But they do. They unfortunately do.

Well, we found out on Monday that my dad had a heart attack. I realized at that time how much and how often I take my dad for granted. I learned in my car accident that life is fleeting.

Here is an excerpt from a mom’s email: Tom had a hiatal hernia attack on July 11th, that had many similar symptoms as a heart attack, but wasn’t one. He continued to feel really lousy for a couple of weeks after that. He recently had an EKG to check his heart, and it indicates that at some time AFTER July 11th, Tom did have a heart attack, which resulted in damage to the upper two chambers of his heart. He is going into the Heart Hospital Thursday Aug 7 for a Cardiac Catheterization, where they will explore the arteries of the heart and assess and fix any damage they find.

The doctors say that this is a routine operation and that even though the mortality rate is one in ten my dad’s chances are much better since he is young.

This has been a hard week for my family.

• William got a 102 degree fever
• John is recovering from his own surgery
• My Mom has Migraines
• My Dad just had a heart attack.

Updates

• Thursday 11:26am My dad is about to go in for his operation.
• Thursday 1:46pm My Dad has now gone in for his operation in good spirits.
• Thursday 3:01pm The doctors found some blockages and will operate. My dad will need to stay in the hospital overnight.
• Thursday 3:30pm My dad received two stints. One for a major artery that was 100% blocked and one for a diagonal artery. His heart made its own bypass so there is no significant damage there. His blood pressure is now a lot lower than it was before the operation. He does not need open heart surgery praise God! He is going to need to take a blood thinner for about a year though.
• Thursday 7:38pm We were able to speak with the doctor and get the prognosis. My dad had a mild to moderate heart attack. My dad has damage in other parts of his heart that were not bad enough for a stint. He is now sleeping in his hospital room. My mom is exhausted and trying to rest. It sounds like my dad will be pretty restricted for the next several days.
• Friday 10:05am My dad is feeling much better this morning. He says that he can feel more blood going through his heart and they think he will be able to go home today. It turns out that 25% of the blood flow to my dad’s heart had been blocked.
• Wednesday 10:09am My Dad got back home on Friday and wants everyone to know how thankful he is for your prayers and encouragement. He has never been so prayed for in his life and he is honored by all of you.

Check back here for live updates on his status.

Related posts:

1. An Upate on My Dad Before I begin, I just wanted to thank all of...

The van after the wreck.

Why did God spare me and Mark when He did not spare Kristi in her car wreck last week?I pondered this question as I read my Bible this morning. I read a character overview of the Apostle James. Not the James that wrote the book of James, but James the member of the inner circle with Peter and John. We don’t talk about James much because He died only 12 chapters after Jesus rose to heaven.

I’m sure the disciples wondered why James died so soon as well. James has fewer mistakes and blunders recorded than Peter. Why did God send an angel to get Peter out of jail (Acts 12) and not James (Acts 12)? Jesus spent just as much time investing in James as he did with Peter and John, more than all the other apostles. James saw Jesus transfigured. I bet many of the believers would have much rather had James alive than Peter. Peter was brash and often spoke first and thought second. What a waste of James’ life!

Its hard to understand that the Chess Master rarely consults His pieces on where to move them. Those who play chess know that sacrificing a piece can sometimes set up a great move. We don’t know why God let James live so short and the other Apostles so much longer. Paul does go out to the gentiles a chapter later, maybe there is a connection.

It would be easy to be angry at God if we had His perspective and could see His mistakes. But, if we could see as He does, we wouldn’t find any errors. We would only see how His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. I am sure a queen would think it a mistake to be sacrificed for a pawn. But the Chess Master knows what he is doing.

Interestingly, Peter wondered these same things. In John 21 Jesus told Peter how he would die. Peter looked over at John and asked “What about him Lord?” Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain until I return what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

If you are reading this you have been spared from death just like me and just like Mark. It’s ok to ask questions. But, I think God’s answer to us would the same as his answer to Peter, “As for you, follow me.” We must follow Jesus! When the Bible says to preach the Word in season and out of season we need to do it! When it says to love our neighbor as ourself and to think of others as more important than ourselves, we must do it! Kristi gave her life to making disciples as Christ commanded. WE MUST DO THE SAME! We can’t depend on Peter, James and Kristi to do the work of the Kingdom for us. They have finished their race and have passed the baton to us.

Have you given your life to making disciples? Are you getting close enough to God that you have part of Him to give away? Are you reaching out of your comfort zone to the lost and feeding the lambs that Jesus has brought to you? Watching and paying others to make disciples is like paying someone else to go to the bathroom. It looks the same and makes the same sounds but it has no effect.

Here is an easy way to answer those questions. What do you spend money on? What do you spend your time at? If the majority of our money and time go to pursue our own pleasure then we have made gods of ourselves. Kristi and James both spent their money and time investing in others, in making disciples. We must follow Christ by doing the same. The torch of God’s work shined brightly in the hands of Christians like Peter, James and Kristi. Now the course is set, the blocks are down the contestants are ready. The official is raising his gun. It’s our turn to run. Bang.

The front of the van

No related posts.