From Jan J. Mudder

This is a neat idea!

I have so much to be thankful for this year that it's overwhelming. Newly married in July to the only woman in the world that God created to deal with all of my idiosyncracies. We have new jobs (teaching English) in a new school (to us it's "new") in a new city (Almaty, Kazakhstan), which means we have a new home (a tiny little Soviet-era apartment that has really grown on us), which is in a wonderful neighborhood with vegetable stands, cute little old flower ladies, grocery shops, neighborhood bar, pharmacies, chislic place, and bakeries, all located almost on our door step. Nadia & I are especially thankful for how friendly and patient our neighbors and acquaintances have been with us as we struggle to remember (and pronounce) Russian words and numbers. We also got a different (not new) car this past week ('98 VW Golf) after months of car shopping and unexpected hassles in multiple languages. After having to ride unscheduled and undependable buses and gypsy cabs to school or anywhere else for three months, and often staying home because of the inconvenience of trying to travel, I don't know that it's possible that anyone else could be so thankful for a 10-year-old used car.

There are many other things for which I'm more thankful after moving here. I'm so blessed to be an American citizen, and I'm increasingly made aware of how blessed I was to grow up in a place like South Dakota, and especially on a little farm near a little town like Avon. Billions of people in the world will never be so fortunate. I was thrilled to get to watch the formerly little boys that I coached in jr. high football four years ago on a webcast as they won a state championship. I was even more thrilled to see the way that they have grown up. I am thankful that I got to work with the head coach, who left family, home, career, and coaching football to re-enlist in his late-40s and serve a year in Iraq. We have people like this around us all the time, and we often don't even notice.

Having left Kabul, I now realize what wonderful students I had there, even more than what I already knew while living there. In one of the darkest places in the world, some of the brightest and most loving students have grown up. It's simply amazing. I'm thankful that I got to teach so many of them, and I'm even more thankful that they keep in touch with me. I'm getting to watch students from a school that didn't exist a few years ago go off to colleges all over the world, and flourish.

The biggest thing that I'm most thankful for right now is all of the wonderful people that God has brought into my life. I was amazed this summer to realize that college friends from over a decade ago would go to the trouble and expense of traveling to New Jersey for our wedding, or to South Dakota for our reception. And newer friends, teachers from Kabul, literally crossed the globe to see my wedding. Family and friends of both Nadia and me who had such servants' hearts, doing whatever they could to make things better or easier for us. These were the greatest wedding gifts that we could have ever been given.

God bless,

Jan