A walk to work with the Caldwells

Caldwells overseas In the preceeding photos we have taken you for a walk to our offices at the Eastern Europe Territorial Institute for Officers Training. Enjoy the walk!

Anita awaits our sixth floor elevator. In the winter darkness persists until around eight a.m. 

Our unlockable mailbox where we daily collect Russian junk mail. Any important items are shipped to our Territorial headquarters where they are received by guards on duty 24/7. 

A stretch of apartment buildings too lengthy to fit into one photograph. Moscow houses around 12,000,000 citizens. 

What passes for garages in the big city where nobody owns a house. Some of the units are built to fit a certain model of car. 

The street in front of our apartment building. The multiple-unit apartment buildings on the left fill both sides of our walk to the subway. 

The entrance to our subway, which we call the Metro. The big red "M" identifies all metro stations. 

Our home subway station, Kantyemirovskaya. At rush hour the platform is twice this crowded. The train on the left is headed into town. 

Remnants of Lenin's reign in Russia, a wall-sized mural of Communism's united workforce with Lenin himself overseeing his subjects. 

Our equivalent of Kentucky Fried Chicken, "Rostiks." We eat here weekly on "ping pong night" when Brad plays with a group of fellows and Anita goes home to put her feet up. 

One of the many "babushkas" (grandmas) who pick flowers in the woods and fields, then sell them in the city for a few cents. Anita's bouquet cost about eighty cents. 

A Russian Orthodox prayer chapel wedged into the shops and offices which crowd the street leading to the Institute for Officers Training. 

This is the black cat we pet nearly each day. She seems to waith on us and approach us for a pet when we materialize on her section of the sidewalk. 

Here is our educational facility, Divisional Headquarters, and Taganka Corps. The last section of building on the right is an adjoining facility, and another building adjoins us on the rear of the building, so that we only have windows on two sides of the facility. 

"Salvation Army Karl Larsson Center, Divisional Headquarters of Russia, Taganka Corps and Social Center" 

Our offices on the third floor of the Karl Larsson Center. Eight people work in this relatively small area. Brad has recently relocated into the kitchen. 

Cadets arrive! Again...

We received the second half of the Heralds of the Good News and have been conducting classes with them for two weeks now. They come from Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania. Our Georgian cadets could not come due to visa complications, so we will send Captain Gia Mchedlishvilli to teach them for two weeks. We hope to resolve the cadets' visa issues very soon.

Brad and Anita visited Finland while renewing their registrations. All foreigners in our Salvation Army in Moscow must leave the country in order to renew registrations. We attended two worship meetings on Sunday while in both Helsinki and Poorvo--and we found an interpreter at both!

Brad has completed three more hours towards his Masters of Divinity, and starts the next three in just another week. Anita is busy this week with the Five Year Officers' Seminar, a review we conduct over a week's time with all officers completing five years service.

Thanks for all your emails, talks on the computer-phone, and support for our three sons while we are away. We appreciate each of you! Please leave comments--I have adjusted the blog to receive your impressions.

Cadets Ionuts (pronounced YO-noots) and Natasha carry out a skit during doctrine class. 

Anita preaches on Cadet Welcome Sunday. Captain Pasha Gorbonov interprets. 

Captain Svetta Sharova, newly installed Assistant Training Principal, dedicates the session flag as the Heralds of the Good News look on. We worked with Svetta and her husband Sasha in Moldova. 

Second intake of our Heralds of the Good News cadets. 

Anita with officers from Finland and Sweden. 

Songsters in the Swedish Corps adjacent to The Salvation Army Territorial Headquarters in Helsinki. 

Anita models with the large Lutheran Church (where we saw a wedding!) in the background. 

Beautiful Lutheran Church in Helsinki, Finland, where we visited while renewing our registration. 

Brad and Cliff share a birthday (August 31), but Brad does not want to share the cake.