Ask Maria Doukhnai what the big difference is between her native Russia and the United States, and she’ll tell you, “The language.” The people are the same, with the same concerns of raising a family, paying bills, jobs and so on. It’s just the location and the way they speak that differs.
The beautiful city of St. Petersburg in Russia was Maria’s birthplace and her home for her childhood. Founded on May 27, 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great, the city grew into a capital following western-styled ideas. The Russian Revolution changed its importance (and later its name to Leningrad), moving the capital back to Moscow. Saint Petersburg remained the second largest city in Russia, and the fourth largest in Europe.
Surrounded by palaces, cathedrals, and magnificent buildings, Maria grew up surrounded by history and culture. She chose to honor her God-given talent and become a musician. She earned her degree from the St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, a Bachelor of Arts in Community and Human Services with a concentration in Choral Conducting. Shortly after her graduation, she moved to Moscow. She began her career as a teacher of music and voice, working in a semi-professional theater. She also taught successively in a preschool, a kindergarten, an elementary, a middle and what we call a high school, teaching music and musical theory to children. She moved back to Saint Petersburg and continued her performing career by working as an accompanist and choir director for the Theater of Culture and Arts.
In 1997, she needed to earn more money to support herself, her mother and her young son. The economy was tight in the Soviet Union, and it was difficult to buy food to feed everyone. She recalled at least three times that she needed to feed her son Yuri ice cream for dinner because nothing else was in the stores. Although a dream dinner for most children (and my dad), as a mother she was concerned for his health– not enough vitamins can be supplied in a meal that is not balanced.
Maria embarked on a new career as a travel agent to earn more money. She did well, and enjoyed the perks such as free travel. She saved her time off, and after awhile she decided to visit a friend in the Philadelphia area. She arrived on March 18, in time to attend an engagement party for her friend. She sat at a table in the Chestnut Hill restaurant, unable to speak English, but comfortable because her friend was a member of the Russian expatriate community in that area. A few seats away was a man who also had grown up in Saint Petersburg. They spoke in their native tongue, and by the end of the evening Maria wanted to know the man better.
Before her three week vacation was over, Maria knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Alex Doukhnai. She couldn’t return to Russia, because it would take far too many years to reunite. Her son was safely in the care of her mother back in Russia, so Maria and Alex married.
Now financial problems began to surface. In 1998, economic problems following the collapse of the Soviet Union forced more privations on Russian citizens. Older people found that their pension was not enough, but after age 55, it was hard to find a job. The Doukhnais needed to send money back to support both their families. Maria was in a quandary. She had never in her wildest dreams imagined moving to the United States. She did not even speak English. How could she possibly help? What type of job could she get?
Alex combed the classified ads. There it was, an answer to their prayers: a small church in Tuckerton needed an organist. They came to the interview. Maria told me, “Ask Grace or Evie. I sat here, and Alex sat right next to me, translating their questions and my answers. I couldn’t make myself understood. But they took the chance!” Her first service was on August 1, 1998 in the little church on Green Street.
Ten years later, Maria credits her Holy Spirit “family” for helping to teach her to speak English. Her son Yuri graduated from Rutgers University last December with a degree in cartography. He lives in Tampa and works for The Mosaic Company, an international corporation, mapping deposits of phosphate for mining, destined for use in fertilizer. Mosaic is the leading producer of phosphate and potash, and they pride themselves on their role in providing nutrition for the world.
Maria and Alex also have two beautiful daughters, Kassia (8 years old) and Lada (6 1/2 years old). They are very active girls. They study gymnastics, ballet, ice skating, art, and piano (of course!). They are Girl Scouts in addition to everything else. They keep their parents hopping!
Maria’s mom also has joined her daughter on this side of the world. She lives among the Russian community in Boston, and finds everyone truly friendly.
Maria passed the Praxis exam two years ago, and recently began a full time position at Mainland High School in Linwood. She advises the Choir Club as they prepare to compete for the South Jersey Chorus/All-State Chorus. Her club performs 2 formal evening concerts a year, as well as benefits and traveling shows for local schools.
Maria also teaches piano and voice to 28 private students each week. She organizes two recitals a year: one in June and one at Christmas. Maria proudly points to her membership in the National Federation of Music Clubs, and is privileged to be a certified judge of the competitions. She feels that the competitions are valuable learning tools for the students, because they compete against themselves, not each other. She spent 14 hours one Saturday last month evaluating a competition. Sixteen of her students were among the competitors. Afterwards, each student received an individualized assessment of his/her performance, designed to help each one to improve and encouraging each to do better.
Maria has seen huge changes in Moscow since she left the country. “The people live much better. The value of an education, ruined under Gorbachev, is returning. The transitional time was very bad, but now under Putin people feel much better. I remember standing in line to buy food, but now the markets are clean and well stocked. It may have only been a period of 1 1/2 years, but still it was devastating. Old churches are reopening and being restored to their former glory, where possible. (Some of they were razed and others converted to other uses such as museums.) People are happier.” And we couldn’t be happier that a concert-trained professional musician found her way to live with us and share her wonderful gifts! How much poorer we would be without her in our lives- and our church!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Shhh! Be Vewy Quiet! We’re Hunting Bearberries!
One grey, chilly, damp Saturday morning in March, three intrepid explorers set out from Little Egg Harbor. Junior Warden Ernie Tews, Senior Warden Mary Lou Malone and Joyce Ott were on a hunt for the perfect plants to line the walkway leading from East Main Street to the main entrance of Holy Spirit. They armed themselves with a tank of gas and directions from MapQuest, then headed west on Route 539 to Jackson NJ to find Rare Find Nursery.
They traveled through the Pine Barrens areas burned last spring in the wildfire, and the areas burned this year in a controlled fashion by the NJ Forest Service. They spoke of the delicate balance between the native plants found in our area and the availability of water in the sandy soil surrounding us. The further they rode, the brighter the sky became, until the sun finally came out and blessed their mission. The three travelers encountered few difficulties with their trip until they came close to the nursery. Here the Internet directions became a little confusing: West Commodore Drive intersected West Commodore, and Patterson Road showed itself to be a dirt path. But their final arrival at the nursery was the reward.
Prior to the journey, Ernie, as Junior Warden charged with the care of our Building and Grounds, organized a committee of interested parishioners to lay the groundwork for our long-term landscaping design. Members included Frank Lofton, a certified master gardener, and experienced hobbyists. They considered factors such as the frequency of drought conditions in our region and the lack of a ready source of water for plants in our gardens. The committee concentrated first on the walkway. They recommended a combination of a low-growing, sturdy native evergreen groundcover named red bearberry and a slightly taller evergreen shrub called sand myrtle.
Both plants are native to our region. They stay green all year and require little water after the first few years. Once established, they drop their roots deeply enough into the soil to find water if drought conditions arise. Since water is not readily available so far away from the building, this is a major consideration.
Bearberry grows 6 to 12 inches high and branches trail up to 10 feet away. Flowers appear from March to July, small pinkish temple bells clustered near the ends of the branches. Red berries appear in the fall, providing food for birds and -you guessed it!- bears. Humans can eat them, but we’d find them tasteless. The plants therefore are child-safe. The branches are woody, but they are not brittle. If accidentally stepped on, they should survive.
The travelers saw these plants and literally thousands of others once they arrived. Jay Schoss, resident specialist in plants of the Pine Barrens, showed them bearberry and sand myrtle, then led them on a tour of the greenhouses. They piled onto a golf cart for a complete tour of the acres of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, Japanese maples, hollies and other trees and shrubs growing among the pines. A planned bog garden simulating areas in the Pine Barrens showed more plants, such as the carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews, grown for sale and available in a variety of unusual color combinations.
Jay confided in our representatives that all of the plants are grown from seed or cuttings. None are dug up from the wild. And, he told us that he knew of a stand of native bearberry bushes growing partway up the entrance road to Warren Grove Bombing Range. Not anxious to be arrested as terrorist spies, our travelers opted to believe him without taking a side trip to verify his claim. They returned home with catalogues and ample information to agree that the plant choices would accomplish the goal.
Ernie and his committee plan a Spring Dig-up and Clean-up Day once they have arrived. The committee has scheduled it for May 3. Join us, honoring both Earth Day (Apr. 22) and Arbor Day (Apr. 27), and plant some bearberry bushes!
They traveled through the Pine Barrens areas burned last spring in the wildfire, and the areas burned this year in a controlled fashion by the NJ Forest Service. They spoke of the delicate balance between the native plants found in our area and the availability of water in the sandy soil surrounding us. The further they rode, the brighter the sky became, until the sun finally came out and blessed their mission. The three travelers encountered few difficulties with their trip until they came close to the nursery. Here the Internet directions became a little confusing: West Commodore Drive intersected West Commodore, and Patterson Road showed itself to be a dirt path. But their final arrival at the nursery was the reward.
Prior to the journey, Ernie, as Junior Warden charged with the care of our Building and Grounds, organized a committee of interested parishioners to lay the groundwork for our long-term landscaping design. Members included Frank Lofton, a certified master gardener, and experienced hobbyists. They considered factors such as the frequency of drought conditions in our region and the lack of a ready source of water for plants in our gardens. The committee concentrated first on the walkway. They recommended a combination of a low-growing, sturdy native evergreen groundcover named red bearberry and a slightly taller evergreen shrub called sand myrtle.
Both plants are native to our region. They stay green all year and require little water after the first few years. Once established, they drop their roots deeply enough into the soil to find water if drought conditions arise. Since water is not readily available so far away from the building, this is a major consideration.
Bearberry grows 6 to 12 inches high and branches trail up to 10 feet away. Flowers appear from March to July, small pinkish temple bells clustered near the ends of the branches. Red berries appear in the fall, providing food for birds and -you guessed it!- bears. Humans can eat them, but we’d find them tasteless. The plants therefore are child-safe. The branches are woody, but they are not brittle. If accidentally stepped on, they should survive.
The travelers saw these plants and literally thousands of others once they arrived. Jay Schoss, resident specialist in plants of the Pine Barrens, showed them bearberry and sand myrtle, then led them on a tour of the greenhouses. They piled onto a golf cart for a complete tour of the acres of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, Japanese maples, hollies and other trees and shrubs growing among the pines. A planned bog garden simulating areas in the Pine Barrens showed more plants, such as the carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews, grown for sale and available in a variety of unusual color combinations.
Jay confided in our representatives that all of the plants are grown from seed or cuttings. None are dug up from the wild. And, he told us that he knew of a stand of native bearberry bushes growing partway up the entrance road to Warren Grove Bombing Range. Not anxious to be arrested as terrorist spies, our travelers opted to believe him without taking a side trip to verify his claim. They returned home with catalogues and ample information to agree that the plant choices would accomplish the goal.
Ernie and his committee plan a Spring Dig-up and Clean-up Day once they have arrived. The committee has scheduled it for May 3. Join us, honoring both Earth Day (Apr. 22) and Arbor Day (Apr. 27), and plant some bearberry bushes!
Can You Be A Magnet For Our Church?
I remember visiting my grandparents as a child and playing with a set of black and white Scottie dog magnets. If you pushed them one way, they chased each other around the table and never caught up. If you turned them another way, they snapped together and were difficult to separate. When one was hidden by a simple piece of paper between them, the unseen one below could move the visible one without the need to touch it. Surely magic was at work!
I had another toy to play with there. It was a small plastic box decorated with the face of a clean-shaven bald man. I used a red metal stick, touching it to the picture and lifting it up, moving iron filings and giving the man hair and a beard. Magnet magic again!
My science teacher later taught me to make my own magnets. Using a bar magnet, I slid a small flat piece of iron across it repeatedly in the same direction, and I “aligned the atoms,” allowing me to pick up nails and paper clips. I made an electromagnet by coiling wire around another nail. When touched to a small square battery, the resulting powerful magnet could pick up items far heavier than the nail. The strength of the magnetic field depended on the number of coils and the diameter of the wire.
Apply this lesson to our church. Magnets are powerful tools to attract people, but if turned the wrong way, they will chase people away. You don’t need to see the magnet for its power to move you. Lastly, the more people who join together into the circle around the core of faith in God, the more powerful the attraction, and the harder it is to break.
Wow! What an idea! How can we use it?
Come to the Magnetic Church Conference led by Andrew Weeks and find out! To quote from the catalogue of the Ministry Institute: “The Magnetic Church Conference is non-confrontational, practical evangelism to help our churches attract and retain new members. The Diocesan Congregational Development Committee is pleased that noted evangelist Andrew Weeks will be presenting this event. To learn more about his ministry, see www.magnetic-church.com. This event is co-sponsored by the Diocesan Congregational Development Committee and the Right Onward Visioning Committee.”
The two-day conference is scheduled for Friday, May 2 from 7 to 10 pm and Saturday, May 3 from 9 am to 4 pm in Trinity Cathedral, Trenton.
To quote Andrew Weeks:
Quoting our catalogue once again: “Andrew Weeks is a cradle Anglican who was born in Canada and moved to the US to work for Arthur Anderson, Walter Kidde, and other corporate entities. He was an executive who became a management consultant for operations. He began his work as an evangelist helping churches to change their ways to reach out to church visitors after encountering obstacles in his own search for a new church community, including attitudes that it was ‘all up to the visitor to figure things out’ and ‘if visitors were really interested, they would figure it out!’”
Join us! Carpool with us! Learn with us! Become a coil in our powerful magnet! Help to change the “faces” of those around you!
I had another toy to play with there. It was a small plastic box decorated with the face of a clean-shaven bald man. I used a red metal stick, touching it to the picture and lifting it up, moving iron filings and giving the man hair and a beard. Magnet magic again!
My science teacher later taught me to make my own magnets. Using a bar magnet, I slid a small flat piece of iron across it repeatedly in the same direction, and I “aligned the atoms,” allowing me to pick up nails and paper clips. I made an electromagnet by coiling wire around another nail. When touched to a small square battery, the resulting powerful magnet could pick up items far heavier than the nail. The strength of the magnetic field depended on the number of coils and the diameter of the wire.
Apply this lesson to our church. Magnets are powerful tools to attract people, but if turned the wrong way, they will chase people away. You don’t need to see the magnet for its power to move you. Lastly, the more people who join together into the circle around the core of faith in God, the more powerful the attraction, and the harder it is to break.
Wow! What an idea! How can we use it?
Come to the Magnetic Church Conference led by Andrew Weeks and find out! To quote from the catalogue of the Ministry Institute: “The Magnetic Church Conference is non-confrontational, practical evangelism to help our churches attract and retain new members. The Diocesan Congregational Development Committee is pleased that noted evangelist Andrew Weeks will be presenting this event. To learn more about his ministry, see www.magnetic-church.com. This event is co-sponsored by the Diocesan Congregational Development Committee and the Right Onward Visioning Committee.”
The two-day conference is scheduled for Friday, May 2 from 7 to 10 pm and Saturday, May 3 from 9 am to 4 pm in Trinity Cathedral, Trenton.
To quote Andrew Weeks:
“ Why Bother to Attend? Come for yourself!
Wondering what God’s next call for you might be? If it were your choice, would evangelism be last on your list because your images of evangelism are of weepy, cash-grubbing orators on TV or loud street-corner demagogues? Then come and learn about models of evangelism appropriate for you! Along the way, you may discover your gifts as author, editor, planter, greeter or shepherd, and reap some of the amazing joy of being God’s instrument in changing other people’s lives.
Come for your community!
A staggering percentage of Americans (nationally, 40%) do not attend church. That means so many of the children in your own community are not learning the Lord’s Prayer or any of the stories of Jesus. That means all those adults are stuck with being able to believe only in themselves. You can share with them the life-saving gift of knowing the security of being able to rely on God.
Come for your own church!
You want to become more involved in the mission and ministry of your own church but you’re not sure where to begin, what to do, or how to apply your own unique gifts and personal talents? Begin by coming to this event to learn a whole lot about practical evangelism.
And along the way… You may discover new ways to apply your talents and skills by helping your property team to make all of your signs, buildings and grounds more attractive and inviting. Perhaps you will author or help redesign or edit your church newsletter, Sunday bulletins/inserts or web pages, and assist in transforming them from old, maintenance member-oriented organs to new, evangelism-oriented tools. The possibilities are endless!”
Quoting our catalogue once again: “Andrew Weeks is a cradle Anglican who was born in Canada and moved to the US to work for Arthur Anderson, Walter Kidde, and other corporate entities. He was an executive who became a management consultant for operations. He began his work as an evangelist helping churches to change their ways to reach out to church visitors after encountering obstacles in his own search for a new church community, including attitudes that it was ‘all up to the visitor to figure things out’ and ‘if visitors were really interested, they would figure it out!’”
Join us! Carpool with us! Learn with us! Become a coil in our powerful magnet! Help to change the “faces” of those around you!
Holy Spirit Has A New Association!
Have you heard about the Center for Healing and Wholeness? Headquartered in the First United Methodist Church on Green Street, the Center brings together people in our community with trained staff who help support them during difficult times. The Center’s mission statement says it “is an interfaith and interdisciplinary center dedicated to serving the community.” Support groups meet once or twice a month for 1-1/2 hours each session. Counselors and facilitators guide the members. The groups do ask for donations to defray costs, purchase literature and provide light refreshments.
Currently these groups are meeting each month in FUMC:
Here’s the exciting news: beginning in June, our own Anna Tews will facilitate a support group for Grandparents (especially grandparents raising grandchildren) which will meet the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays from 10 am to 11:30 am here in HS. She’ll be in our library, with the nursery across the hall available for the children to play. Other groups under discussion include Achieving Economic Goals and Families of Deployed Military Personnel. Call their office at 296-8300 to sign up.
Currently these groups are meeting each month in FUMC:
- Chronic Pain, 2nd & 4th Thursdays, 7 pm- 8:30 pm
- Living Beyond Grief, 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 7 pm– 8:30 pm
- Parenting, 1st Tuesday, 7 pm– 8:30 pm
Here’s the exciting news: beginning in June, our own Anna Tews will facilitate a support group for Grandparents (especially grandparents raising grandchildren) which will meet the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays from 10 am to 11:30 am here in HS. She’ll be in our library, with the nursery across the hall available for the children to play. Other groups under discussion include Achieving Economic Goals and Families of Deployed Military Personnel. Call their office at 296-8300 to sign up.
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