My Prayer for 2016

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,
praised for you or criticized for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things to your hope and service.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be made also in heaven.
Amen.

-John Wesley

A Soviet New Year

For many Russians, New Years is a bigger holiday than Christmas. In the 1980's and 90's, just after we re-established contact with our family in Russia, Johannes Gerk, youngest brother of my grandfather, would send us New Years cards from the USSR. These are scans of these cards sent to our family.