Communists, Fascists, and a special prayer request

Dear Friends,

I have a special prayer request. Yesterday I got a call from the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) asking me to come in and talk about my request for a permanent resident permit. So I'll meet with him on Friday morning (which is Thursday evening in the States). Please pray for the Holy Spirit to give me the right things to say.

It is important that I get a permanent resident permit. My temporary resident permit is over in a year, and without a resident permit I will be required to keep leaving the country to get a new visa. This would be a major hassle, so this is a very important prayer request. The FSB can ask for me to provide more documents just before the deadline, causing my application to be rejected, which happened the last time I applied for a permanent resident permit. My present application will be accepted or rejected in April. Please pray that my application will be accepted and I will be issued a permanent resident permit.

Our Life Skills training for orphans is going full speed. The kids from the orphanage where we've been doing most of our work, and where the Orthodox priest has been against us, have been coming. However, in a different orphanage, one of the staff has been telling the kids we are a cult and putting pressure on the kids not to go. So none of the orphans there came last week. Please pray that the kids who would be blessed by this training would come.

Part of the Life Skills training that we do is cooking. The kids love it. One of our adult volunteers (in the photo below on the right) is getting married in a few months. She is very excited about the cooking lessons, and told Tonya, "now I'll be able to cook some things for my husband!"

We are starting to put together our next prayer card. We're trying to decide which photo would be best. If you have an opinion, let us know. Here are the leading choices:

1.

2.

3.

The first two are taken standing on the Amur River. Don't worry, the ice is about six feet thick.

Usually with AGWM a missionary spends four years on the field and one year back in the States on home service (usually called itineration due to all the travel). Since I plan to have a resident permit for Russia, and the permit will be lost if I am outside the country of Russia for more than six months, we have to use a different rotation. So we are planning to break our itineration into three smaller itineration periods. Right now the plan is for us to spend the fall of this year and the next two years in the States, returning to Russia for the springs.

So, if you'd like us to speak at your church, we're available during the next three Autumns.

Recently, Deanna needed a minor operation on her toe for in ingrown toenail. I was really tickled by the following conversation she had with the doctor:

Doc: This might hurt.

D: Don't worry, I'm used to pain.

Doc: What does your family do to you that you are used to pain?

D: Not my family. I used to live in an orphanage and they gave me lots of shots. They gave me shots in my arm, my butt, my shoulder ....

Doc: Those fascists!

Election time on for the Presidency in Russia. While elections in the States can seem like a circus, Russia has it's own interesting twists. My favorite is the advertisement by the Communist candidate. He is standing by a bust of Lenin, and he says, "God Bless You." If that's not funny to you, you must be too young to know what a communist is.

An Indian journalist gets lost in the woods near Khabarovsk. http://indrus.in/articles/2012/02/09/a_night_alone_in_the_ussuriski_taiga_14779.html

Peace be with you,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna

Lost and Found, Upside Down, Turn Around

Dear Friends,

well, some rather unusual and interesting events have taken place, and we're still getting back on balance.

LOST AND FOUND

On Tuesday last week (eight days ago), I went to the airport to pick up Nicole. She is a young lady who plans to study Russian at a local university and help us in her spare time. She was to fly from Chicago to Beijing, change planes, and then on to Khabarovsk. Well, the plane arrived, but no Nicole. I've had luggage not arrive, but never a missing person. Where could she be? I called her mom and was told that Nicole was on the plane to Beijing from Chicago, the the plane had departed late. The airline wouldn't give us information since we weren't family and would need a police order. The next flight from China would be in two days. Our best guess was that she was at the airport in China, but how to know? This was not the same as a missing piece of luggage.

I sent her an email saying that if she could get on-line, to let me know what's happening. I've never been to China, but I figured they should have internet there somewhere. What else to do? Well, we prayed.

That afternoon we get a phone call from a lady taxi driver in Novosibirsk. She was trying to help a lost American girl at the airport. Keep in mind that Novosibirsk is 2,000 miles away. Nicole had missed the flight to Khabarovsk (due to the delay of her first flight), and had been routed from Beijing to Khabarovsk via Novosibirsk. Kinda like someone (who doesn't speak English) being routed from Atlanta to New York through Los Angeles (with a day long layover in L.A.).

Well, praise God, we have a family with AGWM serving in Novosibirsk. So we made arrangements for this very helpful (God bless her) taxi driver to take Nicole to them.

Nicole is now safe and sound here in Khabarovsk. She spent the first few nights with us, but is now moved into her dormitory room, and has started classes. I try to warn folks who want to serve with us that once you launch out into an adventure with God, life is never boring. Usually, though, they don't have such a big adventure until after they arrive.

Her she is with next to an ice sculpture in a park near our house.

UPSIDE DOWN

In previous updates we've told about starting a Life Skills training for orphans. The orphanage we work with the most gave us permission to take the graduating class once a week for lessons (which includes cooking, general life training, and a movie). The first two lessons went well, but then suddenly - for three weeks - none of the young people came. Other events were being scheduled at the same time (going to the doctor, required attendance at a celebration, etc.). Slowly, we began to piece together what was happening. An orthodox priest and his wife have started doing ministry at this orphanage. He was putting pressure on the workers to get rid of us. The Christians there were quietly supporting his attempts to put us out. However, many of the staff there are atheists. The atheists on the staff like what we do and see that it is good for the kids.

As the low-grade conflict at the orphanage ensued, it put me in the most Upside-Down situation I've faced in ministry here. The atheists were pushing our ministry forward as the Christians were opposing it.

The director was getting it from the priest on one side and the atheist staff on the other. We decided we could not win by being the most clever, the most assertive, or the most right. The only way we could win was to be the most loving. This was the Lord's battle. So we just prayed and fasted.

We did, however, decided we needed to widen our net. So we checked with other orphanages to see if they would like to send their graduating orphans for the Life Skills training.

TURN AROUND

I never in my life thought I'd say this, but praise God, the atheists won. The kids we had been working with were able to come last week.

But, oh no, a new crisis. Two other orphanages decided send youth to us as well. Our program had to triple in one week. It was like when Jesus told the disciples to let down the nets one more time. The boat was so full it threatened to sink. However, this did not surprise our Lord. Our volunteer helpers were energized by this new challenge. We planned a new training station for haircuts in an office, had one person teaching how to make salads in the classroom while another was teaching how to cook in the kitchen. So last week we hosted 21 "students" for the training.

Please pray for us that they keep coming (lessons again tomorrow), and that we have enough volunteers for the task, and that the right atmosphere is created to touch the lives of these young people.

Deanna celebrated her 11th birthday (January 28) with a sleep-over. Cake, friends, dress-up, games, girl-talk, all the party stuff. The weirdest thing they did was fall asleep before midnight. What good girls.

There's a couple of web sites about the Assembly's Russia ministry at http://russiaministrynetwork.org/ and http://www.eurasiacommunity.org/ you might enjoy perusing.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Russian Christmas

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas!

Yes, today - January 7th - is Christmas in Russia. For those of you in the States, it's
Epiphany.

We had a white Christmas here. No surprise. This last week we had a really heavy
frost, the frost formed into large flakes on every tree branch. It was hard to photograph (white frost against a snowy background), but this might give you an idea.

During the New Year's/Christmas holiday Timothy stayed in a town south of here and took part in a Christmas play. He had two roles:

We had some girls from the orphanage stay at our place while Tim was away. I tried to get a group photo.

The Life Skills classes are off to a good start. I didn't get any photos of the lessons, but I'll try to do that soon. Please pray for this outreach to continue well, we expect it to put a powerful touch on the lives of those who are coming.

Tonya's arm is healing well. Should be back to normal soon. The girls were a great help while she was a partial invalid (brush her hair, fix food, clean house, etc.).

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Which Christmas

Dear Friends,

we thought about having Christmas on the 25th, but despite plenty of white snow, it didn't really feel like Christmas. After all, there was school the day before and the day after. Christmas in Russia is January 7th. Since schools have classes six days a week, it was nice that our Christmas was on a Sunday, so that we didn't have school on Christmas day. Anyway, we've decided to celebrate Christmas every day from Dec. 25th until Jan. 7th (I guess that's kinda like the 12 days of Christmas).

In Russia, the big holiday is New Year's, which is celebrated for about a week or more. Christmas is a minor, one-day kind of holiday. Many people here don't really know what Christmas is, or what it celebrates. Vera's music teacher asked her to bring a poem about New Year's, and when Tonya asked if Vera could bring a poem about Christmas instead, the lady asked, "What's the difference?"

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR'S and a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

The ice sculptures are in the parks again. That's Deanna and a friend.

Number one son, Timothy.

And Vera, who turned 12 today. Happy Birthday!

My Permanent Resident Permit was not issued in December as we had hoped. When I went to the office to check on the progress of the application, they said it will probably be ready in April. Nothing I can do about it. We'll just wait and pray.

The Bible School was in session this fall. We didn't teach, but did interact with students since my office is in Hope Center where the classes are held.

I was invited to the consecration of a new church building in Komsomolsk, the next city north of Khabarovsk. It is about a seven hour drive. There was also an ordination ceremony, and four couples received ordination. Here are the bishops praying with one of the couples.

I was invited to give one of the sermons. It was indeed an honor to speak at the event.

We continue to have birthday parties for orphans at Hope Center. Here's a photo from the December party.

The BIG news from our orphanage ministry is that we have started ongoing Life Skills classes on Thursday afternoons. The Lord has enabled us to put together a small team, and we are presenting the Life Skills materials from the conference we hosted in November. We also give a cooking lesson. We and our team will be doing this for the next five months. We thank the Lord that He has given us favor with the new director at the orphanage near our house. Please pray for these classes that the young people attend and are able to apply the lessons to their lives.

Tonya recently fell outside on an icy patch. Her elbow was injured (praise God it was NOT a broken bone). She is wearing a a cast for two weeks.

The pastor at our church asked Tonya to help lead a women's Bible study. Tonya asks you to please pray for her to have wisdom and balance with ministry and family.

I recently came across a very interesting piece of investigative reporting. The video does a good job of showing a Russian train, as well as countryside, and some insight into things here. It is a seven part series, and in part two the journalist's tongue seems to get lubricated by vodka in the dinning car and some of the language is a bit impure, so be forewarned and skip that part if it would offend you. Otherwise, I found the article fascinating. You can see that article about North Koreans in Siberia and the Russian Far East at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/15/world/asia/north-korean-labor-camps-in-siberia/index.html or

http://www.vice.com/vice-news/north-korean-labor-camps-part-1

The Lord be with you!

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Filled with Thanks!

Dear Friends,

winter has arrived, which means it's time for thanksgiving. We had had a
great thanksgiving, with lots of friends over for a feast. After the feast the
kids put on a play while I read the thanksgiving story from a children's history
book.

On Sunday evening we put on a Thanksgiving feast at Open Heart Homeless
Shelter. My area director and his wife, Rick and Dianna, were in Khabarovsk to
have Thanksgiving with us. So we asked Rick to speak before the meal (Tonya
translated). It was a powerful sermon. And then we served the homeless beef,
rice, gravy, pumpkin pie, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, oranges, bread, tea, and
cookies. What a blast.

The week before Thanksgiving we hosted a Life Skills teacher training
seminar. This is a key part of what we feel God has directed us to do with
orphans in Russia. Three teachers came from the Ukraine (one Mexican, one
American, and one Ukrainian) to train us in how to teach life skills to youth
and orphans. The Russian orphanage system sends children to school, so they
learn book knowledge, but usually no one trains them about the basics of how to
live. So after graduation most of them fall into destructive life styles. This
Life Skills training is a Christian answer to this need. So the group that
attended are now equipped to minister in this area. Please pray for doors to be
open and opportunities to arise. Here is a after-training photo:
Talking about training, the Moscow Theological Institute has graduated 17
students in Khabarovsk. Each of them is receiving a government recognized
four-year degree.

Oh, yes, about those parasites. It seems that, after further testing, that
two of us who they thought had parasites in the gall bladder have some other
minor problem that can be fixed by drinking mineral water and resting on a hot
pad. I can handle that. So, only one of us needs to have any further
treatment. I guess we can call that progress of the strangest kind, but we are
thankful!

We're in the process of sending out our November newsletter. Have a sneak
preview at http://101649.agwebservices2.org/SiteFiles/101649/Content/Newsletter/Newsletter%202011%20November.pdf

Because of Christ,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

From inwards to onwards

Dear Friends,

Parasites. Hate 'em. We've also got 'em. This month two of us have been diagnosed with a parasites in the gall bladder, one of us with something in the intestines, and one of us had lice. Well, the lice has been taken care of, that was easy. Treatment of the other issues is about to begin (now that we've passed the diagnostic phase of stool samples, blood testing, ultrasounds, and swallowing a tube to have the insides looked at). I don't plan on giving a detailed account of all that, and I'll try to refrain from comments about the Russian system of socialized medicine.

I also want to thank those of you who prayed for the lawsuit that went before the Russian supreme court. The court ruled in favor of the church. This is wonderful news. We don't expect all the problems to go away, but we can see that the Lord is at work. I've been wanting to use some materials from the resource center that the church was hosting (this resource center was established by Karla Ford, one of our co-workers that teaches youth ministry). The resource center was confiscated two years ago, during the investigation. Please pray that these materials will be returned.

Talking about resources, we now have a functioning Christian library at Hope Center. True, it's fairly small, but it is about the biggest Russian language theological libraries in our area. It is also one of the most available, located downtown, and with a part-time librarian. We plan for it to grow. Most of what we do here is a step-by-step process, and we've been gathering books for five years. Now, it is available.

Movie nights and game nights are going great! Attendance has been running 20-30, with a mix of students, orphans, single moms with their kids, young and old, believers and unbelievers. On Movie nights we have a tea-time with snacks after the movie, and very interesting discussions will follow. We carefully choose the movies so as to have a spiritual launch pad to start the discussions. Game nights are pretty much just good fellowship, but the table talk can sometimes get pretty deep, and sometimes someone will want to step aside into our office for prayer. It has taken some time to lay the foundations for these ministries, so to watch them bear fruit is delightful.

Here's a few photos from game nights.

Hope Center also facilitated a conference for outreach to Shamanistic people groups. Several various ethnic groups were represented. The information was very helpful for those wanting to work among Shamanistic people.

The General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God visited Perm, Russia. He wrote an interesting article you can read at:

http://ag.org/top/General_Superintendent/Ministers_Letter/2011_Issue_04.pdf

We are hosting a Life Skills conference, November 16-19, to equip people for ministry. People will be trained in how to teach life skills to youth, especially orphans. Often churchgoers here have said they would like to help orphans, but don't know how. This will provide at least one very good way to do that. This training will be done in cooperation with the Central Baptist Church, and we are very excited to be working with them. The trainers will be coming from the Ukraine, and there are many details to be taken care of. Please pray that all will go well, and that this conference will expand the Kingdom of God.

As an ongoing prayer request, please pray that my (Cecil's) application for a Permanent Russian Resident Permit would be approved and issued. If all goes well, it should be ready in December.

Well, gotta go. We've got another birthday party for orphans in a couple hours.

The Grace of the Lord be with you,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Bad News Good News

Dear Friends,

First, the bad news:

Deanna had to have a top front tooth pulled. It was an adult tooth, but she's taking it rather well. Later we'll get a fake tooth put in it's place.

My application for a permanent resident permit was denied. They said I needed one more document from the States. It was something that wasn't on the original list of required things when I submitted the application six month ago. I was given three days to provide it. Of course, that didn't happen. So I've decided to re-start my application process. I plan to submit my application on Thursday (the office that receives applications is open once a week on Thursdays from 3:00 to 6:00 pm). Trying to get everything ready.

It seems summer has come to an end and fall is flying past. We had snow flurries today. Last week was an Indian summer, and we went to the park. The long, dark winter arrives soon.

Now for the good news:

To catch up for the summer while the kids were at camp, we had two birthday parties with the orphanage kids this month (one for the summer and one for September).

Both went well.

The churches in Khabarovsk joined in the annual "March for Families." It is one of the government events that the churches are able to enthusiastically support.

Earlier this year we put a lot of work into getting materials for an anti-drug presentation. It is now ready to take into schools and orphanages. We had the first presentation in our apartment, and invited kids from the neighborhood. With 14 kids sitting in our living room, the program went well. Please pray that officials are open to it, and that the those who listen will take the message to heart.

Neither Good Nor Bad:

Mr. Putin is making plans to become the president of Russia (again). Last week a public announcement was made.

Khabarovsk is in for tourists-

http://indrus.in/articles/2011/09/14/khabarovsk_a_mediterranean_dream_in_russia_12995.html

The Russian economy has been hard on the poor.

http://russiaprofile.org/business/46337.html

And a prayer request -

We are trying to put together a training conference for those who want to minister in orphanages and teach life skills. The logistics have become rather complicated. Please pray for the details of this conference to come together, and that many people will be able to attend.

Bye for now~

The Eshelman Family

Summer and Camp

Dear Friends,

we will start with a personal prayer request. Deanna's top front tooth was hit during a basketball game a while back. It has continued to be loose, so we took her to the dentist today. This dentist took an X-ray and told us it needed to be pulled. We plan to take Deanna to another dentist at a private clinic tomorrow and get a second opinion. We are praying that the tooth can be saved.

The start of this month the kids and Tonya were at a church camp on an Island in the Amur River (close to China). Tonya worked in the kitchen. Yum, yum.

Here's the tent where they ate.

They also when swimming and boating in the river.

I came to the camp the last evening by special invitation. They wanted me speak the final evening, and teach about baptism. Two of the adult workers had never been baptized, and were expressing an interest but the pastor was not able to attend the camp. So the pastor had me come and I preached from the book of Acts (when Paul and Silas were released from prison by an earthquake, and the jailor was baptized in the middle of the night. So at camp I spoke, three people wanted to be baptized. By the time we got to the river it was quite dark, so we had a night baptism. The photos are rather grainy, but here they are:

After camp we took a week of vacation by the Sea of Japan. We joined with a family who pastor a church in a village south of Khabarovsk. It was a good week of relaxation and family time. Somehow I ended up preaching at two churches that Sunday (friends of the pastor we were with).

We all got sunburn, but had a great time.

Well, were all back home now, and starting into the fall schedule. School starts September 1st. On Friday we'll host another birthday party for the orphanage.

Game nights and Movie nights at Hope Center have gone well through the summer. Please pray that word will get out and even more people would start to attend as we move into the fall.

We have at least two different young people who plan to work with us next year in the StudyRussianDoMissions program. Please pray that everything they need would be provided, and that the Lord would fully equip them for the work at hand. As always, we pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into this harvest field.

One last photo. We were invited to come and speak at Open Heart Homeless Shelter this weekend. They are one of our favorite places to go. They've also been busy building a new shower house/laundry facility with some housing on the second floor. You can see in the background on the left a building we (and a team from Texas) helped them build several years ago ( http://eshelman.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html ). Things there just keep getting better. God is so good!

Remember when the coup happened in the Soviet Union, just before the Soviet Union fell apart? This is the 20th anniversary of that event.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14589691

Here is some information about the situation with Grace Church in Khabarovsk, the court case against them, and the ongoing problems they face with the authorities.

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1596

Cecil has been invited to speak at one of their congregations this coming Sunday.

May the Lord be with you!

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna