Thanksgiving & water news

Dear Friends,

if you translate "Thanksgiving Day" into Russian it comes across as "Day of Gratitude." We had a bunch of folks over for Thanksgiving, but only one is an American. We had Russians, a Ukrainian and a British lady. It was fun reading the Thanksgiving story to them all, only the American had heard it before.

While some of us were busy in the kitchen, Timothy talked our American guest into a game of chess.


And after the turkey was (mostly) eaten we set aside the potatoes, bread, corn, salads, stuffing, etc., because it was time for the pies (and tea, and fruit, and brownies). Ahhh yes, Thanksgiving.

On this day of gratitude, our family was filled with thanksgiving for all the many things God has done for us.

The big news in Khabarovsk right now is the toxic chemical spill that occurred in China. The Russian authorities got wind of it when Harbin, a major Chinese city upstream from us, turned off their water supply, and there were reports of lots of dead fish in the river. Finally the Chinese authorities admitted there was a problem and advised the Russian government what chemicals were involved. The contamination slick is expected to reach Khabarovsk this weekend. This is a problem since Khabarovsk's water supply comes from the Amur river. When it reaches us the city water supply will be turned off until the water is safe again, which may be for more than a week. So we've been stockpiling water.

Unlike the fish, we should be fine, just an inconvenience.

The procedure of buying an apartment is coming along. Please pray as documents for the purchase of the apartment continue to process. If all goes well we should be able to take possession at the end of next week.

Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera

not a smoke ring

Dear Friends,

Wow, the day after I sent out our last email update it started to rain. It rained all afternoon and evening and the rain turned to snow. It snowed all the next day. There is no more smoke and the fires are out. God has blessed us and answered your prayers. It sure is nice to breathe fresh air again. And now there is a layer of snow on the ground, just like they normally have this time of year here.

Liza is a sixteen year old girl that attends the church where we go. She lives with her mother who has been a believer for about eleven years, but Liza does not know her father. Last summer she came on the same church camp we took our kids on. Tonya talked with her about sexual purity and how we plan to give Vera a ring when she becomes a teenager as a symbol of keeping herself pure until she is married. Liza thought that was a wonderful thing and said when she gets married she wants her husband to do the same thing if she ever has a daughter. Last month she babysat for us on our anniversary, and spent the night at our place afterward. She accidentally left a ring of hers at our place, so we secretly took it to a jewelers and purchased another ring of the same size, and then returned her ring to her. Last week we took her and her mother out to a restaurant, told her how proud we are of her, and asked if she would like to make a chastity covenant with God and us. She did, so we presented her with the ring. The next day her mother called to say that Liza was so excited she could barely go to sleep that night. Liza had told her mother, "Mom, no man has ever talked to me like I was his daughter before." We know there are many more young people like Liza, and we hope to show some of the Heavenly Father's love to as many as we can.

On Friday we made a payment of earnest money on the purchase of an apartment. Please continue to pray that all the documents will process properly and quickly and that we will be able to finish the deal by December. Also please continue to pray for our flight arrangements for the World Missions Summit over New Years.

Today the kids helped to clean the church bus, so as a reward we went out for pizza.
Yes, Russia is a civilized country indeed.

Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy and Vera

New Transportation

Dear Friends,

Depending on wind direction, heavy clouds of smoke have been blanketing either Khabarovsk or other towns in the region. Strong winds, little precipitation and unusually warm weather have been fueling forest fires in the area. Usually by now there is snow covering the ground, but the high today is almost 60 degrees F (quickly melting off the frost from last night). Here is a photo I took from our balcony:

No that's not fog, it's smoke. Shortly after I took this picture the wind shifted and the sun came out. We are in no danger from the fire itself, and this condition hasn't affected our work here, but it does remind us that the weather in Russia is no more predictable than in the States.

We now have all the paperwork on the Hyundai Starex all taken care of. A great big thanks goes to Speed the Light and all the folks who support them. They are the ones who have provided this vehicle for the ministry here.

Along with introducing the vehicle we want to introduce Sergei, a resident of Khabarovsk. Sergei has joined the team as our part-time driver. Of course he does a lot more than just drive us around, and jumps into whatever ministry we may be doing. Here he is getting behind the wheel.

We've mailed out our October newsletters, and if you are on our mailing list you should have recently gotten one (please let us know if you didn't). We also have posted a digital copy of it on our web site at http://hqmail.agmd.org/~tonya.eshelman/NL%202005%20Oct/NL2005Oct.html

We do have two prayer requests. First, we will be purchasing an apartment to live in and will start processing documents on Monday. Please pray that everything proceeds smoothly and there are no unexpected problems.

Secondly, we will be going to the States in mid December since we are involved with the World Missions Summit. This is a great opportunity for us to interact with many students and share about missions and the call of God. So far everything has come together except for the purchase of our return tickets. It seems all the flights into Khabarovsk during mid-January are full. We've been wait-listed for several weeks now. Please pray that the World Missions Summit powerfully impacts the lives of many young people and that we are able to buy tickets back to Khabarovsk.

May the Lord richly bless you.

For Him,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera