this springs seems to have been so busy we can't even keep track of what we're doing. One thing that seems to take up all our extra time has been fixing up the apartment we purchased in December. It wasn't in terrible condition, it's just that it takes lots of time to paint, wallpaper, hang lights, change clogged pipes and then clean up afterwards. However we do feel a great deal of process has been made. Now that we have the kitchen installed Tonya doesn't need to cook on a hot plate in the living room, like she did for the last three months.
Feel free to come visit and fix up some food.Cecil has been busy with language study. In less than a month Cecil will be finished with his Russian language studies at the university. He still wants to keep learning that language, but he'll be putting his main energies into the work we came here to do.
Timothy has been buys with school and has taken some piano lessons in addition to swim lessons. He will be finishing classes next week and is ready to go on summer break. We've finished the work on Vera's room so she was able to move into her own room last week. Sure beats sharing a tiny room with her brother.
Tonya has continued to develop secretarial skills in working with officials and dealing with government documents. Everything has gone better than we expected, since we had a number of things we needed to process. We praise the Lord for having given us so much favor with officials. They were unusually helpful. Our kids should be issued their Russian passports this week.
Tonya has also continued to form connections with orphanages. Last week we took a puppet team to one of the orphanages. They were received very well. In the past the director of that orphanage has been against any form of spiritual message. Please pray that this door will remain open and that we will be able to do more ministry there in the future.
The 9th of May is one of the biggest holidays in Russia. We call it V.E. Day in the states, but they simply call it Victory Day. It is the day the Nazis surrendered after the capture of Berlin. Almost every family in Russia lost someone during that war, and it is really a big deal. We went to see the parade.
They really like to show off military hardware during parades. Like this rocket launcher.
In the last three weeks we also printed and mailed out our latest newsletter. We have over 350 on the mailing list, so takes a while to all mailed out. We've placed a copy on our web site at http://hqmail.agmd.org/~tonya.eshelman/NL%202006%20May/NL2006May.html
The work on the church in Novi Orgal continues to progress. The pastor spend a few days at our home last week getting supplies. It costs less to buy them here and ship them on a baggage car.
Near our home is a memorial to some sailors who were jailed and executed during the 1930's and then many years later declared innocent. Their entire boat was placed in the park. It has become a favorite object to climb on.
The weather has turned warmer in the last two weeks. We went for a picnic on a steep bluff above the Amur river. From the picture you can't hardly see that we are about 350 above the water.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
His Servants,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera
