Some Happenings

Dear Friends,

as we write this letter is Christmas afternoon for us, but for some of you in the States it is still Christmas eve. And yes, we are having a white Christmas here in the Russian climate. It warmed up to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit last week and snowed.

We wanted to share with you how the Lord answered your prayers and the stolen truck was returned. The church received a phone call telling them where to put the money if they wanted the truck back. Sergei (who leads the homeless ministry) and the Pastor wrote a letter explaining that the truck belongs to God and explaining what kind of ministry it was doing, such as building the house for the homeless, and left it there instead. This began a back-and-forth bartering where the thieves kept offering lower amounts to return the truck. Sergei kept answering that the church was praying for the them, and they were asking the Lord not to bring judgment on those who had stolen the truck. Also, Demitry, who leads the prison ministry, contacted the criminal authorities and asked them to let these young thieves know that you shouldn't steal from God. Finally the thieves asked, "can't you give us anything for the truck?" The answer was no. Later the church received a phone call telling them where the truck was parked, so they were able to go and get it. All we can say is, "Praise the Lord!"

It about that time of year here where they start setting up blocks of ice and carving them.

Here's the family by an "ice castle" at the central square.

We praise the Lord for Jason's safe return to the States. He left on December 15 and is now at his folk's house for Christmas. We look forward to his return to Russia next year.

A couple weeks ago we concluded a series on the Ten Commandments at the orphanage. To celebrate the event we had a competition quizzing the kids about different aspects of the commandments and the final task was to write all ten of them from memory. Here are two teams during that final round. All the teams successfully recalled all ten of the commandments.

Vera recently participated in her first gymnastics competition. Despite some initial stage-fright, she did well. Here is a photo of her during the floor routine.


Over the next several weeks we are planning to visit all the orphanages in Khabarovsk and show a movie from the Billy Graham Foundation. We are doing this as a joint outreach with another group. Please pray that doors will open and the Lord would give us favor in every one of the orphanages.

On Thursday Cecil cooked a great big beef stew and we went to the homeless shelter that a local church operates. There we served a whole meal and told the Christmas story. Meat is a rather rare treat there, and we were well received. We told the Christmas story (from Matthew and Luke). It was the first time that some of the folks there had ever heard that story.

We thank you so much for your prayers. May the Lord richly bless you and yours in this season of the Christ Child.

In Him,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera

Ice cream, Trans-Siberian railway, and Ulan Ude

Dear Friends,

The advent season has arrived and we're not wondering if it will be a white Christmas. It's been a winter wonderland here for a while. The last several days when Cecil has gone out to start the car the temperature has been at -21 degrees Celsius (what is that in Fahrenheit? Something like -6?). Even though we use Celsius here Cecil still likes Fahrenheit. The encyclopedia says that Mr. Fahrenheit developed his temperature scale when he discovered how to use a mercury thermometer, but further investigation reveals that he chose 0 degrees since that is the lowest temperature you can reach by mixing salt and water, hence the optimal temperature for the manufacture of homemade ice cream. Mr. Fahrenheit liked ice cream, and so does Cecil. Now, 0 degrees Celsius is the freezing point of water, and frozen water is O.K. But really, what do you prefer, frozen water or frozen ice cream?

Cecil has been on the road for a while, and it sure is good to get back. He took Jason to Ulan Ude for the Assemblies of God Siberia team meeting. Tonya and the kids couldn't go because school is in session. Ulan Ude is over 50 hours on the train from Khabarovsk, one way. This was Jason's first time on the Trans-Siberian railway. As Cecil said,"the first several times on the Trans-Siberian is very exciting, but after about the 14th time?" Anyway, here's Jason by the train.

We were in car number 11. Can you see it back there? (About half-way back the train)

The team meetings had wonderful worship and good fellowship, but we also did some business. Cecil will be helping to lead a new project to help the national church in the Russian Far East. Their most commonly stated need is for a building to house the Bible Institute as well as a headquarters to organize outreaches and churches across the Far East. While this project is now in the "serious initial discussion" stage, we expect things to develop. Please pray for us to have wisdom and make right decisions regarding this project. We're not sure how this project fits into our long-term goal of helping orphans as they leave the orphanages, but we strongly feel the Lord leading us to do this project.

Ulan Ude also has the largest head in the world.

Lenin looks a little cold there, with snow on his eyebrow.

As an aside, Cecil met some Mongolians at church who were also visiting Ulan Ude. He was very excited to use his long-dormant Mongolian language skills. He admits that after about two minutes he had to change languages, and found they didn't speak Russian, though one of them spoke English. Anyway, it was the first time in ten years he got to speak Mongolian.

Before the trip we had and early Thanksgiving celebration with some friends. The Americans who came brought an apple pie; the Ukrainians who came brought a Karavi (a spiced fruit bread). Both were delicious.

And the rest of the feast was pretty good too, even though we couldn't find a turkey. Afterwards we read the story of the first Thanksgiving and wrote down what we were thankful for.

While Cecil was gone Tonya continued the lessons with the orphans. She's been going through the 10 commandments. When she taught on "Honor your Father and Mother," she prayed a lot beforehand since she didn't know how they would respond. It turned out they were very interested and responded very well. Please pray that we continue to have favor and that these orphans will be set free of whatever emotional hurts they carry with them. Please pray that the Lord will build up a team to work with us in the orphanage ministry.

We've received a lot of interest regarding the homeless ministry here, so we thought we'd mention it again. We are barely involved with this work, the local Russian church is in charge. We just help out from time to time in minor ways. They are doing a great job. They are presently housing about 40 people in a big tent. The tent has now gotten rather cold, and they continue to build a house as funds become available. Mostly the local church is raising the funds themselves, with the homeless doing much of the labor. Here is a photo I took on Sunday morning (December 3rd). The walls are up, floor is not quite complete, and the roof is not yet begun.

The church recently purchased a truck for this construction project, expecting to use it in future projects as well. It was stolen last week and they received a "ransom note" demanding money for the return of the truck. Please pray that the truck will soon be returned without any loss to the church.

There is a couple planning to come to Khabarovsk in April to work with us for a year or so. Please pray for Aaron and Beth as they prepare for this big step. Pray that funds are raised quickly, that believers would commit to pray on their behalf, and that the many details involved with moving across an ocean would all work out.

Also, please pray for Jason as he will be returning to the States in ten days. He plans to return in February. So pray that he makes it home and makes it back.

We want to thank you all for your many prayers for us.

We've also received several requests lately for maps showing where we are located. You can find some maps on our web site, as well as some other interesting stuff. The address is http://hqmail.agmd.org/~cecil.eshelman/khabarovsk_region.htm

Giving thanks,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera