most Russians consider today (February 28) to be the last day of winter. Indeed, it has been warming up and today was close to the melting point. That's Tonya looking out through the ice sculpture.
We took a group of kids from the orphanage sledding today. It was more like sliding down the hill on plastic pads that you sit on. We had a great time with thrills, chills and spills.
There is a young lady who just turned 19. She graduated from an orphanage a little over a year ago, decided to go live in a village, and returned pregnant. A local church has been helping her with housing and such. We took her to the hospital in our Speed-The-Light van for her delivery, and a week later picked her and her newborn son up and took her to the church's children's shelter where she is staying. Her son caught a cold and needed to go back to the hospital. Please pray that he would recover his health, and for her to find hope and a direction for her future.
We have continued to take our driving lessons, and tomorrow Cecil will take his written test. If he succeeds at that, then the following day he can take his driving test. The questions on the written test are more like riddles than questions, please pray for him to be able to pass and to get his license. Hopefully Tonya will be ready a few weeks from now.
We were invited to speak to a group of veterans from the Afghanistan war (when the Soviet Union was in Afghanistan). They thought that we produced a newspaper for Afgan veterans. Actually it is produced by David Leatherberry, who works with AGWM and lives in Russia in the western side. Anyway, David sent us some materials and we were able to present them and talk about the newspapers to the veteran's group one week ago. Please pray that the seeds planted will bear fruit.
On the 7th of March Cecil will leave for Mongolia. He needs to get a new Russian visa, and he needs to leave Russia to do that. In Mongolia he will visit some old friends, but mostly make sure he gets his visa so that he can return to Russia. There has already been a hold-up in the processing of his visa invitation, so please pray that the invitation will be forthcoming and that all will go well on his trip.
We praise the Lord that Jason is back with us. He is doing well. We look forward to others joining our team some months from now.
Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy and Vera
