Dear Friends,
sorry it's been so long since our last communication. We leave Russia tomorrow, so we've been a bit crazy wit packing and closing things down. First we'll go to a conference in Turkey for all the AGWM missionaries on the Eurasia field. After that we'll fly to the States and spend time with family. We'll buy a used mini-van and travel to Missouri for training at Missionary Renewal. Eventually we'll settle into Greensboro, North Carolina, and spend the following year traveling and speaking doing missions conferences, missions services, and whatever we can to build missions awareness in the churches of America.
We've been pondering whether to use the traditional and more accurate spelling of Deana's name, or go with the official English spelling that was placed on Diana's passport. Deanna or Diana? We've decided that if Timothy can go by Tim and Tatiana can go by Tonya that Diana can go by Deanna. So we're going to take Deanna as a nickname and only use Diana on the official papers.
Since the processing of documents seemed to be going well and we hadn't seen Tonya's folks for almost two years, we took a quick vacation to Novokuznestk (Tonya's native city). Deanna was able to meet her new grandparents and great-grandfather (he was born in October of 1917, during the revolution). He is also a veteran of the 2nd World War.
We were asked to preach at church and at a rehab center and enjoyed ministering. We also got to visit Tonya's parents dacha where we worked in the garden and took walks in the woods. It was a great way to relax before jumping in to the final packing for our year of home service.
We returned to find that although Deanna's American visa was approved by the U.S. Consulate, there was a certain fee we didn't know about that we needed to pay. We paid it right away and we were able to get it on Wednesday. She was issued a 2-year visa. Now we have all the documents we need to come to the States. Along with that, we do have a prayer request. Although she has a 2-year visa, the Department of Homeland Security will determine the maximum length of her stay when she enters the U.S. Please pray that they give her 14 months so that we'll not have to make any extra trips outside the U.S. during our time of home service.
We've been saying farewells to a lot of friends here over the last week, and we're emotionally ready to go even if we're getting tired. Please pray for us as we go through all the transition, that we are able to keep treating each other the way God would like us to.
We've got to go and finish the last minute packing. We need to be at the airport in 12 hours.
Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna
sorry it's been so long since our last communication. We leave Russia tomorrow, so we've been a bit crazy wit packing and closing things down. First we'll go to a conference in Turkey for all the AGWM missionaries on the Eurasia field. After that we'll fly to the States and spend time with family. We'll buy a used mini-van and travel to Missouri for training at Missionary Renewal. Eventually we'll settle into Greensboro, North Carolina, and spend the following year traveling and speaking doing missions conferences, missions services, and whatever we can to build missions awareness in the churches of America.
We've been pondering whether to use the traditional and more accurate spelling of Deana's name, or go with the official English spelling that was placed on Diana's passport. Deanna or Diana? We've decided that if Timothy can go by Tim and Tatiana can go by Tonya that Diana can go by Deanna. So we're going to take Deanna as a nickname and only use Diana on the official papers.
Since the processing of documents seemed to be going well and we hadn't seen Tonya's folks for almost two years, we took a quick vacation to Novokuznestk (Tonya's native city). Deanna was able to meet her new grandparents and great-grandfather (he was born in October of 1917, during the revolution). He is also a veteran of the 2nd World War.
We were asked to preach at church and at a rehab center and enjoyed ministering. We also got to visit Tonya's parents dacha where we worked in the garden and took walks in the woods. It was a great way to relax before jumping in to the final packing for our year of home service.
We returned to find that although Deanna's American visa was approved by the U.S. Consulate, there was a certain fee we didn't know about that we needed to pay. We paid it right away and we were able to get it on Wednesday. She was issued a 2-year visa. Now we have all the documents we need to come to the States. Along with that, we do have a prayer request. Although she has a 2-year visa, the Department of Homeland Security will determine the maximum length of her stay when she enters the U.S. Please pray that they give her 14 months so that we'll not have to make any extra trips outside the U.S. during our time of home service.
We've been saying farewells to a lot of friends here over the last week, and we're emotionally ready to go even if we're getting tired. Please pray for us as we go through all the transition, that we are able to keep treating each other the way God would like us to.
We've got to go and finish the last minute packing. We need to be at the airport in 12 hours.
Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna
