Merry Christmas! Yes, today is Christmas in Russia. They celebrate Christmas on January 7th due to the Orthodox Calendar.
We already celebrated Christmas in Canada while visiting friends there. Tonya supervised making a traditional Russian food called palmeni. Steve Pike, left, was the best man at our wedding (Oh, so long ago).
We went for walks in the outside (with plenty of snow) and also sledding. Yeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!
Not only did Canada provide a white Christmas for us, but we were able to get a new entry for Deanna (who doesn't have U.S. citizenship yet); so she is now legal to stay in the States until June 25th. The line at the border was long, but the officials were friendly, so it was no problem. Praise the Lord.
The World Missions Summit was a blast. We arrived early to help set up, didn't have a moment of rest once the Summit started, and helped take down afterward. One of the highlights for us was the Eurasia Experience, where Cecil played the role of an Orthodox Priest and the kids played the role of beggars in the marketplace. We were to busy to even get photos, sorry. We also got to talk with a lot of folks who were interested in missions. There were almost 4,000 attendees, plus over 400 missionaries.
Another WMS highlight was meal-with-a-missionary where we got to sit down and enjoy four meals with a tables-full of young folks who were interested in hearing about missions. They asked some great questions and graciously listed to our stories. 
Please pray for the folks who were there that the Lord would guide them to take their place in His Kingdom.
Our girls were fascinated with the gingerbread city put up in the front lobby of our hotel.
Vera's birthday was New Year's Eve, and so we told her we had invited 4,000 students to come to her birthday party. She decided to celebrate with her friends this coming weekend.
Before we headed out of town we were able to mail out our latest newsletter. It is now posted on the web at http://101649.agwebservices2.org/SiteFiles/101649/Content/Newsletter/Newsletter%202008%20Fall.pdf If you have any problems finding, just let us know and we'll email it to you.
After speaking in a December service at Christian Life Center in Gibsonville, NC, we got a family photo by the tree.
We will be travelling and giving missions services until we return to Russia. Please pray that our schedule would be full and for the services to be spirit filled.
Merry (Second) Christmas,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna
