More Good News

Dear Friends,

we have some good news and some good news.

The first good news is that our cash budget has been raised. You see, we need a certain level of commitments for ongoing support and a certain level of money actually received into our account at headquarters before we are approved to go back to Russia. Now all we need to do (financially speaking) is raise pledges for ongoing support.

The second good news is that we are at right about 90% of our pledge budget. We were able to get headquarters to remove certain items we didn't really need and adjust others to a lower but more accurate level. This, along with a slow but steady growth of commitments, has brought us within sight of the goal. We still need to keep working to raise the rest, but we're excited about how things are going, and continue to plan on returning to Russia by the end of August.

And some more good news. The extension for Deanna's I-94 has been approved. That means she may remain legally in the United States. We really look forward to when she gets U.S. citizenship, but that will be a new pile of paperwork we'll start working on in 2010.

Cecil spoke at a Chi Alpha chapter in Raleigh, NC. He really enjoyed hanging out with the students. We are praying for young people to be excited about foreign missions.

Please pray for laborers to join the work on the mission field, especially in Russia. It is a big territory that is in great need.
The kids have passed their end-of-grade tests and enjoying the warmth of spring. We went hiking up Hanging Rock while taking a break during a trip to speak at a church.

A few freaky facts about Russia:

· There are presently 32 Russian billionaires, down from 110 a year ago.
· Russia’s lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water.
· Moscow is the most expensive city in the world to live in.
· Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian.
· There are 76 unreached people groups in Russia.

In His Name,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Stateside Stuff

Dear Friends,

The last month seems to be a blur of travel and speaking. In April Cecil spoke at seven places in Pennsylvania, one in West Virginia and two in North Carolina. Easter break was nice, we all went to visit family. When Cecil was visiting with his grandmother he had a chance encounter with a doctor in the cafeteria and during the conversation he discovered that this was the doctor that delivered him at birth. A most interesting encounter. The kids also had a great time with their great-grandmother (96 years old!).
We were also able to do a little sight-seeing and history lessons while passing through the D.C. area.
We had a special treat when we spoke in Siler City in late March. The church there is bi-lingual, and the entire service was done with translation. Cecil felt right at home having his sermon translated. Here is a photo with the translator and his wife.
We have submitted an application to have Deanna's I-94 extended, so that she will remain legal until we return to Russia. There are three possibilities: 1. it is approved, that would solve the problem with her I-94. 2. it is denied, and she would have 30 days to leave the country. 3. They don't make a decision, which is fine because she would remain legal. So that situation is taken care of for now, but you can pray that they just don't deny the extension (until we're about to leave anyway). Once Deanna has been in our legal and physical custody for more than two years, we can apply for her to get an immigrant visa and receive U.S. citizenship. So we expect to start jumping through those legal hoops in 2010.

Do to the economic downturn, our headquarters has been working to lower missionary's budgets. This should work to our advantage, so we may be closer to meeting our budget than we thought. We haven't gotten hard figures yet on how exactly our budget has been effected, but we'll soon sharpen our pencils and find out. We are praying that we be fully funded when we return to Russia (hopefully in August).

Please also pray that our time in the States be true ministry as we travel and speak. That the messages would be from the Lord and would be a blessing to those who hear.

We would like to bring a slide show to your attention. It is about a monument in honor of the terrorism victims in the World Trade Center that was erected by Russians here in the States. A gift from the people of Russia to the people of American, hoping for peace. I didn't hear about this in the news, and maybe you didn't either. We pray that peace between Russia and the United States would be firmly established. The slide show is in powerpoint and posted on our web site at http://101649.agwebservices2.org/?TargetPage=56A045DF-A15D-412F-9427-378208341E96 and if you have problems viewing it, please let us know.

May the Lord richly bless you,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna