Which Christmas

Dear Friends,

we thought about having Christmas on the 25th, but despite plenty of white snow, it didn't really feel like Christmas. After all, there was school the day before and the day after. Christmas in Russia is January 7th. Since schools have classes six days a week, it was nice that our Christmas was on a Sunday, so that we didn't have school on Christmas day. Anyway, we've decided to celebrate Christmas every day from Dec. 25th until Jan. 7th (I guess that's kinda like the 12 days of Christmas).

In Russia, the big holiday is New Year's, which is celebrated for about a week or more. Christmas is a minor, one-day kind of holiday. Many people here don't really know what Christmas is, or what it celebrates. Vera's music teacher asked her to bring a poem about New Year's, and when Tonya asked if Vera could bring a poem about Christmas instead, the lady asked, "What's the difference?"

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR'S and a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

The ice sculptures are in the parks again. That's Deanna and a friend.

Number one son, Timothy.

And Vera, who turned 12 today. Happy Birthday!

My Permanent Resident Permit was not issued in December as we had hoped. When I went to the office to check on the progress of the application, they said it will probably be ready in April. Nothing I can do about it. We'll just wait and pray.

The Bible School was in session this fall. We didn't teach, but did interact with students since my office is in Hope Center where the classes are held.

I was invited to the consecration of a new church building in Komsomolsk, the next city north of Khabarovsk. It is about a seven hour drive. There was also an ordination ceremony, and four couples received ordination. Here are the bishops praying with one of the couples.

I was invited to give one of the sermons. It was indeed an honor to speak at the event.

We continue to have birthday parties for orphans at Hope Center. Here's a photo from the December party.

The BIG news from our orphanage ministry is that we have started ongoing Life Skills classes on Thursday afternoons. The Lord has enabled us to put together a small team, and we are presenting the Life Skills materials from the conference we hosted in November. We also give a cooking lesson. We and our team will be doing this for the next five months. We thank the Lord that He has given us favor with the new director at the orphanage near our house. Please pray for these classes that the young people attend and are able to apply the lessons to their lives.

Tonya recently fell outside on an icy patch. Her elbow was injured (praise God it was NOT a broken bone). She is wearing a a cast for two weeks.

The pastor at our church asked Tonya to help lead a women's Bible study. Tonya asks you to please pray for her to have wisdom and balance with ministry and family.

I recently came across a very interesting piece of investigative reporting. The video does a good job of showing a Russian train, as well as countryside, and some insight into things here. It is a seven part series, and in part two the journalist's tongue seems to get lubricated by vodka in the dinning car and some of the language is a bit impure, so be forewarned and skip that part if it would offend you. Otherwise, I found the article fascinating. You can see that article about North Koreans in Siberia and the Russian Far East at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/15/world/asia/north-korean-labor-camps-in-siberia/index.html or

http://www.vice.com/vice-news/north-korean-labor-camps-part-1

The Lord be with you!

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Filled with Thanks!

Dear Friends,

winter has arrived, which means it's time for thanksgiving. We had had a
great thanksgiving, with lots of friends over for a feast. After the feast the
kids put on a play while I read the thanksgiving story from a children's history
book.

On Sunday evening we put on a Thanksgiving feast at Open Heart Homeless
Shelter. My area director and his wife, Rick and Dianna, were in Khabarovsk to
have Thanksgiving with us. So we asked Rick to speak before the meal (Tonya
translated). It was a powerful sermon. And then we served the homeless beef,
rice, gravy, pumpkin pie, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs, oranges, bread, tea, and
cookies. What a blast.

The week before Thanksgiving we hosted a Life Skills teacher training
seminar. This is a key part of what we feel God has directed us to do with
orphans in Russia. Three teachers came from the Ukraine (one Mexican, one
American, and one Ukrainian) to train us in how to teach life skills to youth
and orphans. The Russian orphanage system sends children to school, so they
learn book knowledge, but usually no one trains them about the basics of how to
live. So after graduation most of them fall into destructive life styles. This
Life Skills training is a Christian answer to this need. So the group that
attended are now equipped to minister in this area. Please pray for doors to be
open and opportunities to arise. Here is a after-training photo:
Talking about training, the Moscow Theological Institute has graduated 17
students in Khabarovsk. Each of them is receiving a government recognized
four-year degree.

Oh, yes, about those parasites. It seems that, after further testing, that
two of us who they thought had parasites in the gall bladder have some other
minor problem that can be fixed by drinking mineral water and resting on a hot
pad. I can handle that. So, only one of us needs to have any further
treatment. I guess we can call that progress of the strangest kind, but we are
thankful!

We're in the process of sending out our November newsletter. Have a sneak
preview at http://101649.agwebservices2.org/SiteFiles/101649/Content/Newsletter/Newsletter%202011%20November.pdf

Because of Christ,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

From inwards to onwards

Dear Friends,

Parasites. Hate 'em. We've also got 'em. This month two of us have been diagnosed with a parasites in the gall bladder, one of us with something in the intestines, and one of us had lice. Well, the lice has been taken care of, that was easy. Treatment of the other issues is about to begin (now that we've passed the diagnostic phase of stool samples, blood testing, ultrasounds, and swallowing a tube to have the insides looked at). I don't plan on giving a detailed account of all that, and I'll try to refrain from comments about the Russian system of socialized medicine.

I also want to thank those of you who prayed for the lawsuit that went before the Russian supreme court. The court ruled in favor of the church. This is wonderful news. We don't expect all the problems to go away, but we can see that the Lord is at work. I've been wanting to use some materials from the resource center that the church was hosting (this resource center was established by Karla Ford, one of our co-workers that teaches youth ministry). The resource center was confiscated two years ago, during the investigation. Please pray that these materials will be returned.

Talking about resources, we now have a functioning Christian library at Hope Center. True, it's fairly small, but it is about the biggest Russian language theological libraries in our area. It is also one of the most available, located downtown, and with a part-time librarian. We plan for it to grow. Most of what we do here is a step-by-step process, and we've been gathering books for five years. Now, it is available.

Movie nights and game nights are going great! Attendance has been running 20-30, with a mix of students, orphans, single moms with their kids, young and old, believers and unbelievers. On Movie nights we have a tea-time with snacks after the movie, and very interesting discussions will follow. We carefully choose the movies so as to have a spiritual launch pad to start the discussions. Game nights are pretty much just good fellowship, but the table talk can sometimes get pretty deep, and sometimes someone will want to step aside into our office for prayer. It has taken some time to lay the foundations for these ministries, so to watch them bear fruit is delightful.

Here's a few photos from game nights.

Hope Center also facilitated a conference for outreach to Shamanistic people groups. Several various ethnic groups were represented. The information was very helpful for those wanting to work among Shamanistic people.

The General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God visited Perm, Russia. He wrote an interesting article you can read at:

http://ag.org/top/General_Superintendent/Ministers_Letter/2011_Issue_04.pdf

We are hosting a Life Skills conference, November 16-19, to equip people for ministry. People will be trained in how to teach life skills to youth, especially orphans. Often churchgoers here have said they would like to help orphans, but don't know how. This will provide at least one very good way to do that. This training will be done in cooperation with the Central Baptist Church, and we are very excited to be working with them. The trainers will be coming from the Ukraine, and there are many details to be taken care of. Please pray that all will go well, and that this conference will expand the Kingdom of God.

As an ongoing prayer request, please pray that my (Cecil's) application for a Permanent Russian Resident Permit would be approved and issued. If all goes well, it should be ready in December.

Well, gotta go. We've got another birthday party for orphans in a couple hours.

The Grace of the Lord be with you,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Bad News Good News

Dear Friends,

First, the bad news:

Deanna had to have a top front tooth pulled. It was an adult tooth, but she's taking it rather well. Later we'll get a fake tooth put in it's place.

My application for a permanent resident permit was denied. They said I needed one more document from the States. It was something that wasn't on the original list of required things when I submitted the application six month ago. I was given three days to provide it. Of course, that didn't happen. So I've decided to re-start my application process. I plan to submit my application on Thursday (the office that receives applications is open once a week on Thursdays from 3:00 to 6:00 pm). Trying to get everything ready.

It seems summer has come to an end and fall is flying past. We had snow flurries today. Last week was an Indian summer, and we went to the park. The long, dark winter arrives soon.

Now for the good news:

To catch up for the summer while the kids were at camp, we had two birthday parties with the orphanage kids this month (one for the summer and one for September).

Both went well.

The churches in Khabarovsk joined in the annual "March for Families." It is one of the government events that the churches are able to enthusiastically support.

Earlier this year we put a lot of work into getting materials for an anti-drug presentation. It is now ready to take into schools and orphanages. We had the first presentation in our apartment, and invited kids from the neighborhood. With 14 kids sitting in our living room, the program went well. Please pray that officials are open to it, and that the those who listen will take the message to heart.

Neither Good Nor Bad:

Mr. Putin is making plans to become the president of Russia (again). Last week a public announcement was made.

Khabarovsk is in for tourists-

http://indrus.in/articles/2011/09/14/khabarovsk_a_mediterranean_dream_in_russia_12995.html

The Russian economy has been hard on the poor.

http://russiaprofile.org/business/46337.html

And a prayer request -

We are trying to put together a training conference for those who want to minister in orphanages and teach life skills. The logistics have become rather complicated. Please pray for the details of this conference to come together, and that many people will be able to attend.

Bye for now~

The Eshelman Family

Summer and Camp

Dear Friends,

we will start with a personal prayer request. Deanna's top front tooth was hit during a basketball game a while back. It has continued to be loose, so we took her to the dentist today. This dentist took an X-ray and told us it needed to be pulled. We plan to take Deanna to another dentist at a private clinic tomorrow and get a second opinion. We are praying that the tooth can be saved.

The start of this month the kids and Tonya were at a church camp on an Island in the Amur River (close to China). Tonya worked in the kitchen. Yum, yum.

Here's the tent where they ate.

They also when swimming and boating in the river.

I came to the camp the last evening by special invitation. They wanted me speak the final evening, and teach about baptism. Two of the adult workers had never been baptized, and were expressing an interest but the pastor was not able to attend the camp. So the pastor had me come and I preached from the book of Acts (when Paul and Silas were released from prison by an earthquake, and the jailor was baptized in the middle of the night. So at camp I spoke, three people wanted to be baptized. By the time we got to the river it was quite dark, so we had a night baptism. The photos are rather grainy, but here they are:

After camp we took a week of vacation by the Sea of Japan. We joined with a family who pastor a church in a village south of Khabarovsk. It was a good week of relaxation and family time. Somehow I ended up preaching at two churches that Sunday (friends of the pastor we were with).

We all got sunburn, but had a great time.

Well, were all back home now, and starting into the fall schedule. School starts September 1st. On Friday we'll host another birthday party for the orphanage.

Game nights and Movie nights at Hope Center have gone well through the summer. Please pray that word will get out and even more people would start to attend as we move into the fall.

We have at least two different young people who plan to work with us next year in the StudyRussianDoMissions program. Please pray that everything they need would be provided, and that the Lord would fully equip them for the work at hand. As always, we pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into this harvest field.

One last photo. We were invited to come and speak at Open Heart Homeless Shelter this weekend. They are one of our favorite places to go. They've also been busy building a new shower house/laundry facility with some housing on the second floor. You can see in the background on the left a building we (and a team from Texas) helped them build several years ago ( http://eshelman.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html ). Things there just keep getting better. God is so good!

Remember when the coup happened in the Soviet Union, just before the Soviet Union fell apart? This is the 20th anniversary of that event.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14589691

Here is some information about the situation with Grace Church in Khabarovsk, the court case against them, and the ongoing problems they face with the authorities.

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1596

Cecil has been invited to speak at one of their congregations this coming Sunday.

May the Lord be with you!

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Baptism, Islands and News

Dear Friends,

finished our latest News Letter. I'm printing them and getting hard copies in snail mail, but you can have an electronic version now. Check it out on our web site at http://101649.agwebservices2.org/SiteFiles/101649/Content/Newsletter/NL%202011%20July.pdf

We just got back from AGWM's Eurasia retreat. It is once every three years. Workers from all over the Eurasia area attended. The teaching was very applicable, the worship wonderful, and the fellowship very refreshing.

At the retreat our older daughter, Vera, received baptism in water. She was baptized by Omar Beiler, our Regional Director, who has been like a pastor to our family for a long time.

While the conference was for professional training, we added a couple days onto the trip for family. Here we are standing in the middle of the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world.

Without even trying, we've managed to move closer to the Chinese border. Actually, the border moved closer to us. China and Russia (and the USSR before that) have had a long-standing border dispute over the islands in the Amur River. Russia has given some portions of the islands to China. Our home was only 21 miles from China before, now I'm not sure exactly how close we are.

Talking about Islands in the Amur River, the rest of the family are at a church camp this week. Tonya is serving as a cook while Tim, Vera and Deanna are participating in the kids program. I'm staying home to work on some needed projects.

Leah has returned to the States. We're very pleased and proud of the work she did here in Khabarovsk. We hope she comes back some time, but are praying the Lord's will for her future, wherever He may lead.

If you're not already planning to come to Russia, but feel a desire to serve the Lord here, just let us know! The opportunities are endless and the needs are great.

The Lord be with you,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna

Adventure along the Amur River

Dear Friends,

our trip to the Lower Amur region was seven full - very full - days of activity. Despite encounters with bad roads, storms, ticks, insects and poisonous snakes, we completed the trip without injury. Our team of six (three Russians, Leah, Timothy and myself) was well balanced. Our STL van, which we named Rapture Buggy, performed excellently. The Lord brought us a number of very good encounters, and we learned a great deal about the area that will aid in future outreaches. This trip was dedicated to building the Kingdom of God, not photography, but we did manage to take a few photos along the way.

We visited several villages that exist only on the map. Quite a few villages in Russia are becoming ghost towns. However, some other towns continue to thrive. Our hope was to rent town halls for evening services to do evangelistic events, and spend the mornings and afternoons walking the town and inviting people; but the local administration always said that they need approval from higher authorities before renting out the hall, and that would take several days. We encountered this kind of response in every town. So we ended up doing a lot of personal evangelism rather than events.

The little girl is holding a book we gave as a gift. We passed out quite a but of literature, especially Children's Bibles.

The highway is gravel & dirt. We never got stuck, but some trucks got bogged down when it rained. And it rained several times while we were there, making things pretty muddy. This truck was sunk to the axels. And yes, that is the main highway.

We discovered a small house church that is very new. We worshipped with them on Sunday. Here I am doing a children's presentation while Timothy helped me with the Russian Language.

Here's Leah helping to prepare some materials.

Of course, prayer was vital to the trip. We daily spent time in personal and group prayer.

We staying in tents (sometimes on sand, sometimes on rock, sometimes on straw... yes, straw). No room in the van for mattresses, so this camp (which we named "rock camp") was a little hard on the bones, but somehow we seemed to sleep soundly anyway.

As an interesting note, you never know when God can use something old to do something new. Many years ago when I worked at Cameron Boys' Camp in North Carolina, I learned to strip bark off of pine poles that we cut to make tent posts from. Some men in one of the villages were stripping poles that they had cut, and I jumped in and stripped some poles. They were surprised that an American would know such a skill, and it enabled the team to get a good conversation going while I provided the "entertainment." You just never know how God might use you.

Along with ministry and work, there was no lack of adventure. We had encounters with two poisonous snakes (one in our campsite), numerous ticks (but none actually bit us), rough roads (with no flat tires), poorly marked routes (but we never got seriously lost), and difficult weather (serious thunderstorms alternating with brilliant sunlight, but the tents stood firm and only minor sunburn resulted). The Heavenly Father was with us, and took care of us all along the way.

In many ways this trip became a survey trip, gathering information and making contacts to prepare for future work in this area.

We praise God that:

1. People were mostly friendly and helpful, and many were receptive.

2. We had safety, health and good travel.

3. There was good unity on the team, and our spirits and energy stayed high.

Please pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers into this harvest field to follow up on what has been done.

It is on our hearts to return sometime, especially to a village that is inhabited by the Nanian people.They had heard the name of Jesus but had no knowledge of who he is. That village has no cell phone connection, limited electricity, and we had to take a boat across the river to get there. The people were very open.

Please also pray for Leah, who returns to the States on Saturday.

Because He Lives,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Toward the ends of the Earth

Dear Friends,

for about ten days I will be out of touch with the internet. On early Wednesday morning (Tuesday afternoon in the USA), we'll be starting evangelistic outreach in the Lower Amur region. I'll be taking our Speed-The-Light vehicle. My team of six (including me, my son Timothy, Leah Close, and three Russian believers) will be doing outreach in the villages just north of Komsomolsk. Much of the time we will also be out of cell phone connection as well.

There are no known churches in the villages we will be visiting, so we are taking tents along for the nights. The census data (which might or might not be accurate) indicates that many of the people are from minority groups, some of which are unreached people groups. Please be aware that this is not a vacation or photo op. We're not sure how we will be received as we have no contacts in these towns. The roads are poor, and I will be taking along three spare tires and extra canisters of fuel. The mosquitoes are only annoying, but the ticks can carry diseases. All in all, the only reason we are going is because we believe the Lord is telling us to go.

Please pray:

1. That the Word of the Lord will be heard and received.

2. For health, safety and travelling mercies for the team.

3. Our our spirits and our energy levels to be high.

4. That spiritual fruit will remain after we leave.

The pastors of Khabarovsk region are working on plans for follow-up in places where the message of our Lord Jesus Christ is received. I hope to tell you more about this in the future.

Now, I must admit to a mistake I made in my previous update. Standing behind a statue where a wreath was being laid, I confused that statue with a different one of Lenin elsewhere in the park. The statue where the wreath was being laid was actually of Marshal of the Soviet Union Radion Yakovlevich Malinovskyi. Here is a photo from his front.

From the front, he doesn't look at all like Lenin.

I was asked by a young couple to perform their wedding. In Russia a church wedding is not a legal wedding, so they first had a legal wedding at a government office and then had the church wedding. Here we are with them.

Tonya thought it would be a good experience for some of the orphans to see a wedding. Since most of the young women who graduate from the orphanages get pregnant out of wedlock, we've been trying to teach the concept of getting married before having children. So we brought along three young gals from a local orphanage as guests. Afterward we asked the girls what they enjoyed most, and with great excitement they said, "everything!" It was the first wedding they had ever attended.

The boy in the photo attends that church, and wanted in the photo too.

We're still doing monthly birthday parties at an orphanage. Here's a photo from the latest. We're acting out (with some help) the story of the three Israelite children who got thrown into the fiery furnace.

I'll write again after we return from the outreach trip. Until then, if you want to contact us, you'll have to give Tonya a phone call (she doesn't do email).

Because of Him,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Victory Day, and other victories.

Dear Friends,

the orphan seminar we organized went very well. There were several speakers, and all did an excellent job. We enjoyed the interaction as well as the quality of information that was presented. Thank you for your prayers. We hope to host an even larger seminar in the fall.

Earlier this month we asked for prayer that the materials for an anti-drug, anti-smoking program be released from customs. The materials were released, but it cost us much more than we expected. We rejoice that this resource is now available here, and will continue to pray for government officials in Russia.

This weekend we traveled to Novi Orgal. We've been there before to assist with the construction of a church building. This time we were able to hold services there. While the building still isn't finished (still needs a heating system, proper windows, etc.), we're glad to see the progress, and to use it as a place of Worship. This was the first time Leah has traveled on a Russian train, so she got to experience a 14 hour train ride and see a little part of the Trans-Siberian railway. That's her by the train with our kids.

The week before last, we had a visiting professor from Moscow over for dinner. We invited him to speak at Open Heart homeless shelter. He took up the offer, and he spoke to the residents before dinner. Here he is preaching in their summer cafeteria.

He also was given a tour of the center. Presently they are building a bathhouse and laundry facility. It will have some housing/storage on the second floor. Looks like they still need a roof put on it.

Can't forget to mention, Timothy turned 13 this month. He's a big boy now. He had some friends over for pizza, then we all went to the circus.

The 9th of May is one of the biggest holidays in Russia: Victory Day. Never heard of it? It is the date that Nazi Germany was defeated. For the Russians, the war was over. In this photo you can see some troops preparing to lay a wreath in front of this statue. Guess who the statue is of. Yes, if you said Lenin, you were right. Anyway, we joined in some of the celebrations for Victory Day.

The part of Victory Day my kids enjoyed the most was climbing on the military equipment. Here are Vera and Deanna climbing on an old Katusha rocket launcher.

Earlier we asked for prayer in regards to a lawsuit brought against a local church here in Khabarovsk. The church has appealed, and things are now working their way through the legal system. The pastor continues to shepherd his flock at this church, despite the difficulties.

We also have some information about the situation in Novokuznetsk with Tonya's home church.

Tonya's pastor writes:
At the beginning of this year, our church set a goal to pray for a spiritual breakthrough in different areas. At the time, little did we realize what was coming. One after another, we faced numerous attacks which resulted in four different court cases. We thank God for your faithfulness in prayer, and we'd like to ask if you would please pray that God would give us victory in all these situations according to Isaiah 54:17: no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

1) We have a very good relationship with the city administration in Novokuznetsk. However, in Ossineke, the neighboring city where we have the Teen Challenge Center, there are some government officials who are still trying to close the program. We've had some victories in court, but the battle still continues. There are a few more court cases that will take place in the near future.
2) We're defending an orphan who attends our church and was robbed by a group of men in February of this year. We tried to seek help from the police, but they in turn accused the youth pastor from our church as if he were trying to steal from orphans. It's shocking to see that the police are covering up this crime and are trying to shift the attention away from the criminals and blame the church. We've learned that this type of corruption is prevalent throughout the country. Please pray for the investigation going on right now that God would expose all who are involved in this crime against orphans.

3) We're battling in court for the right to use the land around our church building. The land is owned by the government and by law is to be shared equally by the owners of the buildings. Our neighbor organized an illegal paid parking lot next to our building and is charging the congregation for parking. We're asking the court to close the paid parking lot which will allow us not only to have free parking, but also to bring in a crane to reconstruct the church's roof.

4) The former owner of our church building has illegally obtained documents stating that he is the owner of two rooms within our church building. Recently, he took the church to court saying that we have to reconstruct our sanctuary so that he has easier access to his rooms. In the hearing process, by mistake their lawyer submitted to the judge the false documents which can now be used against them. Please pray that the judge will revoke their falsified ownership papers, and that the church will gain ownership of the two rooms.

We thank you for your ongoing prayers for these things.

Kerby Rials, who served with AGWM in Russia, has created a great new resource for us. It is a book explaining the differences between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches. The Title is "Three Great Churches." He has made an audio book from it (in Russian), that is available for free from his web site. If you know a Russian or plan to visit Russia, feel free to give away copies of the audio book.

http://web.me.com/kerbyrials1/The_Three_Great_Churches/RUSSIAN.html [If that doesn't work, go to www.rials.org, click on the "ORDER BOOK" link next to the picture of the book (lower left hand corner) and then at the next page, click on RUSSIAN at the top.]

You can also order the book itself (English or Russian). If you can't read Russian on the web site, click on the "English" link.

One more prayer request:

A group a pastors recently approached me about what they feel God has instructed them to do this summer. Between Komsomolsk-Na-Amure and Nikolyevesk-Na-Amure there are over eighty population points (most are very small, and some can only be reached by boat in summer). They feel led to do evangelism in every point. This region is called the Lower Amur; along the Amur River from Komsomolsk to where it flows into the Sea of Okhotsk (near the Sea of Japan). Here's a map. Most of the people that live here belong to minority groups, many of which are listed as unreached people groups. This whole outreach is a vision given to the local churches, I am honored to be invited to participate. We will start in June, and I hope to go with one of the teams.

We've previously mentioned the Hosanna plan for Russia. It now has it's own place on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/HosannaPlanRussia

In His Grip,

Cecil,Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna