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:
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
