I have a special prayer request. Yesterday I got a call from the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) asking me to come in and talk about my request for a permanent resident permit. So I'll meet with him on Friday morning (which is Thursday evening in the States). Please pray for the Holy Spirit to give me the right things to say.
It is important that I get a permanent resident permit. My temporary resident permit is over in a year, and without a resident permit I will be required to keep leaving the country to get a new visa. This would be a major hassle, so this is a very important prayer request. The FSB can ask for me to provide more documents just before the deadline, causing my application to be rejected, which happened the last time I applied for a permanent resident permit. My present application will be accepted or rejected in April. Please pray that my application will be accepted and I will be issued a permanent resident permit.
Our Life Skills training for orphans is going full speed. The kids from the orphanage where we've been doing most of our work, and where the Orthodox priest has been against us, have been coming. However, in a different orphanage, one of the staff has been telling the kids we are a cult and putting pressure on the kids not to go. So none of the orphans there came last week. Please pray that the kids who would be blessed by this training would come.
Part of the Life Skills training that we do is cooking. The kids love it. One of our adult volunteers (in the photo below on the right) is getting married in a few months. She is very excited about the cooking lessons, and told Tonya, "now I'll be able to cook some things for my husband!"
We are starting to put together our next prayer card. We're trying to decide which photo would be best. If you have an opinion, let us know. Here are the leading choices:
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The first two are taken standing on the Amur River. Don't worry, the ice is about six feet thick.
Usually with AGWM a missionary spends four years on the field and one year back in the States on home service (usually called itineration due to all the travel). Since I plan to have a resident permit for Russia, and the permit will be lost if I am outside the country of Russia for more than six months, we have to use a different rotation. So we are planning to break our itineration into three smaller itineration periods. Right now the plan is for us to spend the fall of this year and the next two years in the States, returning to Russia for the springs.
So, if you'd like us to speak at your church, we're available during the next three Autumns.
Recently, Deanna needed a minor operation on her toe for in ingrown toenail. I was really tickled by the following conversation she had with the doctor:
Doc: This might hurt.
D: Don't worry, I'm used to pain.
Doc: What does your family do to you that you are used to pain?
D: Not my family. I used to live in an orphanage and they gave me lots of shots. They gave me shots in my arm, my butt, my shoulder ....
Doc: Those fascists!
Election time on for the Presidency in Russia. While elections in the States can seem like a circus, Russia has it's own interesting twists. My favorite is the advertisement by the Communist candidate. He is standing by a bust of Lenin, and he says, "God Bless You." If that's not funny to you, you must be too young to know what a communist is.
An Indian journalist gets lost in the woods near Khabarovsk. http://indrus.in/articles/2012/02/09/a_night_alone_in_the_ussuriski_taiga_14779.html
Peace be with you,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna
