Dear Friends,
it seems like the pressure is on to finish up everything here so that we'll be ready to return to the States this summer. This will be the first of our three mini-itinerations.
I now have a resident permit to live in Russia, and this is wonderful since I can live here without a visa (much like a "green card" in the US). The one drawback is that I if I leave Russia for more than six months I lose it. Losing it would be a problem, so our normal itineration schedule will be broken into three smaller trips. We'll be back in the States for August to December this year, and then another trip each in 2013 and 2014. That gets a bit complicated to do all that relocating, but it's the best plan anyone can come up with.
Anyway, the rush is on to finish off our projects, hand off ministry to our partners here, make arrangements for our apartment, and finish the paperwork.
One wonderful blessing that we are having right now is Ashley. She's come from North Carolina to take over the homeschooling for four weeks. And she's doing a great job. It frees up some of our time, gives the kids a break from their parents, and adds to the quality of their education.
it seems like the pressure is on to finish up everything here so that we'll be ready to return to the States this summer. This will be the first of our three mini-itinerations.
I now have a resident permit to live in Russia, and this is wonderful since I can live here without a visa (much like a "green card" in the US). The one drawback is that I if I leave Russia for more than six months I lose it. Losing it would be a problem, so our normal itineration schedule will be broken into three smaller trips. We'll be back in the States for August to December this year, and then another trip each in 2013 and 2014. That gets a bit complicated to do all that relocating, but it's the best plan anyone can come up with.
Anyway, the rush is on to finish off our projects, hand off ministry to our partners here, make arrangements for our apartment, and finish the paperwork.
One wonderful blessing that we are having right now is Ashley. She's come from North Carolina to take over the homeschooling for four weeks. And she's doing a great job. It frees up some of our time, gives the kids a break from their parents, and adds to the quality of their education.
We would like to ask for prayer for Nicole, who is also serving with us. Her Aunt passed away, and being so far from the family at times like this is a hardship. Nicole is handling things pretty well, but we are praying that the God of all comfort with indeed comfort her and her family at this time.
Life Skills lessons for the orphans are the highlight of our ministry right now. Soon-to-be graduates from three orphanages are coming to lessons.
The Lord has send people from a variety of churches to form a really good team of teachers for Life Skills. We took our volunteer helpers on a picnic to celebrate the Lord and our calling together.
Things have developed to the point that the team plans to continue the work while we are gone this fall. Of course that is what we wanted all along. Since we will be gone they will need to find financial support from the Russian churches. So they will need to step up in every area of the ministry from leadership to planning to fundraising. Not easy. Please pray for them in this endeavor.As our final big activity before our trip to the States, we are putting together a local conference for "Russia Without Orphans," a group that is building up ministries and families to take children out of the Russian orphanage system by providing foster and adoptive families. The obstacles are big, and the need is big, but our Lord is bigger still. Children were not meant grow up in institutions. God's design is for children to be brought up in families.
The orphanage we've been doing birthday parties with only had only a few birthday kids in May. So we decided to do something a bit different, and have a picnic by the Amur River.
That's Ashley with the Campbell sweater on, and Nicole on the right. We're so blessed to have them helping out.Cecil has received his Resident Permit, but it seems the paperwork never ends. Deanna has not yet received US citizenship, so we are working on getting her a visa to the States so we can all go together for our mini-itineration this fall. So we do have another special prayer request(s). Please pray for her visa, and also that her I-130 (for US citizenship) would be approved. Right now we are in the process of gathering documents to prove that she has lived with us for the last two years. By the way, she has decided that henceforth she her name is to be spelled "Diana" since that is how it is written on the official documents, although the pronunciation has not changed.
Oh, Timothy had his birthday on the 3rd of May. Of course, we had a party with some friends. He's wearing his "Super Tim" shirt that the girls made for him.
May the Lord bless you and keep you!
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Diana
