we're officially on vacation. We've gone to Siberia. It's the first place we thought of going to. Isn't Siberia the first place you think of as a vacation spot? Tonya's folks live in Novokuznetsk, Siberia, which is located in the heart of Russia. So we're spending our vacation time with them.
When our friends in the local church here saw us, they immediately asked us to help with the youth ministry. So Cecil did one of his sermons from science: Egbert. Egbert (the egg) leaves his church and ends up finding himself trapped in the world (the bottle); kinda like the prodigal son. When he finally turns back to God, the Lord sets him free. The youth loved it, and hopefully learned something from it.
That's Joseph Bantseev (the pastor's son) translating for me in front of the teen ministry.
In a day we'll catch a train back to Khabarovsk. It's about half way across Russia, which means four days on the the express train. It's not relaxing on the train, but you do see a lot of countryside. Russia is big and beautiful.
Next month we will fly back to the States to itinerate and speak in churches. If you'd like us to come and preach, tell about missions in Russia, or show you the Eggbert trick, let us know. We've still got a number of open dates.
Please pray for us to figure out where to live (in North Carolina) this Fall, as well as the schooling situation for the kids. Please also pray that all our financial support will be raised by the end of the year.
Another prayer request is that we can find a new leader for our Life Skills lessons while we are Stateside. Our previous ministry leader has started a new ministry of caring to pregnant orphan girls, and it takes up all her time.
Jesus taught us to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest field. He sure was right when he said the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.
Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Diana
