October Update

 Dear Friends,

greetings from Sunny Southern Siberia (well, actually the Russian Far East).  Winter is about to arrive, as you can see from the snow we got today.

Hope Center recently hosted another session of a Bible School

Our regular ministries, such as Game Nights and Movie Nights continue.  Here you can see our friend Vasiliy (who pastors a church in a Nanaian village), Tonya, and an orphanage graduate playing Alias (a Russian word association game). By the way, pastor Vasiliy brought cordial thanks from his village church to the Minnesota team for fixing their roof. This fall their church worshiped in a dry building. Good job Minnesota people, keep up your good works for Christ!

In October we we were blessed to see fruit of God's labor here. Like this little baby girl Anya. Her mother came to the unwed mothers center "Time of Change'' in February, renewed her walk with Christ and decided to keep the baby.  Anya was delivered in September and now is a beautiful and healthy baby. God healed both the mother and the child after a complicated c-section, glory to Him. Here you see Tonya enjoying holding Anya while her Mom is recovering.

This one-year-old baby girl, Evelena, is a different story.  She was born while her father, Vitaliy, was in prison, where he was touched and changed by God. A week ago he was released, decided to marry his girlfriend Olga (Evelena's Mom), took responsibility for the child and got a job. Vitaliy, Olga, and Evelena stopped at our place yesterday to see us and asked to help to officiate their church wedding. Please pray for Vitaliy to keep making right decisions as he keeps following the Lord. 

Please pray for us as we prepare to host a pastor's conference in November and to participate in a conference for missionaries who minister to Shamanistic people groups here. 

We also have made an agreement with an orphanage to conduct Bible based Life-Skills lessons.  Previously we have only been allowed to play games with the kids, but now the door is opening up a bit more.  Please pray for us as we start lessons this Sunday.

Blessings,
The Eshelman Family

teams visiting

Dear Friends,

We've had more teams visit us this fall than ever before.  One team was meeting physical needs, such as giving reading glasses.

Here is a lady at the drug rehab in need of glasses.  She is testing her eyes by reading from a John 3:16 reading chart (in Russian).

They also did some Christian teaching.

Another team was meeting housing needs by doing work at the Christian Homeless Shelter.

This really helped the shelter to meet some pressing needs, such as repairing and painting beds.  The team also re-roofed a church (just in time for the Fall rains).

We really want to commend both teams.  It's a long way to come to be with us, they all worked hard, and it was work to build the Lord's Kingdom.

The Russian church invited the work team to their annual Harvest Festival.  A great time was had by all!

Other ministries(such as Movie nights and Game nights for orphans) continued while they were here, and are ongoing now.  Please pray for all our ministries. 

Please pray for us to have wisdom.  Cecil will need to return to the States sometime for a medical evaluation (not urgent, but important).  Our son, Timothy, will be returning to us in Russia while we work out a new educational plan for him.  All the various issues of life continue.

In Christ,
The Eshelman Family