Happy New Year's and Merry Christmas.
In Russia Christmas is celebrated on January 7th. Our family celebrated an early Christmas on December 25th. The usual: presents, music, food.
We had some friends over to our house.
We took some of the volunteer team and went to an orphanage to play games.
A few days back the whole family took a day to cook and supply the homeless shelter with a late Thanksgiving meal. Really it was more of a combination Thanksgiving and Christmas meal. Actually, they didn't care what we called it, they enjoyed the food. Afterwards, Cecil preached about Christmas. So, maybe it was more of a Christmas meal. Anyway, it was good.
Game Night outreaches at Hope Center have continued. About half of those who attend are graduates from orphanages. We also have folks from Christian youth groups and various churches who come. One lady came because her son talked her into it. Sometimes we don't know how they hear about us. It's quite a mix.
Uno game (above) and Icebreaker (below).
Life Skills lessons for the orphans will take a holiday break. We'll start them again sometime in the spring.
Cecil will be coming Stateside in mid January for a medical examination. It will just be for a short while. Please pray that all goes smoothly during the trip. We hope to be back on station in Khabarovsk in February. The kids will keep things going in Russia while the adults are gone. So pray for them, too.
Here is an interesting historical fact:
Pennsylvania's founder William Penn had written to Czar Peter the Great of Russia, July 2, 1698, as Peter had visited Penn in England ten years earlier:
"Know, great Czar...'tis in this kingdom of England that God has visited and touched the hearts of a people, above forty years ago, by the holy light and grace of his Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ...to worship God, who is a Spirit, in and by his own Spirit...
If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God; and to do that, thou must be ruled by Him."
Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera & Diana
P.S.
In the News-
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1217/In-annual-TV-marathon-Putin-offers-Russians-a-fleeting-moment-of-intimacy-video
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1204/Russian-truckers-blockade-Moscow.-Trouble-for-Putin
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/1021/Inside-the-Kremlin-s-velvet-grip-Russia-s-civil-society-struggles-to-survive
http://country-facts.findthedata.com/l/26/Russian-Federation
Russia plans to build a base on the Moon-
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/russia-planning-to-build-permanent-base-on-the-131623193.html
