Wow, the day after I sent out our last email update it started to rain. It rained all afternoon and evening and the rain turned to snow. It snowed all the next day. There is no more smoke and the fires are out. God has blessed us and answered your prayers. It sure is nice to breathe fresh air again. And now there is a layer of snow on the ground, just like they normally have this time of year here.
Liza is a sixteen year old girl that attends the church where we go. She lives with her mother who has been a believer for about eleven years, but Liza does not know her father. Last summer she came on the same church camp we took our kids on. Tonya talked with her about sexual purity and how we plan to give Vera a ring when she becomes a teenager as a symbol of keeping herself pure until she is married. Liza thought that was a wonderful thing and said when she gets married she wants her husband to do the same thing if she ever has a daughter. Last month she babysat for us on our anniversary, and spent the night at our place afterward. She accidentally left a ring of hers at our place, so we secretly took it to a jewelers and purchased another ring of the same size, and then returned her ring to her. Last week we took her and her mother out to a restaurant, told her how proud we are of her, and asked if she would like to make a chastity covenant with God and us. She did, so we presented her with the ring. The next day her mother called to say that Liza was so excited she could barely go to sleep that night. Liza had told her mother, "Mom, no man has ever talked to me like I was his daughter before." We know there are many more young people like Liza, and we hope to show some of the Heavenly Father's love to as many as we can.
On Friday we made a payment of earnest money on the purchase of an apartment. Please continue to pray that all the documents will process properly and quickly and that we will be able to finish the deal by December. Also please continue to pray for our flight arrangements for the World Missions Summit over New Years.
Today the kids helped to clean the church bus, so as a reward we went out for pizza.
Yes, Russia is a civilized country indeed.Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy and Vera
