the Bible school was in full swing (final test last week). By Bible School we mean fully accredited, Master's level classes. It's an extension of Kiev Theological Seminary and it taught in block sessions by visiting professors. We're pretty excited about this. While there are many Bible schools in Russia, this is the only accredited school outside of Moscow that we know of (and Moscow is almost 4,000 miles away). All of the students here are already in some kind of ministry, and are eagerly wanting more training.
It's been a joy getting to spend time with the professors, who are staying in our home for the session. Lessons are being taught at Hope Center. Tonya and another translator shared the interpretation work.
After all the negative news that Russia has been getting, we're glad the teachers came to where the Lord as called them and weren't scared off by rumors of war. Actually, the Ukraine is nowhere near us, and developments there haven't effected us.
One of our Bible School teachers also put on a seminar for children's ministry. It was great.
Tonya also translated last month for a week-long seminar dealing with children, ministry and counseling that was taught by a visiting missionary. It was also held at Hope Center.
And talking about translation: Timothy spent a week translating for different seminar by a different speaker (from India) at a different location. This seminar was held in a cafe that used to be a bar before a church took it over (can you tell from the photo that its not your typical church setting?). Now this place is also a great hang-out place for my kids.
While all these events were going on, we had to move the Life Skills lessons to another location. The only place we could find open was the local parks, so we went for a walk in the park. So we held lessons out of doors. Always a new adventure.
Please pray for the team of students planing to come to Khabarovsk and minister with us for a couple of weeks late this summer.
Please pray for us as we try to schedule churches and speaking events for the Fall and Winter. We hope to finish up all the fundraising in one final trip. If you know of a group that would like us to come and speak, please let us know.
As an informational note - here is a quote from Peter Deyneke Ministries' web site:
"The Russian Federation is the world’s largest country, extending across nine time zones and made up of 83 administrative districts. There are 162 different people groups in Russia speaking 135 different languages. Some 47% of these people groups are unreached by the gospel.
Almost 67% of the population identifies with the culturally strong but spiritually weak Russian Orthodox Church; millions belong to the church without believing in God. Recently, the government has become hostile towards evangelical Christians and persecution is on the rise. Islam is Russia’s fastest-growing religion.
The legacy of atheistic Communism in Russia has been the attempt to fill spiritual emptiness with wealth, addiction, sex, and other material pursuits. As a result, Russia now leads the nations in 17 different categories of human tragedy, including the suicides of children and teens, human trafficking, and the growth of HIV. Nearly a quarter of the world’s production of heroin is consumed in Russia."
The entire article can be found at http://www.russian-ministries.org/russia/#.U0W8l1cSXAk
Blessings,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Diana Eshelman
P.S.:
Russia's President Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/05/putin-nobel-prize_n_4904768.html
Russia prepares for invading the Ukraine http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/08/ukraine-kharkiv-protesters/7459031/
Last night we had snow. We're ready for summer (or at least springtime).
