Dear Friends,
we've had a wonderful time taking vacation in Tonya's home town of Novokuznetsk (in central Siberia). Now we are back home in Khabarovsk getting ready for the fall activities.
While riding a city bus in Novokuznetsk Tonya recognized one of her high school teachers and said hello. She was in one of his last classes just before he retired and now he is 90 years old. When Tonya said she was married he asked her if her husband treats her well. When she assured him all was well he replied that if the family is stable that is the most important thing. He said even though everything else may change, if the family is O.K. then you can survive everything else. Later as we talked about it we thought he was certainly able to speak with experience. After all, when he was born he was a subject of the Czar and has seen every change since then including the entire 72 years of communist rule.
Our vacation turned out to be rather a working vacation as we received some speaking invitations and home ministry invitations (including evangelism and even some pastoral counseling). It was a joy to be doing ministry in Novokuznetsk once again. We also enjoyed spending time with Tonya's family and friends that we haven't seen in a long time.
Two churches in Novokuznetsk have partnered together and started a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center three years ago. It is called "Spring of Life" and is based on the Teen Challenge model. Last year a nearby town approached them with an offer. There was a retreat center owned by a coal company that was not being maintained. The coal company had stopped paying the staff and all the buildings were in disrepair. The offer was to lease the retreat facilities (very large with dormitories, cafeteria, movie theater, offices, its own coal-fired heating system, etc.) long term and free of charge to Spring of Life if they would fix it up and pay the back salaries to the employees. So Spring of Life accepted this offer and relocated to these facilities and the residents are now learning how to fix up and renovate buildings as part of their training. There are presently about 70 residents living there as they recover from their addictions. They invited Cecil to speak at their morning chapel about faithfulness, so he did a drama presentation based on Hosea.
Alcohol abuse has always been a problem in Russia, but it seems to continue to get worse. Drinking in public is so common people have begun to think of it as normal. Tonya's dad is a manager in a company that makes ice cream. He took the family on a tour of the factory. After the tour we sat around a meeting table and were served some wonderful ice cream. The chief engineer came in, poured some large glasses of wine and offered them to all the adults. When I declined to have any he said, "this is grape juice, only 10% alcohol." Thankfully he was polite and didn't insist we drink [which reminds me of a story from the trans-Siberian railway*, see below]. It just seems that something is odd to be served wine when you take your kids to an ice cream factory.
I was able to meet with Alex, who translated for me eleven years ago on my first trip to Siberia. After helping me lead hundreds of kids to the Lord while we were telling Bible stories in some Pioneer Camps, he decided he needed the Lord too. We haven't been able to stay in touch much since then, so it was great to meet with his family at the new local pizza place (yes, they have pizza in Siberia now). His wife is a doctor and works at the AIDs center for Novokuznetsk. The AIDs epidemic started in Novokuznetsk in 2003 and now there are about 3,000 cases (in a city of 600,000 people, about the same size as Khabarovsk). The scary thing is that this includes only the known cases, the actual number of infected people is many times higher. I read elsewhere that AIDs is spreading in Russia faster than any other country and that 95% of the people who have the disease don't know it. We feel God is not putting this on our hearts just to horrify us; please pray for us to know how to minister knowledge to the youth here so that they can take steps to avoid this problem (and the wages of sin).
Tonya's home church in Novokuznetsk has continued to grow even though they have endured repeated attempts to confiscate their building. They have been in over 15 court battles regarding the property, and all of them were in their favor until the last one, which has actually been appealed to the Supreme Court in Russia. The last case against them was based on counterfeited documents showing that someone else owned the building. Even though the regional government is investigating to find who created those false documents, the court case was decided against them based upon those documents. The Supreme Court hearing is scheduled in mid-September, your prayers for this would be appreciated.
Some of you may have seen in the news that a mini-submarine became entangled in a secret coastal defense antenna off the Russian coast. The Russian newspapers ran some rather critical articles. Here is a quote from one article you might find interesting:
News that the mini-submarine was in danger broke only half a day after the accident occurred, while the wife of the vessel's captain heard later while watching local television, the government-owned Rossyskaya Gazeta newspaper said. Only after two days did a navy psychologist go to her home. Then "he calmed her with these words," Gazeta reported: "This is Russia - pray!"
We do thank you for your prayers. In our last email news we asked for prayer for the new kindergarten. Some neighbors were opposing it and one had even lodged a formal complaint. The owner of the apartment the kindergarten is renting went to talk with them about the problem. We are not sure what he said, but all complaints and opposition suddenly and completely stopped. Your prayers are indeed effective.
Here are a couple of photos from our vacation. We took the kids to the old fortress that is now a museum. It was built on a hill above Novokuznetsk, when it was not yet a city.
We also spent a lot of time at Tonya's folk's dacha. A dacha is a place in the country where you go and work in the garden all summer so you have food for the winter. The kids loved climbing trees there.
Timothy started school the first of September and Cecil will start classes around the 5th. Vera will attend the kindergarten as soon as it is able to open (hopefully everything will be ready in about two weeks, lots of preparation to do).
From Russia with Love,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera* P.S.
A true tale from the Trans-Siberian. Shortly after we were married in Novokuznetsk in '96 we took the Trans-Siberian from there to Moscow (three days on the train). Our train car had tiny rooms with bunks for four people per room. Our first two roommates were some fine military men, and we enjoyed their company for a day. It wasn't until we met their aide who came to meet them that we discovered they were Generals. The next stop two military men joined us and immediately let us know that they were very important men. One told Tonya, "your husband can tell our rank from our uniforms." So I took a guess, "colonels?" I was right. Before they sat down they took out their vodka. They had an extra glass and insisted I drink with them. Don't mistake this for social drinking, they wanted me to get drunk with them. They didn't hear me when I said I don't drink and poured me a glass of red vodka. For several hours they were drinking and continued to insist I drink too. They would put the glass in my hand. They tried to encourage me and said, "you must drink for your new wife." They tried to threaten me, "we could say one word and you won't be able to leave the country!" They tried to impress me, "I am in charge of the Mars project and he is the chief engineer." I was interested in the Mars project and asked about it. They explained that was why they were on the train right then, to go and explain to their superiors why it had crashed on take-off. I figured getting drunk on vodka was an interesting way to prepare for their board of inquiry. Tonya just thought they were bragging and flat didn't believe them. But they weren't to be distracted from putting that glass of vodka in my hand again. By this time we were going through the Ural mountains and entered a tunnel. The train's lights were off and it was totally dark, blacker than pitch. On the little table in our room was a bottle of cheap Polish soda I had purchased earlier while the train was stopped at a station. It tasted so awful noone drank it and the only reason I hadn't thrown it out was that I didn't want to leave my wife alone with these two important men. In the dark I suddenly realized the nasty Polish soda on the table was the same color as the vodka in the cup in my hand. As I poured my cup's contents into Tonya's coffee mug she whispered, "what are you doing?" Without answering I filled my glass with Polish soda just in time to emerge from the tunnel and the cover of darkness. I then told my companions, "I have decided to drink this cup with you, but only this one." They were so delighted (or drunk) that they never noticed that in the dark I had filled it to a different level then they had. So they poured themselves another round and I drank my one cup of red drink with them. My new drinking partners got off the train half a day before we came to Moscow. When a friend met us as we got off the train the first thing he said was, "Did you hear about the Mars project? It crashed!"
He wanted to play at the river before you weren't allowed to touch the water.
Their mothers are allowed to see them for one hour a day. There is a child by the name of Camellia that we prayed for especially. She is kept separate from the other children since her mother has AIDS and they are not sure if she has it too.
We know that God has a plan for Camellia's life. She has a hope and a future.
Yes, Russia is a civilized country indeed.
