In Moldova

Dear Friends,

I am in Moldova right now. I was invited by some missionaries to come for a little. The folks here are friendly and the pastors I've been getting to know are wonderful. For those who don't know, Moldova is a part of the former Soviet Union, located between the Ukraine and Romania. You can find out more about it at http://www.moldova.md/en/start/ if you want to.

I'm in Moldova because my Russian resident permit has not yet been approved, and I have limited time on my Russian visa. I have a one year religious worker visa for Russia, but Russian visas (other than student and worker visas) require that you be outside of Russia for 90 out of 180 days. I've used up most of my legal time in Russia for this 180 days. I have tickets to return to Russia on January 6th. If my resident permit is ready, then I can just stay there, if not, I will need to leave the country again within the week. In mid-February a new 180 day period starts, and then I get a new 90 days to be in Russia. However, if my resident permit is approved, I can just stay there and live. As you can see, this is a big prayer concern for us.

On Sunday just before I came to Moldova, I received a call from the FSB (they used to be called the KGB) on my cell phone. I was invited to come to their office in Khabarovsk and answer some questions. So the next day I went and met with a polite young man who had many questions for me. He mentioned that this was part of the process for me to get my resident permit.

Later that day (Monday) Tonya went to meet with the Director of Migration for Khabarovsk Krai (a Krai is like a State, and Khabarovsk Krai is about twice the size of France). When greeting his secretary, Tonya said she had some questions about the application for a resident permit for her husband who is American. The lady, who didn't even look away, said, "Eshelman?" I guess I'm the only American applying for a resident permit there right now. The lady explained that everything was ready except for approval from the FSB, and there was nothing they could do about that. So please pray that the FSB would make quick process of my permit's approval.

Things are going smoothly in regards to the purchase of a place for the ministry center. Without me there, the local church leaders are moving the project forward pretty much on their own. They are buying some space in a commercial building downtown. Here you can see the front entrance of that building and some windows to what we are acquiring (on the 6th floor).

This is a really good thing for the Bible Institute and the churches here. This building is in an excellent location next to a bus stop with routes all over the city. Please pray that everything continues to go smoothly.

One of the greatest needs we have is for more workers to bring in the harvest. Our master has told to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest field. Please pray that more people would come an join us. More people are needed to spread the good news. One of our missionaries has put together an excellent video to give a taste of ministry in Russia. All the photos were taken by workers in Russia. Here is a link to the presentation http://animoto.com/play/HqQ2IbmqddcHdB0YrWNaMw?utm_campaign=share_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_email Please take a look, I think you'll find it fascinating to see the diversity of Russia and the people we minister to here.

One last prayer request. Please uphold my family in prayer as I am in Moldova and they are still in Khabarovsk. While the ministry here is good, I'd rather be with them, and they would rather be with me.

In His Service,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Meetings, Thanksgiving and Snow!

Dear Friends,

yes, we've had snow here in Russia. The Amur River is frozen over. Here's a picture of the kids standing on the river. No danger, the ice must be at least ten inches thick and we were unable to brake a hole in it even when we tried.

We've had some important meetings here. We're in the process of purchasing a property to use as a ministry center. It will be able to host the Bible Institute, church offices, meetings and various ministries. Several local churches are working together to support this project. So we hosted a series of meetings in our home to gain vision, form unity and work out the details. On the last Saturday in November we had a meeting where we chose the property we think the Lord would have us to purchase. Here's a photo of me with the pastors at the meeting.

The negotiations for the purchase are going well. Since the property will be in the name of the Russian Evangelical Church, the Russian leaders are taking over most of the project at this point. We hope to send you some photos of the property soon. Please pray that everything continues to go well, and that participation of the local churches continues to grow.

Thanksgiving! Yes, we had a great Thanksgiving with some friends. We even found some frozen turkeys. They were only five pounds each, so we bought three of them. After the meal we were treated to a play that was completely created and directed and acted in by the children. Here is an Indian teaching the Pilgrims how to plant food.

We also went to the Open Heart homeless shelter and put on a Thanksgiving meal. Folks from three different local churches gave us a hand in preparing the food and with the presentation. The homeless shelter now has two locations, with 85 residents in one place and 35 at their new location. We went to the larger center, and it takes a lot of cooking to make beef stew for 85 people, along with hard boiled eggs, oranges, dessert, bread and tea (in Russia, you gotta have bread and tea to make it a meal). Before we ate our team led some songs and I told the tale of the first Thanksgiving.

This homeless shelter is more than just a shelter. Every morning starts with a prayer meeting, and every evening there is a church service in the dinning hall. It is a truly Christian community. It is also overcrowded. Right now some people are sleeping on the floor between the tables in the dinning hall. They also need to build a bath house. Some funds for construction are coming in from an appeal that was published last summer. We hope to find more ways to help with this need.

One thing that I noticed that bothered me was the shortage of winter shoes. Some of the residents only had sandals, which are totally inadequate in the snow. One of the ladies from a local church who came with us to help noticed this also and mentioned it to me. Her church and our ministry partnered together to provide 20 new winter shoes. Yesterday we visited the second shelter. We weren't able to prepare an entire meal, but we took oranges. After the evening service we gave the shoes to the director of this center. He methodically passed out some shoes to those who needed them, and will pass the rest on to the other shelter.

Here you can compare new shoes and an old shoe that was being used.

Our biggest prayer request right now is for my resident permit. It has not yet been approved, although it is in process in the government migration office. Tonya has contacted several government officials and they say they would like to help, but can't do much for us. There is one more official she has not spoken with yet who might be able to assist us. He is the chief of the central migration office for our Krai (like a State). His office hours are 4:00 to 5:00 pm on Mondays. Please pray that she would be able to meet with him this Monday and that he would expedite the processing of this document.

Since time on my visa is running out, I have purchased tickets to leave Russia on Dec. 16 and return on January 7th. I won't miss Christmas with my family because Christmas in Russia is on January 7th. My arrangements are to go to Moldova for three weeks and help with some ministry there. I'm hoping a miracle happens and I'll be able to just stay here. Thank you for your prayers in this matter.

Because of Him,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Feeling At Home

Dear Friends,

it's been less than four weeks since we returned to Khabarovsk as a family. We marked the kids' height on a door frame before we left and after we returned. While we were in the States Timothy grew 7 inches, Vera grew 4 inches and Deanna grew 3. It's good to be back. The kids were sure glad to see their friends.

That's Tim in the middle.

One night we played Bible Charades with their friends. Can you guess which Bible scene is being acted out?

Deanna and Vera with a friend, Sasha.

We have our Speed-The-Light van out of storage. It didn't want to start at first, but with new glow plugs, fresh diesel, and an oil change, it is ready to go. We had a warm front come in and it looked like snow, so I put the snow tires on. It turns out we didn't need them yet, even after two days of blowing a 40 mph breeze, we only got a dusting of snow. Somehow in my mind when it's freezing outside there should be snow on the ground. The locals just laugh and tell me that winter hasn't gotten here yet.

Other than settling in as a family, the big activity for us is the search for a property to buy for the Far East Ministry Center. We've looked at a couple dozen places so far, and are still looking. While some places are obviously not the right place, the final decision of what to buy will be a group decision. Last week we hosted a mini-conference to hammer out the details of our agreement with the national church and to do some listening to the local leadership. On the left with the beard is the Bishop for the Russian Far East, on the right you can see the back of the head of Rick, my supervisor, and the guy in the red shirt is the director of the Bible Institute in Khabarovsk (they plan to use the Ministry Center a lot), the others are local pastors.

That's me in the yellow shirt. Glasses? Yes, I've started to need those if I want to read anything closer than the length of my arms.

The meetings were very successful in bringing unity and vision to the group. Please pray that the Lord would show us the place that He has in mind.

On Sunday we had graduation ceremonies for eight students graduating from the Bible Institute. They are receiving a government recognized four year degree. It is a serious study program, and most of the students are already involved with full time ministry. Now that they have graduated, that leaves about forty students in the program in Khabarovsk. I once heard ordination defined as empty hands laid on empty heads. Even though I may be empty-handed, (and this was not an ordination ceremony), I know these graduates are not empty-headed. God has a clear call on each of their lives. There is a shortage of trained pastors and leaders in the Russian church, and the Bible Institute is one of the best tools we have.

Deanna continues to heal nicely from her bicycle accident. The only thing that continues to need attention is broken hinges on her jaw. The Lord has provided a doctor here in Khabarovsk who is treating her. To make her jaw symmetrical again, she needs to wear a device in her mouth when sleeps and for a couple hours a day. We laugh that it's the only time we can keep her quiet.

Deanna's been enrolled in public school and her biggest problem there is that she's forgotten how to speak Russian. Amazing that a year and a half ago she didn't speak a word of English, and now that's all she speaks. Tim and Vera are being home-schooled. They've had no problem with their Russian, but all our home-school curriculum is English.

One big prayer request is for my resident permit. The local office cannot tell us when we will hear back from the regional office. If my application is approved, I'll be able to stay in Russia. If we don't hear back soon, then I'll need to leave the country before Christmas. We'd rather all stay together, so please pray that my application will be approved within the next couple of weeks.

Shalom,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

On the Ground in Russia

Dear Friends,

on Saturday we landed in Khabarovsk. After 36 hours in transit (about 20 hours on 4 planes and 16 hours in the airports) we finally arrived. A group from the church here had a surprise party waiting for us in our apartment. It is good to be back home. We're going through jet lag, disengaged from American life but not fully reentered the Russian one.

We're really grateful for the help we received from church friends in Greensboro to help us pack our things, clean the house and get to the airport. God has his people everywhere. Your prayers continue to carry us along.

The schools here are closed due to flu epidemic. But Tonya took Deanna by her old kindergarten to see her previous teacher, who was very glad to see her. We plan to enroll Deanna in the public school here for a couple years, and home school the children from third grade on up. Timothy's friends from our apartment building came to see him shortly after our arrival, and with the schools closed he's been playing outside a lot. We've all been taking walks, adjusting to the Russian weather.

Our first ministry project is find a building to purchase for the Far East Ministry Center. We believe that the Lord has a place ready, and we just need to seek. We've already started looking, but have only just started. Please pray for the Lord's guidance as we seek out what would be the best place.

I'll try to get the camera out and take some photos to send back to you with the next update.

From Russia with Love,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

In the Whirlwind of Things

Dear Friends,

my short trip to Khabarovsk was successful. The biggest success was submitting the application for the resident permit, but a number of other things were accomplished as well. I had several good meetings with various folks, renewed my Russian driver's license, preached several times, put weather-stripping in some of our windows (Russian winter is coming), and started setting up my office space. Another success was getting back to the North Carolina to be with my family. For a bit I thought I might spend more time in Korea than I wanted, since my flight out of Khabarovsk was late. As I was running down a corridor in the airport in Seoul, a uniformed lady asked me where I was going. I said, "gate 47, to Chicago." She said, "please hurry" and then talked into a walkie-talkie in Korean. They held the entire Boeing 777 full of people waiting for their trans-Pacific flight just for me. I felt important, and out of breath. I hope next time I'm less important and breathing easier.

Tonya has managed the home front well, and even packed some suitcases while we were apart. Now we're already in countdown mode, with tickets purchased for the 22nd of October. So the whole family is in the midst of packing. Please pray that we are able to take care of every detail be for departure.

Deanna's broken chin is healing well, but we're not going to let her ride it a bike again until we're in Russia. I told her, "no more broken bones until we're home in Russia!" But we're also grateful that she is recovering quickly and our family's departure was only delayed two months. A couple days ago Timothy took this photo of Vera, Deana, and me while we were sitting on our front porch here in North Carolina. The weather here is warmer than in Russia.

Timothy recently received some awards with Royal Rangers (kinda like a Christian Boy Scouts).

We have a special prayer request. There is an individual who wants to help establish Bible Schools for the training of pastors by purchasing buildings for them. He has made some funds available to us to buy a building for the Bible School in Khabarovsk, but has stipulated that we make the purchase before Dec. 15th of this year. So we need to find an appropriate facility and negotiate for it by the deadline. Some workers with the national church in Khabarovsk have started looking for available properties. Please pray that the Lord would show us the place that He has in mind, and make the purchase process go smoothly.

We also have a general prayer request: that we finish up everything here that we need to so and that we would all arrive safely in the Russian Far East (with all our luggage).

From all of us,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

In Russia, I Am One

Dear Friends,

In Russian, you can use the word "one" to mean alone. So, to say "I am alone" you say "I am one." Right now, alas, I am one. Everyone else stayed with Deanna to help her heal up from the bicycle accident.

I've managed to submit an application and all the supporting documents for a resident permit to live in Russia. They said I should hear back in six months or less. Please pray that it gets approved in lot less time. A resident permit (much like the American "green card") would allow me to live here without leaving the country. The present visa regime in Russia requires that I leave every three months out of six. Going through the application process was much easier than I expected, it only took about ten days of visiting government offices, having documents translated, seeing doctors, etc.

The first Sunday I was here the pastor asked me to preach a short sermon (many evangelical churches here have two sermons in a service, a short one and a long one). There was no translator there that morning, so I told him it would be only five or ten minutes. I spoke from the first three verses of the first psalm. Everyone kindly looked like they understood what I was saying in Russian. I hope it really did make sense.

We have a good report for Deanna. She is healing quickly, and the doctor is even letting her eat soft foods like macaroni. Please pray that she will be allowed to travel soon, so that we can all be in Russia by the end of October.

Fall is definitely here, and you can feel that winter is just around the corner. After the rush of getting everything done for my resident permit, I had some free time to take some walks around the city. Here is Lenin square. Most cities in Russia have a place downtown called Lenin square.

I actually enjoyed riding on the city busses and streetcars. Probably after a year I won't be enjoying them anymore. I guess I missed them while I was in the States.

I have tickets to return to the States on the 7th of October. Lord willing, I'll soon be on my way back to Khabarovsk - with my family this time!

Because of Him,
Cecil

In Russia Alone

Dear Friends,

I am writing this email while sitting in our apartment in Russia. I arrived on the 14th and my luggage arrived on the 16th of September. The rest of the family is staying in North Carolina until Deanna is able to travel. I plan to return to North Carolina in four weeks to be with them again (I'm already looking forward to it). We hope to all be in Russia before the end of October.

Deanna continues to heal well, and is in great spirits. Thank you so much for your prayers.

One thing that we did during my last week in the States is write another newsletter. It is posted in pdf format at http://hqmail.agmd.org/~cecil.eshelman/NL2009September.pdf

Please pray for Tonya as she stays with Timothy, Vera and Deanna. She'll be leading home schooling (which we expected to start in Russia, but, well, it's time for school to start even if they're still in the States).

I'll try to stay in touch while I get our household set up and tend to some other tasks in Khabarovsk. One goal is to get everything ready to submit an application for a Russian resident permit (like an American "green card"). If I can get a resident permit, I won't need to keep applying for new Russian visas.

Blessings,
Cecil

Bumps in the Road

Dear Friends,

we had tickets to fly to Russia today. Now we have a new plan. Deanna's bike accident rearranged our schedule. For a while it seemed we were going two directions at once, now we actually are. Deanna won't be able to travel for another five to seven weeks. So Tonya will stay in the States with the kids while Cecil goes and takes care of some things in Russia. He will leave in one week, on Saturday, and be in Khabarovsk for four weeks. Then he will return and the whole family will go to Russia together. We don't like being apart, but it looks like this will be the best under the circumstances.

There has been an outpouring of concern and sympathy for Deanna. Thank you so much for your prayers, they are being answered. Deanna is healing very well. She's only able to eat mush, but some mush isn't bad, especially the milkshakes and smoothies. She's not in pain any more. She's sleeping a lot at night, active during the day, and less worried about her chin than we are.

We really have sensed the presence of the Lord through all of this, and He has been good to us. Our schedule got thrown to the wind, so we just started living day by day, and everything has worked out. There are many bumps in the road of life, and this was just one of them.

We've been doing a repacking of suitcases: get out the homeschooling stuff since we need that now, put other books in Cecil's for him to leave in Russia, etc. But all of that is just details. Deanna's chin will heal, we will all get back to Khabarovsk, our ministry will continue, and our family will be stronger because of it.

One of the main goals for Cecil's trip to Russia is to submit an application for him to get a resident permit for Russia (much like our American "Green Card"). There is a lot involved with this, and it will take much of his four weeks to get everything ready. The complete medical examination will be a special nightmare of it's own. Other documents must be prepared, translated, and finally submitted. When everything is submitted it will take the Russian government a while to look it over (maybe six months or more). When issued, the resident permit will allow him to stay in Russia without need for a visa. Please pray for this whole process, which Cecil will start as right after arriving in Khabarovsk.

Please pray for Tonya as she leads homeschool and watches the family while Cecil is gone (September 12 until October 7).

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support.

Because of Him,
Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna