We have arrived! (ed.
note: in
November 10, 2008
Dear Partners,
We arrived in
but because of the 10 days in
arriving here it has taken most of the week to get our feet on the
ground. We are well and happily settled into our friend Margaret's
apartment.
We have decided that
saw most of it at night in the rain and it was still incredible. Our
week-long meeting with The Mission Society group was a blessing on
many fronts.
Our purpose for meeting in
to discuss God's will and vision for The Mission Society in its
second 25 years. Thirty-one of us gathered together. We prayed
together, envisioned how God could use us in the future and finally
arrived at a very exciting vision. Much is yet to be done but all of
us are very excited at how the Holy Spirit has led us to seek to
follow Jesus where he is pushing into the world to bring the Kingdom.
We are finding our way around town and re-learning the buses. We
have been to the Friendship offices and turned in our passports to
get registered and have signed up individually to do separate Russian
lessons. Our needs concerning language are quite different.
Starting on Monday Steve will do 3 hours in the morning and I will do
3 hours in the afternoon, 5 days a week. There are so many language
classes going on now that there is not room for us at the Friendship
Corporation offices! That is a wonderful thing. So our teacher will
come to our apartment. She will be here most of the day all week
long between the two of us! We have not met her yet but her husband
works in the office as the computer tech person and we will be her
first students. We know her name is Olya (Olga). We
are both a
little intimidated by the intense Russian studies that we will be
doing but both really feel the need to improve our communication
skills. God has given us this time and will give us the stamina.
Please pray for us.
We have stocked the apartment with food and attended our first team
worship yesterday. This is so exciting because we do not have such a
thing in
joined the team since we left and they are amazing young people.
Most of the people we knew before who have been here for many years
have left. You will learn more about the new people as we go along.
Scott, Patty and family will be back in town on Monday and I will be
very glad to see Patty. We had special time with Scott in
They will be moving back to the states on December 10 so we do not
have much time with them not to mention that everyone here who has
grown to love them will be wanting their time. This is
a very
difficult transition for them. Scott was with us in
were lucky to have some special time with him.
Luba, who was my language helper when we were here
before called the
second night we were here and invited us to tea at her house! We
went on Friday afternoon for a few hours and it was wonderful. Of
course she still does not speak English so our language skills were
already challenged. It was a special joy to see and talk to her. We
had so much to talk about. We will see her at church on Sunday.
We look forward to going to church and seeing people we knew before.
I am excited about singing praise hymns in Russian – at least a lot
of choruses I know now! I remember standing in this church crying
out of frustration while hymns were sung when I was studying the
first time. Now I am looking forward to the challenge!
Today it snowed three inches and our cold water has been off since
noon. It is now about a quarter to 6 in the evening. I think we are
receiving an appropriate cross culturally challenging beginning! We
are learning the bus routes and numbers again. And also finding out
what we cannot get here that we are able to get in
planning a 3 day trip up to the
weeks before Joyce leaves for a four month furlough in the states.
It will be very special to use our Russian skills in a place where we
are excited to see some very special national friends again.
>From Steve: Please pray for us to discern God's will for the
future. The situation in
country for 3 months after each 3 months in-country is not conducive
to ministry there. It is also using up our funds much more quickly
than expected. We want to do God's will and are praying fervently
for Him to show us His future plans for our ministry. Is it in
simply keep going as we can in
return to the
prayers! And thank you so much for your faithfulness in supporting
us and partnering with us as we labor in the vineyards of the Lord
together!
Grace and Peace, Blessings and hugs,
Pastor Steve and Carol
PS This was written on Friday and we have had no
internet for three
days. We have it at the moment so this is going out now!