Greetings Dear Friends from Siberia!
We
are so thankful for each and every one of you…..we are blessed to have such
wonderful family and friends! We realized however, that you had not heard from
us over the last month and wanted to get an update out before the holidays take
over everything in our already busy lives! J The leaves have changed and fallen from the trees. The
temperatures have begun their descent for the winter months ahead and everyone
is building up the woodpiles and finishing up outdoor projects. We have been
truly blessed with warm weather so far but know it can change in an hour’s time!
We
will be heading back to the States in December for a six month ‘home
assignment.’ We will be flying from the East this time and will have a short
stop in CA before landing in FL on the 21st of Dec. Why
California??? Joshua will be graduating
from Biola and we were able to work out the timing so we could join in the
celebration! At this time, we have a few
commitments already scheduled but we will personally be getting touch with many
of you to set up times as we come to your ‘neck of the woods!’ PLEASE don’t forget the folks and the work
here though! Plans are in full swing to have a wonderful celebration in the
fellowship. Historically, New Years has been the BIGGEST holiday of all. This
year the group has decided to have a larger celebration for Christmas than that
of New Years. What an amazing step to
show their friends and family the importance of this Holiday of Holidays…the
birth of the Messiah. We see more of an emphasis on the ‘reason for the season’
this year than in the past…remember them as they will use this opportunity to
share with family and friends the true importance of Christmas. They will also have a feast together and each
family will prepare something like skits, songs, verses they’ve memorized,
etc… We’re blessed to have a great group
of ladies who will make new banners to help decorate the hall and fill it with
other decorations and of course pine branches for that wonderful aroma of the
holiday.
Something for us that has been awesome to see is that when people really become committed to the local
fellowship, they want to start giving tithes and offerings. Of course that
isn’t always financial giving but here’s a perfect example of giving…. A few years back a local family donated a
Heifer, and… well as things go… the cow gave birth every year. This month we will be bringing the heifer and
her calf to their new barn on the property.
The cow will be supplying the local fellowship with milk for our
meetings…people love milk in tea here, as well as giving us the opportunity to
sell the calf in the future. By selling the meat, we can help with the costs of
all the different ‘works’ and running of the building for the fellowship. The fellowship also has a pig and should have
a litter of piglets in the spring. (Yes we are in a rural setting here as you
can tell.) All will be used to further
the work we are involved in!
(Completed pictures of the 'barn' will be posted very soon!)
With victories,
come defeats…we fight against an enemy that knows our weaknesses. He wants us
to be defeated and live a hopeless life. We have written in the past of a young
man that made a decision and has grown spiritually over the past months. “Sam”
struggled with alcohol before and had been sober for a year. He recently
celebrated his birthday and was swept up into drinking again for several days.
We have begun counseling him and his wife and continue to ask for wisdom in
speaking truth and love into their lives. We know the father’s will is for so
much more! Jeremiah 29:11 says; for I know the plans I have for you, declares the lord, plans for
welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Remember this
family often as they work to regain that hope.
The visa saga continues…for those of you who have followed us and our writings for any length
of time; you are very aware of the amount of time, energy, and money it takes
to continually have a current visa. This allows us to live and work in Russia.
We’d like to go back and give a bit of our visa history…over the years we have
had several types of visa’s to stay and work here; from worker for hire visas,
guest visas, cultural exchange and some others in between. In 2008 we had to travel out of country 3 times
in order to obtain new visas. On one of
our trips back, we applied for what is called a temporary residence
permit. The process for granting such a
permit normally takes about 6 months (180 days). The process for applications
to get a permit takes a full week of running from one government office to
another…and running from one blood test to another. (You’d be surprised at what
they check for) In August of 2008 we
were granted a 3 year temporary residency permit…PTL. We saw that as a direct answer to the many
times this need was lifted up on our behalf.
Let’s jump ahead to 2010…The next step after the 3 year temporary permit
is what is similar to a “Green Card”. In
June of this year we applied for the new status. Again we had to go through ALL
the blood tests and such. After finally
completing the process, we turned in our papers and again the officials have 6
months (180 days) to review the entire application and give the applicant a yes
or no. The first week of November we
went into the office to check on the status of our application. It was amazing
they not only remembered us they also knew where we lived. They were very
friendly and assured us that we they would complete our paperwork and issue us
the permit the first part of December.
If we are issued this type of permission to live here, we no longer need
visas to travel in and out of country and the length of the permission will be
5 years…continue to lift up this need for us!
Several months ago,
we wrote you on our own financial crisis. Again we see this as a distraction to
the work here. We continue to run in the
negative with our organization and as we stated earlier, we’ll be heading back
to the states for several months beginning in December. One of our tasks will be to try and raise our
support level. We again have had to cut
our monthly income to not fall further behind with our organization. This is of concern to us because the amount
of funds we have to put into the work is also affected. We are asking for
continued prayer and wisdom as we totally trust the one who led us here and has
sustained us over the past 14+ years!
Joshua…… is now
graduating from BIOLA University in Los Angeles. Hard to believe so much time has passed and
that you all have been a part of our family for so long. His graduation is set for December 17,
2010. Biola is an awesome school and his
experience there has been incredible.
Anyone that wishes to write him a note of encouragement his address is
15270 Riviera Lane, La Mirada, CA 90638.
Corey…is currently
serving his country in the US Army and he’s stationed in Ft. Carson, CO. I know he would
appreciate your prayers and word of encouragement. Unfortunately, as of this
writing, we don’t have his mailing address. He has been moved twice already and
will move one more time before getting settled on base. We will be certain to get his
address out as soon as we have one!
Giving Thanks in ALL things!
Kevin
& Laura
