What a great month in Kamchatka as we celebrated our second Thanksgiving here. We were unable to find a turkey but celebrated with roasted chicken and all the trimmings. We certainly have so much to be thankful for. I trust each and every one of you took time to give thanks for all the blessings you have received over the past year. We certainly want to take the opportunity to say THANKS for being a ministry partner with us in Kamchatka. Thank you for “Holding the Rope” in prayer as we serve on the edge. We want you to know how grateful we are for your faithful giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Your gifts make our ministry — and the ministries of more than 5,300 IMB missionaries serving around the world — possible. Countless souls will one day worship around His throne because you chose to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. May God’s richest blessings be yours as you partner with us to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ to all nations.
Thank you for your continued partnership as we work to bring the Small Peoples of the North to faith in our Lord and Savior. Keep Holding the Rope!!!
Family: This has been a month of firsts for us in Russia. Our family had the experience of visiting many of the Russian medical clinics. We had to undergo many exams to receive medical clearance in order to apply for temporary residency. It was not as bad as it could have been but the medical system is a little different here than it is in the states. There are so many stories I could write about the events but it is these experiences that you would just have to be here to understand. Lee and Emma were glad that they had to give blood only once during this month, Suzanne and I were not so lucky. We all survived and now are proceeding to the next step of the process. The process of waiting!
We are the only Americans in Kamchatka now and we took the opportunity to share our Thanksgiving meal with a young Russian Family. In the picture is our family, Sergey, Tanya and their two boys, Benjamin and Reuben. It was a great evening as we gave thanks together and celebrated with a meal.
Lee and Emma continue to do very well in their studies. We are excited that both Lee and Emma are able to report all A’s in their studies. Christmas break will mark the half way point in their studies for this year and they are looking forward to that break.
We have enough snow now so the kids can snowboard. Lee has taken time this month to teach Emma how to snowboard. They have been working on turning correctly. Finally Emma Grace takes off down the hill and turns….YEA!!!!......she turns directly into a JUMP!! Loudly I say, “What are you doing.” She just grins real big and says, “I meant to do that! It was fun!” I guess she thinks she is a professional snowboarder now.
Ministry Opportunities: I would like to say thanks to you for praying for Sasha and his work schedule. I asked you in last month’s newsletter to pray for him. His work schedule has lightened up on the days we do Bible Study. Praise the Lord for answered prayers. God has truly done some cool stuff this month at Emmanuel Church. Emmanuel church is the house church that meets at the Putnam’ home on Friday nights and Sunday nights. Sasha has caught the vision of Church Planting and Street Evangelism. We are now training people how to share the Gospel on the streets. Please pray for Emmanuel and the vision that is being revealed to them through a national brother, Sasha. Pray that many people who have never heard the Gospel will hear and receive the message of Christ.
Marty was also given the opportunity this month to preach at Central Church. Please pray for Marty and his language abilities to be able to share the Good News of Christ.
Suzanne was able to share at Central Church this month about Thanksgiving in America and she sang “Give Thanks” in Russian. (It was awesome!! By Marty).
Thanks to some of the churches back home we were able to minister at the Children’s Home twice this month. We were able to give them 30 toboggans and 18 pair of gloves for the winter. They were excited to receive the gifts. Tobbagons on average cost around $20.00 to 40.00 here in Kamchatka. Gloves are also very expensive. To all of you who have sent stuff comes a very special thanks from the kids who will be warm this winter.
Language: Не хочу но надо (Pronounced - Ne – hachoo no nada) simply stated, “I don’t want to but it is necessary.” We are grateful for the time we have to learn the language. Our language will continue as long as we live in Russia. One of our Russian friends reminds us often that Russian will be the language that is spoken in heaven. When you ask him why, he simply states, “Because it takes an eternity to learn.” I seem to agree. We are doing well and are able to communicate in most areas but still speak with many grammatical errors but can see improvements each week.
Visa Update: We have received a new 90 day double entry visa. What does that mean? That means that we can live in Russia until January 14, 2009 and then we will need to exit for another visa. We are in the middle of the process filing for the Temporary Resident Permit. The TRP will allow us to live in Russia for longer periods of time.
Prayer request from last month - Currently we are awaiting our criminal background check from the states to arrive to submit with the other papers, please pray for prompt arrival. (We received our background from the states this month. We have also had all other documents translated and notarized in Russian)
Prayer request from last month - We will also be getting medical checkups this month in Russia for the TRP. Please pray that God blesses us with a medical person we can communicate with and feel comfortable around. (Again thanks for praying as God answered your prayers and we were blessed with medical staff that we felt comfortable with and were able to communicate with. They were all very helpful to us.)
Information from last month newsletter - We hope to have all the information together and submitted by the end of November. (We were given an appointment date 12-2-2008 to meet with the government officials to submit our paper work.) Once the paper work is submitted and submitted correctly we must wait for 5 months while it is being reviewed. Only after 5 months will we be given a yes or no.
Prayer Request:
-Pray for Looba and Anton who are not believers (yet) but have shown interest this month.
- Pray for the new believers in Kamchatka as they continue their walk with the Lord.
-Pray for the folks at Emmanuel as they take part in Street Evangelism Training and Application. (What good is training without application?) Have you been trained in anything lately?
- Pray for us as we submit all the paperwork for the Temporary Residency Permit and wait for 5 months. Pray that the Lord will be glorified in this process. We must exit in January for 10 days and return with yet another 90 day visa while waiting on approval.
- Pray that we will be faithful to serve the Lord on a daily basis in the midst of __________ (just fill in the blanks).
- Pray for laborers. (We invite you to join us physically in the work – for more information about bringing a mission team to Kamchatka…..just ask!)
Thank you for holding the rope!!! We would love to hear what is happening in your ministry.
