First let me take the time to say thanks to each of you for supporting the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. It is this offering given by Southern Baptists that keeps us and over 5,300 other International Missionaries on field overseas. Believe me when I say that we could not live where we live without your financial and prayer support. So, with all that being said, from the bottom of our hearts, THANKS!
Featured question(s): To end the year of 2008 and to start a new section of our monthly newsletter we would love to answer your questions. Please email your questions to us throughout the year at going.east@hotmail.com and each month we will feature a few questions in the newsletter. This month’s featured question is about food.
What types of foods are common? How is the food on the palette and stomach? What is the favorite food of Russians?
A daily average menu might look something like this in a typical Russian home:
Breakfast – Kasha and hot tea. Kasha is a hot porridge, think about oatmeal. However, Russians make kasha out of oats, wheat, buckwheat, rice and any other types of grain that you can think of. Our favorite kasha is rice kasha. However, we are very glad that Suzanne has not forgotten how to make southern biscuits. By the way, there is no such thing as self rising flour here. Suzanne makes biscuits from scratch. No, you cannot buy them pre –made here in the local freezer section either.
Lunch – Lunch is often their largest meal of the day. They will begin the meal with a soup and follow the soup with some kind of salad and then a main dish. Of course you always finish the meal with a cup of hot tea.
Dinner/Supper - That is sometime around 9:00pm for most families. It could be anything from fish to noodles and of course hot tea.
The most favorite and common foods in Russia are potatoes and bread. Russians could not live without potatoes and bread. Bread is delivered fresh everyday to the local markets. Bread is neither pre-sliced nor pre-packaged. Potatoes along with every other kind of root vegetable you can name are eaten almost daily in Russia. Staple foods for an average Russian home would consist of garlic, onion, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, bread, tea, mayonnaise and some type of canned, smoked or pickled fish or kielbasa.
We enjoy many of the traditional Russian dishes but there are a few that have made our, “well I’ve tried it once, and don’t want to try it again” list.
Family: This month we celebrated our second Christmas in Kamchatka. Of course, we missed being with our families and friends back home in Mississippi. However, we had a wonderful Christmas together in Kamchatka. We would like to say thanks to each person who took the time to send us a Christmas card, gift box, or an email message. They are all very much appreciated.
The kids were very excited to get a few days off from school. Over the holidays we took some family days and just spent time together. We went to the hot springs; swimming outside when a blizzard snow storm begins to fall is just awesome. We swam when it was -12 and during the 2 hours we were there probably about 6 inches of snow fell. We also took time to visit the ski slope a couple of times.
Ministry Opportunities: Suzanne has always loved to decorate for Christmas. When we left the states to come to the field and held our BIG yard sale, she had over ½ of the yard at Wheeler Baptist Church filled with Christmas decorations. We don’t have that many here now but she and Emma have made many decorations and we bought a few also during our travels. Very soon after Thanksgiving the decorations start going up. Decorations on the apartment door, Christmas tree by the window, nativity by the table, you get the picture. How is this ministry you ask? Well, Russians celebrated Christmas day on January 7th each year. It is not much of a holiday here. The Russians put a tree up on New Year’s Day and Father Frost will leave them presents on New Years instead of Christmas. For the majority of Russians Christmas Day is just another day off of work. By Suzanne’s early decorations we were able on several occasions to explain that in America we celebrate Christmas on December 25th each year. We were then able to explain why we give gifts and what we really celebrate, Jesus’ birth. Suzanne and Emma also made homemade cookies and gave out to our neighbors and Emma’s friends with a Christmas message attached. It was a great way for them to be able to share the Christmas story with neighbors and friends.
Marty was given the opportunity to preach at Central Church this month and also lead a Bible study at Immanuel Church.
We shared a Christmas dinner with our language teacher, Zoya, and three of her friends. After dinner we were able to share the Christmas story with them. After reading the Christmas story and talking about it for a while, it opened up conversations about additional spiritual matters. We were able to present each one of them with a copy of the Word. They ended up staying and talking until almost mid-night. We praise the Lord for this opportunity. Please pray for Victoria and her son Volva. They live in PK and we desire to continue this contact with them and to get them involved in Bible study. The other 2 ladies traveled a long way to share dinner with us over 100 miles on dirt (snow covered) roads. Please pray for additional folks to continue the spiritual conversations with Lida and Tanya.
Language: Just when you think you are making ground!!! Suzanne and I were sitting around our small table in the living room with our language teacher Zoya. She had tried a salad I had put together the night before and really like it. She asked for the recipe. I was giving her the recipe and got stumped on the word for mustard. I looked at Suzanne and she shook her head and reached for the dictionary. We both give out that sigh that said I am supposed to know the word for mustard. Lee walks by the door headed to the kitchen and says, “Горчица” with a smile and keeps walking. Praise the Lord that our children are also learning the language as well. Oh, by the way the word for mustard is pronounced (gor-chee—tsa), with a smile!
Visa Update: Visa issues continue to be a struggle for us. We have asked you and continue to ask you to pray for us to be able to find a way to live here long term. We have attempted to get work permits which were denied. We then went through a long process of paper work, getting documents mailed to us from the states, and medical exams in Kamchatka to apply for a temporary resident permit. The temporary resident permit would allow us to live here for at least 3 years and possibly longer. When we had our consultation meeting with the “powers that be” we were told everything looked good thus far and that we needed a couple more translations done. We set up a time for our next meeting and left with a big smile. That evening we received a phone call that stated we could not submit our documents and that our process had been stopped and the next consultation visit had been cancelled. I did not know what to say then and really don’t now.
We were denied because they said we have been in the country on a religious visa. What now, we asked? We are still asking. As of now our plans are on January 13th to fly to Seoul, Korea. We will be there for 16 days while we apply for another 90 day visa. We will return to PK and continue our search for a long term way to live here. We are not sure what will take place after 90 days if we cannot find that door that allows us to live here long term. God holds the keys and we ask you to join us in praying for God’s will to be done in this matter.
Prayer Request:
- Pray for the many visa situations throughout Russia.
-Pray for Victoria and Volva as we will be gone for over ½ of the month of January and will not be able to contact and encourage them.
- 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.
-Pray for Alexander, a new believer who was involved at Emmanuel had to move 9 time zones from Kamchatka. Pray that he will find a great place of worship and discipleship at his new home.
- 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.
