December 24, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to get a letter out before Christmas and the holidays so that we could write one letter to cover both December and January. We succeeded, but just barely. So much has happened in these last couple of months that it is hard to know where to start. Let’s start with what is happening at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy. We hope you all got our brief blurb about the video available on the Web. This is but a small but very significant work that MPC is involved in here in Moscow. We hope the publicity has helped to raise some awareness of the very real issues of violent racism here in Moscow.

Some wonderful growth has taken place in the church during the recent months. We know it is not about numbers, but there is some sense that God is blessing our ministry through the enthusiasm and the different opportunities for ministry that are arising because of the different people who are attending. Some of the things that we hope to begin in the New Year are:

• a new women’s bi-weekly Bible study at the U.S. embassy.
• a separate boys and girls Bible study for high school kids at the main U.S. living quarters.
• Scout Sunday in February.
• a joint mission trip with the youth group and young professionals of the church.

There are so many different possibilities here that it is exciting to see where God will be leading us in the New Year.

For Christmas Eve services we had Communion and an adult baptism and the traditional candlelight singing of “Silent Night.” No matter where you are, some things never change. It was moving and beautiful, as candlelight services tend to be. Our ministry with the soup kitchen is also going along very well. The food coordinator, a man from Ethiopia named Kifle, and Bob are looking for places where a second one could be started. We believe that God will continue to bless MPC and that this will provide more opportunities to reach out to those in need around us.

MPC experienced a tragic moment in its history as well. One of our students, a young man from Cameroon named Jacob, passed away while staying in the hospital. It took over two weeks and involved coordination with the Cameroonian embassy, the hospital administrators, and the government to get his body released so that we could bury him in a proper Christian fashion. It was a sobering dose of reality in this time of year when we celebrate with joy the birth of the Christ child.

All three of the girls were involved in three different pageants during their last week of school. One was our church Christmas pageant where the children took the sermon spot from Bob and taught all of us the true meaning of Christmas. Stacy worked hard with the kids for over five weeks to make this such an outstanding program, with the participation of 15 elementary-school-aged children. The kids also had their own school programs, and Rachel played the bells while Naomi and Bethany sang to their hearts’ content. Naomi was so loud, and on key, that you could hear her loud and clear above the rest! On the last Friday before Christmas vacation, all three of the girls took part in a Russian program at school. Although Bob and Stacy couldn’t understand most of what was said, they are sure the children all did a wonderful job.

Things really slow down for the church and for all of Russia during the last week of December and the first 10 days of January. We hope to take part in that Russian tradition as well and allow things to slow down a bit for us. During the second week of January, the family has to rush out to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, in order to get ourselves re-registered with the Russian authorities. It is a bureaucratic procedure that we have to follow every six months.

We would be remiss to end this letter without wishing all of you a most joyful Christmas.

We are your servants in Christ,

Bob, Stacy, Rachel, Naomi, and Bethany Bronkema