February 11, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Christmas has come and gone, the New Year has come and gone, and we are now in Lent.  Let's bring you up to speed on what is happening in the ministry and in the family.

The "coal room" will be transformed into a chapel and a place of quiet meditation.

We have hired a contractor to put the new parish center in working order. I wish we could attach some pictures so that you could see the “coal room” we are going to transform into a chapel. We literally spent three weekends shoveling coal out of this room so that it could be used. The landlady at our current parish center was somewhat upset that we were actually leaving, although she had locked us out for a month and a half in September and told us definitively that we had to leave February 1. Now that we have the upper hand we were able to make arrangements to stay in the old parish center until the new one is ready. We didn't learn how to negotiate like this in seminary, but it is amazing what experience can teach you. Thanks for praying for the new center. Please keep praying, but things are looking very good.

The family that was granted refugee status through one of our programs and will be resettled in the United States leaves here February 20. They will be going to Alexandria, Virginia. Keep them in your prayers during this time of transition. We are all very excited to see this success. 

MPC's new parish center will be housed on the ground floor of this historic Lutheran manse in eastern Moscow.

We had another death in the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy community. Abu from Mali was spending his evenings in an Internet café since he had no place to call home. He was diabetic and had already lost a part of his right leg. We helped him get to the hospital to treat a sore on his left foot. One night he just decided not to live any longer and died while sleeping in the Internet café. This event has made us even more aware of the large numbers of people in our church community who have no place to lay their head and so “live” in these cafés. Please pray for us as we look for a way to help them find a safe refuge in which to sleep. We have ideas, but need to pray more about them and see where the Spirit leads.

The church is full again. We were used to some fluctuation in Florida with our snow birds, but here we have the opposite, summer birds. People really leave the city whenever there is vacation or summer break. It is wonderful to have new families and new energy fill the church every year. We are starting up a confirmation class and have close to 20 youth. We are really excited about this. We also have a new Bible study going at one of the expat complexes, and we had 20 kids show up last week. MPC is by far the most challenging ministry we have ever been involved in, but it certainly does contain its rewards.

We will be heading back to the States as a family this summer to do some speaking and some vacationing. We haven't been back as a family in two years. Hard to believe it has been that long. Here’s our schedule: June 1-9 New York and Philadelphia area; June 10-21 Palatka, Florida, area; June 22-30 New York and Philadelphia area; July 1-17 Seattle area. Bob will head back to Moscow on the 17th, and Stacy and the girls will stay in Washington until school starts in the middle of August. We hope to be able to see all of you when we are back in a few months.

The visa question is still the same. We have considered many options for our return visas and have not yet determined what is best.  We expect to have a solution before we head home in June. Please continue to pray that we would find the solution that is best for our family and our ministry.

How about them girls? It has been such a mild winter again this year that we are wondering if the cold ever does come to Moscow. People still blame us for bringing the mild winters from Florida here to Moscow. Because of the mild winter, the girls have not been able to ski as much as they would like.

Rachel is being challenged in middle school but is enjoying it tremendously. One of her best friends, Jin from South Korea, has to return to Korea in March because of the new visa laws. It is a disappointment, but Rachel has made another very close friend with whom she went to camp this past summer. She continues to excel in her grades and is working very hard at the piano as well. She is also in the middle school choir, and they had an awesome performance at the end of last year.

Naomi is taking TaeKwon-Do and earned her yellow belt after her first day in class! She is really doing well with the guitar, although not enjoying it as much as we had hoped. She is singing in the church choir on her own initiative and loves it. She continues to do well in school.

Bethany continues to love school and friends. The second graders never fail to come up with an interesting plan for recess. When the snow covered the “river” and they were digging out of the ice, they went to the ice slide. Now that the ice slide is no longer slippery they steal the teacher's gloves and hat which makes a great game of tag.

We really look forward to seeing you all this summer. By the way, we have a position open here at MPC. It is called “development director,” and his or her main responsibility is to raise funds for the church's social ministries. It hardly pays enough to live on, but you can survive. I know it sounds tempting, but if anyone is interested in the position let us know.

Your servants in Christ,

The Bronkema Family

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 158