December 14, 2001

Dear Friends and Family,

In lieu of Christmas cards, we are sending out This e-mail. Christmas cards might not get to you until March. We are almost at the end of our first year in full-time mission work, and it has been a full and rich beginning. It has been a year of major changes and many discoveries. We've tried to keep in touch with you throughout the year and have so enjoyed hearing news from back home.

We have made one new discovery with the beginning of winter (which came rather early here). It is easier to slide into winter from the beginning than to come into it midstream. We have been able to adjust to each 5- or 10-degree drop in temperature and now conclude that 10 F is really no big deal, but 0 F is quite cold. It hasn't gotten too much colder than that yet, but the forecast is for another drop shortly. After that, we may find 0 F to be no big deal (but I doubt it).

We have recently hired a new sitter for Emma, which has been a great relief to
her. For the past two or three months, she has been accompanying us most places as we explored other possibilities for her (kindergarten, dietsky sad, etc.) None of those worked out. Now we have Sholbanna, a young Siberian student, staying with Emma three days a week. Sholbanna is from the
Tuva region of Siberia, a member of one of the indigenous groups there. Her people are of Turkic-Mongolian origin. She is preparing for university entrance exams and plans to study philology. I discovered today that Emma was right. Sholbanna does speak English, though we had conversed only in Russian up until this point. (Emma has a way of fereting out English-language skills).

Emma is not overfond of living in Russia. We hope that the arrival of Sholbanna will help improve her attitude. She has stopped asking me why I invited her and her father and her sister to Russia. That, in itself, is a step in the right direction. Meg, who was initially so opposed to leaving her friends and moving to Russia, loves it here. She has a great teacher this year in fifth grade and is now in the school band (the first in the history of the school).
She is playing the flute. Though it is rather hard to listen to the practicing, we must admit that she is making progress.

Like Meg, Esme the cat loves Russia. Mostly, we think she loves not sharing her space with dogs and other cats.

One of the biggest adjustments this year for our entire family has been our separation from Allison, our oldest daughter. When we approached her about the possibility of going to Russia, she basically said "God bless you both, but not me." As a junior in high school, we really felt like we had to give her the choice. It was a major decision for her, but she has made the best of it. Dear friends in Fayetteville have been kind enough to take care of her for us, and very good care they've taken. Allison, now a senior, has spent her fall applying
for colleges. She has chosen Carleton College in Minnesota, Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and College of Wooster in Ohio and is now waiting to hear what will come of all of her efforts. All three are cold-weather schools. After spending most of her life in North Carolina, we figure that her visit here for the Christmas holidays will be a very good introduction. Today is her 18th birthday. That is as much a milestone for us, I think, as for her.

After a busy spring getting to know the Russian partners, and a busy summer of camps, we have had a relatively quiet fall. Al did return to the United States in October and then I followed when one of my brothers died unexpectedly. We shall miss him greatly.

With the Advent season, we have begun to get busy again with orphanage projects and winter camps. We are looking forward to the arrival of a group on 29 December. Coming from Georgia to Moscow may be a little bit of a surprise to them, but they strike us as game, hardy souls who are ready for the adventure.

Al has been doing some substituting in the past month at the Christian school that Meg (our 11-year-old) attends. He was teaching math when we departed for Russia and is considering taking it up again next fall, as the school expects to have a vacancy. He has enjoyed being back in the classroom. He will be teaching one class in U.S. history this winter at the Russian American Christian University (near Meg's school). That should give
him a pretty good idea of whether teaching will interfere too much with our work in the partner program. No matter what choice he makes in regard to teaching, he plans to continue playing a significant role in Congregational Twinning.

As winter settles in for the long haul, we would ask for your prayers for our strength and health through the long dark months. We would ask for your prayers for Allison as she moves through her senior year and prepares for a very important transition in her life. We would ask for your prayers for Meg and Emma as they continue to grow and develop. They see a great deal of suffering here. It is on the streets all around them. Meg is discovering that compassion can be painful. We would ask for your prayers as Al explores more deeply the possibility of teaching at Hinkson next year and as he begins to teach at RACU on a regular basis this winter. We seek to be led by the Spirit in this and in all things. Finally, we would ask for your prayers for our language study. If Al is to teach, I will not be able to rely on his extraordinary language skills quite as heavily. I must develop my own. I have been working at getting more practice recently and have discovered that there really is some Russian stored up there after my 11 months of work.

We wish all of you the joys of the Christmas season. May the peace of our Lord, Jesus
Christ, be with each of you.

Peace and blessings,

Al, Ellen, Allison, Meg, Emma & Esme

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94