August 2006
Dear Friends and Family!
Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church and Kostroma Baptist Church enjoy
fellowship over a meal. Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
It has been a wild summer, but your prayers have carried us through.
We are so thankful for the fellowship we have with each of you.
Some of you may be wondering why you haven’t heard from
us in weeks. We know you were expecting to hear when we finally
landed back in Moscow, but my computer, with address book, has
been seriously ill. It finally died this week. We are still working
to restore all the data, but I now have a new computer.
So much has happened since I wrote in April. May was a full month,
with two very successful group visits—one for a new partnership
between Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in California and Kostroma
Baptist Church (300 kilometers northeast of Moscow) and
a second out to Surgut in Siberia with a well-established partner,
Germantown Presbyterian Church from Tennessee. The focus of both
trips was relationship building. The Fair Oaks group and I spent
nine days in Kostroma, giving everyone the chance to get to know
the pastor and members of the congregation well. It was a joy
for everyone to listen and share. The group came away with a sense
of the breadth and depth of the ministry in this city, as well
as the challenges. Both churches now pray for one another and
begin to correspond. Because of language and distance, it takes
a little longer to communicate, but things have begun and that
is very exciting.
I had about a week after Kostroma to get ready for Surgut and
to get the family ready to depart for the States as soon as I
returned from there. This summer we were due for a mid-term break
(two months leave in the midst of our five year term). Between
Al’s schedule and mine, we couldn’t find two months
to be gone together, so we planned only one month. Even that added
challenges to the schedule. I traveled to Surgut with the group,
but was not able to stay the whole time. My colleague, Jeff Koning,
from Perm, joined us in Surgut and returned with the group to
Moscow, making it possible for me to head back early and depart
for the United States Like the trip to Kostroma, this trip to
Surgut was about spending time with the congregation, listening
and sharing, getting to know members and their ministry. It was
good to hear all that they are doing in the middle of the taiga.
Even for established partnerships, there is always something new
to hear and see, and there is always a lot of catching up to do.
The highlight of our month in the United States was Allison’s
graduation from Carleton College. It was a wonderful celebration.
We spent the rest of the month on the run to visit family and
to take care of dental care and physicals. The plans we had for
the rest of the summer were thrown to the wind when Meg and I
were prevented from returning to Russia as scheduled. For me,
a simple physical at the beginning of June turned into a month
of tests, and then three days before my departure, my doctor called
to delay my return by yet another three weeks of tests. For now,
the tests show that things are not serious. There are some irregularities
with my liver, but no sign of damage. We are very thankful. For
Meg, the delay was a lost passport. During the three weeks of
medical tests, we scurried to replace her passport, get a new
Letter of Invitation and new visa. We both returned in mid-July.
Meg and I missed three camps, leaving Al and Emma to do the work
of four, but the Lord mercifully provided the help needed through
John and Deb Burgess, friends from Pittsburgh Seminary who were
staying with us for the summer. Deb and their kids had already
planned to join us for the camps. She went further, stepping in
to take my place and did a great job. Al ended up going back and
forth between camps while Emma stayed with Deb and company, helping
with translation where needed.
Meg and I returned in time to head to Vologda with a group from
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The church in Vologda is one of the very few churches we know
of working with special needs children. Members of the two churches
joined together in one team to put on a camp for Down’s
Syndrome children and their families. Most special needs children
in Russia are institutionalized from birth. Those few courageous
parents who have kept their children have faced huge challenges
and real isolation. Hearts become hardened in such circumstances.
The goal of the camp was to reach these families with the love
of Christ and to give them rest and recreation. I do not know
of any other church that has attempted such a camp. None of us
knew what to expect, but we brought together skills, experience,
and love and the result still fills me with wonder. As I told
our Russian-American team at the end of the camp, we had begun
something new and exciting. We had created a model. We all hope
that it will be possible to expand on this model in coming years.
We have come away from this camp with a deeper knowledge of the
needs of these families and see that seminars on a variety of
topics would also be very valuable.
The last group of summer departed this past Sunday after a full
week with their partner in Ryazan. A team of seven came from First
Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, North Carolina. The partners worked
together on a children’s day camp, but also visited needy
families, and held a hen’s party, gathering women from several
churches for a special time of fellowship. At the end of the visit,
the pastor took the entire team out to his dacha for a picnic
and fellowship with his family. As important as the camps and
family visits are, it is the fellowship, the time together listening
and sharing, that is of the greatest importance.
The summer has at times been very stressful, but we have come
through it. We rejoice that, after two months of searching, Allison
found a very good job in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where she is now
settled. The girls anxiously await the start of school in two
weeks. Meg and I leave this evening for a trip to get her another
visa. Al is busy getting ready for classes. Emma will help him
while we are away.
Prayer Requests
- Please pray for our family as we separate yet again for this
visa trip.
- Please pray for the churches in Kostroma and Ryazan, which
struggle with building issues.
- Please pray for the families of special needs children in
the Vologda Region, especially Lyuba and her son Nikita. Lyuba
grew up in an orphanage. She loves her son dearly, but she doesn’t
always know how handle him and has no one to turn to.
- Please pray for the church in Surgut as they head into the
long Siberian winter. Many members of the church family struggle
with chronic health problems associated with the harsh conditions
of this region.
With love in Christ,
Ellen
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 188 |
