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May
2004
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We have finished the move into our new apartment! Praise the Lord! I wrote on our blog yesterday that this past week has been a stressful one because of the move. Still, we are so blessed to be in our new place and enjoying the Lord's provision. Our new address and phone number are at the bottom of this e-mail. It is difficult to know what to write about since the day-to-day happenings are posted on our web blog. Still, I could start by giving you an update on the Sunday School ministry. It has been nearly two months since we took over the leadership position. For the most part the workload has been light. However, we have periods of busyness caused by scheduling issues, hyperactive kids, and various "emergencies". Perhaps the biggest challenge for us right now is to be praying often and consistently for the kids and our workers. Right now we are starting to plan for our summer camp at the end of July. One big question is how much we should advertise it in the community. Personally, I would love the camp to reach out more to the kids in our neighborhood so that they could hear the Gospel, but it is also important to build up the kids that come on a regular basis. This month we have had some opportunities to minister together musically outside of homegroup. Olya was asked to sing for two different evangelistic outreaches. The first was a Victory Day concert on May 9th at the church. The second was a special music/drama night on the 23rd. Usually, Olya finds someone on the worship team to accompany her for these special songs, but this time she asked me to do it. I had only done that one other time and I was pretty nervous and made some mistakes while playing. Still, the Lord saw our hearts and overall it was a blessing to serve together. This coming Wednesday, I have been asked to lead worship for our regular service. The guitar player who usually leads worship as well as the drummer are playing concerts with their band in other cities this week. Please pray that I will have my eyes locked on Jesus and trust Him for the strength and ability to lead others in worshipping Him. You can check the blog on Thursday to see how it went. At this point we are planning to visit the U.S. for three weeks in August. The biggest obstacle will be getting Olya's visa to visit. For some reason it is very difficult for us to get a non-immigrant visa for Olya to make a short visit. It would be much easier for us to simply apply for her permanent residency. The only problem with that is that we would like to live in Russia for a while. Anyway, for Olya to be granted a visitor's visa we need to prove that she has strong ties to Russia and reasons to return after the visit. Many others have abused visitor's visas and used them to stay in the U.S. illegally. Because of this practice, it makes it difficult for people like us who really do want to make a short visit. We will try and apply for the visa sometime next week. Olya finishes her first year of teaching at the end of June. At this point, I don't think the end can come quickly enough. It has been a big stretch for her this year and she is ready for a break. Olya is trying to decide whether or not to teach again next year. She enjoys teaching and the challenge of the university level, but there is a lot of stress that goes with it too. We are praying about the decision now. Homegroup is chugging along. There has been no change with Sergey's (the boy who was forbid to go to church by his mom) situation. I started a new science unit with the kids this month. We are studying animals, which is a lot more interesting for all of us than the unit on weather was. I am also still taking Russian lessons once a week. I will study until the end of June and then take a two-month break for summer. That's about it for now. I will leave you with some prayer requests. Please pray: · For wisdom and provision for the Sunday School summer camp at the
end of July Shalom, Dave & Olya www.geocities.com/drerho Novo-Yamskoi Pereyulok 6-66 |