Thank's for Your Prayers

Anya had her inteview today at the U.S. Consulate. She had been really nervous and we have all be in constant prayer for her. The interview went very well and she was accepted for travel to the U.S., but we have to fill out a new application form that they have requested. I will work on that when I return to Ruston next week.

At right: Anya with Mark (son of John and Karen Bull - missionaries from Plano, TX), Susha, and Karina at Child in Danger Shelter.


During her year-long stay, Anya will be making mission trips to south Louisiana and the Yucatan, will be helping with VBS at Emmanuel, and will be doing volunteer work at the Daycare at Emmanuel, along with doing speaking engagements whenever asked. She will also be spending Christmas at Disney World with a missionary friend from Ohio and her family; and will travel with my family to Branson this summer. Lots of fun things to do and see!!

We are all so excited to have this opportunity to help her with her English language to better help her as a translator for mission teams in Russia, and we are looking forward to her being an important part of our families - church and home!


Thank you God for Your mighty power and blessings.

From Russia with Love!
Nancy

The Week in Review

Our week did not begin well as we were unable to minister at the Deaf Orphanage (O20) on Monday. A team of health inspectors was there and one of the nurses had apparently had a bad experience with some Americans who were Jehovah's Witnesses and they took cross necklaces from some of the children. She called us unhealthy Americans and said we could not be trusted. Svieta (the sign language translator) talked with the director and the inspectors, but could not convince them of their error. The director did agree however to let me present my official documents from MIR (the charity organization that sponsors our trips here in St.P) and she would review the matter. MIR put the package together and Svieta will deliver it on Tuesday. Please pray that I will be able to go to O20 on Friday, April 3.

One good thing that came out of Monday was that one of the former students, Zhenya, was visiting and he spent part of the morning with us. As we left the orphanage about 12:30, he walked out with us. We got to Marina's car and she suggested we go to a German restaurant near by to eat lunch, and we agreed. When we arrived at the restaurant and stepped out of the car, Zhenya was walking up the sidewalk. I asked Svieta to invite him to join us for lunch and he was thrilled. He is a sweet young man and a good friend of Losha (one of our boys at the Frunzenskaya apartment of Road of Life). He is pictured here with Zvieta.

Because we were not going to be allowed to go back to O20 on Tuesday, Anya called Child in Danger (CID) shelter and asked if we could come on Tue/Wed/Thur, adding a day to our ministry there. Masha, the assistant director was thrilled and said of course, please come. We arrived at 1:30 and began playing with the children around 2pm. We played games, did arts and crafts, did a "food" project with candies to make caterpillars, and then watched a movie together.

There are currently 15 children at CID and only two of them were kids that I had known from before. John and Karen Bull and their four children joined us for our day at CID. It was great fun as we met the new children and renewed friendships with the kids and counselors from previous trips.

On Wednesday we arrived at CID after lunch and went with 15 kids and 2 counselors to the circus. It was the "Birthday of the Clowns" and was wonderful! Only 2 of the children had ever been to a circus before and it was a big hit. I had brought glow-in-the-dark bracelets for each child and some candy for snack; and of course CID had sent apples for the kids to snack on during intermission. The only "low" point was the guy with the snacks, crocodiles, and other animals. I think Maxim, the CID counselor, thought I was going to crawl in his lap when one of the snakes started climbing up the ring wall. Luckily the crocs' mouths were taped shut and the one stalking the emu was unsuccessful in his "kill". As they say in Russia, "Oy!"

Unfortunately the circus ended at 5:30 - the middle of RUSH HOUR! When we entered the Nevsky Prospect metro line there must have been 10,000 people in there - ask Adam, I'm not exaggerating! We managed to stay together pretty well, until everyone got through and we realized we were missing Ura. Luckily he appeared at the front of the crowd after a few minutes and we were back on track. It was a jammed up, scary adventure for me, but it is their "normal" so they didn't seem to think anything of it.

Thursday was another adventure with the CID kids as we went to Ikea mall to go ice skating. It was not too terribly crowded and they had a great time. We had one little 5 year old, Karina, who was not allowed to skate, but Ikea has a children's play room and Anya took her there to play for an hour and she was very excited. We ate lunch at McDonald's (the doctor at CID had told me no sodas or cold water - I don't understand the water thing - I think they believe that cold water does something bad for you - man, are those of us who live in the South in trouble!) and the kids were thrilled with their happy meals. We then exited by the carousel and let the little ones ride. (Pictured here are Adam and Nastya - she is 16 and attends art school.)

Friday and Saturday were touring and shopping days for Adam and I, followed by Road of Life (ROL) family activities each night. Friday night we met at the Frunzenskaya Boys' apartment with the current residents and counselors of ROL. I did a devotion on The Folded Napkin, about how Jesus folded the cloth covering his face in the tomb, which by Jewish tradition meant that the "master is coming back." Part of the devotion included Adam doing some decorative napkin folding - and then of course the tests began - all of the boys at the apartment tried to fold the napkins as Adam had shown, and then raced each other. It was great fun.

After the napkin devotion, Adam and Dustin Clark (from Alabama, who had gone to StP with me a year ago and was back for a week-long visit) shared about their lives, their faith, their goals. Adam is a sophomore at Ouachita Baptist Univ. in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and his girlfriend attends Samford University in Alabama. Dustin graduated from the Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham last summer, is currently employed as a civilian with the US Army as an engineer, and his girlfriend also attends Samford U. Adam and Dustin both lived at the ROL apartment this week and were pleasantly surprised to find that their two girlfriends not only lived close to each other, but had had a class together. It's still a small world!!

This is the group picture taken on Friday night - we now have to split the meetings to get everyone into the same place. That's why I met Friday night with current residents/counselors, and Saturday night with graduates.

Saturday night we had a bowling outing with the graduates of ROL followed by dinner at the food court. It was a great time, and all but two of the grads who live in StP were able to attend - Nelly and Liza are still in the US. Each of the grads shared what they are doing and their hopes and goals for the future. It was wonderful seeing them all again. Marina Topol (director of ROL) and I are talking about putting together an email newsletter to let all of you know how the kids are doing and how you can pray for them.

I stayed at the Frunzenskaya Boys' apartment on Saturday night to accompany Adam to the airport on Sunday morning. FYI - Russia changed to daylight savings time last night - so Adam and I have "survived" two of those this year thank you very much! It was a pretty emotional time for Adam because he had grown so close to the two boys who live at the apartment, as well as Meisha, a ROL grad who had come to help translate during the week. I was really proud of him though - he managed to get out of the apartment and even hug me at the airport with no tears. I'll be interested to here if his flight home was still "tearless"!

I will post Adam's thoughts and memories with you when he gets back and hopefully readjusts to "normal" life at OBU - and takes a week or so to get over the jet lag!

I have one more week here in StP and look forward to going to CID on Tuesday afternoon, Dormitory 70 on Tuesday night, the Road of Hope Friday. Also, a new adventure for me - Marina's church has opened a shelter for street kids and she is taking me there on Thursday - at last, a place where I can talk openly about God and His Son without worrying about someone asking me to leave!!!

From Russia with Love,
Nancy

CHANGE

We all know that change is inevitable and change is a word thought of a lot here in St. Petersburg – change in economics (I got the highest rate of exchange for my dollar in 5 years at 33 rubles/$), change in the city skyline (I counted 14 new buildings around the airport, on the way into the city, and especially in Pushkin – a city south of St.P), and change in the people (even some of the “older” people looked different on the metro yesterday – people actually looked at each other and not the floor).

We picked Eddie and Cindy Williams and Cindy’s daughter Ashley up at the airport Sunday afternoon and took them to Pushkin to stay at the SOS Orphanage, and Cindy couldn’t believe how much everything had changed in the two years since she has been here. And even Eddie had a little trouble trying to figure out how to get to the orphanage because everything seemed different.

At the worship service at 21st Century Church yesterday I noticed other changes – one of the young women who works with street kids had a more conservative hair style; Dimitri (the associate pastor and wonderful musician) was absent and I was told that he only gets to attend his home church a couple of Sundays each month because he is so much in demand to preach and sing at other churches and conferences; and Adam Wheat (my fellow team member, son of our associate pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ruston, and sophomore at Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, AR) commented on what a change it was from church “back home.” He said that even though the service lasted for 3 hours, from 11 a.m. until a little after 2 p.m., no one seemed to mind and even hung around afterward to fellowship with other church members. His comment to me – “It was nice to see that these people didn’t bring all the ‘stuff’ with them to church that at home seems to make them so anxious to get out, get home, get to lunch. They just came to worship and enjoy their time with the Father.”

The main emphasis on the service was fire – Luke 3:16, “…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” And they sang a song I had not heard, “God Wants You to Burn.” Now that can sound really bad if taken out of context – God does NOT want you to burn in an eternal hell, but He DOES want you to burn with a passion to share His Word and His Son with everyone you see and know. The pastor talked about the many different people who attend their church – some with wild hair, iron studs in the ears and on their faces, and well, just “different.” He told the story of one young man who came to church with hair done in big pointed spikes sticking out all over his head; and the pastor said he just couldn’t help himself – he had to ask “How do you get your hair to do that!” and the young man replied – “I wet it, put gel in it, and go to the metro to wait for the next train to come along with its great, mighty wind. And ‘poof’ instant spikes!” The pastor said, “Oh, style by metro!” Then he laughed and said maybe some of the congregation should try that. Marina Topol, who was translating for us, asked Adam if we had a metro back home and he and I both chuckled as he said no; so she told him he would have to try it here before he returns home.

Yes, there has been much change in StP, but as much as some things change, many more stay the same. The Road of Life family members still love each other with all their hearts and welcome us into their homes with graciousness and warmth. Those same families make room in their homes for children in need – the Frunzynskaya home where Adam is staying now has two young men who are deaf living with them full time – Losha and Nakita – and one young man who visits on the weekend who is going blind – Sergey. These are the young men that no one wants to bother with – that many consider stupid and even frightening. But the Christian parents at this ROL home, Artur and Nina, just stretch their arms out wider and take in all who will come. Their family of five (Artur and Nine, their two children, and Nina’s mother) live with the two permanent residents (Losha and Nakita) and this week have welcomed two Americans into their home – our Adam and Dustin Clark from Alabama. And a ROL graduate of that home, Meisha, has also come to stay to help translate – not only Russian, but sign language as well. As Adam said on Sunday, “It is a little overwhelming.” But I know that as Adam gets into the swing of things, he’ll be hard-pressed to let go and return home – they are already laughing and having a great time finding the differences between American sign language and Russian sign language.

Keep us in your prayers as we begin our ministry at the Deaf Orphanage and at Child in Danger shelter this week. And remember that even though you are on the other side of the world, you are still in our hearts and minds as well.

From Russia with Love!
Nance (and Adam)