Endings and Beginnings

Our New Team - Doyle, Karen, Daegan, Falyn, Tristyn, Peyton, Dan, Drew, Mark Sprinkle (in back), Brad, Lori, Mark, and Ben

Wow! The past two weeks have been unbelievably full for our family. We have had some wonderful family moments, emotional school moments, and blessed ministry opportunities.

I was able to share my testimony in Russian at church a few weeks ago. It was about 8 minutes memorized. It was quite a challenge, but the biggest challenge was just getting up in front of the people to speak in Russian. The Lord helped me through it, and I made it through without freezing up! Another praise that Sunday came when a women who had been coming to our church services came before the church during fellowship time and repented. Please pray for Olga as she begins her walk with the Lord.

The language prayers have been answered. Doyle and I have both passed our language levels to complete full time language study. We are continuing to study part time, but we are also looking forward to more ministry opportunites. We still have so far to go! Please continue to pray for our language to develop so that we may be able to share with the people the message of salvation.

The kids have finished school. Yeah! It was busy last week. The boys started out the week with field day, while Falyn had exams all week. They had awards chapels also. Among their awards, Daegan received one award for the character trait of flexibility. I guess that makes sense since he has adjusted to the move to Russia better than anyone. Tristyn received one award for being a special helper behind the scenes. Falyn received one for her hard studies in Russian language. Daegan also celebrated his birthday with his classmates. I can't believe my baby is nine years old now! Tristyn had fifth grade promotion, which was a really nice service. His teacher called each student forward and honored them with a special nickname and legacy. The kids all had their class parties on the last day of school, and it was a little bittersweet. Almost all of their friends will be away for the summer, and some of their friends are leaving permanently. It is tough for MKs to always be making new friends and always saying goodbye. Please pray for special relationships for Falyn, Tristyn, and Daegan to develop over the summer. We pray for Russian friends for them as well.

Our four summer students have arrived to work with our team for the next 7 weeks. We worked all afternoon yesterday after church with them stuffing envelopes for Bible distributions. They seem like a wonderful group of guys, and the kids are excited to have them here. Dan and Peyton, our newest members to the team, have settled in. They add a lot of fun and energy to our team, and the kids are having a great time with them also. We have said goodbye to the Stamey family for now. They are now in America and being reunited with their families after serving their second four year term in Moscow. I don't know how we would have made it this far without Brad and Lori. Lori picked us up from the airport when it was 40 degrees below zero, and they have mentored us all along the way. Please pray for their transition and for Brad as he prepares to do seminary work. Also, Brad will be attending the SBC conference in San Antonio. If any of you will be there, Brad will be featured in some of the media clips along with one of our national church planters, Genady, from the Golovinsky Church. Central and Eastern Europe will be highlighted at the conference, so if you are able to be there, you will hear a lot about the work going on in Russia now.

We have a small team of volunteers that arrived today from New Orleans seminary. We will be meeting up with this group tomorrow to distribute invitations for free Bibles in apartment mailboxes. We will continue this on Wednesday as well in the Northern Administrative District of Moscow. We hope to distribute around 10,000 of these invitations. They are designed so that whoever receives them can return the card for a free Bible. The Bible is then hand-delivered to the person to share with him. The kids are excited to be involved in the ministry, and they worked hard stuffing, sealing, and stamping the envelopes. Please pray for those receiving these invitations on Tuesday and Wednesday. We will also be using this team to play some baseball in one of the big parks Wednesday evening with the Russian children. Please pray for God to send the kids and their parents to play with us and hear the message that is presented.

We still have no apartment to move to for now. Please continue to pray that God will show us undoubtedly where He wants us to be, and He will open the right doors at the right time.

Thank you all once again for your continual prayers! We know and feel all the prayers covering us! Have a blessed week!