Time Flies!

Here are some pictures of our first pretty snow of the season. It only lasted for a day or so, but it was absolutely beautiful on the trees! We are continuing to do well. I just wanted to update you on the things we have been involved in recently. 2 Sunday's ago we visited a church here in Moscow for the first time. It was a GREAT and different experience here in Moscow. For those of you who have had Lena as an interpreter, it was her church. They had a Contemporary Christian Rock Band playing when we arrived. This is not usual. They were guests for the day and were looking for opinions and feedback on how to reach young people here in Russia. They did an awesome job and the congregation did a good job of encouraging them on to minister in that way. We also heard an Orthodox pastor speak. It was very encouraging to know that the pastor had a good relationship with the Baptist church because that is definitely not always the case here. Yura and Lena then took us to Moo Moo's for lunch. (A Russian cafeteria type restaurant) I attended a meeting that evening about an English camp that the church we attend puts on every summer. Last year over 200 people were a part of the camp and all of their lessons are about a particular book in the Bible.

We continue with our language lessons. Some days we think we are making progress and others we are really depressed that we can't understand and say more at this time. Please keep praying for our language lessons.

We were able to go to our neighbor's to celebrate Karina's 9th birthday. We had a good evening together with them. I have been back to the renok to visit with Greesha and Sabrina. They are very down right now because their business at the renok has been very slow recently. Please continue to pray for these people as we develop closer relationships with them.

Last Sunday we were able to escape for an hour and a half. We went to the movies to see "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" in English. We took Karina, our neighbor with us. We even got to eat popcorn!! It was a great afternoon.

I have been participating in the worship team practices at our church. We meet in the pastor's apartment every Friday night. At first, I went just to listen so I could learn the songs and be able to sing them on Sunday. I miss singing horribly. However, once they found out I could play, they put me to work! I helped by playing a synthesizer on 2 songs today and look forward to participating some in the future. Both songs were from America. One was "The Power of Your Love" and the other was "You Are Worthy" by Hillsong.

The pastor and his wife sent me a recording of "You are Worthy" so I could practice some at home. I took the opportunity to send it to Slava, my neighbor on email. He told me tonight that he listened to it and then played it for his family. They all told me that the really enjoyed the song. Pray that God will speak through the song as they listen.

The English service that I wrote about in the last post has been postponed indefinitely. I'm not sure if this will be started or not.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with all of our colleagues here in Moscow on Thursday. We wish all of you and very Happy Thansgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for! Praise Him!

Prayer requests for now:

1) Language Lessons!

2) Kellan and Ella to learn more Russian and to do well in their studies. (Ella is not in school yet, but I leave her lessons to do with Olga every day.)

3) Slava, Lena, Karina, Gleb, and Varia

4) Greesha and Sabrina