OUR FIRST RUSSIAN GUESTS!

The mountain dew bottles even look like booze here!


The view from our kitchen window.



The food our neighbor brought over, which put our egg salad and homemade brownies to shame. It is a swedish roll with raisins, nuts, cinnamon, etc. - french cream danishes with fruit on top, and Russian bread with a fruity middle! Tasty! Tasty! :)


Our neighbors from the 1st floor!

We just wanted to say thanks to all of you who prayed for our time with our neighbors tonight. We had a good time together and were able to communicate enough to make it through the evening. We will continue to try to build a close relationship with this family in the next few weeks.

Language classes are consuming almost all of our time here. I am sure we are learning LOTS each day, but it seems so slow when you want to be able to talk to other people. Deana is enjoying her teacher, Elvira. I am in class at the university with 3 other men. 1 from Spain, 1 from Italy, and 1 from Korea. As you can imagine, our class can get very interesting.

Some of you have asked for our mailing address. If you will send us an email requesting it, we will send it to you. It took a letter mailed from the states exactly 3 weeks to get here. Please continue praying.

HERE AND READY!

We made it to Moscow smoothly and have spent most of our time so far just getting settled in our apartment and unpacked. We have also been trying to figure out what is close by to our apartment. We praise the Lord for a smooth trip here with no problems or delays. All of our bags arrived with us and our apartment seems to be in a great location. We are near a metro and Deana is very close to her tram stop to get to language lessons. Shopping for groceries is close by and Kellan's school is just a bus ride away.

We thank you all for your prayers and support! We also thank our team we have joined helping us get into our apartment and get other things done. We also thank Lori, Drew, Mark, and Ben for driving us around and keeping the kids several needed times. All of you are GREAT!

Please pray for us as we begin language study next Monday. We will be in full-time language for at least 1 year. I will be taking language at a local institute every day from 10-3. Deana will be taking lessons from a Russian language 1-on-1 from 12-3 each day. We know that this is going to be very hard and take lots of time and commitment on our part. We also know that this will be key in the effectiveness of our ministry!

Please pray for the kids as they stay with their aunt and cousins during our language for a couple of weeks and then will have a Russian nanny named Olga! Pray for this transition especially for Ella. She will be with Olga for the next year. Kellan will begin school in mid-August. Hope you enjoy some of these pictures. We will try to update again soon.

Please pray!

Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths."

We are trusting the Lord as we leave today and asking our prayer warriors to rally behind us as we travel today. We will be leaving this morning about 10:30 from the house and our plane leaves at 2:00. We haved to make a quick stop at Game Stop for Kellan to spend some birthday money! We should arrive in Moscow around 2:45am est.

Please pray for safety, ease and patience through check-in and security, a smooth transition in DC, and passage through Russian customs without delay or problems. Pray for strength for all of us ,but especially for the kids as there schedules get completely interrupted with the time difference.

Several have asked about our email and it will stay the same for now. We will be sending an address for letters and snail mail after we arrive and try to post some pictures of our new apartment.

There have been many "so longs" and "goodbyes" said. Thanks to everyone who has made a special effort to encourage us. We thank God every time we think of you and we know that our ministry will not be successful in Moscow without all of you praying for us!

We will be in touch! If you know others who would like to be on the prayer partner list, please let us know and if at anytime you wish to be removed from the email updates, please let us know.

ENDING ILC

We want to thank everyone for your prayers during our time here at ILC in Virginia. God has taught us so many useful things for ministering on the field and we are excited about finally arriving in Moscow on July 2. This has been an incredible experience being surrounded by individuals who are facing all of the same issues that we are and we are so thankful to everyone who continues to support the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering which makes this possible for us.

Please pray for all of us as we say goodbye to all of our friends here. This is the beginning of a lifetime of goodbyes for our children. Pray especially for them! They have enjoyed ALL of the kids here and have had many fun times at school and on the playground. The journeymen have been great with the kids and encouraged them and shared with them also. All of the adults have had an impact on them in some way!

We will be leaving here on Wednesday evening and heading straight for the beach! (Anyone who knows me well knows I have to have my beach time before leaving!) We will be at the beach for 1 week and then we will be back in Boiling Springs for 1 week before leaving.

Thanks to all who have encouraged us with mail here. Please do not send any more mail to the Virginia address. Our address before leaving is PO Box 327 Boiling Springs, NC 28017. If you have not recieved a photo prayer card and would like one, please send us your mailing address.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of the kids! They are excited about getting to the beach and being spoiled rotten!

DC DAY

*We just wanted to say thank you for your prayers for us last Thursday during our day in Washington D.C. We had a GREAT day there and the kids were wonderful. We arrived in Washington around 10:30 and observed internationals in Union Station when we first arrived. We then went to eat at an AWESOME Kazakh restaurant called Cafe Assorti. It was great. We were in a group with 1 other family and with another single guy. After eating lunch, we went back to Lincoln Park to just walk and share our faith with people that we met. We were able to have quite a few surface conversations and a couple of people were willing to share some prayer requests with us.

*We also ask you to pray this week for us as we are in session until 5:00 each day. This means that the kids are in school until 5:00 each day as well. Pray for strength, focus, and energy to complete the week and learn all that we can in our time.

*Last week the Lord challenged me in many different ways! 2 of the things that He is continuinously reminding me of are these to things:

1) Revelation 2:10 - Be faithful unto death!

2) What would you do for God if you were not afraid?

*We thank you for being our partners in prayer. If you know someone who is not on our email list or you would like to be on our email list, please let us know! Hope you enjoy the few pictures!

PICTURES OF QUAD LIFE!

These are pictures of our quad in Virginia! We are just over halfway finished with our time here and it seems to be flying by! We praise the Lord for GREAT quad mates and are enjoying being around other folks who are facing the same things that we are at this time! God's presence fills this place and we are being challenged in many ways in preparation for leaving to spread the message!

AWESOME QUOTES AND QUESTIONS!

I just wanted to quickly update everyone on the week. We have had a great week. Things are incredibly busy, but worthy of the time! Our kids have adjusted so well and are extremely happy here. We thank you for the prayers, letters, and other encouragements already! Below, I am going to list some quotes and questions that challenged me in a HUGE way on Friday during one of our sessions! I urge you to think about these quotes and questions and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through these as well!



QUOTES AND QUESTIONS:



1) There is a metiocre Christianity in the west that does not need to be transplanted to the nations!

2) Many Western churches are experiencing a spiritual drought!

3) The biggest treat on the mission field is finding passionate Christianity in believing nationals.

4) The enemy is sharpening his tools waiting for me.

5) You cannot live off the sap you have stored up for very long. The only way to survive is a fresh cup of living water each morning!

6) All you need to do is inspect the fruit of your life to determine the vibrancy of your walk with Christ!

7) The enemy just wants to get one little hook in your heart so he can cover it over. He repeats this process over and over.

8) BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY!

9) You cannot look into this country for your standard of righteousness.

10) What compromises have I made? What excuses do I give?

11) Are you filled by the Spirit? Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you led by the Spirit?

12) The Spirit cannot fill a dirty vessel!

13) We are missing so much that God wants to put into our lives!

14) Do you anticipate reading the newspaper more than reading the Word of God?

15) If the Holy Spirit were loosed to all believers, the world would be turned upside down again!

16) IF YOU HOLD INEQUITY IN YOUR HEART, YOUR PRAYERS WILL NOT BE HEARD!

17) Our struggle is always with our pride!

18) It's hard to groan after something you know nothing about!

19) We have become lamps with no lights!

20) Where is the body of Christ who will stand up and say, "Thus saith the Lord!"

21) Other religions are popping up everywhere throughout our country as we sit idly by and watch!

22) People's capacity for suffering is much greater in other countries than here in America!

We so desperately need a revival of the American church! Pray that God would lead you to become more passionate about Him and about spreading the gospel at home as well as to the nations!!!