2011.11.17

Wondering

Update in a Nutshell:

1.  Regular schedule

2.  Last trip of the season

3.  Trip for moms

Request:

-please read as there are a few requests within the update

-continued energy to keep going on

-those that are young in faith will stay strong

-continue to have opportunities to share with others

Praises

-boys are doing well

-people are hearing about the good news

-He is showing His love

A somewhat regular schedule is often hard to find in our neck of the woods.  But when it is found it can surprisingly be a little refreshing.  Over the past month or so we have had a somewhat regular schedule.  Andrew taught English the normal 3 times a week.  The kids had their normal baby-sitter come and work on Russian language with them.  They speak so well.  Jennifer had her normal meetings with the ladies and regular get togethers with others.  It was kind of refreshing this last month as we had some routine in our lives.

In that routine we were able to meet together with one of my students who studies English in our school.  He and his wife with two kids our kids’ ages are very pleasant.  They are a typical family here working hard trying to make ends meet.  We had a good time getting to know them one day when we had them over for a meal.  I continue to get to know them during our class times as well.  Pray that we will get to know them and share Him with them.

Our school has also opened a small little library/café.  It is open between our classes in the afternoon and evening.  Students can stay late after class or come early to class.  There they can check out English materials as well as just sit and chat.  Jennifer comes once a week to sit and be the English native speaker that students can interact with.  It has been a good time of getting to know our students better outside of the classroom.  We hope that we can continue to use that time to get to know our students better and eventually share with them true love.

The boys continue the course in life through the two different cultures that make up their world.  They learn English from mom a few days a week and Russian from their baby-sitter as well as their friends.  It is impressive how much they know and can speak now in Russian.  We are so proud of them.  Keep them in your prayers as they have so many different influences around them that they are trying to figure out how to understand.  Pray that we will be able to instill within them the desire to know the Lord and follow Him.

We had about a month of regular routine and then it was over.  But that is okay because irregular routine is kind of regular for us.  One of the things I did at the end of this regular time was take a group out climbing and camping.  Along with a couple other leaders we took a group for the last time this season to go climbing and camping.  It was cold, about freezing the whole time.  We managed to not turn into popsicles and still have a great time.  We had a great couple of days talking about and discussing the prodigal son as well as how He is the Good Shepherd.  The main idea for the trip was to not only ourselves share with others but to get some of our young believing brothers to invite their friends along and share with them.  They gave their testimonies a couple of nights and had lots of good discussion time.  Pray that these new believers will be able to grow quickly in their faith as well as share with their friends.

Jennifer also had an opportunity to go to a conference about mothers with preschoolers.  I believe it is called MOPS in the states.  She went with another lady from the group here in our city to the conference.  It was a good conference where the ladies had an opportunity to discuss lots of things that were helpful as well as others that are not regularly discussed in bigger families here.  Pray that they will be able to take some of those ideas and adapt and apply them to the group here. 

We would love to hear what you are thankful for this season and how we can pray for you or rejoice with your victories as well.

Andrew and Jennifer