Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We are so grateful for God giving us His most precious Son to be born in a manger so that we might receive the gift of eternal life through His death on the cross! Please take some time this holiday season to rest and ponder the wonder of Christmas with your loved ones and friends. Jesus Christ truly is the greatest gift ever given!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I have always loved Thanksgiving. I love being in church and hearing testimonies of what God has done and is doing in other people's lives. Here, in our ministry, there are very few times I am able to be in the services due to me being the SS teacher. So, when I am able to sit in the services every now and then on Wednesday nights (if extra curricular schedules conflict and keep my teen girls away from their discipleship lessons with me), I love hearing our church family share something from what they read in their devotions or watch the "light bulb" come on when they understand a truth from God's word.
This past Sunday my husband shared that during the am service they went around the room and shared what each of them are thankful for. Here were a few of their comments:

Lady #1: "I am thankful that for the first time in our family, we have peace among us."

Lady #2: " I am thankful that I have a God who cares about me and is there for me. When I need to make a decision He is there for me." (this dear lady accepted Christ this past summer and is the newest Christian who attends our services!)

Man #1: "I am thankful for my salvation, that we even had the opportunity to accept Christ as our Savior."

What a blessing to hear them share their hearts and be thankful! We praise the Lord for YOU, those of you who prayerfully and financially support our family and ministry so that we can have the wonderful privilege of sharing the gospel with souls on the other side of the globe. God is good!

A Reason to Celebrate

Today, November 2nd, 2014 is a special day for our family as it marks 15 years of serving the Lord on the mission field of Siberia, Russia. It is truly hard to believe we have been here for that long!

I put together this slide show to share with you many of the blessings we have witnessed over the years. 

God is GOOD!

We would like to express our sincere appreciate to those of you who have prayed, given, encouraged, and loved us along the way. 

We truly could not have stayed here this long without you holding the ropes for us!

We look forward to many more years and many more blessings. 

We have so many dreams, hopes, and wishes that we beg God to allow us to see come to fruition here in Siberia. 

Please pray for us as we continue on in His name.

A Ministry Need

Dear praying friends and family,

As many of you may know there is still much work to be done on our new house. One of the biggest blessings of being able to move into it as of December 2011, in regards to our ministry, is that is has freed up the old house to be used as a much needed room for our Sunday school ministry. 

Back-to-School Sunday, 2014

However, we still have not been able to install a heating system into the old house. As of this year, we have a stove ready for installation but there are more items needed to complete this project. It is our prayer that we can complete this project before winter comes to stay in November. We have begun the process and have explained all the details on our building blog.

Would you please pray about the need to complete this project? 

If you have any questions about how you can help with this need, please feel free to contact us by e-mail or in the comments of this post.

God gave the increase!

Quite a few years ago (2007 if I remember correctly), through helping out another Christian man with some building projects in our village, my husband met a family. This family lived in the city during the school year but came out to stay with Grandma and Grandpa who lived in the village, during the summer months. While my husband and Zhenia, the man he worked with, completed these projects at Grandma and Grandpa's house, they often witnessed to the great grandmother who also lived there. It was an unusual situation with four generations under one roof! In all there was great grandma, her daughter and son-in-law (Grandma and Grandpa), and their two daughters who were both married. The oldest daughter, Yuliya, and her husband, Vanya, had two children. The younger sister, Nastya, was married to Oleg and would soon be expecting their daughter, Dasha. Through working on these projects, and the daughters realizing that David was an American; Yuliya, and her sister, Nastya, opened up to let the guys know that they themselves taught English. One taught at a school and the other at the Aerospace University! My husband, David, and his friend, Zhenia, continued to witness and talk with the great grandmother since she would often work alongside them in the garden. It was a great opportunity to get to know this family better!

I, Dee Dee, was also able to meet this family, along with our children. The daughters, Yuliya and Nastya, and I enjoyed visiting together and two of our children were close in age. We invited the children to Sunday school and visited them every Saturday to invite them through giving them coloring sheets to bring to the next day. Through time, Yuliya began bringing her kids to Sunday school and even attended the Bible study herself. They came every chance they could and would even drive in from the city to attend church. We thought for sure that Yuliya would soon see her need for Christ and be saved. 

Pollina and Zhenia, little cuties - August 10, 2008

However, through time she got involved in a business that kept her busy. The kids had recitals and gymnastics to keep them busy and they stopped coming to Sunday school. We tried to keep in touch with them and were amazed that they would reconnect with us during the holidays, often exchanging gifts with our children at Christmas time. But, there were a few years where we heard nothing from them.

Sometimes during the summer months when time allowed them to, the kids would come to church. Once we found out they were in the village for the summer we would again make weekly visits to their grandparent's house to invite them. But, Yuliya herself would not attend services. The family was usually out of town during the VBS programs, which we always wished the children could attend. It was one of those situations when we thought, what was it that caused Yuliya to stop coming to services? And with that thought came a million others, maybe she was convicted? Maybe she was offended? Maybe she was afraid to take the next step and accept Christ?

As we missionaries often do, we ourselves thought there had to be a reason why she stopped coming. 

But, there never seemed to be any real reason. 

The devil sometimes gives them just enough busyness in their lives to distract them and keep them 

from making a decision for Christ.

Fast forward to last year's VBS program 2013. 

Yuliya and her sister, Nastya heard about our VBS and brought their children to most of the week's activities!

Pollina invited a neighbor to come as her guest which has caused this pre-teen girl to start to regularly attend Sunday school!

This year, upon our return to Russia from our furlough, we again reconnected with Yuliya and her family, to invite them to Sunday school. Thankfully, all three children, began faithfully attending this summer and were able to attend every day of this year's VBS program! Just before the week of VBS began, Zhenia expressed an interest in knowing more about salvation. As I was talking to him after service, Pollina came up to listen in and agreed that she too wanted to know more! I promised them that I would talk to their Mom since she and I have had a good relationship so that she knew how the Lord was working in their hearts. After the first day of VBS, I was able to take Yuliya aside and explain to her that her children wanted to accept Christ. She, not completely understanding herself all that repentance meant,  at that point agreed to read the "Done" book during the week of VBS and to come to me with any questions. She and her sister came each day as they could and sat in on every Bible lesson. Pollina and Zhenia even worked hard to earn medals for memorizing the most verses! Pollina beat out her brother for third place by memorizing 52 verses. Zhenia said 50 verses!

The next Sunday after the week of VBS was finished, Yuliya was in services while her children were in Sunday school. As they worked to finish reading "Done" together, we prayed for their understanding and offered to answer any questions. Yuliya herself, asked if she and the kids could come over during the week to visit. Every Sunday after services they have stayed to visit with us just because. This past Sunday, they explained how close they were to finishing the "Done" book and that they would complete it this week. Today, they were faithful to come early to be in their places for Sunday school. Once service was over, and I dealt with several other people and some medical questions, Yuliya waited patiently to visit with me while the kids played together. I asked about the "Done" book and if they were able to finish it this week. She said they read the rest of it in a day. Then she said, "There is a prayer of repentance at the end of it. We all three read it together and Zhenia asked me, 'Mom, does that mean that we just got saved?' I told him, I don't think so, Zhenia. We need to ask Dee Dee but, I think there must be more to it than simply reading this prayer." So, that broke the ice for more questions. I explained again how that in Romans 10:9-10 the Bible says: 

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 

 I asked Yuliya if she would like for me to go through verses with her again and she agreed. She immediately called her children in and she, Pollina, and Zhenia listened intently as I explained the plan of salvation to them in detail.

I am happy to say that after our discussion, all in the same room and one at a time, all three of them placed their trust in Jesus Christ and accepted God's free gift of salvation!

Here is a photo of us in our home after we all spent some time together rejoicing over their decision to live for Christ!

Since Yuliya just today expressed an interest in reading the Bible together with her kids, she was excited to take the discipleship workbooks home with her for them to work on together as a family. Please pray for us as we explain baptism to them in detail, disciple them, and for the salvation of Yuliya's husband, Vanya.

GOD IS GOOD!

VBS 2014 Review video!

We are so thankful that this year, James and Amber Pranger were able to come out to help us with VBS. Amber worked diligently to complete a video by the last day of VBS so that I could easily show the highlights from the week to our friends and family. We hope you enjoy this video as much as we did!

To all of you who prayed for God to bless the week, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Please continue praying with us for each of the children who were in attendance this week. We know God's word will not return void and are excited to see God use the lessons taught to bring more people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Ready or not...here VBS comes!

We are up late the night before VBS begins! Please be in prayer for us this week as we hold our annual VBS program from July 7th to July 11th, 2014. 

Please pray for:

1. God to use us mightily this week.

2. For all the planning to have come together as it should.

3. For safety as a few helpers from the city drive in each day.

4. For clarity of thought and mind as David and I teach the daily lessons.

5. For the children to understand the Gospel message clearly.

6. For the parents of all the children to also be reached with the Gospel.

I am always very busy during the evenings before each day of VBS but if I can manage to post a bit of an update from each day I will.

Thank you for your prayers!!!

Long story short...

The long story short is...we are back in Russia! We are very happy to be back in the swing of the ministry here. Please forgive the extended "break" in blog updates. I have to say losing all my photos, no thanks to Google +,has really made catching up the blogs almost overwhelming. In the States, we thought we would have time to update the blogs but the lack of consistent internet connection made that very difficult.

So, here we are already back from furlough and still have lots of catching up to do!

Packing up a church van to get our family and luggage to the airport!

Even though furlough is quite costly for our family because of travel expenses, we were very thankful for the opportunity to return to the US and be spiritually refreshed.  I hope to share some highlights from our furlough on my personal blog, (http://www.whitherthougoest.blogspot.com). We have a wonderful time as a family and made lots of memories. 

We unloaded the van, said goodbye to the driver who was a guy from our church, and we were off!

As for our much needed increase in financial support, every new church we presented our ministry in, promised to take us on! We did see some decrease in our support once we returned to the States and began calling for meetings in already supporting churches, so please pray with us that all of this new support will come in. 

Felt sort of strange with no family to see us off since David's parents moved to Arizona and we fly out of Seattle.

We also still have need of a new vehicle for use on the field. We strongly desire to begin again our village outreach ministry and need a newer and more dependable four-wheel drive vehicle to be able to make these trips out away from the city where the road conditions often give a whole new meaning to the word "extreme"! Please be in prayer for this need.

We were all happy to be settled in for the long flight and done packing!

We covet your prayers as we continue in the ministry here in the village of Elita. We have already seen some spiritual growth in Christians who have been saved during our ministry. Some who had walked away from church and the Lord have come back and are now excited to live for Him! We look forward to sharing those stories with you in the coming weeks. Others, for whom we have continued to pray, are still lost and searching to fill that void in their lives that only a relationship with God can fill. We continue to witness to them. We would like to tell you more about them as well. There is much work to be done and many lost souls to reach!

Landing in Moscow.

One blessing we do not ever want to take for granted is the open arms which were waiting for us upon our return to the village. Praise the Lord, we were missed! 

The "welcome sign" the teen SS class had made for us to welcome us home!

Furlough Is Upon Us! (2013-2014)

In an effort to catch up on our ministry I wanted to first of all let everyone know that our family flew out of Krasnoyarsk, Russia on November 6th to begin a short five month furlough. Since we have our permanent residency permits, we can only be outside the borders of Russia for no more than six months. That is why we take a shorter furlough.
Now, I have to tell you that the weeks approaching our furlough were a whirlwind. We had so much work we wanted to get done on our house to make it more "user-friendly" for the new missionary couple that would be moving in and taking care of our house, pets, and church family. So, to say that we were physically and mentally ready for a furlough is an understatement!
However, this was the first furlough for us to where we have had to leave so many new converts, as well as, people we were establishing relationships with and witnessing to on a regular basis. Therefore, we had a difficult time leaving! There were tears shed by all as we had our last services before our departure.

We were so touched by people who came to our house to say goodbye and take pictures with us reminding us to not forget them and to return "home" to Russia! How could we forget!? We will miss them terribly!

James and Amber Pranger arrived approximately a week and a half before we were to fly back to the US. They are taking care of our ministry, house, and pets while we are gone on furlough. James' parents had been missionaries in Russia since James was six years old. Growing up as an MK in Russia means James is able to "hit the ground running" and preach and witness in Russian as soon as his feet land on Russian soil.
We met Amber during a survey trip they took here to Krasnoyarsk a few years ago. This time however they have brought their little son, Jacob, along with them and he is definitely a popular little "item" around the village!

This photo is dark but I love it as the girls gathered around little Jacob Pranger to take pics together!

Once our departure date arrived, the kids were all excited to be traveling somewhere, to fly again on an airplane, and to see their extended family. So, our adventure begins with a five hour flight to Moscow. We also had a twelve hour layover in Moscow but us parents had no desire to spend all  that time getting across town to Red Square so we decided to take a shorter trip... and just find the "golden arches"!

Waiting for the AeroExpress train to head to another station.

Sleep deprivation is only slightly obvious at this point.

Moscow is overwhelming to me. The streets are very wide and getting from point A to point B requires a lot of walking or if you are in a car, sitting in traffic for hours. It is such a busy city full of people!

 The McDonald's restaurants are so nice and, in our opinion, the food is much more fresh and yummy in Moscow than in the US! 

We can almost taste the Big Macs now!

McDonald's here are often two story buildings, very clean...

...and very busy!!

YUM!

As we sat and enjoyed our unhealthy, yet delicious meal, we had a nice window seat view of a huge shopping mall across the street. There are many shopping malls in Russia like this one but in Moscow they are even larger and several stories tall.

Often they are ornately decorated and seem almost like cities within themselves.

After our long stop in Moscow it was time for us to continue our adventure with a two and a half hour flight on to Germany. We arrived late in the evening.When we fly back to the States we do our best to spend one night sleeping in a hotel either in Moscow or the next country stop.  The jet lag seems to really get you when the whole time you've been flying it is daylight outside! After finally finding a taxi from the airport, we were driven to our hotel. It was a bit interesting as the driver didn't know where the hotel was so we took a little longer to get there. On the way we all enjoyed listening to him yell the name of the hotel in German into his phone so that it would give him correct directions only to finally give in and pull off the road to type it in. Eventually, we arrived.

Never a dull moment!

Welcome to the Hotel Kesterbach! 

We had thought we had rooms reserved through an online booking site but as we gave our information to the clerk at the desk, we found out that there were no rooms reserved for us. Thankfully, they weren't so full that we couldn't stay there that night and they gave us the rooms for the same rate we were quoted online!

I love visiting Germany!

Ryan saw this sign on the door the next morning and at first glance thought it said "Drunken". As you can see he was shocked. 

As we prepared to board our flight to the US David and I walked around a little by our gate and couldn't resist buying some sort of pastry before we left the country. After all, what else do you do with those leftover Euro coins besides buy pastries, right?!

Let me introduce you to our extremely yummy doughnut pretzel. 

Wow, did this thing melt in your mouth!

Ten and a half hours later we arrive in Seattle. 

We are here! What's next on the agenda you ask? 

Sleep?

Showers for all?

Not until after we rush to our home church to unload our luggage so that we can repack one bag and send our daughter off to attend Teen Winter Conference. 

The bus left 30 minutes after we arrived at the church.

Our teens ready for a great conference!

Yes, never a dull moment!