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!