Hello, one and all.
The pictures are of the great city of Nizhniy Novgorod. Anya's hometown, and our home for the month of January. It was month packed full of fun, friends, family, and our future plans. It was good to be in Russia. We have been back now for almost two months and yes, it has taken that long to get settled in. We have moved to a new apartment. We are finishing up with a major project at work, and I have just finished another quarter of studies in seminary. So, life is full, tiring, and wonderful.
To start where I left off in my last correspondence, we met with a number of different missionaries, russian seminary students, and expatriate student christian leaders. We have learned a lot about ministry and life in Russia, and I don't know that we can ever fully process all that we have heard and seen. A few things that we did hear on a recurring basis: The evangelical church in Russia is in a "survival" mode. Evangelical Protestant Christians in Russia are represented in very small numbers and their churches have largely moved into a guarded position; uncomfortable in ministering to the culture surrounding them and resigned to catering only to the immediate needs of their small congregations. We heard of some exceptions, but very few. We also heard over and over again, that the primary problem facing evangelicals in Russia is the enormous gap between faith in Jesus Christ and the circumstances of every day life. Therefore, while the situation is complex, we have begun to think that an effective missionary in Russia should be involved in assisting the Russian Evangelical Church begin to minister to the "outside" culture and begin to demonstrate that life is in Christ, all of it (not just the Sunday stuff).
So we are very excited to pray about and inquire with a ministry that we have begun to communicate with called City Gate. City Gate is a type of Christian retreat center and Publishing House that is focused on long term solutions to the problems facing Eastern European Churches. Please pray with us and keep in contact as we plan ahead on perhaps entering into an internship with City Gate at some point in the next year or so. Please ask any questions that you may have and we would be glad to tell you more! So, I suppose that is it for now.. I will list just a few other news items below that might be of interest:
> My brothers are both starting out their families (Dalton is having his first baby soon and Davlin is on his second! Neat stuff).
> Anya is learning how to drive and will be taking her Drivers test within a month.
> We are able to walk to work now and everyday there is a really friendly black labrador who greets us on our way to the office; Ahhh, how cute.
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