It’s been interesting to watch the weather here and there and note that ours and yours seem to be very similar this winter. Usually, we’re the ones reporting the bad weather, but I think you could top our stories, this year. We’re eager to start watching the Olympics via Internet! It comes to us at 5:00 a.m. if we want it live. So, even though it’s early in the morning, we’re thankful for the technology to be able to view it at all.
You may have heard us talk about the difficult we’re having obtaining visas to live and work here. We have been praying for long-term visas for months now, but are still getting by on 3-month ones, which require a trip over to neighboring Ukraine to renew them. We’re due to leave on Tuesday to get our latest batch, which will be good until mid-May. With the planning involved in transportation and paperwork, we find that only a couple of weeks after we return with our new visas, we need to start the first steps in applying for our next.In fact, this need is pressing us to find new ways of keeping ourselves organized so that we don’t miss important deadlines and overlook formalities. Detailed organization has never been our strong suit. We would like to begin application for “temporary residency” which would enable us to stay for 3 years. Although we’re not aware of anyone ever having applied for this type of visa in Krasnodar, one non-CMA mission family recently submitted their paperwork for one, had an interview, and are waiting to hear the outcome - which could take up to 6 months. Regardless of this outcome, we have some of our documents in order, and will be working on the others needed to submit our application within the next few months. Finally, as we’ve found out regarding the visas process from the Bible college – even jumping through all the paperwork “hoops” does not guarantee a visa at the other end (funny word, “guarantee” - sounds so much less familiar here in Russia than it did in America). Please pray for direction in this.
At the Bible College, things didn’t slow down long for the holidays. Matt taught “hermeneutics” (how to study the Bible) during a two-week course in January. At the beginning of February, he started his semester-long “Introduction to the New Testament”, and in April, will teach another course in the college’s new graduate-level program. Gathering materials, writing up the courses in Russian and then presenting them has been quite a challenge. So far, everything seems to be going well.
A big help to his preparations for teaching was the arrival of his books by boat into the Russian port of Novorossiysk. What we anticipated as a big headache wasn’t quite as bad as we had expected. It required his traveling back and forth a couple of times, hiring men who escorted things through customs, and having a truck deliver the boxes to our home, 2 hours away. The arrival of this shipment came when I was escorting the students from Russia back to BFA in Germany, so Vangie Pattison, our teacher-helper, who has also become a dear friend, pitched in with the kids and arranged her schedule so that she could be here when he wasn’t. Since we arrived back in Russia five months ago, we’ve had two home floods, and both have been times when I was not home. The latest occurred while Matt was down at the port and Vangie was home alone with the kids. A pipe under the kitchen sink burst and nobody knew where to turn it off. Our elderly neighbors came over and got things stopped, and, I was told, scrubbed our kitchen floor for the better part of an hour. Humbling, to say the least. Please pray for my neighbor and friend, Svetlana, her husband, Oleg, and Misha, their grandson.
We’re making progress in our school year. To save our sanity, it’s best to regard our frequent travel as sort of field trips and interruptions as unique educational opportunities—like the lesson they learned in “Understanding Plumbing and Household Floods”. However, as we count the days left in the school year, and compare that to the pages left in our books, we are compelled to carry on with the basics even as we travel. So we’ll be taking our traveling school with us to the Ukraine this week, and hopefully finishing each day in time to play ‘‘tourists”. Our friends in Kiev know of some WWII battle sites, so the boys are looking forward to possibly using their metal-detector on the trip. With all the action, the kids (and their Mom) have a hard time concentrating on the “3 R’s”.
It was a joy to have Rachel home with us for three weeks at Christmas. She continues to thrive in Germany and loves the girls she lives with. In two months, she will be with us again for a spring break. We look forward to the added dimension she contributes to our family.
We’re excited to have a team coming from First Alliance Church in Raleigh, to provide a program for our children at the upcoming Field Forum meetings in early April. Please pray for them as they are beginning to dive into the “visa and travel arrangements” quicksand, and just in general, as they plan how to use the time they’ll have with our kids
We’ll write again soon. We love you and are so touched by your prayer and love for us.
