We have enjoyed our time in California–resting, laughing, eating, chatting, etc. Monday morning at 6:15 we take off (literally) for MS. Please pray for our journey home. Cristy has caught a cold, so we are praying that she will not have the pain that air travel can sometimes bring with colds. We are also praying that Thomas and Isaiah will continue to stay free from any cold symptoms.
Thanks for your prayers for our time here. The Lord has blessed. When we return, we will fill you on more details of this trip and Thomas’ time at Moody Bible College.
May you have a blessed Lord’s Day tomorrow!
Archive for October, 2009
If you follow us on Twitter, then you might have realized that Thomas had a bit of a shock last night! Yesterday I told you that he would be leaving for Chicago tomorrow, the same day Isaiah and I head for California. Well, it seems that for about a month we’ve had the wrong day in our heads. His flight was actually this morning not tomorrow! In about 15 minutes his plane should be taking off. Thankfully we did realize this last night and not this morning.
So please pray for traveling safety for Thomas today and for us tomorrow. Thanks!
Thank you all for praying for Thomas’ preaching yesterday. We believe the Lord blessed despite Thomas not feeling 100%. But often that is the Lord’s way, isn’t it. When we are weak, He is strong.
Wednesday we are all heading to the airport, though in different directions. Isaiah and are heading to California to spend a few days with a couple of dear friends of mine from college. We are so thankful to have this extra time with them!
Thomas is heading to Chicago for Moody Bible College’s missions conference. He and a colleague from InterAct will have a table with materials from InterAct to give to students for recruitment. Thomas will also be speaking in a workshop. Please pray for recruits for Tribe 49, the summer mission trip to Russia, and for recruits for all of InterAct’s fields (Western Canada, Alaska, Russia).
Friday Thomas will be flying to Oregon to attend a fundraising banquet for InterAct. One aspect of the banquet is really exciting! Raisa Ivanovna, perhaps the first Tuvan Christian in the history of that region, will be speaking via Skype to the people in attendance. Originally we were hoping that she could attend in person, but thanks to the wonders of technology we have the next best thing. Please pray that all said technology will work properly!
Saturday Thomas will meet us in California where we will visit with Central Valley Presbyterian Church for the following week.
Please pray for smooth travels. We have more equipment then ever before to carry for Isaiah, so please pray for easy connections, helpful airline personnel and patient passengers!
Lastly, thank you for the great response to the mass email that I sent for updated email addresses. If you didn’t get such an email, that means I don’t have an address for you at all. If you would like to receive email updates, please click on “email us” in the right sidebar and email us so that we have your address. Thanks!
We have already been in the States for two months, and I think we are finally getting our “Statelegs”. Between traveling to some of our supporting churches, seeing family and spending lots of hours in Doctors’ and Therapists’ offices our minds have been swirling. Thank you for your patience with us and your faithful support despite our lack of communication.
So here’s what’s been going on:
Isaiah has made a remarkable recovery from his surgery that took place the end of August. He does have some scars, of course, but nothing has held him back or changed his loving, playful personality. He’s been working very hard in therapy and has even begun learning how to walk with a walker! (If you would like to see him in action the very first time that he walked, check out Cristy’s post here.) We thank God for the therapists and equipment specialists who have made it possible for Isaiah to do so much in such a short amount of time by rushing their requests and working weekends to make his equipment.
And now the rest of the family. I realize that you really want to know about Isaiah right away. 
Thomas has been working hard on several projects. He has preached in several churches, and he is scheduled to preach this weekend. Please pray for his preparation and faithful communication of the Word of God. He has also been planning the annual conference for InterAct’s missionaries in Russia and InterAct’s summer mission trip to Russia. He’s doing a great job, but try planning an event some 3000-5000 miles away from where you are and in another language, and you can imagine some of the headaches that he has endured. But he continues to press on and has made some great progress!
The summer trip, Tribe 49, excites us! Thomas is in the process of designing a special website for Tribe 49, but I will give you a few details here to whet your appetite. The trip will last for 8 weeks. The team will leave Atlanta, arriving in Moscow or St. Petersburg. For the first 3-4 weeks team members will get to have a little taste of learning the Russian language through an official institution, thus enabling them to learn some basic communication skills and earn some college credit. From St. Petersburg they will head to Tuva, and from Tuva they will go to Yakutia.
Tons of details are between those lines, and if you have any questions or are interested in going on the trip, please let us know!
Thank you for asking how you can specifically pray for us. I am working on making a special section on our blog for prayer requests, thanks to the suggestion of one of you! But until that section is up and running, which might take me a while considering my skills (or lack thereof) on the computer, I will endeavor to put some requests and praises in a post at least once a week.
Praise God with us…
~Isaiah’s progress after surgery; We can’t describe the feelings we have when we see him trying to walk on his own.
~Safety through our travels; Even in the one mishap, we suffered no lasting effects, and we can still drive our car!
~Times of fellowship with believers in our own language
Pray with us…
~Isaiah needs to learn a lot in the next 6 weeks. Please pray that God will open his mind and strengthen his body.
~Rest. Living in another culture is just plain exhausting. Coming home and running from one appointment to another has taken it’s toll on us as well. Please pray that we would be able to have some times of rest before going back to Russia.
~Children. We would love to have more children.
~Support. We are thankful for the faithful support that we have been receiving the past 2 1/2 years. We could not have learned Russian and done the work that we have done without you! We are in need of more support for our family. Last year we had to be on student visas, which doubled our ministry expenses and dipped into our account at InterAct. We are currently in need of an additional $1000/month of support.
~Projects. Thomas is currently working on several projects. I will list them here, and Lord willing, I will tell you more about them as they progress: Tuvan Bible Project (www.biblesfortuva.com), Tribe 49, Vans for Pastors, Native Pastor Support, Ice Cream Stand (sounds yummy, huh?)
Again, thank you for your support for us so that we can do the work that God has called us to do. Please let us know what we can do for you as well!
