God is Good in Interesting Times

Things have been a little interesting these past couple weeks. Today was going to be my first day at Motorola again, but because of the Financial Crisis that has hit the whole world the company had to cut the amount of English teachers to two, leaving no room for me and the rest of Lisa’s teachers. However in this time of uncertainty the Lord has been answering many of my prayers. For one Lisa is getting together some lessons for me, so I will still have a job. Then she also asked if she could give me more training, which is something I have been praying about for some time and had never said anything to her about. I was planning on paying for some training online, but when the Lord does things it is always better than what you would have done. Another thing is when I told her my desire to move to Cherepovets she was all for it, and we are going to work on a way to get me established teaching there, maybe a small school, or a teacher training program, we will see. In this time of confusion and uncertainty I believe it is a sign from the Lord that I have total peace and rather than a desire to quit I am motivated all the more to move forward with my plans. I have been praying and I am feeling more and more led to stay here long term, or at least for an open ended amount of time. I am excited to see where the Lord leads!

I am developing a deeper relationship with the team in Cherepovets, Andrey was here in St. Pete for a conference and he came to my apartment to fellowship. He spent the night and we had great time. I am encouraged to find that my Russian has gotten to the point that we were able to communicate ok, but I am still not satisfied. There is so much we are still not able to communicate, and I know that our fellowship would be so much richer if I was better with my Russian. I am more motivated than ever to study and feel that with more hard work and practice I will be able to speak passable Russian by the end of the year for sure, though it will take me a long time to truly master the language.

I thank you for the help that I have received and for your prayers. I would ask that you would continue to pray for wisdom, ability to speak Russian, and provision from the Lord. Also keep the orphans and shelter kids in constant prayer, that they would all come to know Jesus personally and be filled with the joy and peace that come only with fellowship with our Lord. Also that the Lord would show us how we can reach the hearts of the Russian people.