Finally Living In Cherepovets

I am finally moved to Cherepovets. My first day wasn’t exactly what I expected. I am not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. I took an overnight train here on Sunday and arrived here at 6:20 am. The trip was pretty uneventful; I was able to sleep most of the way. But when I got off the train it was soon apparent that Igor had slept in or something, which I can’t really blame him for. He is a very busy guy and was up late the night before. This wouldn’t have been too bad accept it was raining. But I was able to pack all my stuff tight around me and keep everything dry with an umbrella. I didn’t mind waiting much. I spent the time praying and thinking about everything. There is a lot I have to do before I can truly settle in here. Now that I have moved everything over here and am technically moved in, now I have to work on getting visas and registration so I don’t have to leave every month or three months.

When Igor arrived we greeted each other with a hug and immediately got busy loading my stuff. I was a little surprised when we got to the apartment where I am living and found it cluttered with stuff. I had forgotten that Igor was remodeling another apartment for his parents, because Igor’s mom needs to live in an apartment that doesn’t have five stories of stares to climb. This is the main reason Igor is so busy. On top of the remodel he is doing all his other ministry work, getting ready to go to Israel for an IBS seminar and so many other things that he is doing. So we got right to work moving stuff from my apartment to the other one and all the while discussing my visa situation and figuring out how I can get on the internet while we are waiting for it to get hooked up at the shelter. We were able to get a lot of stuff moved and not everything is starting to come together quite nicely.

Finally, later in the afternoon we met with Olga, the director at the shelter, and explained what we need her to do for my visa invitation. The plan now is to get a work visa from the Light of Hope shelter and use that to get my permanent residency started, the logic being that it will give a more concrete and believable reason for me to want to become a resident. We had a great talk and in addition to the visa invitation we also discussed how I can help in the shelter and we shared ideas how I might be most useful. There was a good time when it was just me and Olga, because Igor had to run and do something. It was fun trying to express ourselves then, but we were able to understand each other and I am looking so forward to getting closer and working with this group of wonderful people.

This is now my third day in Cherepovets and I am still getting unpacked. I can’t decide what part of moving is worse, packing or unpacking. I haven’t really gotten to hang out too much at the shelter yet with all the errands I have to do, but tomorrow I am going to be there early and we are going to do something with the kids. I am really looking forward to it. I have been spending most of my time helping Igor, running little errands that I need to live here and getting ready for another visa trip in a couple weeks as well as getting ready for the next one in July. It is a complicated process. I would ask that you would keep the whole situation in prayer. If everything goes well by August I should be able to get the visa from the Shelter that will hopefully be my last visa trip. Please pray that the Lord’s hand will be in every step and everything will go as smoothly, quickly and as cheap as possible. Thank you so much for those of you who faithfully minister in prayer and support. I will continue to need it and cannot express how grateful I am. I can’t wait till I can stop writing about the difficult and expensive visa processes and tell you more about the great things the Lord is doing in the lives of the shelter kids and orphans we will be working with. Also please keep in prayer the future, that we would be attentive and follow the leading of the Lord. God Bless and May you be filled with the Grace of the Lord.