Христос Воскрес! Christ is Risen!

Sunday was Easter. A celebration that all the Russians observe. The tradition is to greet everyone with these words, "kreestoc voskress!" Christ is Risen! Which then would be returned with "voeestenoo voskress!" He is Risen Indeed! As I was on my way to church my heart was fluttering with anticipation of attending a church service where our whole church congregation could be together. This has not happened since the summer when the city officials banned the church from meeting on the land they were renting. Since then we have been meeting in home church groups all over town, separately. We have had about 4 services for special occasions in a cultural center that cannot seat all of the people so we had to have 2 back to back services, for these times. This week the church rented a horse track stadium not far from where we live that could hold the whole congregation. On our way to church we had to drive on the road that was directly in front of the stadium to get into it. At the sight of the stadium, already full with thousands of people, my excitement and emotion could not be contained and tears filled my eyes! As we drove up, lining the roads were ushers, directing and greeting with the Easter chant.

Although the weather forecast was 70 percent chance of rain, by the time we got into the stadium the rain had ceased in answer to the prayers of a believing congregation! The Pastor stood up and shouted 3 times as is the tradition, "Kreestos Voskress!" the congregation shouted in reply 3 times, "Vo eesteenoo Voskress!" The presence of God overwhelmed me and the sight of 4000+ people standing with up raised hands shouting praises with passion and inhibition to their Risen living God, brought more tears, as I joined in to worshiping my God with abandon!





Many prayed the salvation prayer for the very first time! Even in the midst of threats and persecution the body of Christ thrives, believes, grows, loves, forgives, and presses on! Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!
It did not rain the rest of the day and we enjoyed fellowship with our friends the Behimers and Herringtons. It was a good day! We had good food, fellowship, and bunnies too!
Remember the body of Christ here as the future here is uncertain and opposition grows.

Living in Favor

We have been back from our month long visa trip for a few weeks now. We made it across the borders with no problems and we are praising God for his hand of protection and favor through the duration of our travel!
The sermon at church today was on that very topic. The text was taken from Esther on her courage and faith to live in the favor of God. It was truly inspiring! We have been feeling the dawn of spiritual enlightening, and we know that God , even in the midst of 100s of missionaries leaving (due to difficulties with the new visa laws) is keeping us here for 'such a time as this'. Pray that God would give us wisdom and courage as we make plans for the future.
I wanted to share some more pictures of our trip. We had a great time! Those of you who haven't guessed yet, Venice was the city we decided to check out last minute. It was very amazing!



I usually hate pigeons! I am always afraid that they are going to drop on me! I was pleasantly surprised at how clean they were and not one drop, on any of us!



One small mishap in Italy was with gas, that is all I can say about this. Just to let you all know we figured out how to fix the problem and no one was hurt and no (known) laws were broken.


From Italy we stopped off in Vienna and then made a trip up to Dresden, Germany. We got to go through Prague, very cool, and stayed in Dresden for a couple of days. We spent time with the Keuchlers, who are also Missionaries from MN. They were so good to show us the sights , one of which was a castle fort! The boys loved this, Jonah actually started crying when we had to leave.






The total count of countries we hit is eight. Our last stop was Moldova were we spent some time with missionaries and friends from college, Nancy and Andy Raatz. The kids had fun rediscovering old friendships and bonding the TCK way (third culture kids), and we got to take a glimpse into the work that is going on in Moldova, through the Raatz's.

Thank you for your prayers for us through this process! We love and appreciate you!