CIS Prayer: February update...

[CarlaSun@aol.com]

Dear Prayer Partners,

I know it just wasn’t fair to leave you all hanging…along with the icicles in the Mowry stairway.   This e-mail will provide you with the update in the ice chronicles.

It has continued to be a very cold winter here in the former Soviet Union.   Just this last Sunday Chuck and I were in Ulyanovsk where it was –32 C as we made our way to church.   There is much to tell but I’ll try to keep it short.

Chuck has recovered from his frostbitten ear and is now faithfully wearing a hat when he goes outside.

Our car works whenever it’s above –20C.   We’re just learning to live with it on the other days.

The van is almost repaired.   It has required the replacement of the engine and electronics system.   This is not really good news but, on the positive side, it’s almost like getting a whole new van so, maybe it will work longer than we had originally anticipated.

We have the keys to our new apartment and have been able to install all the plumbing.   We are grateful to Denny Nolan who came and gave two weeks of his time to get all this accomplished.   It wasn't easy!   When we finally got into the apartment we discovered that the concrete on the floor which had been poured to level the floor was done so poorly you could make huge cracks just by stamping on the floor.   We’re in the process of ripping out all the floor and replacing it again.   We have our first Work and Witness team arriving on March 1 and will having things ready for them to sheet rock.

We don’t have the keys to the accompanying apartment which will be the Field Office.   Please be in prayer for this.   The problem is that we knocked a hole in the wall causing the adjoining of 2 one-room apartments, but the problem is that Chuck owns one apartment and Davide the other.   The local housing authority will not let two foreign men who are not related have an adjoining apartment.   We’re afraid we’ve started all kinds of rumors (like how friendly are these two men??) – and so, we have to put Chuck’s side into Davide’s name or they won’t let us have the keys.   

The good news is that because our marriage certificate was not approved over here – the apartment in Chuck’s name was never ratified, and we can easily change it into Davide’s name.   Isn’t the Lord good – even when we’re frustrated that things aren’t going well, God uses it for His good.   

More good news – we do have an internationally accepted marriage certificate now and so Chuck and I are legally married, even in Russia.   Pretty good, after nearly 20 years.

The Lord answered prayer in a miraculous way and last weekend we were able to purchase a piece of land in Ulyanovsk for a Church/Ministry center.   What an incredible opportunity – to have a church in the city where Lenin was born.   This city is named after him (his real last name was Ulyanovsk) and the city is most famous for its museum commemorating his life.   This new congregation in Ulyanovsk is literally busting at the seams.   They have renting an office for church services and really have no more room.   They have told their church folks that they simply cannot invite anyone else to church.   There is no place to go.   Chuck and I held our first Extension course there this weekend and 24 people attended.   Praise the Lord!

Chuck and I are also blessed to be able to teach “Marriage and the Family” here in Moscow during this spring semester.   Last Wednesday evening 18 people came to attend the class.   Of those, three young people who do not attend our church came because they study English with Linda Russell.   They said that Linda has had such an impact on their lives that they wanted to come to this class.   We are praying that they might find the Lord as we study how to have a Christian family.

We are thrilled that this week in Almaty our students are able to study New Testament with a professor provided to us from Korean Nazarene University.   We are thrilled that KNU is taking an active part in the extension education on the CIS Field.   We students from Kazakstan and a Creative Access Area that are able to come to the classes.

Please pray for Michael Park.   He is sick with the flu.   Many have been sick here with entire towns quarantined and schools closed.   Michael is struggling to have strength to work.   In the meantime, their hard-drive crashed and they lost all the information in their computer.   

Next week the Russia South District will have their NYI convention.   The young people on the Russia South District are excited about being organized and serving the Lord.   Davide Cantarella, our Field NYI Director will be attending this conference.   Please pray for his safe travel to Volgograd.

Tomorrow Josh Allen returns to the Field.   We praise the Lord for his return and his visa!   He has received a one-year multiple-entry visa to return to Russia and this is really an answer to prayer.   He is the first to be approved since the new laws on visas and quotas were issued November 1.

Roxanne Alexander arrived in Kyiv on February 7.   She is the new Field NCM Coordinator and we are thrilled to have her here.   Her first NCM activity will be our first-ever Pig Conference, held March 8-9.   Please be in prayer for our Pig Conference, that we might understand how we can use pig farming to help support communities, who in turn, will support their local churches.   The economies of many of our communities are dying and we need to help them in this form of holistic ministry!

Cinda Kammermann just returned to the Field last week.   She is getting settled into her new home in St. Petersburg where she will be working with the Mowrys.   We are all very excited about this assignment as the work in St. Petersburg has really been growing.   Cinda will be helping in extension education, English and children’s outreach programs.   Please pray for her as she gets settled.

District Assembly season is now upon us.   Please pray for our assemblies:

Russia North – March 1
Ukraine – March 6
Russia South – March 12
Central Asia – March 16

Dr. and Mrs. Cunningham will be coming to Kyiv for the Ukrainian assembly and Dr. Louie Bustle will be attending the Central Asian assembly.   Please be in pray for all the travels to these assemblies, for our pastors and leaders.

Okay – now back to the Mowrys and the ice!   When we last left you, Kathy and the children were practically iced into their apartment, having to shusch their way down the stairwell to get out.   Finally, the next day the government workers arrived to try to resolve the problem.   Of course, they began by accusing Kathy of having done something to the pipes during the remodeling of their apartment (only these pipes were a floor down from her).   After deciding it wasn’t her fault, they went to work to solve the problem.   All water was turned off for an entire day while they fixed the pipe.   It was fixed, the water was turned back on, and then the entire stairwell had to have the ice chipped out of it.   A few days of warmer weather also helped the chipping out process and the stairwell is now clear of ice and they can freely leave their building.   The stairwell looks horrible, but it didn’t look that good to begin with so, I guess, what’s ‘more horrible?’

We are so grateful for your prayers.   This winter has been cold and difficult.   It seems that daily something has broken or gone wrong but in the midst of it all, God has been good.   We have felt His strength and encouragement.   None of us here on the CIS Field could continue to do this work without your prayers!

Thank you,

Carla Sunberg for the whole CIS gang