A month later....

Hello everyone!

Okay - don't fall over. Yes, you really are hearing from me - I really am posting on this blog, from Russia!

Apparently the filter that wouldn't allow me to get on my blog expired. That, or it got eaten by a virus. At any rate, here I am, posting on my blog, from Russia!

Here I sit in the director's office of our boarding school - it smells like cheap Russian cigarettes, and his daughter his waiting for her turn to download music from the only computer with internet anywhere around. BUT - I've got a couple of minutes, so I thought I'd write and give a quick update of what's going on in this li'l village world.

There's a lot to say, but mostly, I'll stick to the basics. (If you want more details, and you aren't already getting them, e-mail me & I'll put you on my updates list)
So it's official - for reasons that He understands & I am content to trust, God is only keeping us here in our 'Russian home' for 3 months. It's official - we didn't get Temporary Residency Permits. Turns out we didn't even get to give them our paperwork. So, here we are. We have plane tickets for the 24th of March - a mere 2 months from this day, I will again be in Oregon. What happens next?

That's a very good question. Ideas are flying - the most common one (the one 99% of the people here are telling us) is to come back to the states, apply for a 1-year visa, and turn right around and make it back here by planting season (the beginning of May). Is that how things are going to happen? I really don't know.
Part of me (a really, really big part of me) hopes so with all my heart. Whether we can get registered for a year or not is the big question with that one. The general understanding right now is that yes, we can. But we can't go on general understandings - we've gotta have concrete information. And, getting concrete info from the passport folks is like nailing jello to a wall.

Needless to say, that's what we're praying and hoping for. If, that is, that's what God wants.

There's other ideas. Perhaps He really is sending us in a different direction. The option of going to University, either in St. Petersburg or Moscow, has come up - to officially get documentation so we could work as translators. How long would that be? How much would it cost? Is that what He wants?
I dunno, yet. We're praying about it.

Of course there's a thousand other ideas, too. Most importantly, I want to see people here come to Christ. That's all that matters. How that happens, God is already aware of. But I know, that for the next 50 years or so, I desperately hope and long to be here, in Russia. It's a big country, with a lot of issues. Life is so wonderful and frustrating all at once - I love it!

So pray for me, if you would. pray that Shawna and I would sense HIS leading, and follow Him - wherever that may be.