From Russia with Love - March, 2008
From Russia with Love
Newsletter: March 2008
Eileen R. Emch
Prestoncrest Church of Christ
Dallas, Texas
Eileen’s Website
Last Wednesday was little Natasha’s last day at the nearby orphanage. After a flight to Moscow and visits to the U.S. Embassy for a visa, she headed to the States with her new parents. Adoptions are fairly routine at the orphanage here, a home for 100-some abandoned babies from infancy to five years. But Natasha’s adoption was especially poignant because of her special needs.A dear couple from Atlanta, Georgia learned about Natasha from an agency website. They have three boys – 10, 13 and 15 – and had been wanting to add a girl to the mix. After meeting Natasha and seeing her spunk and smarts, they’re confident that she’ll fit right in.This adoption reminds me of our spiritual father and his invitation to join his family. He offers to repair our hearts, our souls, and our wounds but gives us freedom of choice. Imagine Natasha refusing such an opportunity.Imagine her saying, Prove to me that America exists. Those passports could be fake and this all a hoax. Besides, I’m comfortable right here. If I go with you, that means more surgery, more therapy and more pain. No, thanks. I’m happy just like I am.The idea of refusing an adoption is so absurd it’s almost amusing but yet in the spiritual realm, that seems to be the norm.Well, Natasha’s new parents are devout believers and they joined us on a recent Sunday for worship. Our congregation gave them a warm welcome and offered special prayers as they prepared to take Natasha home to Atlanta.Population Bulge: Speaking of babies, perhaps you have read about Russia’s baby boom. The surge is government-sponsored in hopes of reversing the population decline. Russian families are being offered significant financial incentives for raising a second child and so national families are adopting too. Out on the street, pregnant ladies are blossoming everywhere. And this is a good thing: It means more children to invite to our children’s Bible classes. Now we need more Christian families to do their patriotic duty. . .
Across the Border, Visiting Jeremiah’s Hope
Finally, finally, finally I made it to Mariupol, Ukraine to visit Jeremiah’s Hope, also known as the Transitional Living Center (TLC), a program for orphanage graduates. This fine ministry is a work of a congregation in Mariupol and several members are employed there.
The focus of the TLC is in helping youth transition from institutional life in orphanages to independent living. In general, orphanage leavers are an at-risk population and many turn to crime. Jeremiah’s Hope makes a difference, providing support and guidance while the young people are enrolled in trade schools, learning job skills.
Fifteen or so young folks call the TLC home and it’s a family setting with guys’ rooms on the west end, girls’ rooms opposite and common areas in between. This wasn’t my first attempt to visit. June of 2006, I was all set to go with two others from here – Nadya Aleshchenova and Artash Adriasov – when those plans went out the window because of a family emergency. So Nadya and Artash went on by themselves.
Nadya made the trip with me this time though, which made it twice as fun and half as stressful even though the trip was only 5 hours by bus. Tagging along with someone who knows the ropes is nice, especially the first time. Our trip across the border was a necessity because of my needing to re-register my visa by February 1st. That involves exiting Russia and re-entering with new immigration documents for the local OVIR office. Who knows, that law might be outdated already, as visa laws tend to change.
Back to Jeremiah’s Hope, a dream for our congregation here in Rostov, is to offer such a program for orphanage graduates. How nice that Andrew Kelly has already blazed that trail. Andrew, from the Hillcrest congregation in Abilene, Texas, was one who got the program up and running. And then there’s Lance and Debra Atchison, newlyweds and fellow Prestoncrest-supported missionaries until recently when they returned home. One of their good works at the TLC is the top-notch computer lab where the kiddos can develop skills for this tech-savvy world. Thinking about visionaries such as Andrew, his bride Jenny and Lance and Debra and others, I find it positively energizing to rub shoulders with the mission-minded youth of Generation Y.
New Visa Challenges
My visa expires Wednesday, April 3rd and just yesterday I booked the exact flights I wanted thanks to Delta.com – with brief layovers in Atlanta to visit little Natasha and her new family there.
As mentioned earlier, visa laws are subject to change and, sure enough, the visa changes we feared last fall seem to be in place, as per my November newsletter. It sounds as if most expatriates here are adversely affected, except for those on student or employment visas and, of course, those who have managed to obtain temporary residence permits. But most one-year visa types are affected including religious activity visas, such as mine.
Our mid-range goal is to get me on an employment visa, employed by the church here. Dear Gheorge, our church administrator and Artash, our preacher are working on all that, fortunately, because being approved to employ a foreigner involves considerable red tape. We’re hoping that by 2009 that approval will be in place. Until then, it looks as though we’ll be going with three-month visas. That makes for more travel, more expense and more wait time but it’s certainly better than the alternative – three months in Russia, three months out and then repeat for a year. So I do request prayers for the visa adventures ahead.
A Few Highlights
- The Sisterhood: Dear sister Amal’ put together a sisters’ dinner February 16th for our women’s Bible study group. Amal’ is from Morocco and has lived in Russia seven years. She prepared foods from her homeland and shared photos of her family. Amal’s heritage is so diverse – one parent is Jewish, the other Muslim; her first language is Arabic but she’s fluent in French, English and now, Russian. Amal’s contribution to our congregation is so valuable and we love her more and more.
- Father Abraham: Artash leads our Wednesday evening Bible study of Genesis. We are moving through the life of Abraham at a camel-like pace, slowly and with lots of discussion and background. What a rich, deep book has been preserved for us in the book of Genesis.
- Children’s Class: The Patriarchs has also been the theme of our children’s Bible classes. We have 4 to 8 children usually. In the winter, two great little girls came along several times, neighbors of co-teacher Frieda and her grandchildren. All was well until the parents decided we surely must be a cult and have stopped the girls from coming. We hope that they’ll be able to come this summer for our special program.
- Several friends attend regularly, study with us and are considering becoming Christians. That would be Karina, Artur and Dima, all young working folk.
- Our prayer group meets every Saturday for two hours, as it has for years. Brother Gheorge leads the little group and sister Frieda diligently maintains the notebook of prayer requests. Lots of people request specific prayer and often we pray for those overseas too. What would I do without this precious little group and their prayers on my behalf. . .
Prayer Requests
I do have several prayer requests – several dozen, in fact – but here are priorities: 1) For my upcoming visa trip: that a visa will be approved, for safety during travels, for positive routine medical visits and for the time with loved ones and supporters. 2) For our children’s class during my absence: It happens that co-teacher Frieda will be gone to her homeland of Armenia at the same time. We need someone to teach our little ones in April and early May. 3) For our upcoming all-Russia Christian conference in Moscow. That it will be well attended and a spiritual feast. 4) Our June program: I’m concerned about finding translators for our guest teachers. 5) One prayer, already answered: Last Thursday my landlord and asked me to vacate the apartment ASAP. I was basically numb with that for a few hours but agreed that I would move in late May. Not to worry though. The next morning the landlord called back to say that they decided not to divorce after all, wouldn’t be separating and so I could keep the apartment. And I said Thank you dear Lord. Thank you a hundred, thousand times.
Upcoming Events
My visa-renewal trip: April 2 or 3rd through May 8th.
May conference in Moscow: All-Russia Christian conference in Korolev, a Moscow suburb, May 9 to 11. Tim Brinley and the Moscow congregation(s) are leading that. Keynote speaker: Timothy Pownall from Pepperdine University. Also Dino Roussos, Athens, Greece – and fellow Prestoncrest-supported missionary – has been invited along with several others. Theme: Reconciliation.
Special summer program: The week of June 15th, four wonderful Christian sisters from Oklahoma and Texas will be with us for children’s classes each morning and a women’s program each evening. We will be richly blessed by their visit.
Singing School: The Russian-Ukrainian singing school is pending, as per Clint Steery. Plan A is for the school to meet in Kiev area, early July. Here is the website: http://www.christiansingingschool.com
Those are the highlights. Thanks so very much for your prayers and support and love. Did I mention that I’ve finished nine years here in Rostov – currently in my tenth? God is good and He is merciful and He never fails. And Prestoncrest, my beloved sponsoring congregation is absolutely the best. I am richly blessed, indeed.
S BOGom, ((Go) with God),
Eileen
Blog address: Visit my blog at http://russiawithlove.blogspot.com for a taste of life in Russia.
Photos: The latest are posted at http://community.webshots.com/user/eileena110.
Mailing address: You can send letters and such to me at Prestoncrest Church of Christ; 12700 Preston Rd, Suite 210; Dallas, TX 75230-1824 or directly to me here: Russia; Rostov-on-Don 344 022; Semashka 99/248, Kv 7; Eileen Emch.
Telephone: First, dial the international access prefix (check the front of your telephone book), then 7 (for Russia), 863 (Rostov city code), 250.0171 (my place).
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Christmas in Ukraine isn’t celebrated in Ukraine until January 7. New Year’s is really their holiday which is similar to our Christmas in that that is when they traditionally give their gifts. The TLC kids spent New Years with the church next door. Some of them stayed until 3:00 am and some of them stayed all night. So, we celebrated a day or two later. Some of our kids were leaving to visit friends and family in other towns for Christmas and Anya was actually coming to America to see her biological brother. So, we celebrated a little earlier so that as many kids as could be there were able to. We were also blessed with the five kids from the CPS house with us for our Christmas celebration.
The picture to the left shows our living room with three quilts in progress, what you can’t see is that there were two other quilts being worked on in the next room. The office that was taken over by all of the sewing supplies was quite a site to see. Especially after we purchased 16 feet of centapone (Russian for the white stuff that goes inside of quilts) for the kids to use. It looked like there was lots and lots of snow in the room. The kids are always thrilled to get more materials to work with.
Thanks to Janie McGinty of Dallas, Texas for donations to the lab of photo paper, ink and iron on transfer paper. The kids have been busy little beavers printing photos for their albums and their sponsors as well as making t-shirts and quilts with iron-on photos. Some of these are for themselves, but some are also for others. Sergey M. Is making shirts for his sister that he hasn’t seen in a few years and Sergey E. Is making shirts with christian designs for himself and friends. The kids were very thrilled with the supplies and have been in the lab every day almost all day learning new programs and making gifts. They were running Debra ragged in the lab this week trying to soak up as much of her computer knowledge as they could before we had to leave. Debra didn’t mind at all. In fact, she thinks that the kids learned so much more in this 10 day period than any other 10 day period in the past because they felt an urgency to learn all they could before we had to leave. Alina, our translator, was not able to be in class with us during this time because of the holidays. Debra has done a great job of learning some computer Russian. The kids are sometimes amazed that she can maneuver around the computer with all the menus and text being in Russian. She has explained to them that it’s all the same. Everything is in the same place, just called something a little different on the menus. She doesn’t mind them thinking she is a computer expert in two languages!
If you work with children then we don’t have to convince you that games can be great learning tools. The same is true when it comes to computers. The rule is that nothing including games can be installed on the computers without Debra’s permission and an administrator’s password. That way inappropriate games can’t be loaded. However, we have loaded games the kids enjoy playing included a millionaire game in Russian, some driving games and other games requiring problem-solving skills. Recently, Lance donated his Sim City game to the lab. To the left is a picture of him showing Borya how to play it. If you are unfamiliar with the game, it is one where you build a city. A lot of thought has to go into your city, such as what types of housing will you have, what types of business with you have. If your city gets too large and you don’t factor in the need for emergency services then you have problems to deal with. The kids, especially, the boys love this game because it requires them to think, but also allows them to use their imaginations and creativity.
We had the privilege of escorting Anya to Kiev and helped get her on her first flight to the US. It was great getting to spend an extra day and a half with her in Kiev and see all the Christmas decorations. She is going to the US to see her brother Tolic that was adopted almost two years ago. She was supposed to go last summer but due to complications with getting her visa, she wasn’t able to.
Thanks to Betty Gildon of Texas, we were able to have a little extra spending money for the kids. So, we treated them all to dinner out one night at Chilintano’s Pizza. They were excited to find out we were going out to dinner. In all the 7 months we were there, we only went out to dinner as one large group once and that was courtesy to some great folks from Seattle. None of the kids had ever been to Chilintano’s before as eating out is not something that orphan kids get the privilege of doing much. We were a little surprised that the kids were somewhat nervous and scared to order. This was something new for them and even though they spoke the language and could read the menu, they weren’t real sure of what to do. Keep in mind the kids at the center are 15-18 years old, with most of them being on the older end of that scale. It just made me think of what we take so much for granted back in the states. Our children grow up now a days eating out at restaurants probably more times than they sit down to a family meal. It also made me realize how important the TLC is in helping these kids transition into independent living. Simple things such as ordering a meal or not being afraid to ask questions if need be are skills these kids still need to learn. Hopefully, the TLC is preparing them to live independently and maybe even order a pizza every so often all on their own.
Using Debra’s email account, Natasha C. Has been emailing her brother in the states for several months now. Natasha’s brother, Sasha, was adopted about 7 years ago and Natasha hasn’t seen him since. His adopted mom, Ruth Oppendahl of Wisconsin, wrote Natasha a letter of invitation for her to come to the states. They are very excited about seeing her and showing her all the places that Sasha goes to school, church and scenic places in their beautiful state. We recently learned that her visa was granted and she will be leaving Ukraine for the states on January 26. Please pray for her safety and time with her brother.
We invited many folks to gather with us and celebrate the many gifts and blessings God has given us this past year. We had almost 50 people in attendance, including our large family, Lance’s Mom (known to the kids at Babushka.), Aunt Jerri, Friends, Betty Gildon and Dee Parker, several of the previous kids and graduates from the TLC, friends of our children, co-workers and guests from church. We cooked all day to share with our Ukrainian friends the traditional Thanksgiving foods. It was great to go around the room and hear about the many blessings that each person had to be thankful for. We were so thankful to be able to share this first holiday as husband and wife with such a wonderful group of friends and family. Once we get where we can update the web site, we will have several photos from this great evening online to share with you. It isn’t right to talk about Thanksgiving and not mention how thankful we are for each of you and your support so we can do the work which God has called us here to do. Thank you so much for your love, support, emails, calls and words of encouragement and support. You have richly blessed our lives!
Boris Muhibin
At the TLC, we go through a ton of juice that comes in large glass bottles. Many times we use these bottles to can or store things. However, going through at least one or two a day, they tend to pile up very quickly. With so many of them stacking up downstairs, we decided to box them up and set them at the edge of the property for anyone who might want them. Little did we know, that we would get the attention of all the “babushkas”, aka “grand-mas” in the neighborhood. It wasn’t long until the “babushkas” were coming out of their apartments and instructing their husbands to carry them into the house. They were so excited and thanked us a million times over. It was great getting to meet some of the elderly women in the neighborhood and put huge smiles on their faces.
The TLC kids are so excited about the computer lab. The latest project that they have been working on is creating small videos using Windows Movie Maker. Hopefully, in the future, they will be able to create videos to share with their sponsors as well as post on our web site. They are excited to be learning video editing. They can add these new skills to their repertoire and can use them in their school work as well as carry them with them when they graduate and join the workforce.
Winter has arrived in Ukraine. It has gottencold, very cold according to the children, but we know it is only the beginning. On October 16, we were able to turn on the boiler so that we would have heat at the TLC. This means limited hot water supply for showers, but at least the building is warm now. Before we were able to get the heater on, the girls just thought they were going to freeze to death. So, we gave them water bottles that they could fill up at night and put in their beds to keep them warm. It is rather nice to be able to put your feet into warm sheets instead of cold ones, that is true. The picture to the left is of the nightly line to fill the water bottles. Such little things as hot water, make the girls oh so happy!