Pictures

Lots more pics are up in the picasa web albums - but I haven't finished putting notes on them. I will try to do that tomorrow. In the meantime, here's the link:

www.picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard

Blessings,
Lucy

Upcoming Events

Here is a quick update on what we will be doing over the next few days (7/28-8/5).

This weekend Alexi Shilin, one of the leaders in the Christian Student movement in Russia, will be visiting us.

Om Saturday we will be going to two different picnics. These provide great opportunities for relationship building.

On Sunday I will be preaching at the Living Word Church.

On Tues we will be meeting with leaders of a Christian Pre-school in Yekaterinburg

On Wed we will be attending a prayer/blessing meting for a Christian Ministry to street kids (children who have runaway/been orphaned and live on the streets) They have just started to build a new building in order to provide housing for these kids . They have asked for our support and prayers.

Since this is our last week, there is more of a rushed feeling. There are lots of people that we would like to spend time with, so most evenings will be spent either visiting someone, or having guests for dinner

Next Sunday 8/5 we leave for America. Please pray that God will bless and guide or activities over the next week.

Thanks
Dan

NOT so hot...

Europe Bakes in Summer Heat Wave...

We just happened to notice this on the BBC news page and wanted to let you know that, ironically, the temps here have dropped to the low 60's and even 50's. We've had to plug in a space heater to keep warm - in fact, last night we were without electricity for about 3 hours, probably because too many people in the building were doing the same thing! Strange Russian weather.

We're back in Ekat.

Hi everyone! We just got back from Chelyabinsk where we spent most of last week taking part in a church camp (so, not actually in Chelyabinsk). God really blessed our time there. Some of the highlights include:

• Conversations with people (always a highlight, and this time was no exception). Dan had a number of good mentoring talks with people. Lucy managed to quickly establish some relationships and also had a number of significant conversations. These times of connecting were wonderful.
• Dan's evening talks on the themes of mentoring and discipleship. He examined the relationships Jesus had with his disciples and specifically with Peter, and at some of Paul's relationships as well. The testimonies at the end of the week seemed to indicate that people were discovering real biblical truths about how we build God's kingdom through our relationships.
• We managed to mostly stay healthy and survived the rustic camp conditions - for which we are grateful and just a little proud of ourselves!
• Seeing one particular relationship that in the past year has been healed/reconciled - one which a year ago seemed irreparable.

We had some extended time with Pastor Ilya Sluzin and his family before and after the camp. Ilya is really overwhelmed with everything happening in the church - he's the only staff member and knows that he needs to find partnership, a team or co-worker, if he's going to be able to continue in ministry for the long haul. Please be praying for Ilya and the church.

Lucy will post some pictures and perhaps tell a story or two tomorrow, but we just wanted to update you and let you know that we're back in Ekaterinburg.

Thanks for praying!
Dan & Lucy

Prayer requests & map link

Here are some prayer requests for the next 10 days:

• My talks to go well - that the translation would be clear, my words on target and people would be challenged and motivated to invest in the lives of other Christians.
• Good conversations and relationship building opportunities for both Lucy and me.
• Good weather - meaning: no rain, mid-70's and a nice breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay.
• Wisdom in talking several couples through various counseling situations.
• God's blessing on my time spent with Pastor Ilya. This week is the main chance that I have to talk and pray with him.
  

Also, Lucy looked up the map link for those of you interested in seeing where we'll be. We'll be somewhere near Satka, Russia - west of Chelyabinsk (Челябинск in Cyrillic) and south of Ekaterinburg (or Екатеринбург). Click here to see the map.

P.S.

I've posted lots of photos online, with captions, at the following site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard/RussiaSummer2007

At the same site you'll be able to find honeymoon photos and wedding photos, for those interested.

Apt. tour part 1 & plans for next week

Dan and I are off to Chelyabinsk tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and will be gone for about 10 days, probably. The bulk of that time we'll actually be far off in the countryside at a church camp. The camp will focus on the theme of discipleship and mentoring - preparing the church for the primary focus of the fall. Dan will give 5 or 6 talks (I'm unsure - and it may change anyway, depending on weather & such!) on this theme. He's pretty excited about what he's prepared - talks focused on the Gospels and Epistles revealing mentoring "moments" from the lives of Jesus, his disciples, and Paul. Based on the outlines I've heard, I'm excited too :) I am also glad for the chance to spend some quality time with this church, a group of people that includes many close friends of Dan. On the other hand, I will admit that I'm a little skeptical about how well I'm going to be able to handle the elements. 6 days of going to the bathroom in the woods, bathing in the river, sleeping on the ground, eating camp food, braving mosquitoes and the heat... you can pray that I will find it all easier than I am anticipating so that I can concentrate on relationship building. Dan and I are also supposed to come up with some community-building afternoon activities - which we haven't really done yet! We may just play a version of baseball. We shall see. I will have Dan write a list of prayer requests later today or before we leave tomorrow - but just wanted to give you a "heads' up" about our silence for the next 10 days.

I also promised apartment pictures - so I have included a few below. This is our humble home in Ekaterinburg - and you're all invited to visit!

This is our main room. A standard question in Russia is "how many rooms do you have". When counting rooms, you don't include the kitchen, shower or toilet - all of which are normally quite small anyway. So we have a 2-room apartment.



Our main room is also our bedroom - as you can see below. This bed is NOT very comfortable - the sofa is old and needs a lot of extra padding - which we do by layering whatever soft we have in the apartment on top of it!
Here is our second room. If we cleared out all the stuff in it, we could just about fit a bed in there I think. But as is it serves as a storage and reading room. There's a big closest/shelving unit, a couple of big plants which Dan got as housewarming gifts (and which he likes to have out-of-the-way!) and we moved a chair in there so someone could retreat and read when they wanted to.



Just to keep you in suspense (and because we need to go out now) - I will save part 2 of the apartment - the non-rooms parts! - for tomorrow morning.

Many blessings - keep commenting!
Lucy