God's Provision

Who says God doesn't care about the little things in our lives. Here is proof. As you know we are working on moving into a flat in Lomonosov. God provided one in just the right time. We are wanting to move in by April 1st. The flat needs a bit (ok a lot) of TLC...the owners are paying for most of it though. We just have to pay up front for the supplies and they will reimburse our rent over the next few months. We were hoping to get all the work done before we move in. That means wallpaper, flooring, paint...as well as a touch up in the kitchen.
As you can see it needs a bit of work. This is where things get cool. We were going to take our tithes for the month and finish everything before we moved in so we wouldn't have to be working on it after we live there. Then we were going to just pay double tithes next month. This didn't sit well with us though and we began to think about the reasons for moving in the first place. We want to be a blessing financially in whatever way God calls on us to be. Living in a cheaper place is one of the changes we decided to make to help this happen. So you see it kind of defeated the purpose and we felt like we were trying to take control of the situation. We prayed together and asked God to help us. We stood in agreement that God would take care of everything. We went ahead and gave our tithes as well as an offering for a need that God laid on my heart.

One of the things we are going to do is replace the kitchen sink and put in some cabinets. I get on the internet Monday and guess what I find? A family is moving out of St. Petersburg and they are selling...you guessed it. Cabinets and a sink. Who sells their sink when they move!? I was like, "WHAT?" They are even moving out the same time we were planning on putting the cabinets in our flat. We will save so much money...and it's better than the ones we picked out to install in the first place..LOL!!

This is one more thing that God has done to show us how much He cares. We are still trying to squeeze our pennies so we can get everything done before we move in...pray for deals. We still have a lot of work to do over the next week and a half but I think we can do it. Praise God!!

Jennifer told a story about how hunters catch monkeys...I think the kids liked it.

Our Flat

Have you ever wondered what a Russian flat looks like? Hopefully this will give you a glimpse into our lives and where we live here in the Motherland. This is our home for now...as some of you know we are moving to a suburb of St. Petersburg. This is a blessing to us because we are closer to the church we attend and across the street from friends. we will show you a video of that one too once we get situated.

Found a Flat

I am going to try to keep up our blog on a more regular basis. I got some technical advice on how to edit different things on the blog so it will be a work in progress for a bit. Please bear with us. I'm learning little by little to handle all of our editing and posting. I'm coming to realize I'm not very techically saavy.

We have been looking for a flat for some time now. We are wanting to move out of St. Petersburg to save some money. We felt like the Lord released us to do so and we've been looking in a suburb called Lomonosov. We found one last week and it looks like we'll be moving at the end of March. It's a nice little 2 bedroom. It needs a bit of TLC but the owner has agreed to pay for the supplies to refresh the apartment. It needs it.

This is a huge blessing though because the rent is half of what we pay here in the city. Our prayer is to be a blessing to others here financially with any opportunity that God gives us. It has been really hard to do that when survival is the number one thing. We felt like we were just surviving there for a bit. It got rough but God never let us go hungry and we always had enough.

We are looking forward to the opporrtunity to make a connection at one of the orphanages there. We are still going to visit the one we have a connection with here close to the city. We feel like we are supposed to stay at this one. God knows where we will be the most effective.

Singing With the Kids

I sang a song with the little kids at camp. It was fun. We did half of it in Russian and half in English. The kids helped out with the instruments. They did a good job, don't you think?

Praise and Worship

This is the praise and worship team from the church in Lomonosov. I remember seeing these guys on my first trip to Russia. Back then all they had was a snare drum, an acoustic guitar, and a bass guitar. They sure have come a long way.

Eve Singing With Her Team

Eve sang a song with her team at the winter camp we helped with. This is the first time she has connected with a group of Russian girls since we've got here. We were so proud of her. I think she is starting to settle in a bit.