November 15, 2002

 

Greetings to our dear friends and family,

We have by no means forgotten you this fall, and appreciate very much every note, thought, gift and prayer sent our way.  We thank and praise God for such a thoughtful and loving extended 'family' that He has given us.  " I thank my God upon every remembrance of you!" (Phil. 1:3).

This past month or so has been full for us...full of many  challenges, blessings and opportunities for ministry.  Where do I start?
 

Ahh, yes. I believe we ended our last letter with a request to pray for an upcoming trip to a certain city of Kovrov, where we had spent some time in the summer.

Our trip to Kovrov was, in a word -  wonderful. We were able to spend a long weekend with our missionary friends, Pavel and Tanya Korneichuk. They are pretty much on their own as missionaries and we were able to encourage them in their service there. Even more, we were able to learn from them, to see how they live day in and day out. We spent a lot of time just with them and their children, but were also able to visit and help the youth there as well as visit with other missionary friends from this summer.  We took part in their church service and got to know their small church better.  (We had supper with about half the church one night at Pavel and Tanya's!)  Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit the orphanage where we helped this summer.  That was a great disappointment. However, we were able to help a bit with planning for the Bible lessons the youth teach there. We passed on some pictures from the summer for the kids there as well. The Lord knows how much we'd like to visit those children again, and I don't doubt that we'll make it out to Kovrov again! It was a very blessed time, and gave us a much clearer idea of how to pray for Pavel and Tanya, and what it's like to be church planting missionaries in a smaller city.

In other travels, Phyllis was able to go out to an orphanage with our friends from the church in Zelenograd. They had some American guests visiting and were traveling to something like five different orphanages in one weekend! I wasn't able to go because of responsibilities at church, but Phyllis was able to visit two of the orphanages with the group. It was interesting to meet their guests. They have supplied for or brought over gifts, clothes, medical supplies, etc. for Kolya to distribute. As always, Phyllis was thrilled at being able to visit the children.  Phyllis said she was impressed also at how well one pastor that was visiting taught the children from the Bible...not just teaching a lesson, but literally enthralling them! She was also able to help here and there as an interpreter.  We're praying that we'll be able to help Kolya again this month with another orphanage program.

Closer to home, the Bible study/fellowship in Razvilki is growing! We've mentioned this before as a ministry we take part in regularly, about every other week. There are a few families from our church in this township 20 minutes or so from us, right outside of Moscow city limits. They've been meeting for about a year with the desire to eventually grow into a local church there in their own community. These last two times we've had a few more people from the community. They're nominally 'church goers' who attend Resurrection, but whom we actually see in church veeerrrry infrequently. =) The Bible study has in the past consisted of one or more of the young men we go with sharing, and then Pastor Yurgiz Alphonsovich directing a discussion along the same lines. We've turned a new page now, though. Having gotten to know everyone fairly well, and built up something of a core group, we're moving into a expositional study of the book of Romans.
 

I've been a bit busier the last month, myself. I started tutoring a whole extended family group in English. This is a family from church, people that we at least were familiar with. It's been an excellent opportunity to get to know them better. It's also a very good challenge for me! My youngest student is 10... and the oldest are in their 40's! (That's not counting Grandpa, who has only come once.) These folks have family in the States and are thinking and praying about  joining them - so they really do need to learn English! It's a lot of fun, but it is definitely a big challenge because the age, ability and interest range is so very broad. So far we've been meeting a couple of hours a week and plan on continuing at least throughout the winter and spring. Please pray for wisdom for me as I teach that I could give this family what they need.  Also, be praying for my students to have the ability to learn and put into practice as much as possible.

Phyllis is still loving her first grade especially, as well as second, third and fourth grades, of course!  We had a unique opportunity a week or so ago to help at the school. Phyllis was asked to help with "an American holiday:" Halloween!  They usually celebrate as many English/American holidays as possible at school, so Phyllis agreed to help with organizing a bit. Not much later she realized that it was "Miss Phyllis' Halloween Celebration!"  She came up with a program that more resembled a fall festival than a Halloween party, and I was drafted to help.

The kids had a great time, we had a great time: bobbing for apples, hidden 'ghostie' hunts, relays, songs, jack-o-lantern's... We went half the day with six different class groups!  What was interesting was the reaction of the different teachers and parents. There is very little known about Halloween, except that now it's an excuse to have parties.  Ten years ago, it wasn't even noticed to that extent. There were some concerned parents who didn't want their children taking part in any celebration of a 'satanic' holiday.  The teachers had lots of questions, and of course we were more than glad to talk!  We found out that one teacher has started attending a home Bible study and she invited us to come along and meet her friends. She assured us that they weren't  Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, so we were of course interested to find out more. We told her about our beliefs, our church, discussed growing up in Christian families....

Then, on my way out, I asked one of the class teachers what she thought of of our school holiday; and she took me to mean Halloween in general, and the questioning began!  I couldn't have planned the questions better myself  It was truly amazing! The only thing I regretted was that my vocabulary or knowledge of Scripture in Russian sometimes was lacking. However, we talked for about 30 minutes, and I was able to at least explain myself. From growing up in a Christian home to salvation by grace through faith as opposed to works; from the history of Halloween to the historical difference between the orthodox/catholic church and the protestant church...what we didn't  cover, I don't know! I had the feeling a lot of the time that I was introducing completely new concepts, but was praying fervently that something would stick and make sense, and that the Lord would use that to reach this teacher's heart. Tamara Ivanovna is Phyllis' school "mother" and takes care of her as well as she can.  She really is a kind woman. Pray that Phyllis would be able to continue to use opportunities to share about our Lord to her dear co-workers and friends there at school.

Aaaand of course, we've been very busy with our church friends and activities. Maybe even a bit busier than usual, if there is a "usual" with us!  We've had a couple of big events the last month. The first was a youth service, which we have every other month or so. The youth completely organize and conduct the main Sunday worship service.  When  you take into account that it goes two hours, it really is a big event!  However,we always do fine...this time we had guests visiting who took part, youth from another church. Our theme was "God loves a cheerful giver...," but that was interpreted rather broadly.  I gave the first message, the call to prayer. (Thank you to those who were praying for ME!)  My message, and all the other messages, songs and poems focused more on giving of ourselves, living sacrificially, and serving others every day.  Interestingly, that wasn't coordinated beforehand, but even the message and songs from our guests tied in exactly with ours!  We stayed afterward and had tea and a time of fellowship with the visiting youth.  All in all, it was a very full and rewarding day.
 
Sunday school is in full swing again, and Phyllis is helping with the youngest class as she did last year .  She has no complaints except for when their aren't enough children to have class, or for some reason classes are canceled! I've been helping with the early teens group. It hasn't been so easy to fit in, even though the lady leading the class wants help. She's been so used to doing everything herself,  that fitting me in is a bit of a challenge. It has been very enjoyable all the same. It ends up being something of a mix between Sunday school and a Bible study, and all the kids seem to be enjoying the time and learning from it.

Along with that, we were also able to go on a field trip to an art museum with a group from the Sunday school a few days ago. It was a great time to get to know the kids and their parents a little better. In a lot of ways it resembled a home school outing with about one adult for every child! We spent a morning going through galleries from ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt... so much of it tied in with what we've been studying in my group (Moses and the Exodus). The kids were full of questions, and thoroughly enjoyed it all, even if they were content to spend about half the time the adults wanted to examine everything!

I did mention two big events, didn't I? The youth service was one...and a wedding was the other. Weddings seem to be pretty popular in our church: three in the last year...and another coming up in  a couple of months! I guess with as many young people as we have at college age or slightly older that shouldn't be any surprise. ;o)

An old friend of mine, one of the leaders of our youth got married this past Saturday, and the preceding 2-3 weeks were full of wedding preparations. The youth usually play a large role in the wedding, specifically the reception/feast (an all afternoon-evening event!). We had quite a few brainstorming sessions, practices, rehearsals along the way. The actual event turned out very nicely, with the usual church service of an hour or so, and the wedding feast  that afternoon and evening.  I sang in the choir as always, and by myself during the service...but also many, many, many times during the wedding feast!  The youth had a mostly musical program prepared, and I took part in quite a few different groups with the youth, as well as others. The Lord was merciful, and even though I'd been fighting a cold, my voice held out for the duration. It was very enjoyable to be able to take part in such a celebration,  although we are very glad to have a bit of a break before the next wedding!

Do be praying for us to be able to encourage and exhort our youth to continued growth in their Christian life. We have a pretty solid group, but they are mostly older, and we don't see a lot of growth in general. One of the guys has started exhorting everyone to maturity, growth, and ministry, and so far he hasn't gotten much response aside from "Yeaahh, we understand already....  We heard you last week!" I'm backing him up in his plea to the group, in prayer, in challenging everyone, and we're looking forward to see what the Lord will do.
 

Ahhhh...
I think we're finally caught up again. I always enjoy sharing with you all so much, and I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep! Please do keep us in your prayers, specifically concerning the things I've mentioned above. Also please pray for wisdom as we continue to pray and seek more definite direction for our long term ministry here.

With love and prayers,

Will and Phyllis Hunsucker