Marriage...

Ok, allow me to be mushy for a bit. I LOVE my husband! And I feel blessed to have such a wonderful man who would stay married to me for over 22 years now. Has it always been perfect? No. Is it perfect now? No, because it is a marriage made up of 2 imperfect human beings, and one great big God!! But, (and as Pastor Keith says, "everything before the word "but" is negated by it...)it is a wonderful marriage because of that great big God, and the work He does in and thru each of us.

We taught our first "marriage class" of the year tonight, and in doing so, were reminded to be thankful for one another, for the "good gifts" that God gave to us in one another. If you are reading this, and are married, be thankful for your mate. And ask God how you can be a better mate to them! If you think this is impossible, as God to be the great big God in the center of your marriage, and as you grow closer to God, you will be changed into the mate God would have you to be!!

Visitors

Well today in church we had visitors from 4 other countries. America, Canada, Congo, and Finland.
It is exciting to have so much variety among our congregation. Together we are learning the basics of serving Jesus. Today's message was on studying, reading and meditating on the Bible. As Mark Batterson says, "I don't think the Bible was meant to be read. I think it was meant to be
meditated. Meditation is a thoughtful or prayer reading. I came up with this
little mantra few years ago: reading without meditating is like eating without
digesting. If you don't meditate you lose all of the nutrients. "
So true!! Make time to read and meditate on God's word this week.

We have played tourist a bit this past week, as my sister Lynn came to visit. We went through the Hermitage, and saw lots that I hadn't seen in my previous two hour tour. :) Like items from two villas south of Pompeii that were also buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
We both thought it would be great to go and help continue with the archaeological dig there!!
However, we both have things to do that are more important at the moment, so we will have to just imagine!!

Prayers

Well, on Sunday, I (Holly) preached on prayer. How we need to pray more, How we need to pray for wisdom in decision making, How we need to pray so that our relationship with God is strengthened and How we need to pray for others.
This week we are needing to pray for each of those areas. Serving the International Community, there are many things to pray for . Like the people in Kenya, and the church community there who lost loved ones and friends, and a church building in the recent troubling times. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Kenya, that the Lord would bring peace to this troubled area.
There are also things facing us as leaders that we must seek God's wisdom for. And there is my cousin Kim, and her daughter Allison who stand in need of prayer. Allison was born prematurely, and has had numerous medical problems in her short life. She recently had surgery, and has still not come back to herself since the surgery. Many prayers are going up from all around the world, and these need to continue, even more so since Kim suffered a stroke yesterday. This is all the news I have currently, but it is enough to know that I, and as many people as I can get to do so as well, need to lift them up in prayer to a Heavenly Father who knows them and loves them, and wants to give them good gifts!! (For more info on Allison, you can view her webpage at http://www.freewebs.com/updatesforallison/index.htm)

Blessings from a snowy St Pete!!

Celebrating New Year's

Well, for those of you in the West, your holidays are over. However, where we live, the holidays will continue until after January 7, which is officially Orthodox Christmas. St. Petersburg seems to be a ghost town, with fewer people driving around the city than we have ever seen. It's wonderful!!

On New Years eve, we called up Y & M, one of the couples from our International church, at about 11:15 pm, just to see if they wanted to head down to the center of the city for the fireworks and excitement. They did, so we went and picked them up, and arrived at Palace Square (just outside the Hermitage Museum) in time to see and hear President Putin's remarks on the big screens. Afterwards, there were fireworks being set off all around, champagne and wine corks popping, etc. We strolled over one of the bridges, watching the view over the river, with many thousands of other people. Families, singles, couples, it seemed like everyone was outside. We ended up at a restaurant, where Y & M told of how God had placed a call on their lives to be Missionaries. Prov 3:9 says "Honor the Lord with your wealth..." This couple wants to do that by studying to become excellent in the talents which God has gifted them, and then to use those talents to help equip others to minister. How cool is that? God is directing their steps, and we have got to be an encouragement to them along the way, by being a part of the ICA ministry team. We are glad to still be here, ministering, and looking forward to being part of the rotating ministry team here in the days to come.

Next posting we will tell you about another part of our ministry, as we rotate out of Russia for 90 days out of every 180, due to Visa law changes.