July - August 2011

A Beautiful Summer

Last year was the hottest summer on record in Russia, with drought conditions. This summer has been very different, with comfortably warm weather and plenty of rain. The farmers have had great harvests of grain, fruit, and vegetables, so the cost of food is down somewhat. We have especially enjoyed lots of watermelons this year at very low prices. Ruth has been making smoothies for us in the blender with fresh watermelon, kiwi, frozen bananas, and apple juice. Delicious!

We had a picnic in August on a Sunday after church. The people really like these events, and they invite their unsaved friends and loved ones. We served barbeque pulled chicken sandwiches and watermelon. We have used the church yard a lot this summer for outdoor fellowship. One week everyone picked fresh cherries from our trees to take home with them.

We have done quite a bit of painting and some repairs in our apartment and at the church. The church roof started leaking, so I patched it with some hard tar that had to be melted into a liquid on the stove.

Pray for Natasha, Nikolai’s wife. She fell while crossing the street and broke some fingers on her right hand. Pray for the salvation of Alexei, Yulia, Larissa, Lena, and Dmitry.

We have now paid $58,552 on our church building loan. We hope to pay off the remaining balance, about $3000, by the end of this year. You may want to help by sending a gift to: BIMI, P.O. Box 9215, Chattanooga, TN 37412. Designate it for “Ossewaarde - Project Russian Church Building”.

In the service of the King,
Don Ossewaarde