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May - June 2015

Furlough

We wanted to go to America at the beginning of June for a furlough, but we had a hard time finding somebody to continue having services while we were gone. We really didn’t want to just close the doors for five months. After a lot of searching, we found the Ron Winkler family in Estonia. They are veteran missionaries from America who speak Russian. It took a while to get their documents approved to come to Russia, so we postponed our furlough to begin at the end of June. We are very grateful to have their help for these months.

During the spring months before we left for America, we went several times to a very fine clinic in Moscow for some medical checkups. Ruth finally had the cataract surgery she has wanted for a long time. It went very well, and her vision is greatly improved.

We also did a lot of work improving the church building in the months before we went on furlough. We were finally able to connect to the city sewer system, and we installed a new water supply line. I had to tear up the floors in three rooms to install the pipes. After that was done, we decided to put down new floor board and cover it with new linoleum. We also put new linoleum in the auditorium. It was a long project, but we finished by the end of June.

In a previous letter, I mentioned Sergei, who quit coming to services and apparently was gone for good. We were very happy to see him back in church, although he is still not as faithful as he needs to be. Please pray for him.

We left Russia on June 30 and had a great nonstop flight from Moscow to New York City. This was our first time to fly on Aeroflot. They used to have a poor reputation, but they have worked very hard to improve their service. We had a very good experience and we would recommend them to anyone who wants to fly this route.

Our son, Alan, and his family met us at the airport. It was great to see our two little grandsons, Blake and Cole! We are planning to stay with them in Connecticut for the month of July. In August, September, and October, we plan to stay in Illinois near our other children, and our third grandson, Judah. We plan to return to Connecticut for the month of November to finish our furlough.

If you would like for us to visit your church and give a report while we are in the states, we would be happy to come. Email is probably the best way to contact us.

In the service of the King,
Don Ossewaarde