HANGING IN THERE
Sorry for the absence, but I've been waaaaay under the weather for the past ten days. I seem to be doing a bit better, but I'm still without a voice (I haven't spoken a word out loud for seven days). Every time I even whisper or use my throat, I end up coughing and coughing. Needless to say, this means a lot more work for Lena as my attempts at communicating with hand signals aren't too effective with Maya & Deena! ;-)
While I'm staying home from work, I am able to do a little extra packing. We finally made the decision not to unpack our Christmas decorations. We had such hopes of setting up our Russian decorations in Canada this year! Oh well... Since we still had our tree accessible (purchased from The Bay in 1999 with gift certificates from dear relatives) we decided to make our own Christmas tree decorations this year. Yesterday afternoon Lena & Maya got busy and created sixteen different ornaments for the tree.
Almost two weeks ago we received our first Christmas card, as usual from a very faithful supporter, Hilla Funk. I can't think of a Christmas in Russia in which her Christmas card hasn't been either the first or second one received! It is so wonderful to be able to share the blessings of this season with our true "extended family". Praise God for His Gift and for the privilege to be able to celebrate as one family!
- Kevin, Lena, Sonia, Maya & Deena
COMING TO CANADA
By now the chances of our family coming to Canada in 2006 are very slim. Even if the visas are ready tomorrow, it will take us some time to get everything ready: our home needs to be "fully" put up for sale, we have mounds of things to sell or give away, things to move to Nina's, packing, etc. By then we will surely be unable to fly before the Christmas high season, so we are pretty much resigned to staying put for the next month or two regardless of when the visas arrive. Still, we're coming, Lord willing! Thank you for continuing to pray for us and for the visa process. Yes, it is taking a long time, but the process is still within the given time frame. When the time finally comes for the visas to be granted, we pray that all will be ready!
BLESSINGS
Answered prayer from previous weeks! Maya's health is almost 100%. She has resumed her studies at school (she attends classes just 3 times a week) and is happy to be able to play outside again.
PETITIONS
Please continue to pray for preparations for the February 4-9 winter camping conference. Mailings containing information packets and application forms are being prepared for distribution to the far reaches of the former Soviet Union. Please pray for our staff as they prepare for the conference.
Deena's health is thankfully not as bad as mine (or even as bad as Maya's was). Please pray for improved health in our family, especially for healing for Deena & yours truly.
Visa news would certainly be welcome!
DID YOU KNOW...
...that the Russian government categorizes farms in this way: agricultural enterprises, private household farms and private (peasant) farms? I'm not sure what these "peasant" farms are about, but they produce less than 3% of all Russian farms (2002 statistics).
...that the average Russian has 19.5 square metres of living space (2002 statistics)? This means that our family of five is living in the "less than average" category: we share 72 square metres, leaving an average of 14.4 per person. On the other hand, our family is double the size of the Russia norm...
ESSENTIAL INFO
Kevin & Lena Hamm are missionaries with Mennonite Brethren Mission and Service International, serving with Christian Camping International/Russia in St. Petersburg, Russia.
A printable version in Adobe Acrobat format is always available for download.
Visit www.krhamm.com/pray for links to print versions, archives and more.
For more on our ministry in Russia, please visit www.krhamm.com.
You can help! Please visit www.krhamm.com/support for ways you can help our family & ministry.
Hundreds of our recent photos can be viewed at Flickr.com. (And now Sonia's pictures too!)
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