THE FINAL MONTH
It's official! The five of us are coming to Canada on April 15th. This afternoon I paid Lufthansa a princely sum to transport our family and a portion of our material goods for five sets of air tickets. Here's our itinerary:
- Depart St. Petersburg at 1430; arrive in Frankfurt at 1525
- Depart Frankfurt at 1700; arrive in Toronto at 1945
- Pause for passport control, immigration processing, baggage claim, baggage check-in...and perhaps time for coffee with friends!
- Depart Toronto at 2155; arrive in Winnipeg at 2328
All of this is Lord willing, of course! With Nina's willingness to complete the sale of our apartment in our absence, and with most of our belongings either sold or spoken for, we are almost ready to leave Russia.
This past week has been a whirlwind of people either calling or dropping in to ask about what's available. We had planned a fairly large (indoor) yard sale, but it looks like most things are claimed already! Yesterday we were surprised by the quick sale of our bedroom set (a buyer needed it immediately, and begged us to sell our mattress, which we had hoped to hang on to until next month!), leaving us with a completely empty bedroom! So for the next four weeks Lena and I will sleep on the couch while our room becomes a packing zone. Deena is still a bit anxious about all the disappearing items—yesterday she asked me if someone was going to take our toilet!
Thank you for your prayers for our family during this exciting, crazy time,
— Kevin, Lena, Sonia, Maya & Deena
COMING TO CANADA
Thank you to all who are helping us to find a temporary home in Manitoba. We hope to be able to decide on a place soon. Please continue to pray for our "safe landing" in Canada. It will certainly be a big adjustment for us all!
BLESSINGS
Thank God that we were able to purchase the needed air tickets in time!
We are thankful that so many of our things have found new homes. We have been trying to "stretch out the blessings" by giving away the many things others had previously given to us. Thank you for all of your generous gifts to us over the years, and know that the blessing will continue!
PETITIONS
We are still hoping to find a buyer for our apartment before we depart. It would be wonderful if a Christian family were to take our place in this neighbourhood. Pray that it may be so!
Please continue to pray for CCI/Russia staff in Moscow as they complete the meetings and training of future leaders.
For the third time in as many weeks Deena has (mildly) injured her neck. Tomorrow Lena will take her to a specialist to have her examined. Deena is not a great fan of doctors, so please pray that the appointment will go well and that there will be no further injuries to her neck.
DID YOU KNOW...
...that the March 11 municipal elections in Russia were the first under the new "streamlined" rules? Gone is the minimum turnout limit (less than 34% turned out in St. Petersburg, well under the old limit that would have rendered the election void), the "against all" option (the old rule allowed for a win for "against all" to disqualify all candidates)(though some 37,500 voters defaced their ballot in protest) and the independent candidates (now all vote-seekers must be members of "approved" political parties). Lena did cast her vote (the party she voted for came in last), but like many Russians (a majority it seems) feels it hardly matters. With President Putin personally appointing governors and the two main political parties openly supporting Putin it doesn't look good for democracy in Russia.
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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