WE ARE HERE! (AND WE MOSTLY SURVIVED)
By now most of you are wondering what happened to us. Since we last wrote at the beginning of April we went through an incredible experience of packing, selling/giving away, sickness and leaving our home far behind...
- The day after we sent our last newsletter Sonia was hit hard with chicken pox, forcing the cancellation of her 18th birthday/farewell party
- Thankfully all three girls were fully recovered from the 'pox by the time we had to fly
- Our "yard sale" was postponed so many times (and so many potential shoppers were scared away by the 'pox plague) that we weren't able to empty our home until just before we left
- The flight/move went well (more details below), but the entire effort has taken its' toll on our family health-wise. Please be patient with us as we slowly adjust to our new surroundings!
As we continue the process of relocation and acclimatization we continue to covet your prayers. It may be a while until we're fully functional. We are living in a temporary residence, we have no telephone line (only cellular) and no internet connection. However, we do have a fully-functioning van and our cell phones work! We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible over the next few months, especially as we being MINA and visits to our supporting churches. We also plan to travel to BC in the next few months, so we may well see many of our western friends as well!
Thank you for your continued prayers, and we look forward to updating you on our plans in the near future!
— Kevin, Lena, Sonia, Maya & Deena (& Missy the kitten!)
CANADIAN CONTACT INFO
Now that we're mostly settled in we have new contact info. Here's how you can reach us:
- Mailing Address:
- Box 264, Portage la Prairie MB R1N 3B5
- Telephone (cellular):
- Kevin: (204) 872-3802
- Lena: (204) 872-0325
- Sonia also has a cell of her own; number available upon request
- Email:(No change)
- kevin@krhamm.com remains our main address (please note that there were some problems in the past few months with our krhamm.com addresses, and some mail may not have been received. However, we have since changed servers, so from mid-April we should have received all of your emails).
BLESSINGS
Praise God for a safe trip to Canada:
- we managed to fit most of what we urgently needed into our ten suitcases
- Russian customs didn't say boo when we left (I was somewhat chagrined about that since I had spent many hours cataloguing the contents of our suitcases!)
- the three flights, connections and passage through Canadian customs went without a hitch
- Lena & Sonia's admittance into Canada when smoothly & quickly
- All of our luggage arrived safely in Winnipeg (although we mistakenly took a wrong suitcase home and had to return the next day to exchange it for our own)
Upon our arrival at our temporary home in Portage la Prairie we were greeted by a furnished home, with plenty of food and supplies. We are especially grateful for:
- All the people who, over the past year, donated furnishings, appliances, food and needed supplies for our Canadian home
- My Mom & Dad and the rest of my extended family, who spent countless hours cleaning and setting up our home
- Friends at Community Fellowship church in Newton who organized a food shower/celebration for us. We were greeted with Canadian flags & lapel pins, a program, food and even a fireworks display! We barely managed to pack all the food & gift parcels we were given into our van! What a welcome!!!
- Of course, all of you who continually prayed for us during this incredibly challenging time. We certainly could not have made it without God's help.
PETITIONS
Please pray for Nina as she remains in St. Petersburg. Pray that she will continue to have good health and strength (we had to place the final moving and cleaning into her hands, since we were unable to complete the emptying of our apartment before our departure). Pray also that she will not be overcome with loneliness as adjusts to the loss of her only family's (our!) presence.
Once again (still?) we request your prayers for improved family health. Deena & I are almost recovered after a week of bad colds (and no voice) and now Maya is getting ill. It has taken us two weeks already to get adjusted, and it may take even longer for our family to fully adjust to the climate and pace of our new home.
Please remember to pray for a buyer for our home. Our apartment is still being "showed off", so there is interest, just not yet a buyer.
DID YOU KNOW...
...that some of the things we're doing now that we've never experienced in Russia include:
- raking leaves
- gardening
- living in the country
- cutting grass
- buying milk in 4 litre jugs
- living in a "non-apartment"
- eating fat-free yogurt
- free internet access and video rentals in a public library
ESSENTIAL INFO
Kevin & Lena Hamm are missionaries with Mennonite Brethren Mission and Service International, assisting Christian Camping International/Russia.
A printable version of this newsletter 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, please visit www.krhamm.com.
You can help! Please visit www.krhamm.com/support for ways you can help our family & ministry.
Thousands of our recent photos can be viewed at Flickr.com.
(Sonia's pictures too!)
