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Jeff and Amy B.Dear friends and family-
Brrrr! The cold of January has arrived! The end of January finds us in chilly -25 degree F weather. This cold weather is quite a shock to us as we have just returned from the U.S. That's right, we arrived in the U.S. in December for what we thought would be a fairly quick vacation with our families for Christmas and New Year's, but our time there was extended a little (more on that later) and we've just arrived back in Russia. Our journeys over the past two months In December and early January we were extremely blessed to get to spend time with both our immediate and extended families as well as a few close friends. We arrived in Indiana in mid-December and spent two weeks with Amy's family celebrating birthdays, attending Christmas programs, celebrating Christmas as well as just having a lot fun catching up and playing "Outer Space" with our nephews and niece. At the end of December we headed to Florida and spent 2 weeks with Jeff's family. This was a great time of rest and relaxation and quality time with Jeff's parents, grandfather, and his brother Todd. We played games, shared meals together, and just enjoyed being together. We then headed back to Indiana for some medical appointments. After a visit to the doctor's in December, Amy was encouraged to have a medical procedure. Thus, our trip was postponed by a few weeks (we had initially planned to return to Russia January 9). We are very thankful that all went smoothly and Amy has already recovered very well. The day before we left the U.S. Jeff had a reoccurrence of an eye infection that he's battled with off and on for the last year. He headed to the ophthalmologist and was surprised to hear that he has iritis, an inflammation of the iris. This infection is pretty rare and can be an indicator of a more serious illness, so he was sent to a general practitioner for some analyses to check for these other illnesses. We'd ask for your prayers as we wait to hear back from the doctor in the U.S. in the next week or so. Ministry update We are now back in Russia and have jumped right into things! Sunday, January 29 we set up for the upcoming session of Bible College and yesterday was the first day. This session the topics are Spiritual Growth and Interpersonal Relationships and The Book of John. We were so encouraged by our first day of class and look forward to attending these classes over the next few weeks as much as we can. We then met with our Discussion Clubs on Monday night and were overjoyed to see so many good friends after being gone for two months. This Wednesday we will start up our Teen Club again and we'd ask that you'd be praying for these young people's hearts as this week we review all that we covered in the first semester with them and share the story of Noah and his faith and obedience to God's call for his life. Upcoming Opportunities We'd like to share with you some opportunities coming up in the next several months, as well. FPI Internship First of all, as you remember last summer we hosted our first annual FPI Internship. The purpose of this internship is to provide young people with a longer short-term mission experience in order to explore God's will for their lives in the field of missions. We are currently accepting applications and would like to invite you to share with others about this opportunity. We are attaching a brochure providing more details. Please contact us at this email as soon as possible if you know someone who is interested! FPI Reunion We'd like to invite all of you to the 20th anniversary reunion of the ministry of Footprints, International in Tyumen, Russia. This event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Chapel at Cornerstone EPC Church, 9455 Hilton Rd., Brighton MI 48116. This reunion is for anyone who has been a part of Footprints' ministry (summer camp, Bible college, pregnancy center, etc.) or is simply interested in hearing more about the history and current ministry of Footprints. If you are interested in attending, contact Jim and Sally Foote at jsfoote@netscape.com . Also, if you have been a part of Footprints ministry in the past and would like to receive email updates but do not currently, please contact Jim and Sally Foote and provide them with your name and email address. We are so thankful for all of you and your prayers and partnership with us in our ministry here. We continue to see how God provides for us and for the ministry through His body-all of you! We covet your prayers and ask you to continue to intercede, particularly that God would be moving in a mighty way to open young people's hearts to the Truth of Jesus and that they will realize their need for Him. We also ask that you'd be praying for our physical health and continued spiritual encouragement. Blessings, Jeff and Amy B. From last summer:
We're excited to share our most recent newsletter/update with you all. There's a lot going on here in Siberia. We've also included links to 5 photo albums from our summer programs and a link to our blog as always! Drop us a line and let us know how you're doing, what's happening new in your lives and how we can be praying for you! Blessings, Jeff & Amy
August / September 2011 As summer draws to a close and we look back, we can’t believe how much has happened in the last few months! We are so thankful for your support, prayers, thoughts and help. We led our first formal Footprints Internship, had a close friend from the States come and stay with us, held our first two sessions of Christian English Club, visited one of the most famous Russian Orthodox holy sites and continued with our Discussion Club and Interpreter programs. We are looking forward to the start of the academic school year, and if all goes as planned, Jeff will be teaching a leadership course at the University this fall. This could be a huge dream accomplished for Jeff, to formally teach leadership education here in Tyumen.
Internship
We were certainly blessed to have Schuyler Rees and Melissa Prieskorn as our first two interns for the Footprints internship program. Schuyler was with us for seven weeks and Melissa for four weeks. We so appreciated their unique gifts and talents during their time with us. Both are very artistic and creative. They designed and painted sets for our English club program, painted the main hall at the CEC, led discussion club, worked with the interpreters, met one on one with new Russian friends, worked on the building, and many other activities. It was incredible to see how they both connected with different individuals and groups of people. Melissa has really strong ties with people from summer camp in 2008 and 2009, while Schuyler connected with many new friends, especially from English Discussion Club. The internship program was a big first for us this year and we’re hoping for it to become an annual program. Next year, we’re hoping for four college students (or just graduates) to come and work with us for six weeks. Our internship is really a unique opportunity for young people to see what life is really like as a missionary and to explore God’s calling for them in this field. In our time together we focused on: spiritual development, cultural education, language learning, team building, self discovery, and project development. The internship included a bit of everything, from learning to cook traditional Russian foods to leading discussions, program development, one-on‐one evangelism, work projects in the backyard of the church and a host of other projects.
Kids Club This summer we held our first ever Christian English Club. We held two, week older children/teens and the second for younger children. Each day included an introduction, music/worship, a skit, a moral lesson, an English lesson, snack, crafts, games, and a special activity (dancing or watching a video clip). The entire day was held in English (along with a Russian translation). Our theme for this summer was “You Are Special” based on the book by Max Lucado. We had a great time with the kids and were blessed to be able to use the avenue of English for sharing God’s love with them. We were also very blessed to be joined in this endeavor by the entire Footprints Team, the staff at the Cultural Education Center, and the interns. We look forward to hosting this club in a larger capacity in the years to come! We also are planning to begin a teen discussion club this fall as many of the young people that came to our club are interested in meeting regularly for discussions and to practice their English.
HTPC News During the spring, Amy was an integral help in starting a women’s ministry at our local Russian church. The ladies come to our apartment, meet in the kitchen and have amazing conversations about their lives and focus their lessons on the book, “A Woman after God’s Own Heart” by Elizabeth George. This has really been wonderful as the ladies are drawing together. Jeff tries to be helpful during this time by watching the kids while the ladies are meeting. There was a special congregational meeting in August in which the church decided to add an additional elder to the board. Dmitry Kanunikov was elected as an Elder to be working with deacons. He is a great addition to the board and has already become a very integral part of the workings of church life.
Gearing up for Fall We both graduated from university quite a while ago, but our lives still revolve around the academic calendar. We’re excited for the fall season to be here and for programs, projects, and lessons to begin again. We’re still students and this fall we’ve been invited to attend another university course, “Culture of Russian Speech,” go to Russian discussion club, and possibly audit the ‘advanced’ foreign students’ class. We’re very excited about this opportunity and know that we need the practice after so many English will begin once again at the end of September. We’ll have two groups again this fall with beginners and advanced students. As we mentioned earlier, we’re considering the possibility of beginning a teen club this fall and will soon be creating the schedule for this group.
Other updates In August our landlord notified us that our rent would be going up 25%. We really love our apartment and consider it a blessing, but for an extra 5,000 rubles, we just can’t afford to keep it. So we told them “no” and that we would look for a new place by the end of September. A week and a half later, we received a call from them and they decided to let us stay another year! We’ve been in this apartment for thee years so far and it really feels like home for us. So, it’s really good news that we get to stay here for another year. In other news, our financial support is down about $400 monthly. With the economic situation in the U.S., we are certainly experiencing the same effects here in Russia. Please be praying for additional support for us.
On a Personal Note The past few months have been ones of great joys as well as sorrows. We have both been feeling a little spiritually dry and been dealing with some challenges in our personal lives. We know that in this time the Lord is with us and is calling us to have faith in joyful times as well as difficult ones. We are asking Him to increase our faith in Him as we know that “These (trials) have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:7).” Please pray for God to continue to reveal Himself to us and grow us in our relationship with Him.
Photos of our summer: With the busy summer coming to a close and an exciting fall coming up, we’d like to share several photos with you from our summer. The links below will take you to our photo albums on facebook. Even if you are not a facebook user, you should be able to see the photos and descriptions.
Internship (Tyumen Orientation/Scavenger Hunt) (Intern photos)
Kids Camp (/Session II)Session I ) Digging Potatoes
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