Coming Up Next.... very busy weeks!

I will be posting parts 1 and 2 of an article type thing that has been very impacting for me in the next day or two, but I wanted to give yall an update about what is coming up in the near future first. 

What is coming up:

We are having our Cooking Club tomorrow night (Wed night here, Wed. morning Texas time) Pray that the women who come will be blessed and we will be able to build relationships with them and continue conversations with them.

Shannon and I will be teaching an English class about Thanksgiving on Thursday.  This is a local college (somewhat equivalent to a community college in the States) class so we have to be a little bit careful about what we say, but because the lesson is about Thanksgiving, we are going to try to share about what we are thankful for and slip in a little bit about the Gospel.  Pray that the lesson will go well, that the students will be able to understand us and be interested, and that God will use us to speak to their hearts through this lesson.

Next week Shannon and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving 3 times! :) On Wed. Shannon Kelly and I will be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for our classmates.  Pray that this will be a great time of fellowship and that we will be able to share about the Gospel through explaining why and how we celebrate Thanksgiving.  On Thursday, Shannon and I will be spending the day with the Carr’s, celebrating with them.  Please pray that this will be a joyful time and that we will not be missing our families too badly. Then on Friday, we will be having a joint Men’s and Women’s club to celebrate a traditional American Thanksgiving with the Russians who usually attend the Men’s Club and Women’s Club each month.  Pray that this will be a special time of blessings for those who attend and that we will all enjoy a great time of fellowship and celebration of how much we have to be thankful for.

On Dec. 7^th, our university will be putting on a presentation with some of the language students and all of the international students.  The international students from each different country will be sharing about how their country celebrates New Year’s or Christmas.  Shannon, Kelly, and I are the only Americans so we have decided to share about how we celebrate Christmas.  We are in the planning stage right now, but so far we have decided that we will be singing a song (possibly O Holy Night or Silent Night) and bringing cookies (because you have to leave cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve! J).  We will be able to share about our Christmas traditions and possibly have the Carr family act out a family opening presents and such on Christmas morning.  Please pray that we will be able to follow God’s guidance on how to go about sharing the true reason for Christmas.  

As you can see, we are going to be incredibly busy in our last few weeks here.  This is a good thing.  I definitely want to make the most of what little time I have left here.  But I would also like to ask that you pray for plenty of rest and limited stress for Shannon and I.  With so much going on, it could be rather easy for us to get worn out and make these last 3 and a half weeks very difficult for us.


Also, I have been working to get any of you who would like to connected with praying for 1 or 2 individuals here on a more personal level.  If you are interested in praying for a specific person here in Ufa, please let me know and I can send you a short bio and some specific prayer requests for an individual. I am hoping to keep this going even after I return to the States through some of the Ms here.  Thanks!