The Dean Family

Since we moved into the village house, we have had a rough go of it. It seems that every week since we have moved, there has been some kind of unusual problem. Here are a few things that have happened: We had some very cold weather, and my car froze up . When we lived in the city, this was not too big of a problem, I would just call a mechanic that I know, and he would come with some equipment and within an hour or less the car would be running. That is no longer an option. It took me about a day and a half to get the car thawed out, but then my battery was too weak. I ended up with three batteries, a jumper box and a whole bunch of jumper cables hooked up to the car. Finally, it started.   Some neighborhood kids were pestering one of our neighbors, who happens to be one of the village grandmothers. I am not sure exactly what happened or who was involved, as we were at the prayer meeting in the city when it happened. However, it sounds like there was some name calli...

We are excited to report that we have moved, and are all settled into the village house.  In our last report we were still in the middle of remodeling the house. All the major work is done now.  The walls in the upstairs are completed, doors are hung, trim is in place, and linoleum laid. The plumbing is finished as well. In the downstairs of the house there is a large open room that serves as a kitchen, home school room, and a place to hold service on Sunday. We also put in a bathroom in the downstairs. In the upstairs, we built two bedrooms and a small family room. I have included some photos of the project. Please continue to pray for us as we work with the people of this village.

We are planning to move from the city to village of Shila. There are several reasons for this, let me mention a few: currently we go to the village on the weekends. Saturday is a time of  visitation, and on Sunday we hold services. As a result, we are seeing progress, but for something to really be established in this village someone needs to live there; someone needs to build friendships with the neighbors, the  shopkeepers and all those  living in the village. If we move to the village we will no longer be “the Americans who come to our village on the weekends”, but “Americans who live in our village”. Another reason for this move is to more fully immerse  myself into the Russian language. To my knowledge, there are no English speakers in Shila, so we would be completely dependent on Russian. We would still be within driving distance to the city, so that if there were a real problem to arise; we would be able to contact someone. I am looking at this as a sort of...

Today's Sunday School picnic went really well. The children had a wonderful time of games, fellowship, and of course food. Please enjoy a few of the snapshots that we took.

Vacation Bible School was such a wounderful time for all of us. We had a good turn out of children in the villages. We are now organizing Sunday Schools in two of the villages: Atomanova and Shila. This will allow us to continue to work with these young people. Missionary Matt Northcut is overseeing the Sunday School in Atomanova, and I am overseeing the one Shila. Please pray for both of us and our families as we try to bring the Gospel to the young people of these two villages. Please have a look at some of our Vacation Bible School Photos. Preparation for VBS   VBS in the City of Krasnoyarsk VBS in the Villages

We just finished our first week of Vacation Bible School (VBS) in the city. Next week we will be holding VBS in a nearby village. A lot of preparation has already gone into VBS, including building a two and a half meter tall Olympic torch and a winners platform, and 12 large flags  made by one of our church ladies. But even more critical  to an event is the preparatory work of planning and organizing, for that we are grateful to missionary Matt Northcut. Missionary Matt Northcut also designed a large banner and our flyers. (I am always amazed with  his ability in graphic design.) During this past week the children competed against one another for Olympic  style medals. They played hard and had a lot of fun. One of the competitions was in memorizing scripture. I was very impressed with our young people and how serious they were about memorizing the Bible. Two of the children memorized and recited as many as 52 verses in a five day period. I was very proud of Emily, ...

Yesterday the church kids went on a little youth outing to a local butterfly and lizard exhibit. The children seemed to really enjoy themselves. It was a good time of fellowship with the kids. Please have a look at some of the photos.

We are very excited to report that we received our permanent residency today. This is very important to the ministry, as it would be difficult to stay in Russia without it. We are so happy that everything went through all right. Thank you for your prayers in this very important matter. Please continue to bring our name before the Lord in prayer as we strive to serve Him in Siberia.

We went in today to receive our Permanent Residency documents. We were told that there were a few documents that we still needed to obtain, as well as an added fee. Unfortunately we were not aware of the fee. I am planning to have everything ready by Wednesday. The good thing is that we have been approved, so it should just be a matter of time. We were all very disappointed though, we were hoping to have our residency booklets in hand today. Please pray that we can get the correct documents in a timely manner. Thank you for your prayers.

I wanted to thank everyone for praying for our permanent residency. I have written on several occasions about the importance of it to our work in Russia. Today I spoke with the office where we applied for our permanent residency and they said that all of our documents were ready. Later next week we will go to the office and receive our residency documents.

I am excited to report that we are seeing more progress in the Shila ministry. We have four adults who have been coming consistently  for some time now. One of the ladies invited her son, who is in his twenties, to come to one of the services. He has come to two services now and seems really interested in the lessons.   The services in Shila have taken the form of a Bible study. Missionary Duane Hearron and I teach the lessons together. Each of us give our thoughts on the subject, and then wait and listen to the responses of the people. By doing so we are making sure that the message is understood. When something is not understood we know to spend more time in that area. The services are held completely in Russian with no translation. By God's grace I have been able to lead the lesson.   At present no one has made  a profession of faith, but the people are progressing in their understanding of God's message of salvation; and they are engaged in the le...

Special thanks to Missionary Duane Hearron for putting this clip together. (you can find his blog here:  http://www.thehearronfamily.com )

click here for a downloadable copy

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Moved again and Documents turned in We have had to move again, as our former landlord’s deed was tied up in some kind of law suit. As you may recall, we were unable to register our place of dwelling, and where thus unable to proceed with applying for permanent residency. We had no choice but to move again. By law we had to register where we were living and because of the longevity of our ministry here we also needed to apply for permanent residency. Our new apartment is a little smaller than the other, but it is well laid out, which makes up for the lack of space. We are quite comfortable, but even more important, we were able to register and turn in our documents for residency! Now we just have to wait for an answer. We should know something by the end of April. Black light chalk By the grace of God I am still making attempts at teaching the children’s ministry in Russian. I have tried to make use of chalk and black light chalk...

Children's Ministry: Vacation Bible School in the Village: Ministry in Shila: Birthdays: the kids at play: