The Dean Family

My family, and the missionaries that we are working with, met last week to discuss the Vacation Bible Schools that we will be holding this summer. The theme is Diving for Treasure. The idea is that we will dive into the Word of God and find    our  treasure. I  look  to  have  a great turnout  in  our  village as  we  have  been working with a group of young people here for over a year now.  They are very excited about VBS. As you may recall, we held our first VBS here last year. Now, a year later, the children are still talking about it and are excited for the one this summer. I am really excited about this year’s VBS, because, after working with the young people of Shila for about a year, many of them have really progressed in their understanding of the Bible and salvation. Our goal concerning the VBS is twofold: First: To bring the young people whom we have already been working with to a place of decision. ...

Yesterday, we had a wonderful day. A group of ladies from the city church came out to the village for a visit, and to see the work here. Many of the ladies have not been out here since before the fire. They were quite excited to see the renovations. a lot has changed since the fire. A few of the ladies expressed an interest in coming out here and helping with Vacation Bible School this summer. This is really exciting for me because this is exactly what we need; more church member involvement.  The more that they can get involved the better, not only for their own spiritual growth but also for the growth of the village ministry. Someday, we are moving further north and will be transitioning out of this ministry; which means that the members of the city church need to catch the burden and vision of this ministry and continue the work. Please continue to pray for the work here.

As many of you know, we had a break in shortly after we moved to the village of Shila. We have taken som steps to prevent this in the future. The local officer in the village highly encouraged us to get a guard dog. He said that it is normal for most village homes to have a guard dog on the property,  and that we should get one soon. So we followed his advice and got a Caucasian Mountain Dog. They are not common breed in America, but are popular  in Russia and eastern Europe, and are commonly employed as guard dogs. They are a shepherding breed, that means that they will both protect our family (their flock) and the protect the territory. In addition to this, we also bought a insurance policy that protects against theft and fire.    Adult Caucasian Mountain Dog. Our Dog at 6 Months Old