The Dean Family

Vanavara Trip Dec. 2014 from James Dean on Vimeo . The trip to Vanavara went very well. We arrived back on Saturday very tired, but happy that the trip was such a success. I am thankful for friends like Oganes and Missionary James Pranger. We had a wonderful time of Christian fellowship and were able to accomplish much together on this trip. Conditions of the roads There are two routes,  a longer one and a shorter one. The longer one is made up of both logging roads and winter roads. The log roads are not bad to drive on, as they are well maintained so that log trucks can pass quickly. The winter roads are rougher. The shorter route is almost all winter road. While it is shorter, it is considerably rougher. I included a video of the trip. Building Earlier I wrote a about the building project, and what we hoped to learn from some of the local builders. As you may recall, we had hoped to be able to build on steel piling, as it would be much cheeper than concrete...

Today I will be taking another advanced survey trip to Vanavara. Missionary James Pranger, Oganes, and I will be leaving out on the winter road. Some of you may remember Oganes from some of my earlier letters. He translated for me on my very first trip to Russia, and accompanied me to the northern villages of Tura and Turahansk. He also heads up the village ministry in Atamanova. Brother Pranger is a second generation missionary who practically grew up on the winter roads, and knows the dangers of them far better than I.   A trucker who drives this road regularly said that the trip takes about 24 hours from Krasnoyarsk. This will be the first time we have driven the road. The purpose of this trip is fact finding. Specifically: What are the conditions of the road? We are told  that the road is rather rough, but how rough? To make contacts with truckers who could transport building supplies. Oganes has made contacts already with some drivers.    A better un...