Saturday, February 24, 2007

Office Renovation

A new posting was long over-due. Here are a few updates with what's happening over here:

Recently the ministry made an agreement to obtain a new room in the building we're renting space in. After a thorough cleaning and some minor renovations we moved the office furniture and equipment in and set up camp. This new room is limited to office staff only! This translates into a peaceful, quiet working atmosphere with a lot less distraction.

Previously the ministry bookstore, cafe, meeting room, and offices were all crammed into one room resulting in a lot of traffic and noise. We're really thankful for the new space and are looking forward to putting it to good use.

The original room will now be designated solely as a cafe/bookstore/meeting room. Renovations are currently underway to make use of the extra space. A coffee bar has already been installed for the cafe and a new layout has been set for the bookstore. It's a drastic improvement from the previous arrangement and should become an important hub for one-on-one ministry and relationship building to take place.


Crystal has continued teaching English to some of the students in the ministry school. It's amazing how quickly some of them are picking up the new words and phrases. Others are learning at a slower pace and need constant encouragement. It's been a great learning experience for both Crystal and the students.

We are continuing with our Russian classes and are slowly adding to our vocabulary and learning how to build sentences. It takes a lot of discipline and faith to learn a new language. It takes pick and shovel type of faith that enables you to keep at it a little chunk at a time and not get discouraged.

The healing ministry has continued to develop. About twenty people in the church have now gone through the healing training and are now involved in praying for the sick after church meetings. Testimonies continue to come forward of people getting healed of various afflictions. Colds and head-ache healings are becoming more common. We are asking God for more faith and authority in this area especially when dealing with incurable diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis as they are very common here.

Thanks for all you prayers and continued support. We could not do it with out you all!

3 comments:

The Stiffs said...

Nice "working" shot of Christ at the desk. The first key to success is looking busy. I don't remember the other keys. Keep it up.

Audrey Whitesides said...

hey do you remember me? you met me at dave and heathers house last summer?! well, anyway, i am a missionary in japan, and i totally know what you mean about teaching english and learning another language...sometimes i think to myself, "what was i thinking"...but i know its worth it!
blessings, audrey

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.