April, 2008 Russia Update

Dear friends and family,

It's been a little while since I last wrote and it's time for an update. Yes, I'm still planning on moving to southern Russia to do missions work for a year, or more. When? I'm not quite sure, yet, but this past week I jumped a big hurdle: I sold my house. Well, I should say I accepted an offer to buy my house, it's not quite sold yet. Still, this is pretty exciting for me and a big relief. At first I wasn't so sure about selling the place, but the more I thought and prayed about it the more I realized that I needed to pay off all my school loans and be debt free before I left. I really didn't want to bother with renting the house out while I was half a world away, either.

I've never sold a house before, I had no idea what I was getting into. All the little things I'd been putting off found their way onto a To Do list, and the list was daunting. Yard work, rodents in the attic, replace the carpet and molding in the spare bedroom (thanks to my adorable cats), yard work, fix the hot tub, yard work, clean, paint, yard work, fix the fence, ... It went on. I started work in November, doing as much as I could on my own and with a friend to save some money. By mid-February I was starting to get pretty discouraged. It seemed like every task I completed only led to another task and there didn't seem to be any end in sight. God sent me some good encouragement during this time, though, by way of a touching letter and sizeable financial contribution for my ministry from a good friend. It was totally unexpected and exactly what I needed at the time.

Finally, in March the place was fixed up enough to start making it presentable to potential buyers. My agent and the stager decided that "Microsoft bachelor" wasn't really the "look" we were going for. I wasn't so sure about this at first (this "look" had worked pretty well for me the past 3 years, after all), but I was willing to play along. After I took down all the Star Wars, Guinness, and Lord of the Rings posters and cleared the ice axe and climbing rope off the kitchen counter we determined that I really didn't have any decorations. And my expensive HD TV was still resting on a $5 plastic crate. We brought in all kinds of pretty stuff that I never knew existed. "Treatments" and "centerpieces", things of that nature. I have to admit, the greenery does liven the place up a bit. The napkin arrangement thing in the kitchen still creeps me out a little, but I've truly grown to love the 4 ft tall bronze giraffe in the living room.

One big item on the big To Do list is now on track to be completed, but there are still several other things to do before I pack up and leave. I have a general plan to teach English and use that as an avenue for evangelism, but I need to talk some more with Pastor Victor and start working on some of the details. I am also planning on partnering with a missions organization. I figure I could use the support, accountability, networking, training, and credibility. I will also be raising financial support and will need some assistance, there. In order to stay for a year in Russia I need to get a business visa which, among other things, requires a letter of invitation from a Russian organization. I'm hoping the Christian camp I worked at last summer will be able to help me out, we'll see. Those are 4 big things that still need to be resolved (ministry details, missions org, financial support, business visa), I'm sure there will be plenty more. With God's help I'll work through them all and will end up one day in Russia. And then the fun will really begin.

So, that's a snapshot of where things are at today. Thanks, everyone, for you prayers and support.

In Him,Ryan