I just had to share this —
Sergei Tovstapyat is a good friend and the Administrator of Camp Elama, our summer camp north of St. Petersburg. He just posted a picture from last summer of the lake at Elama. As you see, it can be breathtaking.
We’re now planning our summer at Elama. It’s booked solid, and we need some funds to prepare for the camps (improve the water system, add a shower, run electric lines). You can visit here if you’d like to help.
What more can be said? Mary Walsh watched Valerie last week, and they visited a playground. This GREAT picture resulted:
Olga and Valerie are in Russia now. I’ll attend a conference in the US this weekend and then head off to Russia.
Our apologies go to all who we didn’t get a chance to see on this trip. We had a lot going on and will report on that a bit later. It’s been a busy time.
The summer will be quite busy. We’ll host teams in May, June and July; I’ll be in Montenegro twice and in Estonia often; Sunbeam is moving ahead at a quick pace, and it will be nice to be there and participate in all that’s happening there; and of course there is a lot going on in Russia: I’ll visit Murmansk in March and work at Elama quite a bit as well.
Yesterday, Olga attended the preliminary court hearing for the removal of Valerie’s birth mother’s parental rights. The hearing went well. The final hearing will be on Monday afternoon. Once Oksana’s parental rights are removed, then we have a six month waiting period before we can apply for adoption. So, hopefully the adoption will be completed by the end of this year.
Onward!
Over the past several months, I’ve often said that ‘I may have some good news about Estonia soon’. Well, today I have some good news about our work in Estonia.
For over a year now, Stoneworks has been partnering with several people in the US and Estonia to help establish a day center for children with disabilities. There are over 100 children with disabilities in that area and they have no access to services; they are at home, quite isolated from the world. They need help, and we are called to help them.
An American donor is giving a significant amount to help start the program, and in the process we’ve opened an Estonian charity named Päikesekiiir (Sunbeam) to run the program. But we didn’t have a building. Until yesterday.
The city of Jõhvi has given us use of a great building in the city center. And here it is:
We have it for 30 years at no cost! We have the keys and will start renovation soon.The building is in better shape than it may appear. It has a new roof and new high efficiency windows, it has a new security system and recently had firewalls and fire doors installed.
Pastor Artur Põld, architect Andres Toome and myself are the founding board members of the Estonian charity Sunbeam. Stoneworks represents the US side of the project, and also involved are Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Germans and Brits.
In addition to housing the center for children with disabilities, the building is large enough to house many more activities. It has a great assembly hall, conference rooms, we’ll build housing for mission teams, and host other events there. It’s in a great location, right in the middle of town.
Currently a youth center and kindergarten use a few of the rooms. They will pay rent to help offset operating expenses. There is much more room for expansion. And there is a smaller building on the lot that we hope to turn into a wood-working shop.
There is much to be done to prepare the building for the ministry. Though some parts of the building are in good shape, we need to renovate several rooms, build two wheelchair accessible bathrooms, reconfigure and rebuild the entrance (ramps, roof, doors) and offices, upgrade the heating system, renovate the kitchen, build a fence, and much more. Here are the initial designs for the first floor, where Sunbeam will be housed.
So, now that we have the building, much more is needed: mission teams to do construction, funds for equipment and operations, people to help train volunteers, and on and on.
We hope to open Sunbeam on June 1 — International Childrens’ Day.The next four months will be quite full and quite fun! And I’ll be posting more news as we move along.
You can read more and see more pictures and videos here.
Donations to support the center can be made here.
Soli Deo Gloria — To God alone be the glory. He has put this in our hearts, and He is bringing all the resources needed to help these children. We thank Him for guiding us.
Finns are amazing. Here are some beneath the ice views from beautiful lake Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland. (In case you don’t get what’s going on, watch to the very end.)
Merry Christmas to you all.
God is not far off. He is Emmanuel — God With Us.
Blessings to you all, from Mike, Olga and Valerie
This made us smile:
I just read a quote by Peggy Noonan:
In Iraq this year I asked an Iraqi military officer doing joint training at an American base what was the big thing he’d come to believe about Americans in the years they’d been there. He thought. “You are a better people than your movies say.” He had judged us by our exports. He had seen the low slag heap of our culture and assumed it was a true expression of who we are.
This has been my experience in various countries. The USA exports a lot of filth (by movies, music, popular culture, etc.), and others have judged Americans by it. We need to keep this in mind when the US is criticized by other cultures. In many cases the USA is not very attractive when judged by our cultural exports.
This is also one more good reason for mission trips: people in other countries can experience a different kind of American, an American who follows God and acts in love. In this way we may, in small part, act as peacemakers between cultures.
The best thing we can do is love the Lord deeply and be the people He wants us to be. Sometimes He may then send us to other cultures be a witness of His loving-kindness. He always wants us to be a witness in our home culture.
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday. Since thanksgiving is not a Russian holiday, it’s a bit easier to have the meal on Sunday.
In addition to several friends, Olga’s mother and grandparents joined us. Olga’s grandfather, Orest Maxmilianovich Grotten is 92 years old, and we were very glad he could be with us. Above is Olga with her mom and grandparents. Valerie is not in the picture because she was busy having her face painted by Natasha Pavlova.
We had turkey and dressing (my mom’s recipe), gravy, mashed potatoes, and a variety of non-American dishes including Korean carrot salad and Russian mushrooms with onions. At times like this, I look back in wonder at the life God has given me. We are so very thankful for His love and guidance.
News about Valerie: we’ve submitted documents to the court regarding the removal of parental rights from Valerie’s birth mother, Oksana. We were expecting a court date this month, but the judge is on holiday and won’t set a date until she’s back on late January. So, we wait. We continue to be in touch with Oksana, helping her and encouraging her. Olga has visited her in prison several times, and we stay in touch by mail. Olga is homeschooling Valerie using some basic kindergarten material, and that’s yielding good results; Valerie is speaking better and learning her numbers pretty well. It’s fun to watch her learn and improve.
I go to the US this week; I will attend a Stoneworks board meeting in Chattanooga on December 7. Olga and Valerie will join me a little later. We plan to spend Christmas with my family in Georgia and Tennessee and then make a trip to Texas in January.
Ministry continues. We’re planning several mission trips to Russia, Estonia and Montenegro next summer. One team will be 40 teenagers! That should be fun. I’ll be in Montenegro in May with a team, in Russia with a team in June and in Estonia with a team in early July, then back to Montenegro with a team in late July (if all goes as planned). I’ve recently made several trips to Estonia and things there are going very well. I’ll have news about that soon.
I recently wrote a friend in the US something that’s been on my mind for a while: More and more, I’m feeling grounded in the knowledge that the flow of love is God’s most important action among men. The greatest commandment is to love God; the second greatest commandment is to love others; people will know we are followers of Jesus by our love for one another; God is love; He loved us enough to save us. All of these scriptures prove the primacy of real, heart-felt, selfless love.
Today is Thanksgiving in the USA. While it’s not a holiday here in Russia, it is certainly a day of celebration for me and Olga.
Today we celebrate our 10th anniversary. As a special treat on our anniversary today we both woke up sick with head colds. The start of a great day!
The picture at left was taken on the day we met. I (Mike) was hosting a dinner for Russian interpreters who had been working with mission teams.
This happened at the same time we were staffing up MIR, the Russian charity we were starting, so I invited Olga to attend since she had been recommended as a secretary/interpreter for MIR. Olga’s ‘interview’ was conducted as she and one of our board members prepared chicken in the kitchen. She fit right in from the start.
These 10 years have seen many good times and many challenges. We are so very thankful for where the Lord has led us, for the life He has given us. This gives us faith and trust that the road ahead, however challenging it may be, will certainly lead to green pastures if we’ll abide with Christ along the way. He is a good shepherd.
Here is the moment I proposed, in the garden at dacha:
Here’s a great example what gives me joy and of how Stoneworks helps –
Last month Olga Gonchrenko, our director in Belarus, posted this as part of her update:
We were given 2 wheelchairs that were a great blessing to 2 women who were in great need for the chairs. Valentina, the first woman, got into a car accident 2.5 years ago. She can’t move her lower part of the body, she lives all by herself and she is praying for a computer, so that she can keep in contact with the outside world as well as work part time on the computer.
One of our supporters, Erin, was touched and gave money to purchase a computer for Valentina. Erin’s Bible study class gave money to pay for the first year of internet service (which is very considerate).
To me, this is an excellent example of how the Lord uses living stones (1 Peter 2:5), the body of Christ, to express His love to those in need.
Several people in the Stoneworks family fulfilled their roles; Mary Jean Preece, the Stoneworks Administrator, handled the transaction well, Olga Goncharenko guided the ministry, others posted news on the website and in the newsletter, and Valentina’s prayers have been answered.
And perhaps best of all, Valentina and Erin (with the help of Google Translate) are now in direct communication.
I recently received this from Dennis Ellis, a missionary I met in Russia several years ago.
Katya and I want to thank you for your friendship, prayers and care for us. God has been so good to us to bring us through many difficult times. In the fire we have come face to face with Him Who is really what it is all about.
Recently, two very dear friends learned that I had preached at an old one room church located in Wears Valley, TN that they had looked at on their recent trip to visit us.
They then found and purchased a burnt engraved picture of that old church and gave it to us for our office. The church building is now a Historical Site and no longer is filled with the sounds of singing, praying and preaching that it did that Sunday on March 22, 1969.
Forty two years ago I drove my little VW Beetle to that one room church hidden in the Wears Valley. God showed up and we saw nearly every person in the church at the altar. It was a one room church where they pulled curtains together to make Sunday School rooms.
I wrote a note in my journal that they gave me $22.99 offering and ask me to come back in two weeks for the rest of my pay. I did so even though the trip was many hours of driving. They then gave me two chickens. May I add; two live chickens. You should have seen me driving on those dirt roads through the mountains with two live chickens in the back seat. Before I got back to campus, I believe that I would have given them back the $22.99 if they would have kept the two chickens. Just kidding.
While looking back in my old journal to find the date I had preached there I realized that I had been preaching since the spring of 1961. If I am figuring right that is 50 years. 50 years of telling folks about our wonderful Lord. You know I wouldn’t change a day of it. Even the heartaches or disappointments was really about Him. I have to say that, “The Longer I Serve Him, The Sweeter He Grows”.
I just wanted to share with you this special time for me and the realization that 50 years ago I said yes to the Lord and it has been an amazing journey that has lead us though out many countries and witnessed tens of thousands of folks come to know our precious Lord.
Please pray for us that we may continue to pursue serving Him until the Day He returns for His Church. Thank you for being a part of this journey.
Yours by His Wonderful Grace,
Dennis
Mike and Olga Cantrell 