Dear Fellow Laborers,

December 2005

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

We Successfully Turned in Our Documents
for Temporary Residency

Although the situation looked very grim just days before I wrote this letter, the Lord has allowed us to turn in our paper work to receive temporary residency. We were told earlier this month that there was one last document that we needed to get called a “certificate about the composition of your family”. To get this, I needed to go to a passport desk in our village, show our passports, and the deed to our apartment, and she would give us the document. Sounds pretty routine. I did not even bring my lawyer. Well in Russia when the laws change (or even when they don’t) not every body is informed about them. Often times the written law does not matter as much as how the bureaucrats understand the law. Well the local passport desk said my registration (declaring to the government where I live) was invalid, and that she was not going to give me the document that I needed. I am still very new to how things work here, and my heart sank when she said those words. What could I do? Was I going to have to move with in the city limits of Samara as this lady was suggesting? Was all the time and effort that we put in to our new apartment wasted? Then the Lord intervened. One of our lawyers friends works for the passport service agency in
Samara, and called to clarify the rules. As far as Samara’s passport agency was concerned, our registration was valid (Samara’s passport agency was one the that gave the registration) and that other lady did not know what she was talking about. Then this friend called everyone concerned and straightened them out. Not only did they let us turn in our residency request, but they let us cut in a line that had 45 people in it, and was going at the speed of about four an hour. One lady told us she had been in and out of this line since September. Praise the Lord for His care over us.

Getting Evicted
We had an other blessing in disguise this month. Our landlord has not paid for the utilities in two years, so the authorities promised to turn them off December 10th. Therefore, we needed to find an other place to live very quickly. The apartment we bought in September will not be ready to live in until the very end of December, so my family and I will be living in the office that we rented for a couple of weeks while our apartment is finished. Here is the blessing. Due to this we moved our registration, and when we did, we found out about ...

Our Need for a Surprise Trip Across the Border

In most of Russia foreigners must leave the country every six months, regardless of how long their visa lasts. In Samara however, the local government was being very kind to many, and not making most foreigners do this. However, there was recently an inspection by Moscow, and the local government was forced to comply with the laws, which means for us that we have to make a surprise trip. However, we would have not found out about this, were it not for getting evicted. The Lord always knows.

Prayer Requests
• For Aleksei to stay faithful to discipleship.
• That we will get temporary residency by May.
• That funds will come in to buy land for a church.

Yours in Christ,
Adam, Angela, Alex, and Amelia