The Magazine of the Methodist Church in Ampthill, Flitwick, Clophill & MauldenThe Magazine of the Methodist Church in Ampthill, Flitwick, Clophill & Maulden
E Mail. Chris@omrussia. spb.su.
As is regularly the case, Chris's Christmas letter arrived just too late for inclusion in the December / January edition. The bulk of the letter is still of relevance so I include it here.
December 2001
Dear friends,
Winter is with us once again. As I look out of the window snow is gently falling from a grey sky. We have had some snow practically every day now for the last 2 weeks so we have a good covering on the ground. Once the temperature climbed to above freezing resulting in a sudden thaw and lots of water, but it didn't last long. The temperature now is a nice mild -2°C, a few days ago it dropped down to -17°C. At this time though it was lovely as we had sun and a clear blue sky. The winter TV schedules can make me feel like I am back in England, 'Who wants to be a millionaire' (Olga could have won £250,000 last time, a question about Karl Marx that she said everybody learnt in school), 'Weakest Link' (the presenter is not as good here) and now a real bonus, English Premier league football on a Sunday evening.
The Search Continues
We are rapidly becoming experts in the housing market here in St. Petersburg, at the last count we had seen about 60 flats and discounted many others after a phone call and asking the right questions. So far though we have not found what we are looking for, although we did almost buy one place. This flat had already had some of the necessary renovations done to it, and the price reflected this. We had a builder friend look at it with us and he confirmed that it all looked very nice on the surface. Unfortunately they had literally only papered over the cracks so it would all have to be taken down and done properly. They were not prepared to accept a lower price so it meant that it would be too expensive for us.
At the time of writing the purchase of the new office is progressing, we have 60% of it and are just waiting for 2 families to find places to move to before we can buy their part of the building. This though has taken 4 years to get to this point; buying property here does take a long time.
Our little cat certainly keeps us amused. At the moment she is sitting on the windowsill watching the falling snow and trying to catch it, not realising that there is glass between her and the snow.
Kingisepp reaches the goal
For the past 3 years we have had a team working in Kingisepp, a town 120km from St. Petersburg.
After a lot of thought we have taken the decision that the work here has achieved its goal and it is time to move on. During this time we have been able to encourage the church and have been excited to see it grow and move forward. They now have an established Sunday School, Youth meeting, discipleship groups and a greater unity among the members. Our prayer now is that the church will continue to grow and develop without our team to help and that church people will fill the gaps the team will leave.
Closing one part of our work gives us the opportunity to start again somewhere else. We are looking closely at having 2 new teams in the near future. One option we have is to start a team in the Far East on the Chinese border where we have built a good relationship with a church through summer teams in the last 2 years. It looks as if it will be this time next year before a team here is up and running. The other option we are considering is much nearer to home. This past summer we had several teams working in the region around St. Petersburg and this really showed us the opportunities that exist here. Many churches are reaching out to smaller villages, prisons, orphanages etc. although they have very limited resources. They would really appreciate help and encouragement for both of these teams to become reality we are dependant on the right people joining us.
Odds and Ends
Recently two team members, one here and one in Novosibirsk, have been physically attacked, reminding us again that we cannot take our safety for granted. Both of these events have unsettled the teams a bit, quite understandably.
Olga has recently been unwell, even saying that she had not been this ill for many years. Thankfully all appears to be fine again now, the medicines did their job.
By the time that you read this we will have had our annual team retreat, a chance for all the teams to get together and relax for 5 days. This year we have been able to rent a place in Finland not far from the border.
We will be back in England during January; we already have tickets and a visa for Olga. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all again and catching up on what has been happening during this past year. This will give Olga the chance to see green grass in the winter again, one of her memories from last year.
Chris and Olga
PRAYER
O.M. The Quinta, Weston Rhyn, Oswestry, Shropshire. SY10 7LT
O.M. Russia. Box 278, St. Petersburg, 196247. Russia.
The Magazine of the Methodist Church
in Ampthill, Flitwick, Clophill & Maulden
Pages compiled by Peter Fletcher
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