[ Time to say good bye ]

Dear friends,

Warm greetings from St Petersburg! I think by now most of you have heard that our family is leaving Russia in a few weeks time. We are very sad to be leaving this amazing country and will treasure memories of serving here forever. We are moving to Australia to help take care of Lloyd's family. Lloyd's father went to be with the Lord in the summer and his family really needs some help at this time. However, we will stay within the OM family, serving as OM representatives for Western Australia, and Lloyd also hopes to complete his degree and possibly Masters in theology.

But as we look back, at 14 years of life in Russia for Lloyd, and over ten years for me, our hearts are very full. There is so much to remember - various Spring and summer conferences, short and longer term teams, literature projects, missions outreaches, continuous adventures and challenges and so much more. We have often said on our team that life in Russia is many things - but never boring. So true! As we look back at these years, what has touched us both most is people; Russians we have come to know and love, team mates with whom we have experienced many highs and lows and faithful friends and supporters who have stood with us through thick and thin.

As we think of leaving, we know we will carry memories of people with us wherever we go. It's also very exciting to see some long term projects coming to fruition. Just last week we finally completed the paperwork for the St Petersburg office. This building has already been used so much by the community in St Petersburg. Apart from our OM team, a church meets here regularly, there are monthly meetings for pastors, planning meetings for missions, a church shared our offices for nearly three years, and a constant stream of daily guests and visitors. It is the hub of activity we long dreamed of. It's also wonderful to see that today over a third of the OM team in Russia is made up of Russians - with many more having served overseas in varied places. Lloyd just came back from a trip to Novosibirsk so excited about what the team is doing there. That city has always held a special place in his heart and life since in lived there in the early '90's. The growing student work and the amazing start to the OM Discipleship centre, training 8 Russian students in living for and serving Christ was a massive encouragement. And there's so much more ....

We just want to say thank you to you all for your prayers and support through all the joys and challenges of the past years. Please pray for Trevor, Anton and Sonja as they take over as the new leadership team, and for Silke as she has already taken over my work in communications and personnel. How grateful we are to God for providing such capable, committed and Godly people to take OM's ministry to new places. We will miss Russia dreadfully, but we will carry memories of our time here in our hearts for ever. We're so glad that in Russian it's not goodbye - but Dosvedanya - until we meet again! Until then this comes with love and gratitude,

Lloyd, Katherine, Abi and Amelia

[ News from our team in Novosibirsk ]

News from the discipleship centre

It's been exciting to hear how the first intake of Russian students have been getting on at the new OM Discipleship Centre in Novosibirsk. Team leaders Bron and Colin Cleaver write "As part of their practical experience, the 8 students at the Discipleship Centre had to organise and run a four day children’s club during the autumn half term holidays. What came as a bit of a surprise to the students (and to us) was that the half-term holidays were a week earlier than we had thought – and by the time we found this out we only had four days left to plan everything. But, thankfully, Russians are the most flexible of people and brilliant at putting something together at the last minute. Some of the students immediately gave up their day off to go around the housing estate putting up posters and inviting children and everyone got busy preparing the programme which was based on the story of Jonah.

On the first day 55 children turned up and learnt that it’s impossible to run away from God, because he sees and knows everything.

On the second day 40+ children heard the story of Jonah being swallowed by the fish and how God saves.

On the third day 40+ children found out how the citizens of Nineveh said sorry to God and changed their behaviour, and how God accepts and forgives us when we do the same.

On the fourth day 25 children learnt about Jonah’s stubborn hard heart and, in contrast, how God is full of compassion for everything and everyone He has made.

We were really pleased at how the club went, what the children took on board, how the students could use the tools and techniques they’ve been learning about in their lessons and how well they worked together as a team.