Family News

On the 26th of June Karen made an emergency trip home. She is at her parent’s home in Massachusetts were she will be helping with the care for her 90 year old dad. As I write this newsletter her mother is in the hospital also. After consulting with our supervisor and home church pastor we made the decision that Karen should go home for at least a month to help her brother provide care for her parents.

I will be traveling for 10 days from July 2nd until July11. As a result there will be no updates on the blog until the middle of July. I will be attending a conference for pastors and drug rehabilitation leaders. The conference is in the city of Achinsk, in Siberia, about 2000 miles from Nizhny Novgorod.

This is the first time I have attended a conference without a translator. This is not because my language skills are so great, but it is due to how gracious our Russian friends are. They are very patient with us, repeating things for us and speaking slowly and simply so we understand. Pastor Dmitry is always telling people "when you talk to Michael. talk slowly, and he will understand you." I am looking forward to spending 10 days with only Russian language speakers, but am at the same time feeling a bit stressed as it will greatly stretch my language abilities.

I will have limited email access during the trip, and as a result will be slow in returning emails.