Some Reading

We have added some book links to the blog. Check them out on the right and the bottom of the page.

Thank the Lord for the Internet

The Internet is a remarkable tool which makes missionary life much easier and bearable. Because of this technology we can do so many things that just a few short years ago where so much more difficult, if not impossible. This blog is a good example. It is an excellent way to keep our supporters updated about the work we do here.

Internet phone services are also wonderful tools. We use Skype Internet phone service. Yesterday, on Christmas day we were able to make 4 phone calls to America from our computer. The connection was very clear and the total cost for over an hour of conversation with our family in three different states was about $1.20.

Internet chatting is nice also. Every day we are able to chat with our families in America. This goes a long way toward alleviating the loneliness of family separation. We also feel connected to America as we are able to read the news daily on the Internet. We actually have a high speed internet connection which is sent to our apartment via a wireless connection from a tower in the city.

We remember 1994-96 when we served our first term in Russia. Email technology was new. Our computer had a DOS email program. All of the phone lines in Russia were analog and party (shared) lines! We had an auto-dialer for the email program and it would often dial the connection 100 times or more before it connected. Often it would not connect for days. When another person would pick up their phone on our shared connection, our connection would crash and we would have to start the whole process over again. This happened continually. We often spent 4-5 hours just trying to collect a few emails.

In 1995-96 we didn't even have a phone in our apartment. We would have to take a tram across the city in the sub-zero weather, to an apartment we rented as an office, to use that telephone. At that time we were living in the city of Dzerzhinsk. The office of our Internet service was in Nizhny Novgorod, 30 miles away. If we had problems with the service providers software we had to take our laptop (A Toshiba with a 360 processor) on the train to Nizhny and then across Nizhny to the office, the total trip would take about 5 hours. Life here is not as conveinent as in Ameria, but the Internet has certainly helped things.

Automobile Fund Update

As many of you know, we are raising funds to purchase a much needed vehicle (see the post below titled "Ministry Update October 23). Our stated goal is $20,000.00 though we may be able to purchase a vehicle for closer to $15,000.

When we left America on November 30th we had close to $8000.00 in our automobile fund, all of which had been raised in 3 short months. We now have nearly $9000 so our goal is becoming reachable. We want to ask you to pray with us for that goal to be met and consider a possible gift to the fund if the Lord should speak to you.

Thanks for all you do to help keep us serving in Russia.

Mike and Karen

Christmas Greetings from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia!

Christmas Greetings from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia!

We pray that this season will be full of Joy, Hope and Peace as you celebrate the birth of our Savior and the New Year.

We will be celebrating the holidays here in Russia. This will be the first Christmas that we have not shared with our families in our 31 years of marriage. We miss our family especially at this time of year. But we are happy to be serving the people of Russia.

We do have a Christmas tree and are enjoying listening to some Christmas music. One side note is that in almost every retail store we have been in recently we have heard American Christmas music playing!

Below, you will find several new posts telling about life here.

God Bless you during the holiday season

Michael & Karen McDonald

Clothing Distribution

Here are some photos of families who have received packages of clothing which were sent by the NNE Foursquare churches. These clothing packages have been a real blessing to families who daily struggle to clothe and feed their children. Many of these families, because of the choices they make as believers, work for wages far less than they might otherwise. As members of the Body of Christ, you have blessed Russian families during the Holiday Season.

The clothing is being distributed to Christian families, non-believers and orphanages.

Thank you to all individuals and churches who have sent clothing. We still have 6-8 packages in process and will distribute them as they arrive.

We especially want to thank Ginger and David Wheat who headed up a clothing drive from Harvest Christian Fellowship, Manchester, and who paid for much of the postage for over 25 boxes of clothing! Thanks Ginger and David.