Alan and Patricia Eggleton

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

Take T.E.N.
{The Eggleton Newsletter, July 2010}

Dear Family and Friends,

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
It's been a great two months since we last wrote. Most recently, St. Pete is having an incredibly long "beautiful weather" spell. We can't believe the number of warm and sunny days we've had. Now, to many of you 85 - 90 F (30-33 C) is not all that hot. But for Peterburgers, it is sweltering, especially in light of the high humidity. Few cars and even fewer apartments have air conditioning so staying cool is hard to do. Add to this the fear of cross-ventilation (drafts) and many people are in fact overwhelmed by the heat. Don't get us wrong, they love these rare days of sunshine. Fans have been sold out for weeks and one friend who timed it just right told us it took about 5 minutes for 50 fans to be sold out when the shipment arrived. He bought two of them.

Our family enjoyed a wonderful vacation in New York in June and now we're back in action here. For Alan it ended up being a bit of a medical holiday as he had unexpected triple hernia repair. The great irony is that his surgeon was Russian :) In the four weeks we were in the States we:
- enjoyed seeing all 6 of Alan's brothers and sisters and almost all of their children
- loved seeing RJ get her driver's permit and drive any and every time she could. (She competed with Trish who also wanted to drive on the spacious roads and little traffic.)
-ate at a few favorite restaurants, including Olive Garden
-had each of the kids see many of their friends and also visit the school that they attended last year
-saw Toy Story 3 on the big screen on opening day
-threw rocks into Lake Ontario (see family picture taken there) and ate at the Loop
-had at least 23 doctor/dental visits
-got to spend lots of time with our parents - especially on Father's Day. Trish's mom and dad attended church with her :)

In our last letter, we mentioned that Alan's back was in bad shape. While in New York he was able to have it thoroughly examined and now he is on a regular regime to strengthen the problematic muscles and hopefully prevent a major muscle strain from happening again. Praise the Lord together with us for this help and also for his quick recovery from the hernia surgery.

LET'S PLAY BALL
Recently we held an English club event where we played kickball. 7 Russians came and our kids and the Friesen girls played as well. One of the Russian guys thought it sounded a little boring, but it was fun a few minutes later when he kicked a high ball to left field and a little girl (Lauren) promptly caught it. We had a great time followed by ice cream and fellowship in our new place.

Alan joined in a game of ultimate frisbee with a few others from the church and a bunch of their friends. After the event Andrei shared his faith with a young lady, Vika, who decided to ask God to forgive her for her sins and to live her life for Him. Please pray as we encourage her and help her experience new life.

As to our church, a wonderful event happened in May. Three young believers were baptized. You may recall that we mentioned Julia and Aleksei as they just became Christians in February through our English ministries and our church. The third was Pavla, a young girl in our church from a Christian family. Yasya, one of our most faithful attenders of English club, was also recently baptized at her church.

OUT OF TOWN
Every summer the dacha phenomena happens in Russia. A dacha is a small plot of land usually outside of the city. It has a small house (or sometimes a nice home) where a family goes and lives for the weekend. Their purpose is to just relax and/or to work the land and garden at the dacha. Frequently in the spring and summer families leave the city to go out to their dachas. Some will even go every week if they have the time and others even live on the dachas for the summer. Seems like the city would be empty but there are still lots of people who have to work and lots of tourists arriving on a weekly basis. Many ex pats as well leave for the summer so in some ways the whole rhythm of life changes.

NEW NEWS IS GOOD NEWS
Our new teammates, the Hecocks (J.B., Iris, Gavin, Carter and Emmi) arrived safely in June and are getting nicely settled in. They're excited about helping us develop the Community Center. They are adding a whole new component for the center as their vision is to create a Coffee Cafe/ coffee roasting business. So, as a team, we are working through what we are doing next as we head into the fall. Some clear direction is to widen our offerings of English courses, continue our English club and make headway at opening a cafe. This cafe will ideally have enough space to allow other ministries and events to take place. Before it is up and running, we have decided to rent space and begin more of the ministries that an eventual Center will have. Please pray as we find a place to rent and begin just the right ministries that will help those in our community.

Our new apartment is terrific. It is larger and of much higher quality as our previous (where we lived for five years), and the price is the same. Best of all it is very close to the kids' school and to many of their friends. We are so thankful for it. Our team is now within 3 minutes walking time of each other. In the past it was 15-20 minutes one way by car to each other. This is a huge blessing!

GCF NEWS
And for our last piece of good news, you can read this excerpt from a recent news bulletin, "For the first time in more than a decade, The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) met and even exceeded its budget. The C&MA’s Great Commission Fund (GCF) not only supports current workers and their ministries but also enables The Alliance to establish new initiatives in parts of the world where there is little access to the gospel. In addition to supporting C&MA ministries and field personnel allowances through the GCF, Alliance people gave $1.7 million toward Haiti earthquake relief efforts and, as of June 30, another $394,000 for the Great Commission Sunday offering to help “push back the darkness” in North and Central Asia. As a result of GCF giving, there were also 24 U.S. new church plants during the last year."

Praise the Lord together with us for this. Thank you for also supporting us through your prayers.

Please "Take T.E.N." minutes and pray earnestly for our family and the people with whom we are serving. Pray for our church, for God to do miraculous work in the lives of the believers here.

Representing you in Russia,

Alan and Trish Eggleton, Rachel, Amanda, Lauren and Zachary

General support for our ministry here can be sent to the Christian and Missionary Alliance, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935. Just be sure to write in the memo line: "Great Commission Fund" or call toll free: (866) 443-8262. Other gifts can be specialized on the memo line as follows: "St. Petersburg Community Center," "Eggleton Work Specials," or "Eggleton Car Fund." Thanks.

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

PRAYER & PRAISE

Please pray for the registration process for the Community Center to continue and that in the future, the Center will be able to provide visas for us.

Please pray for our team to jell together well.

Pray for the opening of hearts to the gospel and the wonderful message of eternal life.

You can always pray for our personal spiritual lives to deepen and for our obedience to the Lord to be heartfelt and more consistent.

And finally, please remember that giving to the Great Commission Fund is the way that we are supported to live and serve here.

Russia

Approved Specials

If you wish to contribute to one of our specials (vehicle funds, building projects, etc.) you may select it from the Approved Specials List.

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