Diane Rorabaugh

About Us › Our Family › Locate a Worker

Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

December 21, 2011

Merry Christmas to you all!! Greetings from Moscow, my dear friends, where we finally have enough snow to say that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I’ve been listening to Christmas music for quite a while now, but it’s nice to have the weather cooperating!

At this time of year, a verse that’s especially meaningful to me (in this country) is Isaiah 9:2. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Northern Russia in the winter is a land of darkness. Today the length of our day in Moscow was 6 hours, 59 minutes. Tomorrow, the shortest day of the year, will be 3 seconds shorter, and then our days will start getting longer again at last. This year has seemed worse than usual, because the government decided not to switch back from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time, and so this morning sunrise was just before 10 AM, instead of 9 AM, as it would have been last year. Darkness…

And so this is the perfect time of year for Christmas, when the darkness is most obvious around us, and we can share the good news of the great light that came to shine and disperse the darkness around us.

This week I’ll be heading up to St. Petersburg to celebrate the birth of that great light, Jesus, and then I’ll be celebrating again on January 7th, when Russians celebrate Christmas. I’ll be spending a week in Maykop in early January, helping out with the ministry to orphans, developmentally challenged children and adults, and needy families. It’s a perfect way to spend Christmas – by giving time and gifts to people in need. I’d be grateful for your prayers, because usually it’s a week absolutely filled with people to visit, and sad stories, and more needs than there is money to help. Please pray that along with the gifts of time and food and toys and candy, people will accept the most important gift of the good news of what Christmas is really about.

Thank you for sharing in this ministry, through your prayers and through your gifts. And speaking of gifts, a special Thank You to those of you who give to help support the Great Commission Fund, which provides the funding to keep our team here in Russia. You are helping to shine God’s light in the darkness!

Shining with you,

Diane Rorabaugh
with The Christian & Missionary Alliance in Moscow, Russia

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

1. Pray for the visa situation here in Russia, and especially that our partners will receive permission for inviting our workers and securing needed visas.

2. Pray for Natasha and Volodia as they lead the ministry to families with handicapped children, needy families, and orphanages.

3. Pray for the ministry to orphanages, and for permission to continue visits to the home for handicapped adults and children.

4. Pray for unity for one of our national church partners, currently facing some serious divisive issues.

Russia

Share