Our First Three Months in Russia

It's hard to believe we have been here for almost three months now. What a great three months it has been, and God has been faithful. Our first update we did via video. If you weren't able to watch it click here. 

What a great God we serve! For those of you who don't know, we are in the village of Elita taking over the ministry for David and DeeDee Sterling while they are home on furlough. I won't be redundant since we say most of that in the video update. But in a few months we will be looking for housing in the city of Krasnoyarsk. We are looking forward to having our own place and being able to settle in. We haven't had a home since we started deputation almost two years ago. For me, that's been the most challenging. But God has always provided a place for us to live. And maybe one day when we retire, we will have a home all to ourselves, but that's boring! Living by faith literally is way more exciting.  I do look forward to one day settling down if that's God's will for us. Anyways, back to the update.

Here's our last prayer letter that was sent out:

January Prayer Letter:

What a great year 2013 was for our family. The Lord safely moved us here to Russia and we have been busy about the Lord’s work. We have been serving in the village of Elita taking over for the Sterling family while they are home on furlough. It is hard to believe we have been here for over two months now. Life in the village has had it’s challenges, but it has been great.

One of the blessings about being here in the village is the great opportunity to build relationships with the neighbors. The Lord seems to be working in the hearts of the two adults, Alexander and Galina, who faithfully attend services both on Sundays and Wednesdays. They are both saved and seem to be growing as we disciple them in God’s Word. The youth and children’s services have been going really well. We are working hard to build relationships with them and see them accept Christ and grow in the Lord. We have also been able to drive in to the city and help the church there with their remodeling. It’s been a blessing to help out where we can. 

Russian Christmas is coming up on January 7th. Since Russia used to be an atheist country for 70 years, Christmas is recognized but not really celebrated. We hope to use this opportunity to bring baked goods to some of the neighbors and introduce ourselves and invite them out for church services. Please pray that we can see relationships built and souls come to know Christ. 

As we celebrated Christmas here with our family, life here went on like normal with the Russian people. I can only imagine that that is how the first Christmas was when Jesus was born. Everyone was busy about their normal business and too busy to notice that the Messiah had come. Our prayer is to spread the great news of the Gospel throughout Russia. Hopefully, one day the Russian people can celebrate the great joy that comes from knowing the one true Savior of the world. Then they can truly celebrate Christmas like they never have before. 

We appreciate your prayers as we serve here in Elita and seek the Lord’s will in the upcoming months. We praise the Lord for three new churches taking us on for support, putting us close to the 100% mark. God has blessed our family in many ways this last year, and we know He will take care of us beyond our needs in the new year. What a great God we serve. We look forward to serving the Lord more this year and pray He can mightily use us for His honor and glory. 

Hope you had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!  

Unworthy Servants,
James & Amber Pranger

Thank you all for your prayers for our family. The emails and messages we receive always lift our spirits. May this New Year be a fresh start for God to do many great things in and through your life. It is our goal to keep our blog more updated with what's going on here in Russia. God is good all the time! Lord bless you!

Until next time!

If you would like to read Amber's personal blog on running in Siberia and what the Lord is teaching her  click here