Volume 5; Edition I
September 20, 2007
Think about this...
You and your family are in America traveling outside of your home state on vacation and while waiting for a table at a restaurant far from home you strike up a conversation with a family who is also waiting for a table and you discover that they are also from your home state. What happens next?
You are overseas, traveling in a foreign culture, surrounded by conversations in languages that you don't understand, when suddenly, somewhere around you, you hear English being spoken! What do you find yourself wanting to do?
In both situations above, would you agree that it is possible that you would feel an almost instant sense of "community" with those to whom you discover that you have something in common?
In the first scenario in the restaurant somewhere away from home in America, what might be a possible outcome of meeting someone from your home state? Perhaps you might invite the other family to join your family for dinner (dutch treat of course), or at the least, you would most likely wave at each other as you depart from the restaurant after dinner, right? Why? Because you discovered that you have something in common with them that joins you to them in a brief sense of "community."
In the second scenario somewhere overseas, what do you want to do when you hear English, perhaps even American English, being spoken somewhere in the crowd around you? Don't you feel drawn to want to at least walk over closer to the conversation, or perhaps even want to join in the conversation and meet the people talking your heart language? Why? Because you have discovered that you have something in common with an absolute stranger who suddenly doesn't seem as much of a stranger to you anymore because you share the same language and perhaps the same cultural identity. You discover, even for a brief time, a sense of "community" with this new friend you have met while far from home.
In Kazakhstan today, many different nationalities and people groups are seeking to live side by side. There are Kazakhs, Kyrgeze, Turkmen, Uzbeks, and Tajks. There are also Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, and Poles. Some of these people groups have been here for several generations or even for a few centuries. Others were forced here, exiled to this place far from their homeland during the days of the former Soviet Union. Regardless how each of these people groups arrived here, all of them have certain things in common, they all feel drawn to those with whom they feel a sense of "community."
When Diane and I arrived in Kazakhstan 3 months ago, our focus was to engage the Russian people of Kazakhstan with the gospel of Jesus Christ. What we are discovering is that our focus is widening to encompass all of the people groups that identify themselves through a common sense of "community" with Russian culture and language! Our focus is broadening to include not only Russians, but Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, and yes, even Germans, all of whom identify themselves together within a common culture and language - which is Russian.
This is an exciting discovery for us as we are preparing to seek to reach these Slavic peoples of Kazakhstan who, when in their own country would most likely identify with their historical culture, but here, far from "home" they identify with the larger group for social and economic reasons.
Please join us in prayer for the Slavic people of Kazakhstan. Pray that God would prepare their hearts for the message of the gospel. Pray that God will help us identify where in Astana various groupings of Slavic people are living to target for Bible studies. Pray, that as the Slavic people of Kazakhstan receive Jesus Christ, they will desire to not only reach others like themselves, but that they will desire to bridge the gap to other people groups in this land with the life changing message of the gospel!
Announcing the birth of our second grandchild!
Our son-in-love, Anders and our daughter, Jessica, are thrilled to announce that on Friday, August 24, their second child, Boden Edward Snyder, was born. Boden weighed 8lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. Boden's two year old sister, Addi, was really excited to finally get to hold her baby brother! Of course, we're pretty thrilled to be grandparents again too!
Because of some training that I was sent to in Idaho for the last two weeks of August, I was able to take two weeks of vacation and extend my stay in the states to travel to Denver to see our new grandson. Diane remained behind in Astana while I was in Idaho, but was able to join me in Denver for two weeks vacation as well. Do you really think Grandma would settle only for photos of baby Boden instead of traveling back to Denver and being there too? No way!!!
Although our time in Denver flew by, we appreciate so much the opportunity to spend those brief few days with our family in Denver. We are grateful that the company we serve with and the people like you who support us, understand the importance of family which allowed us to be in Denver for such an important occasion.
Back home in Astana.
We arrived back home in Astana at 5:00 AM on Tuesday, September 18 after almost 1 1/2 days of travel through Munich and Moscow on our way home. All went well and PTL all of our luggage arrived as well!
We were asleep by 7:30 that morning and slept all the way through to 6:00 PM before getting up for our "day." When trying to take a shower, we discovered that our water pressure was really low, and thinking that the water valves we had shut needed to be opened further, I reached inside of the wall in our bathroom to turn the shut off valve more open. Suddenly, the handle of the valve stem broke off and high pressure water began to gush inside the wall and out onto the floor! I was able to use one hand to almost squeeze shut the opening and keep the amount of water escaping somewhat under control for the several minutes as I franticly searched inside the wall with my other hand for the valve handle which had fallen inside the wall! After several exciting minutes and perhaps a gallon or two of water, I located the handle and was able to replace it successfully slowing the leak down to a steady drip.
Within a few moments, our door bell rang and we were given the chance to meet the neighbors who live below us who said that it was "raining" from the ceiling in their bathroom! To sum it all up, the steady drip was contained by diverting it into a bucket which we emptied every few hours during the night until the next day when two repairmen came to replace the valve with the rusted out valve stem. All is fine now and God has given us the opportunity to meet some neighbors on the floor below us. We'll stop by their place soon and check to see if all is ok and who knows what this "chance encounter" might lead to?!
By the way, Autumn is in full swing here. We've already had our first frost and the leaves are turning and falling quickly. Jackets and sweaters are the norm every day.
Visa Renewal.
When preparing to come to Kazakhstan, we applied for a one year visa, but only received visas for three months. We are currently working with leaders with the Baptist Union here to renew our visas before our current visas expire on October 5th. All seems to be going well and we hope to report soon that we have received new 1 year, multi-entry visas. Please join us in prayer about this.
Web site under construction, but available.
Please check out our new web site at www.Hope4Astana.com and let us know what you think. Remember that it is still under construction, but we would appreciate your input and suggestions as we seek to communicate God's vision for reaching the Slavic people of Kazakhstan. Thanks again for our friends Carl and Arline Ryan who are managing the web site for us.
Keep looking UP
Don and Diane Combs
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