Dear family, church family, and friends,
On May 9th we celebrated Russia’s most important day of the year: “Victory Day”, to honor the Soviet victory over the Nazis in WWII. We joined in the revelry & parade with our Vilyuisk Teacher’s Training College. The parade took us to the banks of Vilyuy River where most of Vilyuisk’s men left for the war; but very few returned. We then marched to Lenin Square to enjoy Russian pizza & “Sash-leek” (grilled horse on a stick).
 We spent time interviewing this precious little 81 year-old lady. She came to Vilyuisk as an orphan in 1941 at the age of 14½ & worked hard labor with the men. However, as an underage girl she was not recognized as a legal person, & was undeserving of a daily bread ration. A relative shared his 200 grams (> 8 oz) ration with her until he died of tuberculosis. By the war’s end, her labor was recognized & she received Stalin’s most prestigious civilian medal: as much weight as a war hero’s Medal of Honor. She has never stopped working & today she does cleaning for the militia 50 hours a week.
THANK YOU for praying for Internet access! Last Sunday, we got an email out because we discovered that a former student, Tim now works at CaxaTelecom and he let us email from his office. Tim put in a “good word” for us and the director finally agreed to let us have DSL Internet now. Tim got Mike’s laptop configured, and we are so grateful that God placed one of our former students, at CaxaTelecom.
Yesterday (Sat.) we met again with the 1st home church plant here. We had a blessed time of worship and 3 hours of Bible study as Mike answered Bible and practical theology questions from the saints. Many of the men absent last week joined us, as did several of our students from the teacher’s college. The people are so hungry for God’s truth and how to live it under so much hardship. Even after 3 hours, no one wanted to leave. These times of feasting on the Word could last all day if we let them. I brought my guitar and we sang Sakha hymns to end our time together. I’ll be going this Tuesday to start teaching two of the sisters at the church how to play the hymns on my guitar.
Mike is still on a long period of fasting for prayer & cleansing (Joel 2:12, Acts 14:23), so please pray for strength. The longer we are here (since ’96), the more we appreciate that nothing eternally significant happens here without God’s supernatural oversight and intervention on our behalf. It is amazing to watch our Father continue to set tables of blessing before us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23:5), though our greatest enemy continues to be on the inside. We are learning again how to use the sword of the Word to set a Philippians 4:4-9 sentinel against our never-ending inclination to the sin of unbelief. We are so thankful for your much needed love and prayers for us & the Sakha.
All our love in Christ,
Diane & Michael Meagher
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