Newsletter from Bart and Anya De Craene

July 2016
Newsletter from Bart and Anya De Craene
Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. (Proverbs 25: 25)
I have a lot of good news to share with you and that’s always a joyful thing to do!
Drivers licence
God answers prayer! On Sunday July 10th Anya got her drivers licence. A few lines just won’t do to
explain the tremendous relief that brought to Anya and all of our family. Oh how she despised
going once more to that dreadful building with it’s super unfriendly and corrupt employees… Anya
took quite some extra lessons and I’m pretty sure I’ve never made as many u-turns in my entire life
as she did the last month. At 8.30 am I dropped her of at the office and only about 10 hours later I
picked her up again, but this time with her licence in her hand and a huge smile on her face! This is
a beautiful witness, knowing that even in the church many people are convinced it’s just impossible
passing the exam not paying a bribe.
Residency
My residency has been extended for another 5 years. Once that
was taken care of I still had to receive one more stamp in my
passport and that went well too. Boy oh boy, it was quite a
stressful month due to all the paper work, exams and
bureaucracy. (The picture on the right shows the line in front at
the office before it opened in the morning).
The only bad news this time concerns the new law the president
signed recently. It concerns an anti-terrorism law which also
restricts missionary activity. Only time will show how this law will
be executed and what repercussions it will have on Christianity
and the freedom to share God’s Word in Russia. Please, keep
Russia and the church in your prayers!
Baptism
On Saturday July 9th we had a beautiful baptism. The last one
we had in a church building and we also organised baptisms at
the Finish gulf. But this time we baptised two girls in a city park right in the middle of the town
called Pushkin. We’ve had many rainy days so far and that particular day didn’t look good, but in
the end it was just perfect: warm enough for a baptism but too cold for people to start sun bathing
on next to us. Some people were fishing and some others were having a picnic - so we did have
some real witnesses. After a time of
worship, both Katya and Anya told their
testimonies and then we went in the
water. God still calls and changes lost
people and that’s always awesome to
see and hear!
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Refreshing weekend in Vyborg
The first weekend of July we had a great time with our
friends in Vyborg. The fellowship and time in the
church were a great encouragement to us all.
Anya’s dad visiting
The last few years Anya’s dad has been flying in from
Kazachstan to spoil our kids for 2 weeks. He loves
taking them to all kinds of rides, musea and parks and
buys them candy all the time. He prepares food and
takes the kids walking in the park for hours. No wonder
the kids love this time of the year with grandpa :)
Every year we get to share God’s word some more
and wherever we go we take grandpa too. He joined
us for the baptism in the park. He thought it weird to
baptise people in a pond… but still enjoyed it. We
hope and pray he’ll give his heart to the Lord one of
these days!
Wedding
On July 16th a girl from our church (Angelina) and a guy from Calvary South (Igor) got married.
Pastor Dima lead the ceremony but our family was also involved in the whole event. Luka carried
the wedding rings and Emma got to scatter the rose petals together with an other cute girl. And I
had the honour to play some worship.
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Visiting Germany, Holland, Belgium
On July 25 we’ll leave by car to visit our relatives and friends in Europe. It will be a short trip this
year, but we still hope to meet lots of friends.
Blessings
Bart, Anya, Monika, Emma en Luka
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