I would like to introduce you to my Russian family they are some of the friends I have made here. The first five live with me in My Russian Home.

This is Mike Cantrell. He is my host and the man of the house. He directs Mir  and Stoneworks International. He is one of the hardest working people I have ever met. He is on international Skype calls late into the night and back at work early in the morning. He is a great guitarist and has two CDs of his music available for sale.

This is Olga Cantrell. She is Russian and fully bilingual. In fact she help translate by Elisabeth Elliot into Russian. The cat she is holding is Mikey an amazing cat who can ignore just as well in Russian as in English.

This is Natasha. She works at a children home. She is there for 48 hours and here for 48 hours. She has an amazing heart for the Lord and loves children. Here we are having Chi which is when everyone sits around the table and chats sometimes for hours. Sometimes its just a sea of Russian but other times someone translates for me or they practice their English. Sometimes I read through a Russian phrase book and say random phrases. We have great fun.

This Zhenya. She works as a school teacher in St. Petersburg and is holding an XO-Laptop (more on this in a later post). She takes care of us, keeps food on the table and keeps everythign very clean. She also prays like no one I have ever met.  I started calling her “Mama Doma” which means House Mom and the nickname seems to have stuck.

This is Anna (on right). She is playing with my camera. When I arrived she did not speak any English. Then one day while we were all having tea (a nightly occurrence) she said “I have decided to speak English.” She has been speaking English ever since. I wish learning Russian were that easy.

Natasha (on left) is using an old Russian folk remedy to sore and clogged sinuses.  She is holding a hot boiled egg which helps clear everything up without the need for medicine.

Here we all are except Mama Doma walking the streets of St. Petersburg.

This is Serge and his wife Christina. Serge used to be a hardcore drug addict. Then Jesus captured his heart. He is HIV positive.  Street Cry, our church, has a rule against an HIV positive person marrying non HIV positive person. God has healed some people in our church  from AIDS but not Serge. Instead God brought him Christina who is also HIV positive and they are now happily married. They still pray for healing. They committed their lives to the Lord and turned their house into a rehab center to help Russian girls find freedom from drug addiction. He and his wife are