Where Have the Parkinson’s Been?

Hi all. First off all let me say sorry for the lack of news. I have spent the last 2 months in a country where oppression can be very harsh towards people of different faith (especially locals), so we were asked to be very careful of what we communicated so as to not communicate anything we shouldn’t. I thought the best thing is to wait till I return to Perm to write an update.

DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL

As most know we have been running a Discipleship Training School and after 5.5 months the DTS has just come to an end. We started the school with 3 months of lectures. We were blessed with some great lecturers from all around the world. Just to hear them speak and share was a huge blessing for me. It was a privilege to see the students start to change, as their view of life and God changed. I have included a newsletter from one of our students to give you a bit of a glimpse of the school in her eyes.

Arev

Hello everyone! I’m really thankful to God for bringing me to this school and giving me a lot of revelations. I understood a lot of very important things. I would love to share some with you.When I was about to come to DTS I thought that short time missionary trips are not valuable. Because I had this opinion that evangelizing is a long time dedication and more time care for someone. But I’m glad that God brought me here and during this time showed me that both ways are good, and I shouldn’t limit Him. A lot of people in different places Kyrgyzstan’s city or village, Russian city or village just get revelations from God because of me, or our team, because of our being there and our willing to bring God’s kingdom to their heart. Although my heart is for Armenia , now I know that short missionary trips can be very blessing both for me and for those where I go.

Because I’m Armenian, I had very hard feelings towards Turks and Azerbaijani, if you know we are enemies since 20th century. During this year God brought a lot of healing in these areas, I have been to Turkey and in Bishkek I went to Azerbaijani concert. Now the last thing I would like to hear in this world is the WAR between our nations, I’m praying for peace in our countries. I would love to relate to them as normal as to other nations.

Praise and Prayer PointsAnother aspect is kids… When I just went to Perm, I didn’t want to participate in Kid’s club, I couldn’t relate to kids, it was hard for me. I just forgot how much I love them and how gifted I’m to really hang out with them. Because I was all the time in work and never had a free time, I forgot about world’s great miracle: kids. Even Jesus the most needed man in the world had time for kids. Thanks God I reopen this for me. During the DTS I had worked with a lot of kids and the best was I lived for a week in a private orphanage and helped with kids from 4 to 14 years. It was a really blessed time for me.

I learned being a follower during this DTS and thanks God for humbling me to understand this. The best leadership is when you are a follower in the same time.I’m very thankful to my one by one leader Marina, sometimes we didn’t understand each other, but through her God did a lot in me. Let God bless you Marina! I’m thankful to our director of the school Garry, all the leaders and everyone who gave us lectures. Let God’s glory always shine upon us! I’m very thankful those who prayed for us and helped in any way, Let God bless you and bring you more joy and happiness! Thanks for giving me your time

With lots of joy and loveArev

THE PRACTICAL PHASE (BISHKEK)

About 5 weeks into lecture phase, the Russian government decided to change the laws. They informed us that they will not renew visas in any other countries except the home country. This didn’t affect me as I have temporary residency. However, this created a huge problem for our school as students came from America, England and Europe. For them to go home was a huge problem as it was going to cost a fortune to get a new visa. So we ended up having the last lectures in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan as they would give us a three month visa at the airport. Then we went on the practical phase.

The whole team stayed together with me in Bishkek for 1 month then the team split and all the Russian speakers who didn’t need a visa went to Krasnoyarsk, Russia. So our team off 11 people turned into a team of seven. Zhenya our staff from Krasnoyarsk jumped on a train and went there. And the others on the team followed him there. Things just carried on like normal but we had a whole lot more to do. Our work consisted of us going to the villages around the area of Bishkek where we got to do things in public schools, help establish coffee house, run medical seminars and spend time with youth. Remember the religion that dominates in Kyrgyzstan.

People of Bishkek are hungry for the gospel and everything that people want to contribute to them. Life is hard there and although every second car is a Mercedes (I think a Chinese knockoff) people are actually struggling to make ends meet. One thing that amazes me in these cultures is people seem to have a lack of compassion.

One morning we were looking for something to do, as we had a free day, and a German girl on our team and I came across a lady who had fallen over after drinking too much. It was -8 c this day so it was cold. But people were just walking past her. The only ones who would help her were the crazy foreigners. We got her up and found out where she lived and helped her home. We were also helping out in many local churches.

A bit of sad news just as I was leaving was that they have passed a law where all religious meeting places need 200 local members to meet. This is ok if you’re Islamic as most people everywhere go to Mosque but Christians are short in supply. Also they passed a law not allowing anyone to share their faiths. Please pray for this nation of Kyrgyzstan.

I deliberately only shared vaguely about what we did as if people get found out there is a big problem for them.After being away for a whole 8 weeks I was wanting to get home to my family so I jumped on a plane flew to Moscow then to Perm to be greeted by my wonderful family at 5am (that is love) at -15C .

We spent a week together just hanging out then I had to prepare for debriefing the students and get them ready to go home. Last Friday was their graduation.It is good to get to the end off something and look back and see how people’s lives have been changed for the better. It was a great time and we did a lot. I personally loved Kyrgyzstan and enjoyed everything we did in this country. We can’t put photos of work we did or say too much as it is dangerous for the locals.Thank you so much for all who have prayed and been a part of this school and our lives in this last season.

Christy and the kids....

Okay so it is my turn to say a quick hello. Well we made it. This was a pretty huge season for us with Garry away for 8 weeks in the middle of winter and Christmas etc but by the grace of God and a lot of prayers we were glad to be finally reunited again. The kids and I have been working really hard in our home school -making the most of the -20 and below. Jessie has now started year 5 and Ella year 2.

Zac is now half way through reception. With the grades going up I am finding it a lot more of a workload but it is slowly starting to feel normal. I was wondering why I felt so exhausted all the time and worked out that I teach 19 lessons each day before I do anything else. So life is very full.I have still been working in the Orphanages on Thursdays which is still such a delight to me. I will send out a more detailed update on all that we have been up to in this last season as have no room in this newsletter. We are also starting to prepare for our move to Krasnoyarsk in a few months so we will tell you more about that as well. Thank you all so much for your continued love, support and prayer. You are all so special to us and we love hearing from each one of you and what is going on in your life.

AVGUST The last thing I’d like to share with you is about my friend Avgust.

He is our president of Youth With A Mission Perm and married with 3 small children. Just recently he and his father invested their life savings into a friends business. After a year his friend basically took the money and run (a Christian guy). He had invested the money to help buy his sister a house to live in. As a result he has not been able to make payments on his car or house so the bank has started to take all his stuff. A very sad story, but then his dad who also invested money with Avgust has been involved in witchcraft and stuff. He asked Avgust for his money back but as Avgust didn’t have it he has started legal proceedings against him (a father suing his son, go figure) so if his father wins it means Avgust could go to jail for 5 years. Then to make things worse his nephew (who Avgust has looked after from when he was a young boy) backed his friends car over a bicycle rider and now the owner is also suing Avgust for another huge amount of money. After spending many hours talking with Avgust he says it doesn’t matter about the house or the cars but it hurts his father is suing him and his friend that took his money and run. Please pray for Avgust, he is one of the most generous and helpful people I have ever met. If you feel you would like to help him you can deposit money into my bank (below) and send me a email stating why and what it is for.

Praise and Prayer Points

Thank you for this last season for God’s strength grace and all that He has done in and through us.

For the successful completion of the Discipleship Training School

For his provision and detailed care of us as a familyThanks for how God is at work in this place

Please pray for our health – we have all been really sick with the flu for over a week.

Also Christy’s back and Jessie’s stomach.

We are starting to prepare to move.

We have so much to process as we meet as a Krasnoyarsk team and really want to seek Gods heart and know His voice and leading in this next season.

Also all the realities of moving – a new place in a new city.

Changing all our documents and transferring visas.

Can you also pray over the kids especially in this time of transition.

God’s grace and strength for home school.



If you would like to contribute to our ministry or living expenses here are our account details

National Australia Bank

Bsb 085745 Acc no 609266634

Acc name Garry E Parkinson.

Please send a email if your gift is for a specific purpose or we will treat the gift as a gift to us

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