Paul and Becky
About the Hedgepeths
Paul and Becky and their 2 small children, Timothy (age 2) and Lydia (6 months), left for Russia in January 2002. After many years of preparations (studying at Bible college, raising support, going through training) we were excited to finally be on our way to the mission field.
We spent our first two weeks staying with some missionaries in the city we plan to live in, Krasnodar. Krasnodar is a city if about 1 million in the very South of Russia on the Western side, very near the Black Sea. We have heard that it is beautiful in Spring and Summer, and the Winters are not too bad.
During these two weeks, we recovered from our long airplane trip, found a house to live in, visited our language school and became acquainted with our co-workers and the ministry.
Then we flew to Moscow for a 6-week time of cultural orientation. Moscow is about 800 miles away from Krasnodar, so we flew for about an hour and a half to get there. We are in Moscow now, visiting museums, touring various sites, reading about Russia’s vast history, and meeting Russian people. We are also studying Russian two days a week and learning a lot about this fascinating culture.
Our formal language study begins in May in Krasnodar. We will be attending a missionary language school every day for 2 years. Our main task during that time will be to study and learn the language and make Russian friends and contacts. We are eager to begin, because it is very difficult not being able to communicate!! We have already found ourselves frustrated when we try to ask for something at the store. Even though we know many words, learned an entire language is a project that will take a long time to master!
We appreciate the prayers of God’s people in our behalf. We continue to ask the Lord for his help in learning this difficult rich language. We also thank him for the good health we all have had. We also thank him for bringing us closer together during this time of many adjustments in our family. We pray that he will guide us to Russian people we can become friends with, for open hearts to the Gospel, and that God will lead us after language study as to how to fit into the ministry here.