Enjoying a nice sunshine day in Siberia!

At funeral again today. Met with one of our friends who also worked there. He had the day of when the accident happened. GIG

Been to the funeral of 6 of the workers at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydro power plant today. http://bit.ly/8Cl8r

We arrived in Cheryomushki yesterday. It's where the accident happened at the Hydro Elec. Power plant. The feel on the streets are grim :(

There has been accident at hydroelectric station near Nat's parents house. They are okay, but 10 died and many more missing. Please pray!

is sitting drinking an americano while the girls are shopping. We are going to have informal camp this weekend with kids from the orphanage.

Just had a hot banja with my father in law.

Uploaded some photos... Goto http://bit.ly/17LcMu

We are leaving to visit Natasha's parents tomorrow. Please pray for protection on the road. Did you read the newsletter? Go check my Notes in Facebook.

Camp and Valja

Yeah it been some time since my last news letter... Been busy!
The camp went well... had some problems and challenges, but in the end
it all worked out fine.
I asked Natasha to type a news letter... So here it is.
(I added in some comments in brackets)
We saw Artem this time. A year later and he has joined the local gang.
They are busy with motorcycles so they steel petrol (from the cars)
and money to buy petrol as a their hobby.
(He was one of the boys in my group at the winter camp one and a half year ago.
He got saved and changed so much. Now it is very sad to hear that the
go influenced with bad friends.)
Maxim's sister Valja came to visit us before camp. She was standing in
the corridor by the wall for half an hour I was asking her what she
wants but she just was nodding. Then finally she asked if she can
watch cartoons. She came next day after camp started so we went to get
a permission letter from her mother so that she and Maxim could be in
the camp, but Valja's mother wasn't at home. The day before Valja's
granny died so all her relatives were drinking. We were going from one
house to another. All the neighbor were saying she is not there and
the last one said that she is drinking at the cemetery. On the way
Valja told me that she goes to school in another town at the internat*
(Read bellow what is an internat) and comes home only for the summer
holidays (which is 3 months in Russia). Going from house to house and
seeing that drunkard faces got so much that I wanted to cry but
luckily she didn't see it. Later that day her mother came back home
and we went to get the letter. There were several faces that got
swollen because of drinking bad quality alcohol too often over the
years. Her mother was happy that her children could join the camp.
That was Valja and her brother Maxim. Her other two children were too
small for the camp program. So Valja took a small bag with couple of
dirty clothes – she did not even have a towel or tooth brush. She
liked the camp very much although she had lots of problems with other
children who didn't like that she had hair full of lice eggs so they
were scared to get the lice from her. But other children were nice to
her and gave her some clothes and made friends with Valja. Now after
the camp she stays with us in the house and we are planning to take
her home to my parents for 2 weeks in August. In September she goes
back to internat. She reads very slow for her age (11). I wonder if
she has dyslexia because actually she is very smart with electronic
stuff and in other areas.
(Every year when she goes back to the internat all her hair gets
shaved off because she got lice at home. Now when she got to the camp
she again had lice. The situation at their house is very bad and it is
very unlikely that she will be able to go back to the internat without
having gotten lice from her family. So, again she will be humiliated
and teased. With this in mind we decided to get her lice free, take
her with us in trying to get her back to the internat at the end of
the holiday lice free.)

The camp was good. Only 12 children all from 3 poor villages. We had 4
boys and 8 girls from 8 to 16 years. But some of our stuff members
were also 14 to 17 years old children! 2 of the group leaders, crafts
and worship leader, sport instructor and coordinator were all under
18! May be it wasn't the best organized camp I ever been but still the
children got saved and learned about the love of God. We worked in the
garden, sang songs, went to swim at the lake, played lots of different
games, prepared performances for evening services and had lots of fun.

Poverty in the village is striking.
(It is very difficult to see how these people live. Here the people
have homes and don't live in shacks like the townships in South
Africa. So straight away you think they are better off. NOT.
The poverty is very bad here! And with the poverty comes the absolute
hopelessness!

*Internat in Russia is a type on orphanage where children study who
are considered too stupid to study in a normal school (usually these
children just have some learning difficulties like dyslexia or even
hearing problems). The learning program in that internat is so
primitive that children can't study much further after graduation and
get a proper job in the future.

(Albert writing further...)
Please pray with us about what the future hold for us.
What we should do when we get back to South Africa etc. As always the
people here are asking for us to stay and there is so much work that
needs to be done here, but I know that for now we should go back to
South Africa for some time. There is lots of work to be done in South
Africa as well. So, we'll keep busy there till the Lord gives us the
go ahead to come back to Siberia.
Please pray for protection on the roads.
Not just against accidents but also corrupt speed cops that wants bribes.
In that there is already an amazing testimony. Previously whenever we
were driving somewhere we would always be pulled over and hear lots of
threats and manipulation.
Now every time before we drive somewhere we pray and ask the Lord to
protect us on the road and also to keep us safe from corrupt
officials.
In all the time we have been here and driving quite a lot we have been
pulled over just once, and the cop just looked at my documents and
said we can drive on. Normally when they see that my documents are a
bit different they start to ask lots of questions and also start to
see $$... The Lord helped us that this guy just didn't see me. Praise
the Lord!!!

Enough from me for now.
Thank you for all your prayers and support. All the uplifting and
encouraging messages is appreciated! Sorry I can't reply as I would
like to, the internet here is VERY SPORADIC!!!
We found out that for Ernst to get a normal internet connection in the
village will cost him about R40'000. So for now we go without
internet. :)

Be blessed!

Albert & Natasha

--
Sent from my mobile device

Best regards,
Albert Pote
+27 82 438 2465
BB pin:25651104
albert@ngel.su
www.a.ngel.su

got on the internet after 10 days of trying!!! Natasha is well. Thanks for all the prayers!