Oakhill Church

This past Sunday we visited one of our local supporting churches here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We had a wonderful visit with the congregation and are always encouraged by the love they show to us. We are so greateful to all of you who support us with prayer and financial gifts and praise God for you all.

Vicka and my mom with our good friend Bonnie Ostrander who is a member of Oakhill Church.

Arrival in Michigan

We arrived in Michigan this past week safe and sound. Here are a few pictures of the girls I hope you will enjoy.


Emma and Stacia together

Here is Emma with my sister Joanna and my dad

(My) Mom, Vicka and Emma went to go see the Nutcracker ballet and here is a picture of Mom and Emma looking arround in the gift shop.

December 2008 Newsletter now online!

Greetings All.

We have just finished our latest newsletter. It will be going out in the mail within the next couple of days but you can read it now by checking it out online at:
http://soarinternational.org/SOARStaff/Mangione/December08.pdf

Enjoy!

Our Thanksgiving Day pictures

Happy Thanksgiving Day to everyone!
We were very busy with SOAR Open House so we just getting this pictures out.

My mom

This picture of my mom in her military uniform and long dark hair was taken 12 years ago. I just was scanning some of the pictures from my album and decided to show you this one:)

Emma fixes a snow machine

A friend of mine needed a bit of welding done on his snowmachine (what we up in the north call a snowmobile).

He has been pretty busy lately and so Emma and I decided to give him a hand. Here are a few pictures of Emma getting things ready for work!

Emma is Daddies little helper. :)

Shopping in Provideniya

When we are in Provideniya we go to the store almost every day. We have to carry all our stuff so you never can get food to last more then 2 days.
This is a bread store, the only bread store and our favorite store in Provideniya. They bake fresh bread every day and sometimes we buy other pastries.

This picture was taken in one of the cheapest stores and you can see some cheese, kolbasa and milk produce in the refrigerators

This is at the same store happy Oksana got to pick some new delivered fresh produce

This is a view of the Provideniya when you drive in to the city from the airport. The sign in Russian says PROVIDENIYA

Baby's first pics

Here are baby's first pics. Vicka was a doctor's visit last week and this is what they saw. :) Yeah, lookin like it might be a boy. :D

Cute Kids

Ok, Ok, I know, haven't posted in a few days. Well, here are a few cute pics of Emma and Stacia I took while they were trying out our new piece of exercise equipment. Hope you like them.

Online Photo's

For those of you who would like to see many more pictures than you will find here, feel free to visit our new photo hosting site at http://gjandvicka.zenfolio.com
I am still in the process of organizing the pictures, but feel free to browse around. The site offers photo processing from respected photo finishers so you can order prints made and sent to you if you like. Also, there are some really cool features to play with such as the "slide show", etc.
Enjoy!

Chukchi people - the reindeer herders

Chukchi people live inland and raise reindeers. There are about 15 000 chukchi people in Russia and only 1 500 Eskimo. Their cultures are very unique. They have their own languages, tales, beautiful songs and dances. Unfortunately only old people remember the language in our day Youth speaks only Russian.

This is a traditional Chukchi house called Yaranga. It made out of the reindeer skin and it is very easy to take apart and move where the owners are moving. I show Emma and Stacia how to make a fire with a fire making kit.

Some drums and a reindeer head

Man's outfit - two peace suite: pants and parka

Women's outfit - one peace suite.

Eskimo people - Marine mammal hunters

New Chaplino is an Eskimo village and here are some of the things about Eskimo from the museum.

Traditional Eskimo women's outfit - very colorful and comfortable
The harpoon with the toggling head - invention of the Eskimo people for the marine mammal hunting

Black spots are the 5 villages that are in Provideniya region, many others(marked with clear circle) were closed by the government

Another invention of the Eskimo people - skin boat

Some modern weapons for the wale hunting

(oh and Anastasia's head)

New Chaplino trip with my Mom

I know that some of you wanted to hear some stories and see some pictures of my mothers visit to Provideniya. So here is one trip to New Chaplino with her. She went there for the first time and she liked it, but on our way back to Provideniya when we stoped for a picnic she got so cold that I had to give her my vest and after only 20 minutes of being there she wanted to go home:)

On the picnic
Mom trying to make Anastasia smile for the picture

Mom and Emma posing around some flowers

A rock skipping competition:)

Wale bone swords

On her first trip to Provideniya in 2005 we didn't do much touring of the area as it was still cold and the roads were bad and Emma was only 7 months old, but this time it was summer and we took her to New Chaplino and to the Flower Bay. She also went to Emma Bay almost every day with Emma and we went to the Light House and semitary.

My little prayers and God's answers

It is hard for me to write a lot in English both because I do not like to spend too much time and trying to describe what I am thinking in Russian with English words can be difficult. But I have to share with you this, so forgive me all mistakes or if you will get confused with anything...
I looked back in my journal before we went to Russia last time and on April 2 I had a big list for God of those things that I wanted to give to Him and not worry about. Here is how he answered me:
1. I asked Him for wisdom to pack only necessary clothing for the girls and take with us enough diapers, wipes, baby food and formula for Anastasia. - All the clothes I took lasted almost 5 month and Emma started to outgrow some only at the end of our stay. We had enough diapers and wipes till GJ came back from Alaska with another box and that lasted for us to the end-we didn't buy more diapers while we were in Russia and that saved us a lot of money as they cost over $1 per one diaper! Baby food and formula lasted long enough for Anastasia till she started to eat normal food and she didn't need formula anymore.

2. I asked God to help us not to spent too much money on the food that we were going to bring with us - One brother in Christ gave us several bags of dried fruits and two big cans of nuts to take with us and you know how expensive those things are!

3. I asked Him to help us to get everything that some people from Provideniya asked us for and if there was something we could not bring that it would be not a big deal - That was answered!

4.I asked God to help me to finish a scrapbook for GJ's grandparents before we leave - He helped me and I did!

5. I prayed that God will protect us from satan's attacks and protect us from the evil - He protected us in many ways.

6. I asked for help to forgive and love so others will See the Lord in us and I asked Him to help us to witness about Him - Amen!!!!

7. I asked for help to register GJ while we are there so we will not go against the rules - He got registered and we found an organisation to make him a new propusk (permission) so he could come back soon.

8. I prayed that the paperwork for our apartment will be done and that I will complete the paperwork for Anastasia's certificate - After more than 4 years of waiting we were able to finish the apartment paperwork. Praise God! I went to the organisation that supposed to give me a special paper for having another baby and they didn't like the fact that she was born in US. So I left the documents and they told me to come back in a month. I came back thinking that I need to bring more papers and the certificate was already there waiting for me!

9.I asked God to help me to bring only those books that I will need for the ministry.

10. I asked God If He wanted help my mom to come to Provideniya and see us - We wanted to go and see her this year but it would be too expensive for all of us to go there. We went to Provideniya and I asked mom if she will be willing to use her vacation and come to see us. She has a free airplane ticket and it is easier for her to come to see us then for us to go and see her. She didn't want to come to Chukotka again and I know that it was God Who changed her heart. She changed her mind and came and spent 6 wonderful weeks with us!!!

I had other needs that were related to the ministry such as:
- That God will open doors and prepare the way for us to come to Provideniya
- To start "Mom's in Touch" prayer group with ladies
- To start a Bible study with ladies as a part of Sunday school
- To do 2 special outreaches with the church ladies

You know that all that happened and God is the one Who did it. Sometimes I pray for big things and do not think that my little things like packing food and clothing matters. But God took care of my every little thing that I asked for so IT DOES MATTERS TO HIM!

Emma in AWANA

After we got back from Russia we signed Emma for AWANA as she is old enough to go there this year. She is in the Cubbies and she just loves it!!!

Emma in her uniform

First time on the line
Holding a rope with her groupmates. She is in the red team.

Our Princess

Today with dressing Emma I felt like we were getting ready for a wedding:) She was beautiful princess on her Birthday just like her Russian Grandma Toma wanted. She is the one who gave Emma her dress, purse and shoes.
Our little girl is four years old! It is hard for me to believe. Kids do grow fast!!! She changed our lives and this is indescribable miracle from God.