YWAM St. Petersburg is ministering to youth in this city. They are ministering through a program called “Chainik”. A chainik is a teapot, but the slang meaning is dummy. For years books have been put out “_____ for Dummies”. The goal of this ministry is to train young people in the faith. The summer program is Mission Adventures. It has had a good reception in this city and has helped to unite youth from different churches.

The theme of this month’s meeting is “Get out of Your Aquarium”. It’s an encouragement to get out into the sea and share our faith. It was a fun night.

Worship during the evening.

Dressing an attendee in toilet paper to make him a fish.

Audience sitting in the fish bowl. Notice to decorations.

Tim sharing the message.

Christmas has happened in stages this year. Our packages have arrived over the series of two months. The kids have really enjoyed it thinking that every week is Christmas week. Won’t they be sad when it ends.

Timothy and Ramona sitting on the couch reading and laughing together

The kids love, as I did when I was a kid, to get airplane rides from mom and dad. Abby is cute and will hold onto my feet as she flies. I tickle her with my feet and her giggle is intoxicating. Timothy is a little for adventurous and likes to fly with his arms spread wide. It’s a bit dangerous as he can become unsteady during his flight.

We spent New Year’s Eve at our friends outside St. Petersburg. We were there with one other family. We spent the evening eating smoked ribs & pork and we also barbecued marinated steak. After putting the kids down the adults took a walk in the falling snow and played a long game of Beyond Balderdash. During the night snow fell accumulating enough to allow us to build snowmen.

Sparklers on New Year’s Eve

Our family and a snowman

The four ladies

The entire group on New Year’s day

Timothy jumping down the stairs on mattresses