New Web Site Launch

The new year seemed like an appropriate time to launch our new web site. I decided a few months ago that instead of maintaining a website and a blog separately that I would just combine them, but I wanted to be able to use the domain that I had purchased some time ago. I have found a solution for this, so now, you just need to remember one address for everything: www.neifertfamily.com. I will no longer maintain this blog, so please add the new web site address to your favorites or bookmarks. Thanks!

Patrick

Christmas on the Beach?

Merry Christmas to all!! We are now in Haifa, Israel spending the holidays with some of Christy's family, her sister and brother-in-law who live here and her mother visiting from Booker, Texas. We have a beautiful view of the Haifa harbor from the balcony of the home in which we're staying. It's not the Christmas setting to which we're accustomed. In fact, just a few days ago, we were walking along the beach of the Mediterranean Sea and the kids decided to kick around in the water a bit. That "bit" turned into full-fledged swimming when Megan "fell" in, thoroughly soaking herself. It was such a lovely, warm day that it really didn't matter.

It doesn't really make a difference what the setting is for Christmas, does it? That's not the most important thing. We were just visiting some Australian friends of ours and asked them what Christmas was like in the southern hemisphere. They are accustomed to celebrating with a cookout on the beach to stay cool during the hottest part of the summer. That's normal for them. So, if the setting isn't the most important thing, what is? It's the joy of the gift of Jesus Christ to the world, of course. That's what we're celebrating today, plain and simple. Praise the Savior of the world today!

Patrick

Happy Birthday, Ethan!!!

Saturday was Ethan's 12th birthday, but we began our celebrations Friday evening. We invited Liz, Johan, our friends, Sergey and Rina, and two of Ethan's friends, Leo and Alex (Yes, Alex is the one who gave us trouble several months ago.). Unfortunately, Sergey couldn't make it because he had to work, but everyone else came to the party. We started with dinner of Ethan's choice, french bread pizza to order. Everyone jumped right in and loaded up the toppings, popped them in the oven for a few minutes and then scarfed them down. Let's just say, we had no leftovers.

The cake that followed was a big crowd-pleaser. At Ethan's request, I made a dragon cake (found on instructables.com). It was my first (and maybe last) attempt at what I call a fancy cake, as opposed to a simple double layer round cake. Making the cake and even cutting and arranging it was easy, but frosting it was a nightmare. With my lack of patience, Christy had to step in and take over, but I think she was probably pretty close to giving up a couple times. She persevered, however, and it turned out really well. For sure, it tasted great.

Prodded by Ethan's friend, Leo, we quickly moved on to opening presents. Ethan loved all of his gifts. A couple of his favorites were Age of Empires III computer game and Clue board game. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Thanks to all who came for helping make our celebration more enjoyable.

We continued our celebrating on Saturday. I took Ethan and Megan (Christy stayed home to enjoy a rare and deserved day of solitude) to Moscow so Ethan could spend some time with a couple of his Hinkson friends, Kian, the son of our Australian friends, and Tristyn, an American MK just like our kids. We started out with bowling, one of Ethan's favorite new pastimes. We followed that with Papa John's pizza (Are you seeing a pattern in Ethan's food tastes?) and then some sledding before opening presents and saying goodbye.

Though it was tiring, Ethan's birthday was a big success and very fun for everyone. This is Ethan's last year before becoming a teenager. HELP!

Patrick

Picture 1 - Ethan raring to dig into his birthday cake, his friend, Leo, at his side
Picture 2 - Ethan's dragon cake
Picture 3 - From left to right, Tristyn, Megan, Kian and Ethan

Welcome Back, Liz!

As the article's title suggests, Liz is once again with us in Russia. On Wednesday, November 28, I drove to Moscow to pick her up at the airport. Thankfully, she made it on time with all her luggage. After stopping by the one and only Starbucks in the Moscow area, we pointed our team car toward Elektrostal. Upon arrival, we moved Liz's luggage into her apartment and moved Johan and his luggage out and into his new, temporary home closer to the center of town. It's good to have Liz back, and it's even better to be a nearly complete team all together in the same place. We're just missing Judy. Unfortunately, it won't last long as we and Liz will be traveling over the holidays and Johan will be returning to the US at the end of December. However, we'll enjoy this short time together while it lasts. Here we all are together at Ethan's birthday party (more about that in another article to come).

Patrick

Thanks a bunch!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but our thankfulness has not. We are so grateful for all of you who have supported our ministry financially over the years, prayed for us regularly, visited us in our home away from home and sent us letters and/or care packages. You are truly a blessing to us, and we continually thank God for each and every one of you. Thank you!

Here is a picture from our Thanksgiving celebration. We did not gather on Thursday because it was just another work day for our Russian friends, and we wanted to include some of them on this special occasion. Instead, we celebrated on the following Sunday. We invited Johan, our friends Sergey and Rina and Natasha. The day was wonderful with wonderful friends and wonderful food.

Patrick

Picture - From left to right around the table, Ethan, Sergey, Rina, Johan, Megan, Natasha and Christy. I'm, of course, taking the picture.

Tied Up in Knots

One of Ethan's favorite web sites is instructables.com. It's a how-to site where you can find step-by-step instructions for doing or making just about anything. Ethan has been visiting it religiously for many months now. His latest project is knitting. He has taught himself how to knit using only instructions from this site. He started small by making a scarf and blanket for one of Megan's stuffed animals, but he has plans to make Christy a scarf as soon as we can get to the store for her to pick out some yarn. We're quite proud of him and his high ambitions. When he sets his mind to do something, he doesn't stop until he's accomplished it. Way to go, Ethan!

Patrick

New Russian Visa Regulations, Part 2

Here is the promised 2nd article regarding new Russian visa regulations. This article is from the October 29 issue of The Moscow Times, Moscow's daily English language newspaper. Please continue to pray for us and the future of our work here.

Patrick

Foreigners Face a 10-Day Wait for New Visas

By Alexander Osipovich and Svetlana Osadchuk
Staff Writers

The minimum wait time for a new Russian visa has risen to 10 days at many embassies in Europe where expatriates previously could get them in just a day.

The consulates in Tallinn and Riga, once popular destinations for expats on visa runs, said Friday that U.S. and British citizens must now wait 10 days to receive any kind of visa.

"I'm in shock," said Paul Goncharoff, a Moscow-based U.S. businessman who learned of the change last week as he prepared to make what had become his annual trip to the Latvian capital for a new visa.

The consulates in Paris and Berlin have also slowed down processing to 10 days, according to visa agencies and foreign businessmen familiar with the situation. Repeated phone calls to the consulates were not answered Friday.

But the consulates in Madrid and London are apparently still offering one-day turnaround.

"Unfortunately, different consulates are doing it differently," said Tatyana Bondareva, general director of the Visa Delight agency.

The longer waiting times stem from an agreement between Russia and the European Union that was meant to simplify visa procedures and went into effect in June. "The agreement says consulates have up to 10 days to issue the visa," Bondareva said. "But some consulates have taken that to mean a set period of 10 days."

The agreement also has lengthened waits because of a provision that has changed the process for issuing invitations, Bondareva said. According to that provision, any Russian company can now write a letter of invitation, a document that has always been required for a foreigner to obtain a visa. Previously, such invitations could only be issued by the Federal Migration Service after the service got a request from an organization authorized to invite foreigners.

The problem, Bondareva said, is that consulates now have to do the work of verifying the facts on the letter of invitation, a task that was previously done by the migration service.

London and Madrid may be among the bright spots for expatriates in Europe. An employee who answered the phone at the Russian Embassy in Madrid said the consulate was still offering 24-hour and three-day processing there. At the London embassy, a man who answered the phone said most visas were taking about a week to process and asked a reporter to call back for more information. Nobody answered repeated phone calls afterward. But visitors to the expat web site RedTape.ru said the embassy was still offering expedited processing.

Repeated phone calls were not answered Friday at the consulates in Berlin, Paris, Rome, Prague, Warsaw, New York and Washington. The consulates in Kiev, Vilnius and Brussels were closed Friday afternoon. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said requests for comment had to be submitted in writing. Questions sent by fax were not answered as of Sunday.

The EU-Russia visa agreement is the reason behind another change that has caused anxiety in the expat community: a new requirement that foreigners who enter Russia on multiple-entry business visas stay for no longer than 90 days at a time, and for no more than 180 days out of one year. In the past, such visas could be used to stay in Russia year-round.

Bondareva said the EU-Russia agreement had made things easier despite the longer waiting times.

"It has become simpler," she said. "The inviting party just writes a letter, in a certain format, saying that some person needs a visa, and he will get that visa. But maybe not as fast as he wants it."

© Copyright 2007 The Moscow Times . All rights reserved.