6th January 2000

Dear All

If you are receiving this letter it means you are supporting our family in some way for the year 2000. We feel very privileged to be sharing our lives with so many caring and generous people. It has been a hectic month leading up to our departure but with only three sleeps to go it is all quite amazing. We found it awesome at the changeover of the new Millennium to look back over the last decade in our family life, God has called us on an incredible journey and it isn’t over yet!!
We are very mindful of the place prayer will play in our overall safety for the coming year so have included our travel itinerary for your prayer. Please especially note the time we are going through the Baku customs with all our dental equipment and limited Russian.

Wednesday 12 January 00
1.40pm    Depart WELLINGTON Qantas Airways flight QF 31. (via Sydney, Melbourne)
Thursday 13 January 00
6.05am    Arrive SINGAPORE.
Monday 17 January 00
9.15pm    Depart SINGAPORE British Airways flight BA 12
Tuesday 18 January 00
5.35am    Arrive LONDON Heathrow.
Thursday 20 Januray 00
6.25am    Depart LONDON British Airways flight BA 2029.
6.15pm    Arrive BAKU, AZERBAIJAN !!

Our plans on arrival are still pretty sketchy, however we do know someone in a 12 seater van will be collecting us! We have just sent a last E Mail to get a contact name in Baku incase of emergencies. Jihan, our contact, sent us an E Mail this week with a possible house for us to rent in Barda, and news of a possible 4 wheel drive vehicle being available some time during the year. So it is quite exciting but not definite enough to depend on yet.
Our packing has been going well but as usual too much luggage and weight. Qantas has been very generous and BA half as generous, so we are allowed 30 kg per person. We have about 30kg of NZ Correspondence lessons, 20+ kg of dental equipment, 20kg of sleeping bags and 16 kg of polypropolene type warm underwears!! In all 7 or 8 med/large suitcases and handluggage, more than we would choose but it seems a shame not to take over the equipment that has been donated in NZ. We are really appreciative of the practical donations of soxs, towels, gloves, scarves, hats,etc as we are anticipating temperatures well below zero, especially in Barda. With the warm clothes and vitamins from Mum we should soon acclimatise, though the prospective house has "weak" electricity whatever that may turn out to mean?
We plan to write as soon as we are settled with an address for postage and hopefully an E Mail address. Until then Hamish will be collecting all the E Mails and sending them on to us at a hot mail address. Please be careful not to mention Christianity, converting Muslims, burning down mosques etc in any correspondence as nothing is guaranteed private in these sorts of countries. The Azeris are 93% Muslim and hate the Armenians who are a Christian country, consequently we do not say we are Christians if we value our lives. We are anticipating a debriefing of all the "what not to dos etc) when we arrive in Baku and will pass on any tidbits as we get them.
We are going in strictly as humanitarian aid workers with Operation Mercy. OM has a Non Government Organisation there dispensing aid and they should be able to get us visas for our stay. ( another prayer request)
Sorry we cannot tell you more but we do not know much more. Family and friends have been really helpful surfing the web, looking up old National Geographics and movies on TV to give us a better knowledge of where we are going, but Barda is a bit off the beaten track from Baku so lots of new information and experiences in store.
Well this is a trial run for our mailing system and E Mail delivery system. I guess if you do not receive it you won’t know you have missed it!! If your address changes please let Hamish know and he will changeit on the data base and let us and Paynes know.
Hamish is looking forward to his year flatting and already the house isn’t quite like home. It is a big move for him and we will all miss each other so please pray for this ‘cutting of the apron strings’ so to speak.
The others are not keen to follow their parents but are obedient to God’s call and their parents. Murdoch and Morag have new hairdos to take away, so the whole team will look a bit tidier than at Christmas. Please pray they will enter the experience fully and that some sort of employment for Thomas will turn up.
As the time gets closer we are all emotional and stretched. We really cannot imagine what we are going to but know without a doubt it is in God’s will. Why he has chosen us is beyond us too?? Why God has chosen Azerbaijan, beats us?? But thankyou for your confidence in us and God. May you be richly blessed too as we share in this journey through 2000.
Yours in Christ

Suzanne, Ian, Hamish, Thomas, Murdoch and Morag

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