Carpenters in Azerbaijan:

The land of Fire

The carpenter family are serving with Operation Mobilisation in Azerbaijan.   Operation Mercy shares the Carpenter's vision for using practical skills as part of the evangelism process.  There is a recognised need for dental care with a 3 fold focus:

Dentaid, a charity based in England, has already sent some equipment.  What is now needed is manpower and we feel that the Lord has equipped and prepared us as a family to fill that need throughout 2000.  We believe this is God's will for our family for the year 2000.  Many things have confirmed this.

The city we will be living in is called Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan.   Murdoch and Morag are enrolled for NZ correspondence School and Thomas wil be looking for some employment. 

We have found our Russian lessons, which we had twice a week before leaving, to be useful especially the customs and culture we picked up through the lessons.  Many customs are similar to Bangladesh but there are many different ones to learn and be aware of.

Safety is a real issue in this predominantly Muslim country and we will appreciate utmost discretion with any mail sent to us during the year, no overt Christian messages please.  At this stage we have heard the customs are very corrupt so parcels are probably not advisable to send them either as the customs will either steal them or charge us exorbitant fees to get it.

Hamish will remain in our house in NZ to continue his tertiary education but join us at the end of his academic year for the final month and return journey.