Some exciting news from Moscow. Our school - The Eurasian Theological Seminary in Moscow received its Certificate of Registration this past Friday. The seminary had already been registered as a religious organization, but we applied for a change in status (actually, an enhancement in status) that will enable us to apply for our license with the Russian Ministry of Education. We will apply for that license today (21 January). Although we are celebrating, we still covet your prayers for the licensing process. This is Russia, and many people still view evangelicals with suspicion. (Well, there are some Newspapers in American that still hold evangelicals with disdain.) And Russian bureaucracy has just as much red tape as any other country.
After filing today, we expect that it will take up to 10 days for the registration of the application. Within the next two months, we hope to have a visit from an "expert committee" comprised of representatives from various government agencies. If they approve of us and our application, it will take another month before we have our license in our hands.
As you can see, it is a lengthy process and we must be ready for the unexpected. Please pray for Mr. Alexander Gruzkov, chair of the expert committee. He is also the Director for the Federal Licensing Office. As you can imagine, his decision will be vital.
No comments:
Post a Comment