Update from Moscow

Many of our readers know that our seminary in Moscow is in the process of receiving its license from the Russian Ministry of Education -- which is quite a bureaucratic undertaking. Just when you think you have all the details taken care of, oops, there comes another detail undone.

This is a report from our provost, Ilya Okhnotnikov, regarding our safety permit from the fire marshal.

Based on the Seminary's request to Fire Department on granting their Certificate of Fire safety for the building (needed for licensing) a Fire Department inspector paid a visit to ETSM. He was a different one from the assigned to ETSM inspector. He went through the building: kitchen, basement, ventilation system,electrical room, pump room, fire alarm system, gas removal system, looked through classrooms, library, checked all of our papers, certificate of fire proof training of ETSM's fire personnel. The visit was 40 minutes. He showed and pointed out some minor violations, which we fixed right away and which will not be reflected in his report. Anyway, the result was: this or next week we will have a new certificate from FD! Praise God!

This previous Certificate was given to us on August 3, 2007. It expires in 6 months usually: thus as of Feb. 3 the old Certificate has expired already. But glory to God: we will have a new one soon!

Thank you for keeping us in your prayer: we need your prayer support for divine guidance through the licensing process. The biggest issue is a visit of Expert Committee (of 6 people) on the Seminary's campus. No date is set for the committee's visit yet. I will keep you posted.