• Pray for Ukraine!
• Right now Will is in North Carolina. His grandmother died, and he went to be with his family for a little while. Please pray for him and his travels.
• Will gets back on Tuesday. On Wednesday we will travel to Odessa to spend the night and renew some passports. Please pray for that travel, too.
• Pray for the next family coming to adopt. They will be arriving next month.
• We are enjoying our new neighbors. Please pray for our relationship with them and for their people, the Crimean Tatars.
• Pray for Will to be able to catch up on office work when he gets back.
• I have had to miss some time at the orphanage because of Will's absence. Please pray for me to be able to jump back in there.

Older requests and answers:

• Don't stop praying for Ukraine!
• Our landlady is gone. Thank you for praying for us while she was here. Her sister went back to Donetsk, so please pray for her safety.
• The family that was adopting is successful and home; continue to pray for their adjustment. I also know of another family working on paperwork to get another little one out of "our" orphanage now.
• I have stepped back from the person I was counseling. Please pray that I would have peace about that decision, and that she will understand and move on in her life. Keep praying for her.
• The orphanage picnic was wonderful!
• Jaan and Raia loved camp.
• We got a new computer!

New:

• Two of "our" boys were transferred from the orphanage to an adult institution in a village a few hours away. We should be able to visit them on Thursday or Friday. Please pray for them; they are probably quite confused and upset by the unexpected change in their lives. Pray our visit will be possible and that it will go well. (UPDATE: We're going tomorrow, that is, Wednesday.)
• We have new neighbors in the other half of this house. Please pray that we will be able to get to know them well. So far they seem very nice.

• Pray for peace in Ukraine and for President Poroshenko.
• Our landlady's sister is here, and life is much more peaceful now that she has someone to be with.
• Please continue to pray for the family adopting here.
• Wisdom, patience, and compassion in my counseling relationship.
• Praise God for a wonderful vacation for us! You can pray that the refreshment from it will stick with us.
• Saturday is the orphanage picnic. Please pray for all the details involved, safety, good weather, and for the children to have a wonderful time.
• Will has a lot that had can do for Agape to catch up after being gone.
• Jaan and Raia are going to camp next week.
• Pray for "healing" for our computer: that it will spontaneously work better, or that I'll have time and brain power to figure out how to fix it. You can pray for our internet connection, too; it's been really off and on lately. (Maybe this is weird, but God takes care of small things, and this really is technology that we use a lot in daily life!)

• The Ukrainian elections went well. Now please pray constantly for the new president, Petro Poroshenko, and continue to pray for peace.
• We're getting used to our landlady, and--more importantly--she seems to be getting used to our weirdnesses. You can pray for her health; she keeps scaring us with falls and heart trouble!
• Keep praying for the adoption I mentioned.
• Keep praying for my "counseling ministry." I am in way over my head with the it.
• Praise God for a good end to the school year.

The next two weeks should be quite fun and busy. Right now Will is on his way to the last session of Agape ministry school for this year. We'll need lots of prayer Thursday and Friday, as we travel Papa-less to join him in the western part of the country. Praise God for this opportunity, and please cover us with prayer while we're gone. Thanks!

• Will is away at a conference this weekend. Pray for safe travel and good encouragement for him.
• I'm still revelling in being back at the orphanage each week. Please keep praying for that. We've been going on random days, instead of Saturdays lately. By the way, it takes about an hour on buses to get out there, and sometimes the trip leaves me more tired than all the rest put together; pray for strength.
• Please continue to pray for lots of wisdom for me with the counseling I mentioned before.
• Our landlady is here for the summer, and it's going to take some work for us to get used to each other. Please pray that we can all learn to live together well and that we would constantly show Christ's love to her.
• An American family is going to be adopting from "my" orphanage soon. Pray for them as they work through that process, and that we would be a help and encouragement as we meet them in the next week or so.
• Ten days until the Ukrainian elections. Pray for peace and right to prevail!

We're leaving for camp early Wednesday morning!

The family I mentioned last week, the ones I visited with in another region, made it home. Now please pray for them as they adjust to their new life together.

Also, please be praying for us as we work toward moving to Kherson (next month?!), communicate about this with our supporters, and take care of practical arrangements.

Thank you for your prayers! It will probably be a few weeks before I have another chance to update here.

Chicken pox... are over! PTL!

Another praise: I had a wonderful trip to visit an adoptive mom. It was such a treat for me, and she says that I was able to encourage and help her, too. You can be praying for her, as she wraps up her time here and then travels home with her two new sweethearts, and for her whole family as they adjust.

Next up: missions trip! Those of you who are our faithful prayer supporters will want to read this blog post and maybe print out the prayer guide. For now, please be praying specifically for us and for all the team members who are preparing for camp now. We have a lot of lessons to get ready, and others are working on inviting people and other practical jobs. Pray for the hearts of those who will be attending the camps, too.

We are still waiting to hear anything about our documents.

The family that was adopting made it home with their new son! Please keep praying for all of them as they settle in and start their new life together. There are several more adoptions in progress that we're especially excited about now, too: cases where we've met the children or where they're in our region now.

Bogdan is back on his crazy insomnia streak. Please pray for sleep! He's keeping all of us up most nights.

I (Phyllis) have been putting a lot of time and emotional energy into counseling and supporting someone through some very heavy issues. Please pray for wisdom and strength for me.

Be praying that Will will be able to make a trip to visit Agape ministries, an organization that we are interested in possibly working with.

Will got everything turned in for our reregistration (as far was we know). Thank you for all your prayers. Now we just have to wait a little. It would be nice if they don't need anything more from us to process it.

The adoption adventures that I have been asking prayer for are continuing, so please pray for wisdom for all involved.

I'm starting to feel more rested, even if I may be the only one feeling that way so far. Bogdan was having trouble sleeping, but that seems to be passing. Hurrah!

Jaan is really doing well at music school these days, and that is such an answer to prayer. He has loved the piano part since he started there, but the rest has been a real struggle. I am just so excited to see him enjoying it all now.

Will picked up his new passport yesterday and made some progress on reregistration. That will be his focus in the upcoming week.

We had a lovely time meeting part of the family that I mentioned before when I asked for prayer for their adoption. Please keep praying; they're in the home stretch.

We've had some fussy, sickish days and long nights lately. It's nothing serious or really out of the ordinary, but please pray for rest and health in our family.

Please keep praying for the church here!

Will just got back from the summit. He had a good and safe trip. Thank you for praying! You can add prayers that we'll all be able to rest up now (it was a full trip for him and some tiring nights for me here) and have opportunities to talk through anything from his time there.

I think the adoption in progress that I mentioned last week is going well. Please keep praying for them.

Coming up: Will needs to work on our reregistration now, in the week ahead.

This is insignificant, but could you please pray for me to find time to work on a few projects myself?

Document update: registration is transferring from Zaporozhya (which is like the state capitol) to Vasilevka (which is kind of the county seat?). Please pray that Will will be able to figure where and how to register us there. The lady at the "state" level is such an easy-to-work-with professional that it's going to be hard to say goodbye to her!

We're having trouble with our landlords. Or, actually they're having big trouble. This apartment is owned by a divorced couple. Please pray that they can figure things out between themselves.

Will is leaving for Kiev on Tuesday to attend the summit I had mentioned before. Please cover his travels and time there with lots of prayer. Pray that he'll make good connections with people and get insight into where we should be headed. Of course, you can pray for us at home without him, too.

Also, there's an American family adopting in our region right now. I can't give details, because their story isn't ours to tell, of course, but they're very heavy on our hearts and minds right now. Please lift them up with us.

(I think I fixed the return email address for this blog. If you're getting this by email, you should be able to reply now.)