Sad orphanage news

Once again, Bible lessons have been closed down at the orphanage. Not even a last goodbye was allowed.

Some visa news

Yesterday Will had to be in Moscow, and while he was there, he found out that my visa invitation was officially refused. So, he picked up the refusal and his invitation and took them to our visa consultant. This consultant knows everything about visas (really!) and has lots of connections. Today he was able to find out why I was refused: my police record! Over a year ago, the police did visit us and start the process of fining us for living here without registering, but those fines and charges were supposed to have been canceled. Apparently, they were for Will, but not for me. However, since that was minor, and more than a year ago, it shouldn't be a reason to refuse an invitation.

Still, with an official refusal, I can't reapply. The next step is to get a leader in the Baptist Union to write a letter explaining the situation and asking for reconsideration. Then our consultant will take that and go higher up than the person who was responsible for the refusal.

Maybe that was too many details, but I know some of you like to know every bit. The main thing is to keep praying that somehow I can get an invitation for a new visa!

Babushki and electricity

Please continue to pray that the babushki at church would calm down about us moving to our dacha. This is really a big, scary thing for them!

We're still waiting on electricity there before we can move.

Computer

Please pray that the part for our laptop would come in soon. Will took the laptop in to be fixed in Moscow a month ago, and it would be really nice to have it back to use at the dacha. Mac and Russia don't mix very well, though, so it could still be a while.

Raia's cold

It's been very mild, but she's still drippy and fussy. Praise the Lord that the rest of us have stayed well, and pray for Raia to get over this as soon as possible.

Gospelink

Will's trip to Moscow went well. One of the men didn't make it, and we haven't heard why yet; pray that all is well with Andrei and family. Will's next trip should be May 23rd or so.

Moving day

. . . should be early next week. Tomorrow we plan to spend the day at our dacha, getting ready. Please pray for electricity. That's what we're waiting for. We'll need it for heating and cooking, and we'll wait to move until it's working.

Housing solution!

Our housing situation is solved, until the end of the summer. Praise the Lord! I'm so excited I can barely stand it! Come read about it.

Keep praying that we would be able to find something else for after the summer. Also, pray that our landlord would let us leave our belongings here in the apartment until then, or that we could find some other easy solution. And pray for us as we move!

Little visa update

Will talked to the lady at the Baptist Union. Apparently it could be up to a month before we hear anything definite about my invitation. Also, we were counting on being able to reapply if it is refused. That's not allowed. So, we would have to find a completely different route. (There are some options.) Just pray for a miracle, though!

Travels

Will's trip to Moscow for Gospelink is coming up tomorrow. Please pray for him, for the men who will be coming to meet with him, and for us at home.

Visa clarification

We still don't have any more news, and might not for a little while. I just wanted to be sure that you all understand that I do have a valid visa until November. I don't need to leave Russia any time soon! The invitation that is in limbo is for the new religious visa. If they actually do refuse, I have plenty of time to reapply. Pray that it would still be granted, though.

Gospelink

The 1st quarter money just came in. Will had a great opportunity to meet with most of the Vladimir-Ivanovo men at once, so he's in Ivanovo today, distributing support money and collecting papers. Please pray for his travels; he'll be going to meet with other men in the near future, too. Pray that we'd be able to get this quarter's work wrapped up faster than usual.

Health update

I'm finally done coughing! Thank you, Lord! I'm still having good and bad days with nausea, though. At least it's seeming to turn into real morning sickness now. I had thought the morning part of that was a myth! I feel better most afternoons and evenings now.

Raia's getting another cold today. Please pray that she'll feel better soon and that no one else will get sick.

Oh, no!

I don't know any details or how to explain this, so I'll just translate the email that we just received from the lady who does visas in the Baptist Union:
Dear Will,
An invitation was only granted for you, and, unfortunately, not for Phyllis. They told me that they would give me the official refusal papers in two weeks. They're still not saying anything or giving any papers yet. The question is being investigated by [the equivalent of CIA/FBI]. We will pray. I think that if they might refuse to give an invitation for Phyllis, then we don't need to get invitations for the children. Should we wait? Or turn in the children's applications? What do you say?

PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! Will thinks it sounds like some kind of mistake. He's in Ivanovo for the day, but he might try to start making phone calls from there.

The housing option I mentioned

Please pray for wisdom! I updated here.

Moving

Just to be very clear: we have to move out of this apartment by the end of the month, if not before.

Please pray, we are actually going to go look at a new housing option tomorrow afternoon. It sounds incredible. . . maybe too good to be true?

Thank you for praying

Sorry I didn't get back here earlier. Our landlord did find a place for his daughter that one night. She'll have to spend weekends with different people until the end of May. After that she won't be able to go back to the orphanage at all (hurrah!). She'll be living here with her father, and we should be somewhere else by then.

Please pray that Seryozha's mother would come off her drinking binge. Sometimes she'll stay sober for a month at a time, but then something sets her off, and things get very bad. Seryozha went to check last night, and I haven't heard yet what he found. (He's out with Will now.)

Big praise!

I'm not feeling nauseated today! It's been a while.

Apartment adventures

Keep praying that our landlord would find someone to keep his daughter tonight. The director of our building has said that she was willing to take her for a night, but she's not home right now. He has someone for tomorrow, but if he can't find the director (or someone else) for tonight, she'll have to come here. I'd really rather not send Seryozha away now, even just for one night. (Although, we can probably figure something out there, too. He's been with us, because he just got paid, and his mother wants his money for a drinking binge. It seems like if he left his money here, then he could sleep there. It just wouldn't be great. Yes, he has a mother, but there are reasons that he grew up in an orphanage. )

And. . . we'll probably be moving before too long. There's someone who had wanted to rent to us on the first floor here, in our same building, same entrance. We had decided against it, because the apartment is a little smaller, the windows only face the back, and it just didn't seem like much of an improvement. Honestly, please pray for me to adjust back to being excited about that apartment. It will be wonderful to be away from the stairs and the leaky roof and the fifth-floor heat! And our prayers have been for our landlord to work out his family problems; this will be a direct answer to those prayers.

No room at the inn

Our landlord just called to ask us to take his daughter in. He's had her in an orphanage and needs to find another place for her now. We already have a boy who graduated from "our" orphanage who spends nights here off and on. ("On" right now.) So, we don't have room for the landlord's daughter. Please pray that we can find a good place for her to stay and that he'll accept the fact that we can't take her. He's coming over tomorrow to try to convince us, I think. But, like Will said, "What can we do? Move Seryozha to the balcony?" There's just not enough room!