Growth

I'm really feeling the need for personal growth in the area of being
organized and disciplined. I think Will's at the same point, too.
Please pray for us as we work to "get things together."

Health

We've enjoyed really good health for a long time. Now we seem to be getting lots of little bugs. Please pray that we can be healthy again! This week everyone has mild colds. None of this is serious, but it is annoying.

November 26
Blah! The colds continue.

December 3
We're all well. Praise the Lord! Please ask Him to keep us healthy this winter.

December 10
Jaan's cold came back.

January 12
We seem to be doing better!

Robertson grandparents

Now my parents are planning a trip to visit us! Start praying now for their preparations, visas, and travel.

December 10
They'll be traveling Tuesday and Wednesday.

January 12
We did have a wonderful visit. Thanks for praying!

Rest

We had a fun and busy weekend. Now we're tired! Pray for us to be able to catch up on rest. We tried to go to bed early last night, but the little ones had other plans. Maybe tonight?

December 10
Yesterday we all slept in! That is such a rarity; I don't know if it's ever happened before. When Raia first woke up to eat, I prayed the whole time I was feeding her that she would go back to sleep. (She doesn't usually.) And she did!

Gospelink 3rd quarter

Will's already met with some of the men from out here. He's going to Moscow tomorrow to meet with everyone in that area. Please pray for safe trips for him and the others who will be coming in to the city. And then you can pray for us as we work on paperwork, translations, contacting people, and other details.

November 19
Meetings continue, letters are coming in.

December 10
I'm working on translations.

January 12
STILL working on those translations. I'd love to get to where we don't have quarters overlapping anymore, which means we really need to get moving.

January 23
Getting closer! Dean is leaving for Africa on Monday, so we have to finish up this week. The fourth quarter money hasn't come in yet, which means it looks like we'll meet my goal of no more overlapping quarters.

Gospelink 2nd quarter

I'm posting like this just to move the Gospelink requests up and divide this out a little.

Because of various situations here and in the Gospelink office, we're way behind. Please pray for us to get the 2nd quarter work finished.

November 19
We're making progress. . . .

November 26
Hurrah! I'm finished with my part! Now Will just has to do a few more little things, and we'll be done with the second quarter.

December 3
We're pretty much done. Please just pray for Dean's email to start working again, so that we can get everything to him.

December 10
Yeah! Dean got himself a temporary address. We'll have the second quarter finished up this week.

Sick Papa

Will's not even over his cold, and he was up in the night with the stomach stuff that's been going around.

October 30
Praise the Lord that Will got over his sickness pretty quickly!

Something new

I added a box over to the side here where you can enter your email address if you want to automatically get our prayer requests by email.

Sick Baba

Now Julie has a chest cold. I (Phyllis) am the last one left who's not either sick or recovering from being sick. Please pray for Julie and the rest of the sick ones. (And for me to stay well.)

October 26
Julie's down with the stomach bug now.

October 30
It took a little while, but Julie was well in time to travel home.

Sick boy

Jaan didn't seem to feel too well this morning, but we went to church anyway. He threw up all over while we were there.

October 30
That little bit of sickness at church was all that Jaan had.

Sick baby

Raia has a little bit of a cold. It's not bad at all, but she is coughing. It's just sad to see her sick.

October 30
She's still coughing some, and yesterday she seemed to have a touch of the stomach bug.

Wedding

Today Stepan from our church here and Lyuba from our old church in Moscow are getting married. Will and a group from here went to Moscow for the wedding. Please pray for Styopa and Lyuba as they start out their new life together. Also, pray for safe travel for the group, going there and coming back all in one day.

October 30
The wedding went well, and everyone made it safely there and back.

Grandparents!

Will's parents will be arriving here next Sunday! Please pray for them as they continue to get ready for their trip and then as they travel. They have their visas; praise the Lord for that!

Also, we plan on "using" them to get to know some of our unsaved friends better, so pray for that, too.

October 22
They're here, and we're having a wonderful time together. Poor Bernie is rather sick, though, so please pray for him to get better.

So far we've already had one very good visit with our neighbors, and we're looking forward to inviting more friends over to meet Bernie and Julie.

October 30
Bernie got over his sickness after a few days. We did enjoy more visits with other friends, because of our special guests. And overall we had a wonderful visit. Now Baba and "Danna" are safely home in Charlotte.

Youth club

At the end of this month, we'll be starting a youth club, with games, songs, English lessons from Will, and Bible study. Please pray for all of that to come together, for people to attend, and especially for Will as he prepares.

November 5
Not quite in time for the end of the month, but we're moving forward. This week Will got the invitations printed up. Tomorrow he and others will be handing them out. They hope to start next Saturday.

November 14
Will wrote an update about the club. Please keep praying for planning, preparation, and people to come.

November 19
I think the main prayer request now is for people to come!

December 3
I waited to update, so that I could tell you about the club. Will said that it went well. Misha came back. There were two new people. German and his family came again. Thank you, Lord!

Park outreach

Today, instead of Bible study, we'll be going out to the park to hand out New Testaments and talk to people. Please pray for us as we do that.

October 8
It went well! Thank you for praying. Many people were very interested and receptive.

Orphanage

Today we're going just to visit the children at the orphanage. That's allowed, even though we can't have Bible lessons there any more. Also, either today or some time later this week, Pavel will be talking to the director about letting the children come to Bible lessons at a different location. Please pray that she will agree to that!

September 29
HUGE PRAISE REPORT: We have official permission to work with the kids again, and not only that, but we can have the Bible lessons IN THEIR CLASSROOMS! That's going to be so much easier than having to take them somewhere else. God gave us more than we even asked for. Now you can pray as this gets started. I'm guessing that Ira will do the teaching and Will the music, but everything needs to be sorted out now.

October 8
It looks like lessons will be starting in about two weeks. There are still a lot of details to work out. Pray for Ira and Yulia, because most of the responsibility falls on them.

October 15
Tomorrow will be the first lesson with the children this year. They decided to go ahead and try it at the place where our church meets, as a kind of Sunday school for the children from the orphanage. Tomorrow Ira will be teaching by herself, and she's somewhat worried about it. The other girl who was supposed to help her has to work, and Will is going to be in Moscow.

October 22
The lesson went well. Yulia was able to help after all. Fifteen children came! They had coordinated it amongst themselves so that they all met and came together.

Deaf schools

This morning Will and Pavel went to the schools for deaf and hard of hearing children to hand out Bibles. I wish I could have gone, and I know certain people (Shae!) would love to be praying with me for those children. Some day I hope to see us or others from the church here having more contact with these schools.

Youth

Will is now officially the youth leader here. His main responsibility will be the Saturday night Bible studies. He says to pray that he'll actually do something in this new position and that he'll be an encouragement.

September 26
We're having a planning meeting for youth ministry here on Thursday.

October 1
The meeting went well, and you can look at the new prayer requests to see what we worked on.

November 5
Tonight Will is starting a new Bible study on the Christian life with the church youth.

November 14
Now that the club is on Saturday nights, we need to have a different night for a more serious Bible study. Please pray that we will be able to agree on a time, and that the church youth will come.

November 26
Last Sunday we were able to have everyone over for supper and Bible study. That worked well, so hopefully we'll be able to continue it.

Zhatva

This Sunday will be Zhatva, the harvest holiday. You can pray we'll have a good church service, enjoy the fellowship, and that there will be guests.

September 26
We had a wonderful Zhatva in our church last week. There were guests, and more than usual, people just came in from the shopping center where we meet. Also, yesterday we went to Vaizniki to celebrate Zhatva with them, which was wonderful, too.

Updated

I was going to delete this post, as I put up a new one, telling what I'm updating today, but I'll leave it because of Alissa's comment.