Car!

Will's grandfather is going to let us use his car. Praise the Lord! (And thank you, Pop!) Please pray for all the details of getting Will's driver's license, buying insurance, getting the car running and such.

Lena

Some of you know Lena, mother of Jaan’s friend Andrusha, sister of Ira. We prayed every week for quite a while for God to heal her infertility and bless them with another baby. Now she’s expecting twins in the springtime! ( ) Please pray for her and them, especially considering the low quality of maternity care here. And pray for me, too. One of my big struggles is that I won’t get to see her little girls.

(Oh, and the doctors couldn’t do anything for Lena’s infertility. These twins are the result of God’s direct intervention!)

For our children

Please also remember to pray for our children. They’re sick. . . again. It’s nothing serious, but it is just another little thing to deal with. (Jaan says that his nose is drooling. )

They don’t really understand what is going on right now, but they do seem to feel that something is happening. (It’s been funny to see what sets them off. For Jaan it was when I packed up and sorted through the books. He stood next to me and cried the whole time, “No, Mama! Not the books! What will we read?” Raia had a harder time with the clothes: “What will we wear?”) And it’s so hard to stay patient with them! If I have to leave the room for Asya, I’ll come back to find that Jaan and Raia have instantly resorted my carefully sorted piles, unpacked our carefully packed items, and just let their curiosity run wild.

Kolya

Our friend Kolya has been going through a really hard time. He lost his job, and his wife is trying to divorce him. We have told him that we’re praying for him and that we would ask our friends to pray, and he really appreciates that. Also, pray for wisdom for us. We want to reach out to him, but especially when he’s very drunk he uses up a lot of our time. Pray for wisdom! We don’t want to turn him away, but we can’t afford to spend hours focused on him every day. Pray for his physical health and safely, too. (Recently one of our elderly neighbors upstairs came home drunk, and his wife locked him out. He yelled in the stairwell until late, and then went out. The next morning his coffin lid was by the door! He died in the night. I worry that something like that could happen to Kolya.)

[Since I wrote this, Kolya has started writing a book. He wants us to take it to America, translate it, and sell it for $10,000. Not too realistic, but it’s keeping him sober and busy. Praise the Lord for that!]

Seryozha

I’m struggling with the thought of leaving Seryozha, “our orphan.” Please pray for him to do well and for us to be able to leave him!

Sad news

We lost the appeal. Please pray for our broken hearts and for the practical details that we're going to have to be taking care of.

Appeal Hearing

We have just found out that our court hearing in Vladimir will be tomorrow, Friday the 18^th, at 3:00.  We appreciate your prayers!!

Appeal

We'll be appealing the court decision on January 9th. Please pray for Will and Sergei (the missionary-lawyer) as they prepare the appeal and turn it in.

Details

The court hearing will be at 12:00 on Tuesday. Along with the big prayer requests (mercy, victory!), please be praying for the little things. This time we're going to take Asya with us. Please pray that she won't be a distraction or problem. Pray for Jaan and Raia to have a good time with Tanya.

No more charges

Please pray that no one would come to file charges against me while we sit here, waiting for our court date. (In case you don't read our family blog, our court date is December 25.)

Trip details

Please be praying for us as we get closer to making definite plans for our trip the States. Please pray especially that the Lord would provide a car for us to use there.

Going home

We need to vacate this apartment, so we'll be going home to Kovrov on Tuesday. Please pray for safe travel.

Also, pray for wisdom in what to do next. We feel like we're in a better legal position, now that we've tried to get exit visas and been denied. It doesn't seem like they would press charges against me for being in Russia, when I can't leave! But we'll see. If we need to, we can stay with friends.

Praise!

We are seeing that the Lord is providing. Special gifts for our upcoming trip are already coming in. Keeping praying!

The main prayer requests right now

First, please keep praying that we would be able to return to Russia after the court hearing that we're waiting for. The judge could decide to deport me, which would mean that I would not be allowed enter Russia for five years or more. Or the decision could be different, and we'd get exit visas to leave in around two weeks after that. Either way, we'll be leaving, for a short time (as we hope and pray), or. . . .

Also pray that God would provide the finances we need! To quote a prayer request from a Gospelink letter that came in recently: "We be in need of financial situation."

(And, no, we still don't have a court date.)

Something minor

We've had colds and such almost the whole time we've been here. It would be really nice to have our children be healthy and to feel well ourselves!

The latest

I'm sorry. I forgot that there are some who only read here, and not on our blog. Here's what I had written there:

Will titled one of his updates "Light at the end of the tunnel." We keep thinking we see that light, and it keeps staying just a little beyond our reach. On Sunday I thought that we had two big problems: the mysterious email from Kiev and the fact that I'm sitting here breaking the law of Russia with my expired visa. And I thought that we could make progress on both of those problems in the next few days. Well. . . .

Problem #1: The mysterious email is still just that. A mystery. Will called the consulate in Kiev on Monday. They don't know what's going on either. They said they got a letter telling them not to give Will a visa, but it was too late, so all they could think of was sending that email. They don't know why they got the letter. We were worried, because the email said to bring the visa back to be annulled. That could mean five years out of the country! When Will asked about that, the lady said, "Why? You didn't do anything wrong." All they could suggest was having the National Baptist Union (who invited Will) write a letter asking for explanation. The people in Kiev were very sympathetic and didn't give a deadline or really push for anything. It's almost like they feel like they sent the email, so they've done their duty.

Problem #2: We had gotten to the point where we had decided just to get exit visas and leave for the States until our work visas are ready in February. After sending Will around to all the different offices in Vladimir Migration, they decided that they can't gave us exit visas until my case goes through the regional court. The appeal has already been filed, so it has to go through. And of course, no one know when the court date will be.

So, now what? We're still confused and frustrated and scared. We'll wait until for our court date, and then after that, we'll go to the States until February, whether we're deported or given exit visas.

In our dream world, we'd plan our trip around the dates that are convenient for everyone, have a car (and a driver's license), spend time at Siloam Missionary Homes and/or D & D, enjoy visits with all our relatives and friends, and know that we could come home to Russia afterwards. In the real world? We don't even have money for one-way plane tickets!

Please keep praying for us. Pray that God would once again protect us from being deported, and would bless our plans and desires concerning time in the States. We love you all and really appreciate your love and concern for us. Thank you so much for praying!

Will's travels

He let me know that he made it to Ivanovo and stopped there for the night. Now he's on his way to Vladimir, to talk to the regional head of Migration. Please pray that man will be kind, merciful and able to help! Pray for Will as he goes before this influential and intimidating man!

On the road

Please pray for Will as he's on the road today. He had a successful morning in Moscow, getting our passports translated. Now he's on a bus to Ivanovo, hoping to get there before late night, and then maybe on to Vladimir or home. This is a yucky day to travel: wet roads, slushy snow everywhere.

Update

Here is what I posted on our blog:

Will has been home. He left on Friday to go back for the regional meeting that was on Saturday. Soon after he left, I got an email from the Russian Consulate in Kiev, telling Will to bring back his new visa to be annulled. What!?!?! (Please pray!) Also, at home Will found a letter in our mailbox, saying that Kovrov Migration Control is appealing the court decision that was in my favor. What!?!?! (Please pray!) That's the bad news. The good news is that the Baptist Union was approved to invite foreigners with no problem, and they took the initiative on their own to try inviting us on work visas, which is a new and really good option. It sounds like we'll have those in February. (Please pray!)

So, where are we now? In the land of confusion! Will came back from Kovrov/Vladimir last night around midnight. Tomorrow he is going to call Kiev and see if he can clear up anything there. He'll also leave early in the morning to get all of our passports translated and notarized in Moscow and hopefully out to Ivanovo to be turned in right away for those new visas. Then, he'll get ready to be in line early to talk to the regional head of Migration in Vladimir on Tuesday--the only day he receives people--in hope that he can help. (Please pray!)

Now I've told you all I know. Hopefully you're not as confused about it as we are! Just a warning in advance: our answer to all questions is going to be, "We don't know yet."

Thanks for praying

We're safely here. The trip went smoothly the whole way. It was definitely long, though. I don't know if we've ever had all three children sound asleep by 7:00! They're worn out, and so are we.