I'm retiring this blog, at least for now. I tend to write our prayer requests in with our updates and regular blog posts, so this becomes just another thing to keep up with. Maybe I'll use it again later, though....

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to update and ask for prayer for our holiday season. Please pray for our family's health, too; it seems like someone is always sniffling or coughing these days. And don't stop praying for Ukraine. This winter is a hard one for many people in this country.

Upcoming events:

• Christmas banquets for Tsyurupinsk orphanage workers.
• decorating cookies with Tsyurupinsk kids
• Agape Christmas orphanage visits
• and more!

Thank you for praying.

• 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!

Something I forgot to mention: Will has another session of the Agape school next week. This time is when the students prepare lessons to teach and be evaluated. Please pray that Will would be able to find the time and energy to get his part done before he goes, and for another good session, too.

• Ukraine: just keep praying!
• Orphans: like I said before, this is a hard time for orphanages and many other people.
• Health: Bogdan has been really sick, but is getting better now. Praise the Lord with us for that, and please pray for good health for our whole family.
• Counseling: I (Phyllis) spend a good bit of time on the phone counseling someone long-distance and doing a Bible study with her. It takes a lot of time and emotional energy, but is very worthwhile (I think). Please pray for her and for me.
• Will: you can always pray for him to be able to keep up with the office work he does and to do a good job.

Thank you for praying!

Our residency documents are finished and back in our hands! This time was the easiest ever, probably because we hired a lawyer to handle it, but glory to God for all.

Please keep praying for peace in Ukraine and wisdom for us.

KEEP PRAYING FOR UKRAINE!

• My friend who I visit the orphanage with has left Ukraine for a little while, so I didn't get to go today. Please continue to pray for the kids, and pray that my friend will be able to return soon.
• Our neighbors, the family that lived in the other half of this house, moved out unexpectedly. Please pray that the next tenents will be nice and that we will be able to reach out to them.
• Praise God that we're getting over the colds we had last week.
• We still aren't finished with our documentation to live here.
• Orphanages are struggling financially. Pray for them and for us, as we may have some chances to help with basic needs that they have.

• Our unregistering trip went beautifully. The government office there even stayed open late for us! That's a miracle.
• Still working on registering here and extending our residency.
• Still visiting the orphanage on Saturdays (Phyllis).
• Still working in the Agape office (Will).
• Fighting some sickness here.
• Andrei Nalivaiko is out of jail! (I had asked for prayer for his situation on our blog.)

PRAY FOR UKAINE! Things do seem to be getting better, but there's is still a long road ahead for this country.

I used to update here most Saturdays, but that has gotten hard lately, because my Saturdays are busy now. I need to find a new day of the week and get in the habit of posting then.

New prayer requests:

• On Saturdays I get to visit an orphanage for disabled children. I love them! Please pray for me each week and for the children I get to spend time with.
• We're in the middle of getting residency for the next year. Please pray for that process.
• Pray for our trip tomorrow, and for our children who will be with friends while we're gone.

I'll try to write again here more often.

Will's parents are arriving TODAY for a two-week visit. Praise God for this, and pray for a wonderful time together. Please pray especially that everyone would stay healthy.

Right after I asked for prayer about the gas water heater, they finally got to the end of the process. It works! 

Our neighbors have had even more health problems lately. Saturday night was the worst by far; they (and we) actually thought that their older toddler died. The paramedics got here quickly and revived him, but he's back in the hospital now. Please pray for his health and for us to be able to reach out to them somehow.

Jaan is really not enjoying music school here. Please pray for him to adjust and even start to like it.

The Fedorchuks had a safe trip back (and hit the ground running). We're still trying to catch them.  You can pray that we would have a chance to spend some good time together and talk. Will's had one day in the Agape office so far, and done more work for them from home. Please continue to pray for us to find how we can best help out and fit in here.

I thought of a few more things, more for other people, but closely tied in with us:

Our neighbors have been quite sick, too, and their little guys have been in and out of the hospital. Nothing serious, but hospital time is stressful for parents, even when it's just because the babies have colds, like they do now.

Alex and Vera Fedorchuk (Agape director), are headed back to Ukraine with their new baby and four older children. Pray for safe travel.

Our landlady and her helpers have been trying to get gas hot water put in here since May. (We do have an electric water heater for now, for baths. We're not suffering.) It has been a very long, frustrating process, even involving lots of tears. Please pray that they could finally finish!

Jaan just started at music school today. Thank God for His help in that process, and please keep praying that all the teachers Jaan ends up with will be just right for him (and that we might get a place for Raia, too, if that would be good for her).

Pray for our health! Everyone has been sick, and it's still lingering with some of us.

Tomorrow Will is leaving for a week in Kiev at a session of Agape's school for teachers. Please pray for a good trip and good studies for him, and for the rest of us here without him.

School is already going well, but you can always pray for us in that area. Also, our children joined a children's choir at the church we're attending, and they loved their first time with that. In the week ahead we want to work on getting Jaan (and possibly Raia) into music school. Please cover that with prayer. Pray that we would get the very best teachers possible for their own personalities. Jaan's piano teacher is Dneprorudnoe was an incredible answer to prayer. Ask God with us for another like her.

We are still unpacking and settling in. It's very nice to have time to work on that, and it does seem to be going well, even if we're slow at it.

We have not hurried to get started with Agape, although we're looking forward to that sometime soon. Will and Bogdan did go in to the office one day this week, just to sign us up for training in October, and Will will probably start again on some translating for the web site now.

We made it to Kherson! Praise the Lord! Please pray for us as we unpack (slowly) and settle in here. 

We're starting our homeschool year tomorrow. Please cover that with prayer. I'll have three students for the first time ever; you can pray especially for Asya as she starts her formal education.

Praise the Lord for the house He provided for us to live in. It is so incredibly wonderful. Please pray that we would be able to live well with the family in the other half of the house.

Thank you so much for all your prayers, and even more, thanks to God for answering!

Church camp last week was great! I really enjoyed it, and I know the children did, too. We pray that what they learned will grow in them, and that they'll come to Sunday school and other opportunities to carry on with the relationships that were started or nurtured last week.

Please pray for us and the church here, as we say goodbye and move away. Pray that we finish well, and that no one would be hurt by our departure.

Praise God with us for the home that we'll be renting in Kherson. Please continue to pray as we plan the details of moving.

Pray for our health. After the busy week of Will in Kherson and camp for the rest of us, we're not feeling great.

Will is in Kherson for a few days, looking at housing options. Please for for him to find a good place for us!

Church camp starts tomorrow. I will be teaching the preschoolers.

Camp was wonderful! Thank you so much for your prayers! It was also very challenging and exhausting, so we needed your support even more than usual. We came back sick, but we're starting to feel better now.

Next up here we have two different focuses: Will is working on finding a place for us to live in Kherson. He'll probably make a trip soon to look at different options. I (Phyllis) am getting ready for day camp with the church here. That will be August 5-9. I'll be leading the preschool group, and our own children will be taking part too, of course.

Also, one of our landlords showed this apartment to prospective buyers. Please pray that we'll be able to stay here until we're ready to move to Kherson. It's not likely that he could sell it, because the whole situation is such a mess, but please pray!

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.

Thank you again for your prayers about our Kherson trip! It really did go well. Even though there were many hard moments, there were many highlights, too. Please continue to pray for wisdom in future plans.

And then chicken pox... Our three younger children have it now, so it's kind of overtaking our life. Please pray for endurance and quick healing. I'll be very glad to have this behind us!

This first half of this trip to Kherson was quite hard and quite good. We could really tell that people are praying for us. We're staying for another week now. Please continue to pray!

Please pray for our family's health. Jaan is just recovering from chicken pox, and it would be so nice if no one else comes down with it before we get home! Will and I can't get chicken pox, but we're both quite tired, so please pray for our strength and health, too.

We're leaving tomorrow to travel to Kherson.

Also, I wanted to tell about an answer to prayer: it may be funny to pray about computer problems, but God definitely cares about what is worrying us, and there was one that was worrying me terribly. I updated software for the Ambleside Online forum that I administrate on Monday, and it wasn't working right after that. It seemed like an impossible mess to me, and I wasn't getting answers from the people who usually know how to solve those technical problems. On the second day that the problem continued, I asked people to pray, and I prayed a whole lot myself. And then I was able to find and fix the problem! Praise the Lord!

Our prayer requests this week are pretty much the same as last week.

You can also pray for Will, as the lovely spring seems to be making his allergies even worse than usual.

Thank you for praying!

We had a great Easter! At the last minute we also got to visit a village church with an Easter program for them, too.

After lots of last minute rushing around to pull it together, Will actually went to a training session put on in Khmelnitsky by Agape, the mission that he had been trying to get in touch with. Our whole family is also going to Kherson May 24-30 for a special program they're doing.

I am meeting with someone almost daily for counseling and even Bible study. This is the first time that she has ever been open to that! It is very draining emotionally, though.

We've been busy with music school end-of-year busyness. Please pray for Jaan and all of us and his teachers in the midst of it. Jaan still has one more recital, and then he'll pretty much be done for the year.

We're still stuck on getting through to people about meeting up. It's crazy how hard it can be to get in touch with people.

Easter is just two weeks away. Please pray for the preparations in our home and church.

Please continue to pray that Will can get in touch with the head of the ministry we would like for him to visit. Will caught him briefly between two international trips, but obviously this man is very busy and they have not been able to set anything up yet.