Pavel and Tanya

Our pastor here and his family are in the middle of their month-long trip to visit their friends and relatives in Ukraine and southern Russia. Please pray for a safe and profitable trip for them.

Also, Pasha needs to decide if he's going to apply for Russian citizenship or renew his five-year "green card" here. There are some other document questions complicating that, too, so please pray for wisdom and for the document processes to go smoothly.

Sleep update

Thank you for praying. I continue to have good and bad nights, but it seems like the good are outnumbering the bad. Don't stop praying!

Waiting on the invitation

My application for an invitation didn't go in at the time we had thought it would, and now we're being advised to wait. We would really rather get this settled, but we're going to wait a little while, to give more time in between the refusal and another application. Please keep praying that when we do apply, I'll be granted an invitation!

Sleep

I've been enjoying several weeks of feeling great, but now that it's getting hot again, I'm struggling more. I've had a few sleepless nights, and I really don't do well with that. Please pray for me to sleep well every night!

Applying again

Apparently we were told wrong that I can't reapply for a visa invitation. The Baptist Union doesn't want our consultant to get involved or any appeals to be made, so we're just going to try applying again. Will went back to Moscow on Thursday to give them the right documents, and they'll probably be turned in today. Pray that this time I'll get an invitation! It should be about a month before we know anything.

"Friends" in high places

Please pray for the officials who are interested in us and what we are doing here. Pray that they would be able to understand what we do here and that God would calm their suspicions.

Weather

Maybe this is frivolous, but please pray for a cooler summer in central Russia this year. We've already had some very hot weather, and it was hard for me to put up with it. Now we're enjoying cooler days again. Pray that the weather will stay more like this.

Moved!

We're moved onto the first floor! Thank you for praying. Now please pray that we'd be able to sort through everything and get settled. For the first part of last week, Will moved things down very slowly and deliberately, finding places for them and putting them away as he went. Then we ran out of time, and our friends came to help. In one afternoon, everything that was left came down the stairs. Now it's just lying around in heaps, though. We're working on figuring out what's what and where to put it.

I really like the apartment, and I had forgetting how nice it is to live on the ground floor. Thank you, Lord!

General update

PTL! We have electricity at the dacha!

Also, we're moving to the first floor here in our building. That has taken priority over the dacha right now. Will has slowly been moving things yesterday and today. On Thursday we'll ask friends to come help with the big stuff.

Tomorrow Will needs to go to Moscow to pick up the letter about our visas and meet with someone about Gospelink business. Friday he has a meeting in Ivanovo, but he may end up staying here to finish moving instead. Please pray for travel safety.

On Sunday Ira, Yulia and Will invited the children from the Bible lessons to come to an end of the year party. We can't go to them, but they can come to us. Three girls showed up.

Please continue to pray for our landlord's family situation. Instead of moving in here with his daughter, he's found someone else to live here with her.

And please keep praying for me to get a new visa!

Did I forget anything?

Electricity soon

Please keep praying about our dacha. The electricity is turned on for the area, but ours doesn't work. It was just rewired, but now we have to wait for Dedushka Genna to have time to come back and see what's wrong. Please pray that he'll be able to do it soon. The heat here on the fifth floor is already getting to me, and I want to be out of here!

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.