"All I want for Christmas. . ."

She's back!  We have our happy Asya again!  Her tooth finally broke through yesterday, but even before that she was obviously feeling much better.  Thank you, Lord!

Vasya is feeling better

Thank you for praying! Vasya is back on his feet. He says that his blood pressure is still causing him problems, but he feels much better. He was able to lead the church service again this Sunday.

Disaster recovery

Our neighbors have taken care of their plumbing disaster, and Will got everything cleaned up down here.  Now he's working on hermetically sealing off all the holes to the place where the pipes are, so that if anything like this ever happens again, it won't come through to us.  Thank you for praying!

Vasya

Please be praying for Vasya, the man who leads the church here. He is mysteriously sick and very tired. The church really needs him!

Plumbing disaster

We're having one of those good opportunities to get to know our neighbors today. We woke up to find what looked like our neighbors' toilet had exploded above us. It's not quite that, but it's a mess! The neighbors below us have been coming up to see what's happening, and Will had to go find the man who lives above us where he works. Pray that they can get this fixed soon!

By the way, had I mentioned that since I asked for prayer about water before, it's been on almost all day every day? Praise the Lord!

(I did just say how much I love having neighbors all around, didn't I? )

Tooth and toe again

The opposite tooth is coming through now, the injured toenail fell off, and she has a cold.  We are back to this:



Pray for our usual sweet, happy Asya to come back soon!

Doing better

Thank you so much for your prayers!  This toe injury was pretty traumatic for a few days, even though it was minor.  Asya is doing much better now. She's walking well again, and her tooth is through, too.

Tooth and toe

Asya has a tooth coming through, and it's just tormenting her. Then, yesterday morning she smashed one of her toes. She is not a happy baby right now! Actually, she's doing a little better today, but please pray for her. Neither problem is serious, but added together they're just making her miserable. Plus, it's sad to see such a little one limping around.

Water!

It's already back on! At least, for a few hours.

Funny: Will went in to pay our water bill this afternoon. They really were working without electricity! He couldn't pay, because it was too dark for them to figure out what we owe. They were only taking money from people who already knew how much they needed to pay.

Water

The water situation here has been annoying for a while. We've gotten used to the fact that it's turned off at night. That's no big deal. However, it's been off quite a bit during the days now, too.

Then yesterday it went off and didn't come back on for the evening hours like usual. And today there are notices up from the water people, saying something like "Please excuse us for the inconvenience of no water, but the electric company turned off our electricity, so we cannot provide water. If you owe any money on your water bill, please pay it right away." Please pray that it will come back on soon!

(Yes, Mom, we can buy drinking water, and we have quite a bit saved up too, because the water goes off so often.)

The outreach

Thank you for praying! Everything went smoothly. I haven't really heard many details yet, but I know your prayers were answered.

Youth outreach night

The youth here are hosting an outreach night on Saturday.  Youth from another city and a music group will also be participating.  Please pray especially for the preparations.  This is a first for the youth here. There has been a lot of disagreement about how things should go.  Pray for unity!  Please also pray for the people who will be coming and all the other details.

Julie's off!

Julie's visa did come in yesterday, and she got on a train back to Moscow. She should be getting in there pretty soon now. Thank you so much for all your prayers! I'm sure you can keep praying as she figures out how to be able to stay there for a year now and catches up with all the work waiting for her.

Julie's visa

We were expecting that Julie's visa would arrive in Zaporozhye tomorrow, but the UPS tracking site keeps saying that it's in Kiev, and its status is "Exception," and the only explanation is that an unforeseen event occurred. Please pray that whatever that is will be worked out soon! We love having Julie here, but her work in Moscow is piling up, and she does need to get back.

Computer

Sigh. Computers are nice when they work. And Macs are wonderful...in America.

Our computer died yesterday. Really, I am mostly praising God about this, though. Just the day before I had finally backed up all our pictures and documents, after a week of trying to do that. (Do you know how amazing that is?!?!?) And we have this older laptop, so we're still in touch.

Please pray that we'll figure out a way to get our main computer fixed, that it will have a safe trip to America and back, etc.

It's all here!

Thank you so much for all your prayers! We now have everything that we had left in Russia. I don't know that it was a cheap border crossing, but it was fast and without problems.

Now can we pray away the musty smell?

Anatolii

Anatolii (the driver we hired to bring our things from Russia) made it to Kovrov, and he's heading straight back. It's a more than 24 hour trip, but I guess he could be at customs sometime tomorrow. Please pray for an easy and cheap border crossing! (The Ukrainian side of the border is notoriously corrupt.)

Stuff

Anatolii (the driver we hired) has been sick, but he's well now. He might be able to go next weekend.

Please pray for a safe and uneventful trip for Anatolii and for us to be able to fit everything into this already crowded apartment when he gets back.

Thank you for praying!

Julie was able to get her test done, results translated and sent in, all in one day. Please pray that this last document catches up with others quickly, so that her visa application can be processed.

Julie

Please pray for our friend Julie tomorrow. She found out that she does have to have an HIV test for her Russian visa application. She's going to try to get that done in Zaporozhye tomorrow. Please pray specifically that she'll be able to get results the same day and send them off. Thank you!

And praise the Lord that we can spend time with Julie!