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!