Prayer Letter

Church & Bible Lessons

In our last letter we mentioned that an elderly neighbor of ours, Baba Nora, was interested in doing Bible lessons. We keep in contact with her on a regular basis and she has been recently making comments like "You have your religion and I have mine. And I will die in mine." She is still very friendly with us and our prayer is that she will still allow us to do Bible lessons with her.

We had also mentioned a couple named Ina and Valodia. Although they have not been to church since our last letter or expressed a desire to meet with us, Ina's oldest daughter, Alina, has recently started attending services. Alina is living with her great-grandmother and we are praying that she will continue to let Alina come to services and maybe even start Bible lessons.

Recently I received a call from Ruselan, Tamara's son. He will be getting out of prison this upcoming year and is now in a place where he can receive visitors. He asked that we visit him. We will probably be meeting with him this upcoming week.

Since the death of his wife, Vladamir has rarely been in church. We believe that he is starting to lose his memory and sometimes forgets what day it is. We wish we could do more to help him, but he doesn't like to accept help. He did allow me to help him take some trash and metal to a recycling center. We praise the Lord that He used us to lead him to salvation before he started losing his memory.

The church is doing better. We finally had to church discipline Boris and Ala. They have threatened now to stir up problems for us, not only with the people in our church but have also threatened to go to religious affairs (where we get our visa permissions) and place a complaint against us. We do not think that they will be able to cause problems for us, but still ask that you will pray. Especially for Valentina because Ala brought her to churc hand they continue to keep in contact.

Sammy's Papers & Registration

We now have Sammy's papers finalized. We are always amazed with the order and promptness at the American Embassy. Everything was easily taken care of.

The laws here are constantly changing and usually it is more of a hassle, but this time it was actually to our benefit. When we went in to get our registration this month, we were told that it was no longer necessary. All we need now is our visa and the stamp when we cross the border. This will save us a lot of time and work. The laws here change very quickly though so we may have to get registered again some day, but for now we are enjoying a little less paperwork.

Family & Health

We have some HUGE praises in this area. Not only is Jessica's asthma doing much better, but for the past two months our family has dealt with severe stomach problems which was due to a parasite called Giardia. It was so severe that it forced us to cancel 4 services the past month. It looks like we have finally been able to get rid of it, but we ask that you continue to pray that it does not come back.

Lydia just celebrated her 2nd birthday and really enjoyed all of the cards sent in.

We greatly appreciate your prayers. Thank you!