Prayer and Praise

Hi All...

It's really late so this will be brief (lucky for all of you! ha!)... but seriously I desire your prayers for these needs here...

• A young girl from one of our churches is possibly the victim of trafficking. (All the details are in the previous post here). PLEASE PRAY that God would protect her and she would make some contact with her family here so we might know she is ok.
• My neighbor Pasha recently died of cancer. He went very fast and it is, understandably, devastating for his wife, Luda. I didn't know them very well but God graciously provided that I could sit and eat with them at the "wake". (More on this in an upcoming blog on The View From Here site). PLEASE PRAY that God would really comfort Luda and her family and provide for them now that an income is lost. PLEASE PRAY also that "what satan meant for bad, God would use for good" and there would be  an open door for further contact and communication between Luda and I. They are good people, and I would love for her to know the comfort that God offers.
• I have an opportunity to buy a much needed van. (See more details about this in my previous post here). It is a great offer and we could really use it. PLEASE PRAY. Because unless God provides the money there is no way we can get it. This is not a manipulative hint wrapped in spiritual words. I fully hope that if God puts the joyful desire (and ability!) on someone's heart who reads this to help us buy this van - great! We (Tree of Life)want to simply get the word out about our situation. But if no one has the ability, or the desire - that's cool! :) God knows and never witholds any good gift from us when it is His time to give. So...there ya go. :)
• Continued prayer for strength, health and wisdom. My new staff is awesome. Really helping me strengthen the foundation of Tree of Life and cleaning up a lot of organizational things, etc. So this is all good...BUT...it's a lot of work, too! PLEASE PRAY that I have wisdom to keep saying "NO" to all the peripheral distractions that are all very worthy, but not what God has called me to for this season.

Love you all! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! More soon....

THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

I know I haven't got the word out to many of you about this spot, but for those of you that saw the prayer requests from last week and prayed with us...THANK YOU, and THANK YOU, LORD! :) Lots of good reports...I'll use the old "Praise Report/ Prayer Request" method my good OLD youth pastor taught us when I was in High School...(I've responded to all the requests from the week before, so check those out if you want more info)...

PRAISE REPORTS

• As you can see, I'm working on the ol' blog spot, so far so good!
• Just a few days after this request for Zhenia's salary was posted, a friend said that her family wanted to start donating on a regular basis...and she hadn't even seen this blog site prayer request! Praise God! He truly does know our needs before we even think or ask! For me, it's not even important how much that gift will be, it's more that it is just the encouragement I needed that God knows our needs and WILL supply them always! Zhenia was really encouraged and saw it as further confirmation that she is in the right place. :)
• The conference was great! More on this in the Tree of Life link (look on the left hand sidebar on The View From Here page). I woke up the first day with a migraine, but God healed it quicker than usual and by lunch I was able to be back at the books (literally, ha!).
• My young helper had a good time and met up with another young gal (Ukrainian) who had recently translated for my friend's father not long ago in another part of Ukraine. What a small world! They were both the only "visitors" at this church conference and it was neat to see God's hand in bringing them both someone to hang out with (since everyone else already knew each other). God cares for each small detail in our lives, huh? :)

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Still pray about the van possibility. I will meet with the owners tomorrow to hear all the ins and outs. The owners are friends, missionaries who attended our church, and I trust them completely. They are moving back to Canada. The price is very good ($3,500.) and would be a huge blessing for us, what with hauling books all over the place, etc. BUT having a car in the city is a big step...so please pray for wisdom and for God's provision if this is of Him. I will (don't worry!) be having a friend who is very "car-savvy" check it out before I make any decision.
• There is a young Ukrainian girl who, sadly, was convinced to take a "street - promoter job" (that's what it was called) in the United Arab Emirates. She doesn't speak Arabic or English and they picked her up in a car in the middle of the night. :( They didn't show her any paperwork (what kind of visa - if any - that she has, etc.). You can see what our fear is. :( She couldn't be convinced before she left that this was probably one of the many scams in Ukraine used to traffic girls into prostitution, etc. I have contacts in an anti-trafficking NGO and we will try to see if anything can be done now, but it is unlikely. PLEASE PRAY that God would protect Anya and bring her back safely. She was supposed to only be gone two weeks. It has only been 4 days now.
• As always, I need your prayers for strength, grace, wisdom....there is always so much to do and only so much I can. Also for physical protection as winter comes on us and the flu season with it and for the fact that there have been a lot of break-ins in my area, specifically foreign citizen occupied apartments. Thankfully they look for "European" remodeled windows to show that the occupants have money and I have neither, ha! :)

Hi Everyone...

I am going to try and do this on a weekly basis. I realize not everyone will be able to check it all the time, but whenever you can, I thank you for your prayer and support. :) This will be both Tree of Life prayer requests and personal ones as one definitely affects the other! I will be adding a Tree of Life blog link, too, for more updates on specific book projects, etc....which leads right into prayer requests! :)

PRAYER REQUESTS: Oct.5, 2005

• Pray that God would help me with this blog spot, newsletters and other forms of communication...this is really a goal of mine, to better communicate with all of you.
• I have a new employee...(I had one employee get married and leave). Zhenia has agreed to work with me for a wage MUCH lower than her previous wage because she feels God has called her to help me...and I agree! She is a bright professional woman who has all the strengths I don't (bookkeeping background, etc.), and loves Jesus, too! But even with her willingness to accept a lower wage, the wage that I feel like I am to pay her is a bit of a stretch. Please pray for provision for her salary. God has ALWAYS provided enough to pay everyone and I know He will continue to, but I would appreciate your prayers on this.
• We are doing a mini-bookfaire for one of our churches in southern Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk). Please pray for all the preparations. Conferences are always fun but a lot of work. And I am training new employees.
• A young friend (daughter of missionaries with a different mission) will be coming with us on this trip to help out. Please pray that God would bless her and her time at this conference.
• We (Tree of Life) have an opportunity to buy a van. This would be a HUGE blessing, as we are always hiring taxis to haul books here and there. It is from another missionary and is a good deal.Pray that all this would fall into place as God wants it.