Prayer and Praise

•  I will be teaching a women's Bible study in Rzhivsh (a village a few hours outside of Kyiv) @ 10:00 am West Coast US time today. PLEASE PRAY that it would be God's WORD through my words that the women would hear. PLEASE PRAY that God would help me to only say those things that He wants said and that He would be glorified in the process.

A PRAISE REPORT already for this study is that there will be an interpretor (when we thought there wouldn't be one). AND that I didn't spend time preparing to do it myself in Russian and  therefore God was able to use the time better! (As He always does if we let Him!) See today's posting on The View From Here for the rest of the story on this one! :)

• WOW! Praise God and thank all of you who prayed for us for our conference!

The Baptists wives' conference was a HUGE blessing and success! They were REALLY happy about the variety of books and materials we brought (and it was obvious because they bought a ton!). :) Many were from towns or even villages  far from from Kyiv, and have little or no access to such resources. Most were pastors wives, so we know these things will more than likely be blessing more than just their homes, but whole congregations!

I was happy (and had to smile!) when I saw so many of the women get a book, step aside, get out their cell phone and call their husbands. (**cell phones are a lot cheaper here and everyone has them, especially because in some villages lots of homes don't have regular phone lines. Just a cultural note.) They would then start describing the book; author, publisher, content, etc. The call would end and they would smile and buy the book. :) We work hard to choose materials for each conference that will bless, encourage and support the ministry of whomever is at that particular conference. I guess we are doing ok! ha! :)

We were also really personally blessed because of the sweet fellowship at meals and in-between sessions getting to know these ladies that are completely out of our usual circle. Some really good contacts were made for future conferences, etc. that Tree of Life will be putting on in March. (More about that in blogs to come!)  :)

 Finally, I was really proud of my staff!! They worked well and everything came off orderly, beautifully, successfully! (See a previous Tree of Life blog to fully appreciate what a blessing this was!) :)  It was the most successful conference we've done, and yet we all agreed together on things we can still do better. Hopefully soon we'll have some pictures here to show you what it looked like. :)

• Continue to PLEASE PRAY about the conferences that we do. After this one we all realized that there is a huge need to serve through conferences. And as we get our van (another on-going prayer request) it will be even easier to do this.
• PLEASE PRAY that God would continue to provide the rest of the money for the van and that the paperwork would get finished without problems and in HIS timing! MY request is that it would be SOON! :) But I realize that "the way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans" :) , so-o-o-o...just that it would be in His timing with complications for those involved in the paperwork process.

A Close Call:Some people asked me (somewhat skeptically, I felt) about the girl that we were afraid had been a victim of trafficking. I spoke with some acquaintances that work with an NGO battling trafficking in Ukraine and they said that her story was a true miracle. These are not folks that claim to be religious, nor were they using those words lightly. They said they are afraid what this girl probably had to do to be released and undoubtedly, (as they have seen before), it is due to the shame associated with these situations that she won't be saying anything to anybody about what really happened and will be putting on a face that all was fine.

PLEASE PRAY that God would protect this girl, (if indeed these folks are right in their assumptions) and that God would already be healing her from this situation. I hope to be in her city soon and am praying that if this is something the Lord wants, there would be an opportunity to speak to this girl. We don't know each other, I am a foreigner, and I don't live in her city, so the NGO workers think I would be a very likely person for her to feel safe to talk to. And if I had a "kopek" for everytime someone started a conversation with me saying ..."You're the first person I've ever told this to..." So PLEASE PRAY that if God wants to use me in this way that He would open the door and that I would have wisdom and His words, not my own.

"A Van in the Hand is Worth Two in Budapesht"...sorry, bad pun, but I couldn't resist. And yes, with the Russian pronounciation it is Buda-peSHt. ANYWAY...through the generousity of an anonymous friend we (Tree of Life) have purchased a van! Someone gave a large donation to where it was enough that the owners were willing to sell it to us and let us make payments to pay it off. We still owe approximately 2 thousand USD. They are missionaries returning to Canada and so they understand the way it is with finances (sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't!). So they are very flexible with when we pay it off. But PLEASE PRAY that we would be able to pay it off soon. It will be better for everyone.

Right now the van is still in Hungary and I hope for the documents to be finished soon so that I can go get it. PLEASE PRAY that this would all be resolved soon and that the drive back from Hungary would be uneventful! :)

In some ways I never wanted a car here. It just means extra expense and extra headaches. But we so often have to rent cars to haul books, etc. that when this one came available it just seemed a natural idea. So PLEASE PRAY for my safety as I drive in Kiev (think: people driving on the sidewalk to go around traffic jams...seriously!), parked on the street at night, etc. God has blessed us with this van, so He will keep it safe.

"Esho" Conferences!... "Esho" is "and still more" in Russian (of course spelled differently). We have another conference this weekend where we have been invited to do the book store. PLEASE PRAY for energy and strength, these conferences are really tiring. PLEASE PRAY also that we would be able to serve the group of Baptists Ukrainian seminary wives that we will be serving there that they would find encouragement in their relationships with the Lord through the books and materials that we will have on hand. This is a big privilege and I'm thrilled that Tree of Life is able to continue to serve a wider and wider spectrum of the Body of Christ beyond just the churches that are in our circle.