Catching Up

Falyn with the AGM youth (she's 4th from the right on the bottom row)

Daegan at AGM with a Twinkie!

Tristyn with some buddies at AGM

Our White Easter

Our chubby-cheeked girl as a toddler

Our beautiful teenager!

We have talked for quite some time now of updating our blog, but it has just been so hard to find the time. Then Doyle looked at it one night and said the last post began with "Winter is Here" with a picture of our Christmas tree. We got a good laugh and decided we HAD to update. So this may be a lengthy post with a lot of catching up to do.

First of all, a few quick PRAISES:

• Falyn's dental work is going well. They will check x-rays again in May to see how the wisdom teeth are doing and decide when to extract them. She is still wearing her head gear at night and doing well with that, and she will likely get her top braces on in June.
• I mentioned before the Golovinsky Church that our team helped start. They are now expanding with 3 new home groups. One lady, Natasha, at one of the new home groups recently repented in spite of her husband telling her he would beat her if she did. He has not caused her any problems and is coming to the group and asking questions himself. Please pray for this man, Igor, to also come to repentance.
• Grocery shopping has been better. We have decided to go periodically to Ashan (a huge grocery store, similar in some ways to WalMart, but SUPER crowded and busy) and stock up on basic things and just use a taxi to transport it all home. It has helped cut down on the number of local trips and the load of those local trips to the nearby stores.

Now to sum up the past few months...

The mother church that our team works through is called, in English, Good News Church. In March they had their annual mission service. The whole service is focused on missions and encouraging their congregation to reach out and help spread the Gospel. The two church plants, Golovinsky and Timi groups, were recognized and shared a little of their progress. They also recognized the American missionaries during the service as well. There were several people who responded with offers of helping with new groups, prayer groups, and possibly opening their apartments for studies. Having a place to meet has been a huge obstacle for home groups here. Please pray for more people to open their homes and be willing to invite unbelievers that they know to attend.

At the beginning of April, we were blessed once again to attend our region's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Poland. Though it was a little cooler than the summer trip last year, the scenery was still much more natural and beautiful than the big city of Moscow. I cannot with words reveal to you how moving it is to meet everyday for a week in a conference room with other English-speaking believers and worship the Father in English once again together. It was so moving and so refreshing. Scott Patty from Grace Community Church in Nashville (yes, that's the same name as our home church in Magnolia, Texas) was once again incredible at leading us through God's Word, this time through Colossians, as we studied the meaning of being rooted in Christ. Every year at AGM we have a Lottie Moon auction with items brought over from the States by volunteers. It is amazing to see what some people will pay for a Dr. Pepper (I'm not saying who!). The auction this year for our half of the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region brought in $38,000! Praise God! The kids all had a wonderful time at AGM. The boys were able to participate in VBS there with volunteers and had a wonderful experience. At the end of the week each year, the kids put on a musical. I don't know how that music teacher, Miss Cindy, pulls it off in one week, but it is incredible. To some of your surprise, Daegan has become a bit of ham lately (can't imagine where that comes from). During one song of the program, he broke loose in quite a dance. Let's just say he was grooving! He loved the laughter it produced. Tristyn made a few new friends there also. They especially enjoyed time at the indoor waterpark. Falyn was able to be part of the youth this year. We were skeptical a little of the separation from us, but we had full confidence in the leaders. Bruce and Connie Northam have volunteered as youth leaders at AGM for many years, and Doyle and his family have grown up knowing the Northams (also from Houston) from singing. We had also heard incredible things about the other leaders, Kenny and Teri Pope, from Georgia. As it turned out, Falyn's room was just down the hall from ours, and we made contact often. She had a great time and really enjoyed her worship time as well. They all also enjoyed some American snacks brought in by the volunteers.

Have you ever heard of a White Easter? Well, all of our snow had been gone for quite some time, and everyone had been saying spring was here. But when we returned from Poland, it snowed that night and covered everything white once more. It quickly melted off, and we still get some flurries from time to time, but winter's gone. We are running temperatures in the 40's now. We celebrated Easter with the Timi group who met for corporate worship that day. It was a small group, but it was special nonetheless.

We have been struck by quite a few illnesses over the past few months, but God has sustained us. Falyn has struggled for quite some time with strep throat. They are documenting her cases now to keep track of the frequency. So far, they have documented 5 cases since last August. We are due to go back to follow up with her regular doctor in another week and see what she thinks about the frequency. We don't necessarily want her tonsils out, but we also don't want her to be on antibiotics half the year. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and for us as we make decisions about her health.

Falyn was recently surprised to receive a very special gift in the mail. When we lived in the States, Falyn was part of a group called Keepers of the Faith. This was a group of homeschool girls and their moms who met together. Each of the girls in the group created a quilted square with a Bible verse for Falyn, and then they quilted it all together to create a beautiful quilt that Falyn will always cherish. It was so special for her to see her friends supporting her commitment to mission service and letting her know that they haven't forgotten her. Thank you to all of you precious girls and Godly mothers that helped create this, and thank you, Susan, for heading up that incredible group!

Last week, Falyn had her 13th birthday party. She turned 13 years old on April 26th. I can't believe I have a teenager! Where did my little chubby faced, chubby thighed little girl go? Falyn decided to combine her party with her friend, Nadia from Australia. They planned a "Spa Nite" theme. They did manicures in one room, hair and make-up in another, facials in the bathroom, and dressed up in another. They really had a lot of fun! It was an overall success, with the exception of the small fire that started when some sponge rollers were set next the candle on Falyn's desk. The fire was put out, and the party continued. No matter how old they get, I am still exhausted when it's all over!

My parents are coming! Yes, in August my parents are planning to come visit for a few weeks. We are all so excited! They have completed their paperwork now. Please pray that it all gets processed smoothly with no problems. It is so hard to believe that it has been almost a year and a half since we have seen any of our friends or family. (Feel free to start planning your own trip over here anytime!) We miss you all so much!

We are still awaiting the arrival of Dan and Peyton, our two journeymen that are joining our team. They have had some delays in paperwork (as usual), so we hope to see them sometime in May. They will be concentrating on student ministries with our team. Please pray for their safe travel and smooth departures.

Also, the Stamey family is making preparations to return home for a year of stateside time. They will be leaving us in June. Please pray for their preparations as well.

We will also be working with a few volunteer teams coming this summer. In May, we will have the summer students from New Mexico again (the Focus team) here. This summer we will only have 4 guys, but we are excited to have them. We plan on playing baseball one night a week in the park with the Russians. Another group is coming from New Orleans from the seminary in June for a week. We will be doing some Bible invitation distribution, some prayer walking, and probably some evangelical dinners with unbelievers with them. And in July, we will have Reach Moscow With Prayer once again. We will be working with part of that group doing some distribution and prayerwalking as well. Please be praying for each of these ministry opportunities and for those volunteering their time, money, and energy to come labor with us.

Please continue to pray for our language studies. We are pressing on. Just to give you an example of how difficult this language is, I think there are something like 23 or so ways to say "go." Yes, in English, it is simply go (with a just a few variations). But in Russian, it changes depending on if you are coming, going, you go like this often, everyday, never, or just once, you stopped along the way while you were going, if you are male, female, more than one person, etc., whether you are going up to a place, into a place, through a place, by a place, across a place, etc. Get the point? We need prayer! Doyle has recently expressed a huge frustration that even though he can speak and manage in public and have a somewhat normal conversation, he can't share Christ in words just yet. That kind of language is so much deeper than our knowledge base right now. He has such a passion for evangelism, and it has been so long since he has been able to share that passion with an unbeliever. Please pray for divine intervention and wisdom if God presents a situation. We know that it is not our words or our ability that brings someone to Christ, but we want to walk in obedience (as our blog title suggests). We know that God can use our inability to bring about what He wants. Please pray that He will increase our understanding of this incredibly difficult language in a supernatural way, so that we can begin further work and ministry here.

Please also pray that despite all the distractions we encounter, that we will all (including our kids) spend time with Him in His Word daily. If anyone has any suggestions for independent daily devotions for kids and teens, please let me know. I am searching for some new material to help guide them during their quiet times.

Please also continue praying for our new apartment and move. We have submitted a general region that we have requested to move to, and we are just waiting for our contact person to find something. We pray that God will provide neighbors with children so that our children can make Russian friends and increase their language, and we pray for neighbors that we can share with. We pray for an area that is appealing for the kids, with a park or playground nearby, and for convenience to grocery shopping areas. We pray that He gives us an owner that is easy to work with, as we have had here.

Please pray for the kids as they finish up their last few weeks of school. We are so looking forward to homeschooling next year. We feel very blessed that while we were not able to homeschool, the kids did have a Christian school to attend with incredible teachers! Praise God for those teachers who devote their time in service by coming here to teach our MKs. The kids have projects and tests all coming upon us. Please pray that these last few weeks would not get stressful, but they can enjoy their final times there. Also, pray for the goodbyes that they will once again have to say to friends returning home either for short term or permanently. Our lives now are a time of constantly saying goodbye, and it is especially hard for the kids. Please pray that God will bring a special close friend into Falyn's life that can be a steady close friend for her.

As you may or may not know, the Central and Eastern Europe region (which we are in) has been given extra focus by the IMB for the year 2007. We have a website for the CEE region specifically which is www.hope4cee.org. We also have a new website specifically for Russia which is www.hope4russia.org. Please take time to see what work is going on here and what work is still needed to be done and how you may be able to better pray for the people of the CEE region. Also, in our Russia Field, we are focusing on a revolving 90 days of prayer, in which each day is focused on a specific region and unreached people group. Our team has committed to beginning this 90 days of prayer on May 1st. If you would like to join us in this committment, feel free to comment or email to let us know you are participating and praying with us during these 90 days. You may go to the hope4russia site and click on the link for 90 Days of Prayer to see the information for each people group and which day to pray for them. There are other links with some media clips there as well.

Thank you all once again for faithfully praying for our family and ministry. Please stay in touch with us as well. We love receiving updates and pictures of your families as well! Please share with us your prayer needs also. We thank you all for partnering with us in Russia! Please check back with us soon. We hope to be much better at more frequent posts now (and shorter ones!).