living permit woes

There are 3 parts to our living permits. We rejoiced that the first was granted. Now the man in charge says he won't do the 2nd part. If he does not do the 2nd or 3rd parts, we have to leave.

This office continues to make up the rules as they go and ask for off the wall information from us.

Would you please pray that these permits are finished THIS WEEK? We need a miracle. What this process does is take our mental energy and exhaust us. It leaves us with depleted energy for the task we need to do and pulls from us for what we need to do.

We love this country. We hate these processes and we hate the corruption that has caused it.

So as you pray for these permits for us today, pray not just for us and the immediate. Pray also for those that are to come needing this. Not just those with AGWM, but all personnel here. Pray that the process is simplified and can be done quickly.

But pray fervently that we can get the permits and be done with it.

Thanks.

Lord of the Harvest

This week I've been feeling overwhelmed, largely because we need some workers. I need a director for the Home of Hope. Andy needs office personnel. We need someone that can work in our home and stay with our children when they are done with school in the day.

The woman I had asked to be director of Home of Hope turned me down. I'm okay with that. I still think she'd be great, but she doesn't feel like it can be in her life at this time. But it leaves me wondering who can be the Moldavian director for this home with a passion for the lost, a passion for hurting women and a passion for victims of trafficking.

Andy needs someone that can work with teams in translating, organize things, translating materials and do work in the office.

We need someone in our home that it is not just about the money they make, but it is about being with our family and helping the children. (This also helps the children with language and culture).

We need people that don't just see all of these as jobs, but as places of ministry in their lives. The verse that continually comes to my mind is "pray ye the Lord of the Harvest that He would send laborers into the field".

Many other issues surround this but I know that we just need God to make the way and call the right people to work with us and get these great ministries off the ground.

Thanks again for your prayers. I'm always blessed and amazed when friends write and say, "I read your blog. I'm praying for you in such and such an area." Thanks for blessing me and the work here in this way.

The Power to Pray Part 2

I just wrote asking for prayer for our living permits. Our lawyer stated that the only power we had was to pray. And what a mighty power that is! He just called saying the first (and most difficult) of the permits was granted this morning. Yesterday throughout the entire day of working on this he was told we would NOT be given the permits.

Praise God who does all things well.

The Power to Pray

Once again I come to you with this urgent prayer for our living permits. All of our papers are in the hands of the man who grants or denies our living permits. He is the gatekeeper of Moldova! He has the power to give or deny our right to stay in Moldova.
He says there is a quota, but this is not true and he uses this excuse at the end of the year to deny the permits.

Will you please keep us in prayer in the next days that the permits are granted and we are able to stay? If they are denied we must leave the country for 3 months. This isn't the worst thing in the world except that everything we are doing would stop. The greatest things this means to us is that the House of Hope could not be open in January and that would be terrible.

So please pray for this urgent situation. Our lawyer who has worked this process through for us has said many times, "the only thing we have the power to do is pray." We know that this is a great power.

Thanks.

More than one way

There is an old saying, "there is more than one way to skin a cat". Our garbage still has not been taken away, but some kind neighbor decided to light our stinking garbage on fire today! It definitely dropped the pile of garbage down. Andy and I were gone looking at the HoH project and Elissa called saying, "Our garbage is on fire!" So she and our friend, Natasha, took the hose and put the fire out. The fire did drop the garbage down by quite a bit and it doesn't seem to stink so badly now as we continue to wait for garbage pick up.

On another note, I talked this week with another lady about working at the HoH. I am just so amazed by God because I really didn't know if Tanya would want to work in this but I knew that she has a heart for women and I knew that God put her on my heart to talk to about this. So she is totally with us and is going to live in the home with the women. We have 2 women now who will be full time staff living at the home. It is so awesome the way God is bringing this together.

Another answered prayer is that Natalie is sleeping really well now all through the night every night since I blogged and asked for prayer. God is so good.

Thanks for all your prayers for Moldova.

Garbage Stinks

Have you ever realized how badly garbage can smell outside your home if it is not picked up for 4 weeks and in those weeks you have 100 degree weather? We have a new realization of this.

I don't understand how things work here, but I do know we are supposed to have garbage pick up every 2 weeks. I think it has been about 4 weeks now since it has been picked up. The guy who is the head of garbage pick up in our area just doesn't do his job and for whatever reason, the mayor cannot get rid of him. We have tried to call and say, "when will garbage be taken?" The mayor says we can write a letter of complaint. Oh great. We'd really just like the stinking garbage gone from in front of our house.

Would you pray with us that the garbage issue in our area would be resolved? It is not just in our home, but our entire community.

Missions creates an interesting life. We never know what will next happen and what is not going to go right. Right now I'm glad for battery back up because the power just went out in our house! But we do know that God is here and He is leading us and guiding us and that makes for a very exciting life. He is doing great things in the country of Moldova.

Blessings on your day.

Two Requests

Today I ask you to pray for 2 very different things.

The first is for Natalie. She is our non-sleeper, but she, like everyone else in the world, needs sleep! The last few nights she has awakened at 3 or 4 in the morning and can't go back to sleep. She is afraid (she doesn't know of what) and she can't go back to sleep. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would send Natalie her sleep and rest. Pray that the peace of God would cover her all night and that she'd be able to get the sleep she needs.

The next prayer request I have for you today is for the director for the Home of Hope in Moldova. There is a wonderful woman that God has put on my heart for this ministry. She would be an incredible director. When Andy was here in March, he talked to her about this and she has been praying about it. Today I went and talked more with her about this and she has been praying, but doesn't know what God is saying. In the end she told me that really, she is very afraid. (As I was in entering into this!) Will you pray for Floarea that God would continue to lead her and that she would not give in to the fear? I want her to know that God is calling her, and not just me! But we also need to have someone that has the abilities to do the job and I do think that she can do this job well.

Have a great day. Enjoy the beautiful weather of September.

Florida Trip