A Note of Praise

For all that I am exhausted so much, which actually yesterday seemed a little better... But for all that I have been exhausted so much these last few weeks, in the last week or so my headaches have gone down tremendously! This is a huge praise. Even a brief respite from them is wonderful.

Just a Prayer Request

I have to confess that I have been feeling rather under the weather this month. Actually that is not entirely true. In general my headaches seem to be less and I am not having a lot of pain, but I am exhausted out of my mind. There is no cause for it that I can find (except the usual allergies and chemical sensitivities and the cold perhaps takes a toll on my body too).
It is frustrating not to be able to do anything about it! I am taking supplements of a variety of sorts and try to keep my caffeine intake down, although it doesn't make a huge difference. and in general am being careful as usual, but I am just exhausted. All I want to do is lay down! :(
It is both frustrating and boring to me. I don't mind being sick when I can be sick by myself, but when it begins to interact with other people's lives and affect them I do NOT like it at all.
So pray for patience and grace. That I will have a good attitude. I am well aware that God is in control and that He is still faithfully providing me the strength for the work I have on a daily basis. So it is a praise to. And PTL that the office is running pretty smoothly now without a lot of watching over from me.
Thanks for praying.

Braces

Just a quick close-up of my braces for those of you who are curious. :P

Robbery on the King's Highway

No. I was not robbed.
This morning I was walking down the stair of my building to go to work and I noticed that there were a bunch of receipts and a few coins laying around by the post boxes and the garbage chute. I figured they were just from someone who hadn't managed to get it all in the chute and was too lazy to clean up their mess, so I kept going. Halfway down the next flight of steps, however, I found three debit/credit cards as well as another discount card.
I wasn't sure what to do with them. From the mess I was fairly certain someone had been robbed and the thieves had dumped out the wallet there, but then maybe it was just someone's garbage... I decided to bring them into the office and ask Kos' (our translator, in-office consultant and a good friend of mine) what to do. He managed to find their phone number online (I didn't even know they had white pages here yet) and contacted the lady whose name was on the card. She had indeed been robbed and was disappointed that I had only found the cards. Kos' met up with her and her husband to return the cards and they explained that she is from my neighborhood, but was robbed in her own building. Apparently she escaped without harm and someone else found her passport (government issued ID, required for every Ukrainian, without which you don't exist) and returned it to her.
So, it was an interesting morning. I'm guessing the thief(ves) dumped out her purse or wallet in my building. This is unusual because I live in a building with a secured entry... So there is the tiniest possibility that the thieves were from my building, but more likely someone had left the door open and they just popped in to check things out.
Anyway, this is a concern for prayer for me. I'm not worried about it. I've been robbed before, but it would be a bummer to be robbed again. And it would be nice not to really have to think about it.
And praise God that I did pick those cards up and we were able to return them!

Course Work

Today I actually started working on the Course Guide for New Testament Survey 2 again! I'm so excited! I've been trying to get to it for a month and other things just keep coming up and I am beginning to run out of time. Our translator is already translating New Testament Survey 2 and as soon as he is done with that, I need to send him the guide so that he can get that underway and ready for editing here. My goal is to have it done by the middle of February so that I can send it off and we can get it back by the beginning of March. Lord willing. (that's kind of like crossing my fingers :) That particular translator can be slower than molasses, but he has very good quality).
Normally the course guide would not be such a big issue. If I was working on it in ideal conditions I would finish it in a week or two. However, since I have about 12 other people that I need to keep tabs on and make sure they have work and train into new positions and what not all, besides my daily correspondence and other daily responsibilities and the urgent projects that I get from Abraham or Diane ... well ideal conditions are few and far between. :) Hence my excitment at being able to work on it today.
So now that I have completely distracted myself to share that with you, back to work!

Secretary Update

So the latest and greatest on the secretary situation:
Last Friday we hired a girl for the position, but after being in the office for a half day on Monday she quit. Which I am glad she quit then and not two weeks later. So this week I have been again looking for people for that position. I have two candidates right now. One we interviewed this morning and one I will interview tomorrow. My dilemma is this: they are both good women and both are looking for jobs, and both are qualified. The one is definitely overqualified and the other I am not quite sure.
Lena is around 30 and has a teaching in English degree and is also able to teach Slovak. She has worked as a teacher for a number of years. Her English is obviously fairly good and I am guessing that her Russian is at a decent level too, she says she can write and speak in Russian, but doesn't have a diploma in it.
Ulia is in her early twenties has finished university (but I can't remember her major at the moment) and has been working in an art gallery. Her English is also at a decent level, although not as good as Lena's, but I believe sufficient for the work that we are looking at. I don't know what her Russian level is though.

Anyway, I need to make a decision asap so that they know and so that we can get things organized in the office. That means, I have to decide tomorrow because I have to go to Kyiv on Friday to get my braces tightened on the top and put on on the bottom.

My head tells me to hire Lena as she is the more qualified of the two, but my heart tells me to hire Ulia (Julia) and I am not sure what to listen to. I would actually like to hire them both, Ulia as the secretary and Lena as a part time editor/proofreader, but I don't know if that would work for her or if she has those capabilities. But again, that is what my heart is telling me. And at the same time I don't know if we have enough work for her.

So ... please pray for wisdom and clarity for me. I have people to consult and advise me, but the end decision is mine to make. I'm not actually worried that one of them won't work for the job, just if we can't make better use of Lena than just as a secretary.

Christmas Pics

Long promised and finally arrived. :) Unfortunately I realized that I don't actually have any pics of myself from Christmas (well, okay, none that I am willing to display to the general public), but I have braces now anyway, so I'll try to get a new pic soon so ya'll can see. In the meantime I am a proud Auntie of 5 and soon to be six nephews and nieces and one dog. Note: only four are pictured as the other nieces and her soon-to-be-sibling and their cousin the dog all live in the States.
Pictured below are my youngest niece (in Ukraine) Ellie, Jesse (my only nephew so far and yes, he broke his arm the week before Christmas) and Marie, and Angel (with her hair in curlers, oh the things women do...). Last, but not least Pris and Dan. I have not had much success getting good pictures of Daniel in recent years, but I shall keep trying. :P

Promised Pictures

So apparently, my pictures from Christmas at Pris and Dan's are at home. But I do have a few pictures here from mum and dad's place and our mini-celebrations on the 7th.


The people who used to rent mum and dad's house left behind/sold them a fake Christmas tree so mum and dad had put that up. It was fun to have since they were actually able to put it up before the 25th!

Mum and dad in their Christmas clothes and with a gift from Sam and Melissa. It was nice to spend the holidays with family again. It just makes them so special (holidays).
Well, I'll try to get some of those other pictures up tonight. It promises to be a crazy week for me, with training in this new secretary and then going to Kyiv to the dentist to get my upper braces tightened and my lower ones put one. Oh joy. :|

PRAISES

We had a wonderful praise session in the office this morning. Every once in a while during morning devotions I make people share at least one item that they want to praise God about. It can be quite an exercise, but it is a wonderful habit to get into. After all, our praises are like a sweet smelling sacrifice to God. And once you start finding things to praise God for, it just gets easier and easier.
One of the big items of praise for me was that this mornign we hired a secretary for the office. We've been looking for a month and my deadline was that I wanted to have someone working by January 14. As of the 9th we had a couple of options, but I hadn't been able to arrange any interviews with anyone or anything yet. So I figured we wouldn't be able to hire a secretary until the end of the month at least. But then on Wednesday (the 9th) one of my girls here talked to me about it again and she arranged for a girl to come in for an interview this morning. And we hired her. Partly because we don't have any other contenders at this moment and we are desperate, but also because she appears to be qualified. This is her first job, but she is 23 and she speaks both Russian and English, which is a HUGE boon. She also has basic computer knowledge which is important to us as well. Anyway, this is a huge praise. This position is temporary at the moment, urgent for the next six months and then we'll see after that. This will be a help to me eventually as I will be able to give her some of the errands and little things that I've been running around and doing.
I just am amazed at how God worked it all out. I had little hope of finding someone who had computer skills and English or Russian and this girl has all three. And He brought her in by the deadline that I had in place mentally. He is really just a miraculous God!
It was also encouraging to hear the other praises from the rest of the office. Some praised Him for their family, their wives or kids. Others for salvation of unbelievers and the ministry that we are starting up here in Ukraine. And on the list goes.
It was just a beautiful morning and such an encouragement to me personally and spiritually. It just lifted my eyes up to Him.

Hiatus

I love words. There are so many words in the English language that are not commonly used. Like "hiatus". It's a word we all know, but don't commonly use.
I think I need to quit reading old books.
Sorry about my rather extended leave. I'm sure some of you were ready to give up on me already, esp. since I haven't delivered the pictures that I promised so faithfully that I would. I guess I took my holidays seriously! However, you will be relieved to know that I am now back in the office and will therefore be updating more regularly.
My homegroup continued over the break and it seems that people are beginning to relax and feel a little bit more at home. They actually stayed till almost nine last night. That also means that I feel a little more free to share the gospel or just plant thoughts about God and Jesus for them to think about. Please pray for wisdom in that.
We had a beautiful time at my sister's. As ever it was too short, which is a good sign. It was a blast to spend a few extra days with the kids and just hang out with some of the adults too.
After returning here, we celebrated New Year's and then old Christmas, soon it will be old New Year's, but I'm thinking of taking my decorations down before then. :)
The one downer over the holidays is that my health is not doing well. This is par for the course in winter. I really don't think that my body was made for this world. It was made for some alternate universe where the weather doesn't get too hot or too cold or change too much. Unfortunately, that is not my idea of heaven, I love the seasons! Okay, back on point: I typically have more pain in winter in my legs specifically and in general it just wears me out. The good thing is that my airborne allergies are almost completely nixed at the present since all the molds are frozen and the ground is solid so not too dusty.
A dear friend asked recently if my allergies had been better when I lived in the States, but the answer is no. Just different. It doesn't matter where I live in the world my body doesn't like it! :) The primary difference here is that my work is very demanding and a huge responsibility.
Please pray for energy to be at work, I had to cut back my hours before Christmas already because of fatigue and now I am concerned that I will miss days or struggle to be at the office because of pain and the fatigue from that.
In general I don't find it hard to keep my spirits up, God is very good to me. Like David I am compelled to "tell of His good deeds in the assembly". But occasionally, when I take my eyes from Him and focus on the pain and illness and fatigue I get depressed too. Please pray that I will keep my focus where it needs to be and that God will continue to give me the grace to accomplish the work that I need to for Him. He has blessed me in enabling me to do so, so far!
I believe this New Year will be a blessed one!
PS. I love it when you post comments, so pleas do so. It is always encouraging.