Urgent Office Prayer

Please pray for me and my mum today and tomorrow and for the rest of the week. I have to lay off four of my staff tomorrow (Tuesday).
Mum will come in to talk to the main team and reasure them as to their jobs and work out some plans for the next year. Then we will together meet with Vasia who we have to let go. I think he will take it the hardest as he has a wife and child to provide for. After that, mum will leave, and I will continue with letting the others know. For two or three tomorrow will be their last day.
this of course has huge ramifications for morale and our office set up and workload.
On one level I am relieved to have less staff as it will take some of the pressure off of me to produce work for them and I do feel this is an answer to prayer. I have been praying about what to do for work for the office for the last month. And this is definitely an answer. Not what I was expecting, but...
It is, however, a difficult thing. Please just pray for wisdom about what to say, or what not to say. Peace that they would see that this really is of God and that we are trusting God in this situation, even though it is difficult. That they would see this as an opportunity to grow in faith. And for all the other things that you can think of. :) Our meetings start at 10am.
PS. I just talked to Kostia, our translator, who must be there and he is really sick with the flu. Please pray for him and the rest of the office that they would all be able to make it in tomorrow.

Thank you.

Party Planning!

So, my birthday is this weekend. Which means that I am responsible to throw myself a party and bring a cake into the office. My mum is throwing a party for me as well which will be fun. But just at the moment I am a little stressed about the party I have to throw for myself! It's hard to organize these things to other people's satisfaction, esp. when the people who are invited don't all know each other and all have different needs and agendas.
Please pray that I am able to rest well (haven't for a few weeks) and enjoy my family time this weekend (my sister and co arrive tomorrow-Thursday evening). And that i'll be able to figure out what to do about this party on Sunday to make it all work. It doesn't help that I don't have a huge space to jam people into in my apartment, significantly limits the numbers and increases contact! Pray that I'll be able to figure out how to make it all work so that no one feels slighted or like I wasn't really giving them much attention during the party. Thankfully I do have some people who won't care! :)
I have to admit that part of my stress is that it is turning into a much larger group than I had anticipated and I am a small group person. But this too shall pass! The sad thing is that this is overshadowing my party at my mum's which is the "real deal". I want to be able to relax and enjoy that, not just be stressing about Sunday evening!
And please do keep praying for Lika to get saved. She is procrastinating and I am worried that she will harden her heart...

Some Prayer/Some Praise

I just got up from taking a nap on the floor on my new exercise mat which I bought so that I could do pilates at the office. I've not been resting enough the last few weeks. Mostly I can't seem to sleep past 5:30/6am, no matter when I go to bed. And it's beginning to catch up with me.
On the other hand, I have to say most other things are going well.

My new rommate, Myriam, has been such a blessing. She's been sick the last few weeks herself, but whenever I am feeling a little too tired to keep going she fixes me up with a cup of tea. :) She's French/British. It's great; I love it!
It's been great to have an English-speaking roommate, as well as someone who is spiritually-minded. We seem to be developing the habit of spending some time chatting and praying in the evenings as well.
Last week we took a trip to Kyiv to the doctor's for both Myriam's and my benefit. We came back with mixed feelings, but as Myriam pointed out--at least they didn't find anything seriously wrong with either one of us! :) I went for my foot and a general physical check-up. My ankle continues to be painful, however, the swelling is gone most of the time and I have more strength in it. I'll head back to the doctor here this week or next to see what he has to say about it. I did by a brace/support sock for it which seems to be helping a lot.

Since Lika moved out things have continued to progress at her apartment. She still doesn't have her stove hooked up as they are waiting for the wallpapering to be done so that she doesn't have to pay for it to be hooked up twice. They also don't have doors on the bathroom or toilet yet. We keep in touch every few days and she and Carmen overnighted at my place Friday night. Lika is still spiritually on the edge. A young man came down to the front and repented the other sunday and she was so moved that she was crying about it and could barely keep her composure later when she was talking to me about it. Please pray that she won't get comfortable sitting on the edge, but that she'll keep making tiny movements forward into God's arms.

The one big prayer request that I have at the moment is again for the finances for our office. We are seriously looking at cutting our staff by about 1/2. Primarily because of finances. I'm not a person to make a decision based on finances as a general rule. I've always believe that God could provide the finances for the work that He wanted done. That said, this is an issue that has been growing over the last six months or so. We've been struggling off and on throughout that time to provide the salaries for all of our staff. Thankfully, this isn't my decision to make, but I am involved with it and affected whichever way it goes. At this point my dad has to make the decision, which is difficult for him since he is in Canada and has been there for the last few months.
Personally, it would be difficult for me to let my staff go. These are people that I have been working with for the last year or more. I take care of them and look after their needs and try to listen to their hearts. I've worked hard to build us into a team, rather than twelve or so people working in the same building. And I've watched them grow in maturity and in faith. And it would be very difficult for me to have to turn them lose, particularly right now when it is a difficult time for everyone financially.
More objectively, I can see that this could very well be the Lord's good timing. I have been really struggling to find work for everyone the last month, partly because of other ministry opportunities that God has brought into my life, but largely because our plans for various courses just haven't come together through one cause or another. By letting half of our staff go it would significantly slow down the operation, which would ease some of my stress as well as mum's for the courses that we are working on. It would also free me to give some of my energies to the other ministry involvements that God is opening up for me. Additionally, we have worked through a good number of courses in the last couple of years and we are now at the end of our list, with all the most difficult courses left. We need more time to work on them in English, but we've also completed the bulk of the work while we've had so many staff. We've been talking about cutting back to a skeleton staff later this year anyway, but were waiting to see where the Lord would lead. We had also lined up a Ukrainian project, where we wanted to try translating several courses into Ukrainian to give them the updated look that the Russian courses have as the people here have only had the old format and old content available to them. However, that project has been nothing but a headache for me. I have really struggled to find Ukrainian translators and we ended up hiring a couple of girls who are inexperienced, but thus are blank slates with the potential to learn. Unfortunately, they just have not been able to conform to the standard that we are looking for. Translation is key to our work. If we don't have good translation then we just can't put out a good quality course. It's the cornerstone. So, it appears that the Ukrainian translation project needs to be put on hold for now as well.
I don't know if any of the above makes real sense to you, but to me it just seems like there are a lot of little things pointing to the possibility that now is the time to cut back a little at least for a time and then see what the Lord wants to do.
I still await the final decision and I just ask for your prayers for this. particularly, that God would give my staff peace, both those that we would have to let go and those that we keep. And of course, for me and for my parents. That God would just make it clear what needs to be done. And perhaps that He would prepare people in their own hearts and even provide other jobs for them. Mostly, that through it all, God would be glorified and honored and that people would understand that He is still in control.

Hither, thither and yawn.

And yes, I did mean "yawn". I'm tired!
Since Lika moved out over a week ago and Myriam moved it life has just kept spinning forward. Mum arrived Tuesday evening last week. I met her at the bus and took her to her home and spent a few minutes with her. I left pretty quickly because our team was going to Russia the next day and I wanted to be in good shape in the morning.
The team got off without any problems and brought in their report today. They had a very good trip, which is an answer to prayer.
I worked on Thursday although the rest of the office was closed (and I have to confess I didn't get much work done), but then I took Friday off to recuperate myself from the last three months and just to get my house back in order. It was good. I still have work to do at home (like making poor Myriam's curtains); but I feel like things are generally organized and pulled together.
This week I am off to Kyiv with Myriam to go to the doctor there. She needs to go because she has been sick and the diagnosis that the doctors here gave her has not been satisfactory; and I need to go because I want a second opinion about my ankle before I jump into surgery. I would like to know if I should perhaps be in a cast or some other more supportive thing or using crutches. We head out Tuesday evening on the train with doctors' appointments 9am on Wed.
I'm also trying to keep up with Lika and several other people in my life. I totally bombed with Lika last week with everything else that was going on, so I am hoping to go over to her place tonight at least briefly and see her. But she was in church on Sunday and was very moved when a man got saved, so I think she is sooooooo close!

Ankle Woes

After all my exertions last week my ankle was killing me. Well, actually, it started when I wore my winter boots, which have heels; I had been avoiding wearing them for the most part, but last week it was too icy not to (they have better grip than my fall boots).
I had been concerned about my ankle already because it's been over two months and I was still having pain and the swelling wasn't completely reduced. So, I called a friend and asked what I should do, she suggested an x-ray in case a bone or something was out of place. I decided to jump on that (since I hate going to doctors) and went to my chiropractor/physio-therapist/doctor at the city hospital--he's the only medical person I know here in Rivne. Thankfully, he has training in many things and he checked my ankle out and said that the ligament is torn and that it needs more stability to heal. My instructions are to wrap my ankle up every day for the next three weeks and be careful with it and as added incentive to do this, he thinks that if it isn't healed by then that I need to have minor surgery to repair it. :(
I think that it will heal up by itself, since it did seem to have improved, but I am losing patience with hobbling around. I've been throwing temper tantrums at myself all day! :D

Cooking for 20, anyone? Anyone!?

After Lika moved out Thursday I conned on a friend into coming over and helping me move furniture and take down the Christmas tree and other decorations that had been in that room for the last three months. It was great and so nice to have a semblance of order with that.

Then Friday we had off from work for Women's Day (March 8, most people take Monday off, but I arranged differently with our office for varied and sundry reasons), but I had agreed to help Myriam out with a meal for her English Bible study and some other English contacts. We were planning on doing all the prep work together, but she ended up getting sick and spending half the day at the doctor's and then resting a little in the afternoon so she would be up for the evening (although she did still manage to put together two dishes and lunch for us, besides tidying the house). So, that left me with the grocery shopping for this event (nothing like being prepared by shopping the day of :| ), and the rest of the meal prep. Mostly it went well. I baked a couple of beautiful chocolate cakes (and they tasted nice too) and we roasted chicken legs, potatoes and carrots, along with serving up fresh homemade rolls, a pea salad and bread sauce (the last two being Myriam's contribution). Over all it was a success although the chicken ended up being a little under cooked because of my not being acquainted with my mum's oven--oh ya, this all took place at my mum's house where Myriam has been living for the last three months.
I was content with the meal. Disappointed about the chicken (it was mostly edible and not dangerously undercooked but on that side), but happy that in general I had managed to pull off a meal for 20 (which number kept changing from 15-20 during the planning stages) in one day without too much advance planning! The only downer that day was that I ended up with a very painful, swollen ankle. :( (The one I had sprained previously.)

The End of an Era

Lika is moving out today. The fire was in her apt. on December 4. She moved in with me on the 11th. She's lived with me for nearly 3 months. I had thought it was only 2 and a half. It will be weird to have them gone, not that I'll have much time to think about it. By the time I help them move tonight and get back to my place and tidy a little. Tomorrow I am helping Myriam put on a dinner for her English group; then on Sat. she is moving in.
Next week mum arrives back, the office will only be open for 2-3 days because on Wed. we send the team to Russia. So it'll be a busy time too.
I'm thankful for the time that I've had with Lika and Carmen. I trust that He will continue to use that in their lives even though they are moving out.
I have to say that I am a little sad to see them go. I was really getting adjusted.

Lika

Lika and I spent a long time talking yesterday afternoon. A couple of hours. I challenged her with her need for salvation and gradually through discussion discovered that she didn't really see the difference between how she lives and being a Christian. She prays. She reads her Bible and goes to church sometimes. She's a good person. I did my best to explain to her the difference between knowing someone and being part of their family, but I'm not sure I succeeded. She is a very reserved person so it is hard to tell. In any case, I do know that she understood that I feel she is missing it and that there is a lot more than what she has.
Pray that God would use my words and the words of other people who are challenging her to push her over the edge. She really just needs to take this leap of faith and repent. Some things you cannot understand until you do them.

She's also got some other big problems in her life that are controlling her in many respects and she is living in fear. Please pray that she would get saved so that the peace of God could be in her heart.

Calling for Prayer

I didn't sleep very well last night. For some reason I am having great urgency about the need to talk to Lika about getting saved. She's lived with me for 2 and a half months and now just out of the blue, all of a sudden, I have such great urgency to talk to her about this that I feel compelled to do so!
I am going to go over to her apt. around 1ish (my lunch break) to talk to her. I know that she will probably be there alone and that I have a better chance of being able to talk to her about this there, than when we are at home (at my place) with her mum and Carmen around.
Most of you probably won't read this before then, but for those who do...please pray for the right words and that Lika would respond. This will not be the first time someone has challenged her to get saved.
For those of you who read this later, you can still pray for God's work in her heart. I don't know how she'll respond today. I do know that God has been at work, although since she is a reserved person it is difficult to tell what she is really feeling or thinking. Pray that whatever happens today that God would use my words in her life and the love that He gives her through me. That this conversation would bring her closer to Him rather than turn her away from Him.
I just feel so burdened about this right now and I don't understand the urgency of it, but am praying that He will use it for His glory and her salvation!

Like a kid at Christmas...

A friend of mine came back from Canada on Friday and brought some things I had requested. Like peanut butter, marshmallows and wheetbix, to name a few! I feel so rich! I truly do feel like a kid at Christmas. And not a little guilty when I saw the pile of stuff he brought for me. Made me wonder if he had any room for stuff for his own family--well, not quite.

And here is a fresh pic of me: eating fish! Lika has converted me. I still don't know how to prepare fish, but I'm quite learning to enjoy eating it.