Praises and Prayer

Apparently some of you were praying yesterday! I had a great visit with Lika in the evening. Carmen didn't come so I was able to just catch up with Lika for a little bit and enjoy spending some time with her. It was a great chance to reinforce our friendship for which I am grateful. Please continue to pray for her. She has a lot of burdens to bear as a single mum and sole provider for her family.
Another praise is that the large sum of money that went missing from the mission bank account a few weeks ago has been returned. I'm not sure what all the details are, but PTL!

On the prayer side, we are facing some spiritual battles here. I just feel like we've been under spiritual attack for several months. I'm not sure why, maybe God is on the verge of doing something great or maybe there is some sin someplace that needs to be revealed. Either way it is for God's glory, but in the mean time we continue to need prayer. We've had a number of financial upsets--other than the one mentioned above--some of which are still not sorted out. Personally I have also felt under attack and it is showing in exhaustion and pain primarily. I've been fighting carpal tunnel syndrome for a number of years and am in the middle of the worst flare up I have had in ten years. Beyond that I am just utterly exhausted to the point where I am falling asleep on my office floor several times a week because I just can't keep trucking. I've also noticed that some of our office staff are struggling with health issues again and/or are just a little emotionally unbalanced at the moment (nervous, easily upset, depressed, etc.).
There are five important meetings coming up in the next two months. The first starts today and is with some key men here in Ukraine about building up the church here in Ukraine. It goes through tomorrow. The second, third and fourth (and there might be another one, it gets a little much for me to keep track of) are in Russia starting June 2 and going through about the 15th or 16th. These are one to three week training sessions with key leaders in Russia who are taking over the CBLT ministry there. The last meeting is for one week with all the Ukrainian missionaries who have been working in Russia over the last couple of years. Those meetings will be back here in Rivne from July 19-23.
Please cover these things in prayer and just ask Go to show us what we need to do about these other "little" problems that keep popping up. I'm not sure if it is just spiritual resistance or if God is trying to tell us something. In either case, we need to get as close to God as we can.