A Few Prayer Requests

Dear Friends,

We're staying home for a while, but things don't seem to have slowed down much. Cecil is working on a newsletter. Hopefully we'll send you a copy of it soon.

You may remember early this year we took an young unmarried orphan to the hospital to have a baby. Her name is Oksana. She and her baby stayed with us for a while in July. Vera got to hold the baby.

Oksana was taking exams to enter a three year nursing program. We just heard that she passed the exams and has been accepted. She is asking for prayer for a friend named Alisa. Alisa has also graduated from an orphanage, but has gotten involved with a criminal organization. After searching for some time to tell Alisa about a government program where she can get a job, Oksana found her. Two men immediately came out and monitored the conversation. Alisa simply said, "I can't come." We are trying to figure out how to get the police involved. Please pray for Alisa's safety and that she will be able to escape her situation.

We heard that an international adoption agency in Khabarovsk was just licensed last week. We are going to try find them and see if they can help us with the adoption of Deanna. Also, the Ministry of Education (which is in charge of adoptions) will reserve Deanna so that noone else adopts her before us. So things look good. But since we really haven't even started processing international documents, the road before us is rather long (they say 6 to 12 months). Please keep praying.

Cecil's folks are arriving today for their first trip to Russia. In a couple hours we will go get them at the airport. So Deanna will get to see her future Grandma and Grandpa. We plan to take some vacation time. Not to go anywhere, but just to have family time.

One last prayer request. There is a construction team from Texas coming at the end of the month. Please pray for their preparation, finances and travel.

Blessings,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy & Vera