Spring prayer letter

May 20, 2007

Dear friends,
So far, spring has been very busy and often stressful for us. We have enjoyed the beautiful warmer weather, flowers, and extra time outside! Jaan’s getting old enough that I can send him out by himself; I do keep a very careful watch through the window. He loves to sit with our elderly neighbors and talk. Raia’s definitely not a baby any more. She’s talking constantly and really showing her own personality. Baby #3 is also growing well and making his/her presence very obvious. I’ve dealt with more nausea this time around than ever before, but otherwise all is well. Again this year we’ve planted flowers around the entrance to our apartment building and interacted with our neighbors through that.

Easter was beautiful, falling just when everything outside was beginning to come back to life. The days leading up to it were busy with showing the Jesus film. There was a very good turnout for that. Thank you to those of you who were praying!

Jaan now understands and can tell the story of Christ’s Resurrection. For the 40 days after Easter in our family we also reminded each other daily that “He is Risen” and sang Easter hymns. Both children can now reply “He is Risen indeed!” and sing something almost recognizable. We just learned about the Ascension, and now they’re waiting to see what will happen at Pentecost.

Now for the stresses. . . .
In March we had a visit from the Migration Service. Up until now, we have just had our visas registered in Moscow and lived here without local registration, because there was no way to register here. That changed when Migration Service began to insist that we register locally. So, we started the process of getting new visas that we should be able to register in Kovrov. At this point, my invitation for a new visa has been refused and Will’s has been granted. We’re just getting ready to try to ask for reconsideration on mine. Please pray! It has been hard to have this hanging over our heads, and it still not resolved.

At the end of April our landlord gave us a month to find a new place to live. We bought a dacha, and we’re very excited about spending time there this summer. Sadly, that has been somewhat clouded by an uproar in the church about us living there. (This is really condensed. You can read more details in the archives here, or write to us with questions: mayakovsky@willphyl.com.) We are still planning to move out to the dacha quite soon. Also, we’ll be renting an apartment on the first floor, here in the same building where we’ve been living.

That doesn’t sound so bad, now that I have it written out! :-)


Prayer requests:
1. VISAS! Please pray that our visa problems would be solved as soon as possible.
2. Housing: pray as we move and settle in and make decisions. Pray that we’ll be able to get a phone put in the new apartment quickly.
3. Health: pray that the sniffles and such would stay away, and that I would feel good.
4. Youth meetings: we had asked for prayer that youth/young family fellowship times would be more regular, and we’ve seen that happen. Please pray that, if possible, we’d be able to continue meeting through the summer. People might be too busy, but we’d like to try.

Please let us know how we can pray for you.

As always, please write to us! Starting soon, our opportunities to email will be sporadic, but if you write, we’ll eventually get it. Also, our mailing address is changing just slightly: the apartment number is different now.

Have a wonderful summer!
Love and prayers,
Phyllis Hunsucker (for Will, Jaan, Raia and ?)