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Hawes Family Update – April, 14 2007
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Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. It’s good to know that we aren’t here alone. Each new day brings new challenges and we need your prayers and support to meet these challenges as we should.
As we settle into life here in Ukraine we want to be able to share with you our experiences on a more regular basis than just our newsletters. Your support and prayers are very valuable to us, so we want to be sure you know how we are doing and how you can be praying for us. We will try to keep it short
For our supporting churches we hope that you will share what’s in these updates as you can with the church so that we can stay better connected.
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Two weeks ago was spring break for the kids from school. We had hoped to try and make something of the time off, but both kids came down with colds and by the end of the week I was catching it too. Things weren’t as fun as they could have been but there were some bright spots. The furniture we had ordered several weeks ago finally arrived and we finally had the chance to unpack the 10 boxes we had shipped over. And yes, all 10 boxes arrived in excellent shape. What a blessing. Now our apartment is looking more like a home. Another bright spot is that Jody began working with Alla her language helper. Alla is the wife of one of the men that works at Bible Mission, our partners. The first lesson was fast paced, but by the next lesson Jody and Alla were getting into a grove. Sadly though Alla got sick and they have not been able to meet since. Alla seems to be on the mend now and they hope to meet again real soon. I too had hoped to begin meeting with my language helper this past week, but my sickness prevented that. We are hoping this week will be better so we can start making some progress. Please pray for good health and good relationships with our language helpers.
Here are some more things to be praying about:
- Please pray that we get a replacement part for Elena’s leg. It’s a long story, but I’ll try and keep it short. Soon after we arrived we realized that one of the parts to Elena’s new prosthetic leg had a crack in it. It appeared to be a defect so we emailed her prosthetist in Pennsylvania and asked them to ship us a replacement. They ordered us a replacement and shipped it UPS. But shipping to Ukraine is not like shipping to Utah or the United Kingdom. It’s now over a month later and we still don’t have the part. It’s stuck in customs and with the help of our friends at Bible Mission we hope to be through the red-tape in a few weeks. Praise God we brought her older, but smaller, leg with us. That’s what she is wearing now. It works, but it’s not what she should be wearing.
- Please pray as we make decisions about what to do this summer and next year. We have been here less than two months, but we can already see weaknesses in our current situation. What we seem to be lacking most is a healthy Russian speaking community to nurture us in learning our new language and culture. Should we keep looking for it here or is it waiting for us somewhere else? Also, while the apartment is good while the kids are in school what will it be like this summer when we all are at home and it gets hot. We need wisdom as we try to balance the needs of the family and our ministry.
- Please also pray for the political situation here in Ukraine as it has heated up over the last few weeks. The two leading coalitions here are vying for control and seem headed for some kind of confrontation. We are not afraid for our safety at all, but just for the well being of the fledgling democracy.
Fishing 4 Him
Andrew Hawes
Email: GetHooked@Fish4Him.net
Web: http://www.Fish4Him.net
Greater Europe Mission
http://www.gemission.org