Each year I appreciate God’s immutability more and more. Though life’s changes continue to roll out at an ever increasing pace, God, His promises, and His purposes remain rock-solid. Here are some changes we have recently been facing and will face in the near future.
We are currently in the middle of two “State of Emergencies.” The first is in regards to the energy crisis caused by natural gas issues with Russia. The second is in response to the drastic rise in COVID-19 cases. Currently, without a COVID pass, we cannot go to most “non-essential” businesses. Thankfully, we are able to still continue on with our ministries. At the end of January, some illness went through our family, possibly the omicron variant. We thank the Lord that most of us are well again with just a lingering cough and fatigue. Please pray for Stephanie, though. She may have some sinus infection.
A couple weeks ago, I showed up to lead the evangelistic Bible study with a older man, Vladimir. Sadly, I found out that he moved to Chisinau. Jacob and I had been witnessing to him for many months. There seems to be evidence that his interest and understanding of things has been weak. Please pray that I will find another open person to take his place.
Most of you probably are aware of the warnings the West and America has made of a possible Russian invasion into Ukraine. We thank the Lord that thus far, there has been no actions from Russia to validate those claims. Since Moldova is stuck between Ukraine and Romania (NATO’s eastern border), there has been concern over what would happen to Moldova, were Russia to invade Ukraine. In response, we have been in contact with our pastor and field director and have an evacuation plan in place were the need to arise. Please pray for the world leaders and for us to lead a quiet and peaceable life (1 Timothy 2:2).
We have turned in the needed documents to our lawyer in order to renew our residency permits. Though we do not know of any reason they should be denied, please pray for us to find grace in the eyes of Immigration and be granted another three-year permit. On February 4th, we celebrated our 12 years anniversary of service here in Moldova. We pray the Lord blesses us with many more years of service for Him here.
The Hughes are scheduled to return to Moldova from furlough later on in March. Upon
Family News: Abby got her braces off!
their return, we will have about three weeks together before we head out for our four-month furlough on April 12th. We are focusing on visiting the churches we were not able to visit last furlough in 2018. I thank the Lord that the meetings are all booked now. To those of you that were able to schedule us in, thank you very much. To those churches we were not able to visit this furlough, we will do our best to schedule you in on our next furlough. As I did for our last furlough in 2018, I will mail prayer cards to all of our supporting churches and make our furlough video available for you to view and show. Please pray for us as we continue to prepare for furlough (as it is no small task preparing to leave your home and ministry for months). Pray that furlough will be a time of refreshment for our family and an opportunity for the Lord to use us in the lives of other believers. Please also pray for the Hughes as they continue on with the ministries here in our absence.
Thank you again for your prayers and financial support. We are looking forward to seeing many of you this summer.