Ministry: Natalya Update

Monday night we had a church sovyet meeting and discussed a number of issues facing the church. I led most of the meeting and I really felt my Russian language skills being stretched. At one point late in the evening, when I knew my tongue and my mind weren't connecting as they ought, one person said, "well, we get the idea." I just started laughing. Anyway, we did get an update on Natalya's situation. She has enough funds to pay for the fourth chemotherapy treatment which most likely will be this Friday. She is supposed to get test results sometime this week to determine if they can go ahead with the fourth treatment. Thanks to the Central church in Athens and three other generous donors, we have already more than one-third of the funds for the fifth treatment. The church decided that it will continue to give all the Sunday contribution for her treatment unless there is an emergency. We have enough reserve funds for 3 months so we are just going to keep giving to this. Right now, we need about $1,380 to cover the fifth treatment. Possibly after the fourth treatment will the doctor determine how many more will be needed. Possibly 8 or even 10. If you would like to contribute, email or leave a comment with your email. Gifts can be mailed to Central Church of Christ, PO Box 38, Athens, TN 37303 and it will get to us quickly. We have about 2-3 weeks from this Friday to raise the rest of the funds for the fifth treatment.

UPDATE: I was just updated that Natalya's daughter is going to be able to fund her fourth and fifth treatment. Thus, funds that have been already will be used for the sixth treatment. I was also told that the "free" treatment she had been receiving was determined to be ineffective and the doctors are replacing that with a treatment she will have to pay for in addition to these very expensive chemotherapy treatments.

We've been having lots of immigration fun this week, but I will spare blog readers the details. It seems each day we take a tiny little step forward--there is some small piece of news or one more little piece of the puzzle falls into place. For example, yesterday we learned we could make an appointment to file our petition but we had to do it through the new call center which just started working on Monday. Aren't we lucky? Of course, we couldn't get through on our phone which can't switch over to tone in the middle of a call to work the menus. We had to go to the UEC to call and then when I got through, the operator didn't know how to schedule an appointment and said she would call me back. One day later I am still waiting for that call. The embassy has answered some emails but others not. I guess they just assume I will email several times and then send one answer. At least someone responds. Some embassies don't respond to email at all. Our special thanks to Paul Prill and my family who have been helping us with several issues. We looking forward to this being over by the summer.....or fall......or.......