We hope most of you received our newsletter last week. Some of you already told us that you will be praying for the prayer requests we mentioned in our letter. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! We are so blessed to have you!
Here are two more things to pray for:
1. As you know, we are still in the States, because Miriam is still having problems with cysts and so far our doctor did not want to give her any medication because she was afraid that hormonal treatment for cysts could again cause a blood clot. Last week Miriam had some blood tests done and the plan was to start treatment for the cysts this week if all the tests come back negative (negative=good). We were really looking forward to that because for the last couple of months we have felt “stuck” in so many ways and we were hoping that now things would finally start moving towards Miriam feeling better, our going back to the ministry in Ukraine, and just having kind of a “more normal” life again... . They did ten different tests and when the first nine came back all good, we felt like finally, in a long time, we were getting some good news. But then test results number 10 came back and our doctor told us that Miriam has Factor V Leiden, which is a clotting disorder caused by a gene mutation in clotting factor V. As a result, people with this disorder have an increased risk of blood clots. We are not sure what exactly this means for the future but we know that right now Miriam is not getting any of the medication for the cysts that we hoped she would. We have no idea what is going to happen next or how long it is going to take for the cysts to disappear on their own. Please pray for us. Pray that God would help us deal with disappointments...
2. This next prayer request is also a praise. Yesterday a Retreat for Pastor's and their wives started in the city of Mukachevo (about three hours south of Lviv – close to Slovakia and Hungary). This is the very first retreat of this kind to ever take place in the German Lutheran church body. We think it is a miracle that there are two American pastors doing the teaching! The connection is through EEMN but we are still not sure how it happened that the German bishop and German pastors agreed to this. It is a wonderful opportunity to build relationships and trust and we believe that if everything goes well this week, it will open more doors even for us and our ministry within the German Lutheran church. So please pray for everyone involved!! Besides other things, you can also pray for clear communication as there are at least four languages involved (German, English, Ukrainian and Russian) and everything is being translated back and forth.
We are so thankful for all of you who faithfully support us in your prayers. We are also thankful for the encouragement God is providing for us through His Word. We are reading through the whole Bible for our devotions and we believe that it is not a coincidence that right now we are reading in Esther and Job. It was so encouraging to see how God had Esther become the queen at exactly the right time. And how Mordecai “just happened” to learn about a plot against the king (and warned him) and then later the king “just happened” to read about this on the very same night Haman was planning to have Mordecai killed… The book of Esther is such a great reminder of God’s sovereignty and His care for His people. And then the book of Job deals with so many of the same questions we are sometimes asking. Sometimes we too, same as Job’s friends, are wondering, “what are we doing wrong that all these things are happening”?
We also wanted to remind you that our new phone number is (763) 202-4130. If we do not answer, please leave a message! We will get back to you!
For more pictures, click here: http://www.chmiels.com/gallery/away_from_Ukraine/?g2_page=16 (If you think you have already seen those pictures, just click on “next”)
Thank you for your friendship. God bless you!
Tomasz and Miriam
