Monday, September 01, 2008

Chmiels - Update from Ukraine

Chmiels Church

(Photo - This morning at church...   A lady telling Tomasz that she knows two boys from her neighborhood who would like to come to church if we work with the youth.)

Dear friends,

Greetings from Lviv!!!! Yes, we are finally back in Ukraine! After all those months of being away, it feels almost unreal being back in our own apartment.

It is great to be back with all our Ukrainian friends, with people from our church here in Lviv and with our missionary friends! Thank you so much for praying for us during the months when Miriam was sick and there was so much unknown in our lives. Your prayers mean a lot to us!

Many of you have been asking about our Ukrainian visa renewal that we were trying to do in Prague. Unfortunatelly we have to say that we were not successful :( After a lot of hassle, Pastor Gross finally had all the needed official documents for us and he faxed them to us in Prague. We brought these documents to the Ukrainian embassy in Prague (exactly like they told us to do couple of months ago) but when it was finally our turn to go in with our visa application forms, the consul told us that the rules had changed and from now on they only accept originals... There was no way for us to get those originals in time for us to apply again in Prague. So we came back to Ukraine anyways and we will again have to leave the country some time in October in order to get this visa renewal done.

If you would like to see some recent pictures, you can go to our gallery: http://www.chmiels.com/gallery/

We also wanted to ask you for prayers for this week. Tomasz is supposed to meet with pastor Bendus and they will be talking about what exactly is expected of us this school year and what ministries we should be responsible for. Please pray for wisdom and God’s guidance in this.

Thank you again for all your prayers and for keeping in touch. Just to remind you, our Twin Cities phone number still works so please feel free to call us any time: +1(763)202-4130

In Him,

Tomasz and Miriam