Back to PA! (for now)

Well, we had a wonderful trip to Tennessee this week, we had the privilege of speaking at two more prayer partner churches - Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, and First Baptist Church Dover. Angela also had some good time to catch up with aunts and uncles, and they had a great time loving on Andrew. He even got a chance to meet great-grandmama Winnie! She just turned 89! Praise God for this time connecting with family!


We're traveling back to Philadelphia today, and then to our mission housing in Hatboro. We're looking forward to finally settling into our new home for the next 6 months or so (although we'll be traveling to Virginia for a conference next week)! Pray for safety as we travel.

We also received some bad news. The company Angela's dad is working for is downsizing, and he's been notified that he will be laid off as of Friday. Please pray for encouragement for him, and that he would be able to find another job quickly.

The picture doesn't have anything to do with prayer requests - just a reminder of our time in Atlanta. We didn't get to the space center, but we did get to the welcome center, and Andrew's favorite item there was the Saturn 5 replica in the lobby. His daddy was so proud! :)

Happy Birthday, Angela!

Today is Angela's birthday! Birthdays are always such special days, because we know that so many people are praying for us. Pray for special blessings for Angela on her special day!

Last week we traveled to Mississippi to speak at Ingomar Baptist Church, and we really felt welcomed there. Thank you to our special prayer partners there, especially to the Joy Sunday School class, who are such faithful prayer warriors for us - and to Ann Krusec - Randy's friend from the Northeast Philadelphia Baptist Church days! Continue to pray that God will raise up not only prayer supporters for us, but that He would call out workers into His harvest from this church.

Pray for us as we travel to Tennessee this week to speak at 2 different churches there. Pray for safety in travel, and that God would speak through us there.

We would also ask your prayer for a little bump we've experienced...to our car! We received a car from Macedonian Call, a wonderful organization that provides cars to folks like us when we're on stateside assignment - and we were literally bumped by a lady as we were pulling into a parking lot. Everyone is fine, but the driver's side door on our car was dented, and we're having a hard time getting calls returned from the other lady's insurance company. She was very sweet and apologetic - she admitted that she was completely at fault - but we really need to try to resolve this before we have to return the car next week. Pray that all will be resolved quickly. **Update** We have also recently discovered that the insurance information the lady gave us was for a cancelled policy! Please pray for wisdom as we figure out what to do.



Just in case you were wondering, here is Vladivostok on a map of Russia! As a bonus, you can see where Khabarovsk is located, to the north. We'll be an overnight train ride from Khabarovsk, so hopefully we'll still get up there every now and then to visit. Please begin to pray for us as we seek the Lord's guidance in developing a strategy to reach Vladivostok.

Welcome to Pray for Vlad!

Thanks for signing up for our prayer blog! We are trying a new format here, and this is relatively new to me, so please bear with us as we work through this process. It's been a while since we gave you an update, so I'll catch you up on what's been happening since we came to the states.

First, we should let you know about the title of this blog - yes, it is official, we are moving to Vladivostok! When we return to Russia, we'll be moving to a new city, Vladivostok. Please pray for us as we seek the Lord's leadership in developing a strategy to reach this important city. You are a part of that strategy, and we thank you for co-laboring with us.

Well, to update, we spent a little time with Randy's family in PA. Andrew had his 3rd birthday party this year! He pretty much thinks that every place we go, he gets toys.







We also spent some time in Wisconsin with the Stoda side of the family. Andrew got to spend some time with great-grandpa and -grandma (and cousin Kyler - on his right). And of course, another birthday party! He also enjoyed the animals - especially Rosie the cow, and Bam-Bam the goat!


Now, we're in Alabama with Angela's parents. Randy's already attended his first missions conference, and things went pretty well - some of your contact information came from that conference in Columbiana, and we're glad to have you aboard! The next major event is this weekend at Ingomar Baptist in New Albany, MS.

Pray for Randy and Angela as we travel to Mississippi, for safety in travel, and that God will speak through us there. Also, continue to pray for Randy's grandfather, Valdo. For those of you who don't know, he has been diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm in his abdomen which the doctors are monitoring. We praise God that he is completely at peace, regardless of the outcome of these tests.