Happy Birthday, Randy!

With all of the travel last week, I forgot to mention that Thursday was not just Thanksgiving, but also Randy's birthday! We had a great time of visiting with family - about 34 people together for Thanksgiving dinner - and everyone sang Happy Birthday! Praise God for this time of reconnecting with family.

Thanks for praying for safety in travel - everyone made it back safely from Texas. Tomorrow, Randy leaves for Florida to speak at First Baptist Lake Wales, where his college pastor, Scott Markley is pastor. Pray for him as he speaks there, for God to bless his speaking, and for prayer partners to be raised up in this church.

This week on Friday, we'll be going to Strasburg, PA for A Day Out With Thomas. This is a life-size replica of Thomas the Tank Engine that Andrew will get to ride on! Please pray for good weather for this special time for Andrew!

Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving...anyone have a special Thanksgiving story to share? Post a comment and share it with us and the rest of our prayer partners, we'd love to hear from you!

On The Road Again, Again...

Well, we've once again had to say goodbye to a number of dear friends in Texas, but we have had a great visit here. God has really shown us some neat blessings! For one, we were blessed with a car! For our times in PA, my mom has been very generous in renting a car so that we could have her car to get around in, and that's been great, but we felt bad about putting a financial strain on her, especially since we'll be coming back to PA to stay until March! Well, as we mentioned this to some friends we were staying with, they just "happened" to have a car that they were wondering what to do with, and they are going to let us use that car until we leave for Vladivostok! We thank God for these special friends (you know who you are!), and we pray His blessings upon them and their family.

We also had a good time of re-connecting with our "extended family" at Mission Arlington. They truly are co-laborers in the Gospel. We visited with Eugenio and Deyanira, who are pastoring our old apartment church at Sawyer's Mill Apartments, and living in our old apartment there. God is really using them - we attended a Wednesday night Bible study, which was packed, standing room only. Please pray for them as they seek to develop leaders from within this faithful group of attenders.

I'm writing this from somewhere in Tennessee, as I drive the car back to PA. Angela and Andrew are in Houston, and will be flying back tomorrow as I drive the rest of the way. Pray for safety for us as we travel, and for God's peace for all of us.

**Just a clarification, I'm not actually driving while I write this...I'm in a hotel. Just to eliminate any confusion. :)

Live Armadillo Sighted!

Yes, I know it seems somewhat random, but this is the first time I've actually seen a live armadillo in the wild! We saw not just one, but three at the Armand Bayou Nature Center in Houston this week. Andrew enjoyed it, and he also got go on a hayride, do a cakewalk, and sit in a stagecoach. Lots of fun!

Right now, the Stodas are all sick with some kind of bug. We're a family that believes in sharing! Pray for healing, and that our time speaking will not be adversely affected by our health.

We'll be speaking this week at First Baptist Teague. They have had a tragedy in the church recently, the pastor's daughter was killed in a traffic accident. Pray for healing for this family, and for the church

We'll also be heading up to visit our friends at Mission Arlington this week. For those of you who don't know, Mission Arlington is a multi-housing ministry in Arlington, TX where both Angela and Randy served (check them out at www.missionarlington.org). We thank God for them, and ask that you continue to pray for them as they reach Arlington and the nations for Christ!

Deep In The Heart of Texas

Well, we've been enjoying our time in Texas - I had forgotten how warm a Texas November can be! Thank you for praying for our time at Clear Lake Baptist and FBC La Place. We have added over 15 new prayer partners to the list, so for those of you who are receiving this update for the first time, welcome!

This week, we'll be traveling up to the Waco area. Randy will be attending a church planting conference there. Pray that he will be challenged and learn some fresh ideas that can be applied in Vladivostok.

We'll be staying with the Lamb family, some of Angela's college friends. Pray that she'll have a good time meeting with friends, and that Andrew will enjoy the time with their kids.

Also, continue to pray for Vladivostok. As we're thinking about heading back, we will need to come up with a way to stay in country long-term. Right now, the best way seems to be seeking a temporary residency permit. We've asked a couple of Russian friends in the area to help us find out what documents we will need to get this permit, so we can start the process now. Pray that we will get the right information, and pray for us to develop contacts in Vladivostok, even before we get there!

Let it snow!

We just thought we were escaping Russia weather! This week, we had our first snowfall in Hatboro. But, it only snowed one day and quickly melted away. Now we're in Texas in 80 degree weather. What a change! Thank you for praying for our safety in travel, everything went very smoothly.

This Sunday, we'll be speaking at Clear Lake Baptist, the church that Angela attended growing up. We're pretty excited about this church - they've actually been to Vladivostok on a couple of mission trips. We're planning on partnering with them. Please pray for our speaking there, that God would call out partners in praying, giving, and going!

Pray for Randy's aunt Susan. The doctors have discovered cancer on her breast & spine. Pray for wisdom for the doctors and family as they pursue a course of treatment.

Pray for our travel again, as we take a trip to First Baptist La Place, Louisiana on Tuesday through Thursday of this week - speaking there on Wednesday night. This is a church of one of Angela's friends who has been a strong prayer supporter. Again, pray that God would call out partners from this church.

Almost Heaven...

...West Virginia! Tomorrow, Randy leaves for a missions conference in Clarksburg, WV. We've heard lots of good things about this association, and we're looking forward to seeing what God is going to do there. Pray for safety for Randy as he travels, and pray that he would make some good contacts there.

Before our next update, we'll be traveling again, so we'll go ahead and ask for prayer for those travels. Next Thursday, we all fly to Texas! We're looking forward to connecting with friends and family in Houston, Waco, Arlington, and several other places that I've forgotten. Pray for safety as we fly to Texas next week.

Fall in Pennsylvania is really beautiful, and we got a chance to get into the "harvest spirit" this week, by taking a hayride with Andrew's preschool class! Here is a picture. Thanks again for praying for his class, he really is enjoying going there twice a week.

Back to PA! (again)

Thank you for all of our prayers for safe travel – we made it back from Virginia with no problems! We also want to thank you for your prayers for wisdom in choosing a program for Andrew. This week, he attended his first time at his new “school,” Lehman Christian Academy. He’ll be going there 2 days a week in the afternoon – yes that’s right – right during naptime. He came home last night just completely tuckered out. In the middle of dinner he just laid down on his chair and said, “I want to go to bed.” But he did have a great time there, and we think it will be a positive thing for him to get to hang around some kids on a regular basis.

Continue to pray for our speaking in churches. This week, we’ll be at The Foundry in Wallingford. Pray for God to be glorified as we speak, and that He would call out workers into His mission field. Pray also as Randy prepares for another conference next weekend in West Virginia.

We’ve been talking a lot about our life on stateside assignment, but telling our stories in churches continues to remind us of our folks back in Russia. Pray for spiritual awakening in Russia. Pray for the seeds we’ve sown over the last 3 years to continue to grow.