Roni and I have recently celebrated our second-year anniversary!
We were able to plan a little getaway outside of the country—I can’t tell you how refreshing it was. We saw so many beautiful churches, heard church bells, and got to try different foods. It was so good to hear church bells—without feeling the spiritual heaviness that we feel day to day living in an unreached country.
We also took some time during our anniversary trip to pray about where the Lord is directing us this next season. We continue to feel a strong passion for seeing marriages restored, strengthened, and encouraged. We have some ideas of what this could look like and are reaching out to those around us for input and guidance along the way. One thing we know for sure is that this will all be in the language here.
Being newly married ourselves, we have been so blessed to have incredible counsellors, mentors, and a community around us who pray for us and cheer us on. I follow multiple different marriage ministries on social media and have realized there are such great resources available in the English language. Sadly, those same resources aren’t available here. This is why we know we want to start something that can be an encouragement to the locals here in their own language.
Could you please pray for Roni and me as we look into this idea more and see what we can do?
We’ve been waiting for over seven months to find out when Roni will go into the military—he will be serving over the month of April. We are not looking forward to being separated for a whole month but will be making the best of it because while Roni is serving, I will finally be back on Canadian soil. I am so excited to be able to catch up with you in person.
Please pray that my time in Canada would be spent wisely and that my time away would be refreshing.
We will also apply for Roni’s visa to Canada. After talking with a lawyer about what visa to apply for we are more confident he will be accepted this next time. This visa costs over $1,000 and has a much longer processing time than the visitor visas we had applied for previously. Our friends who went through this process waited almost two years just to hear back—we are praying and believing that it won’t be that long.
I know in the past I have mentioned the economic crisis that our country is in—we are experiencing 174% inflation. As you can imagine this affects everyone who lives here. In the past, if you were working you could pay your expenses. However, this is not the case any longer. People are struggling to pay rent and eat three meals a day. Groceries keep going up—I have seen several people in shock at the prices as they grocery shop. They take pictures to send to others, talk on the phone saying what the latest price is, and when they are at the checkout they can not afford what is in their cart. Every year in January there is a raise on everything rent, groceries, etc., and then the earthquakes! As a result, rents have gone up two to three times right after they had already increased.
This rent increase is also affecting churches. Our close friends live in the largest & most expensive city in this country and are pastoring a small fellowship. They sent out a prayer request that I want to share with you:
“Our rent is being raised triple what we currently pay to $1,775.15. As a small congregation, we already struggle to pay our current rent/bills. Would you please pray for God’s providence for our church and other churches that are having the same issues? We are thankful that our landlord is still willing to rent to us, considering the new rent is still cheaper than moving anywhere else similar in the area.”
Would you please pray with us that our friends would be able to make the payments they need from month to month?
We appreciate all your prayers for us—so much. Thank you!
