Today was the day...or so we thought!

Today was the day we thought we were taking Drew, the last one out of the nest, off to school. Jenny, Drew's sweet girlfriend, was going with us. We all got up, got everything loaded in the van and then headed out. First a trip for Gary and Drew to 'Ms. Patti's' for haircuts and then on to Walmart to pick up stuff for his room. We drove on to Huntsville and arrived at his dorm only to find we had the wrong day and that he can't check in until Thursday, a slight reprieve for me! No problem, his stuff will be ready to go Thursday... Gary and I were headed to Madisonville anyway. An awesome missionary couple, Ivan and Svitlana, and their two preschoolers moved in to our house Sunday. We wanted to go check on them to make sure they had everything they needed and to answers any questions they might have about the house. Their testimony is so inspirational to me. They were deported from Uzbeckistan because of Ivan's ministry. They were given 48 hours notice before they had to leave and then were put on a plane bound for Moscow...with a two week old baby and a toddler! They stayed in Moscow for a few months and then had to leave there. After much dealing with and praying for the US embassy in Moscow, they ended up (Svitlana and the children first and then at a later time, Ivan) on a plane headed for the United States. They can't even try to go back to Uzbeckistan for a minimun of three more years...if they try they were told they would be killed. They arrived in the US with only two or three suitcases. Before they left Uzbeckistan they had to quickly sign over to friends in their church their recently purchased home and all their possesions or the government would have just taken them. Since they arrived here less than two years ago, God has done amazing things for and through them...their testimony is one of trust in and to the faithfulness of God. We feel so blessed that we can play a tiny part in their international ministry. Instead of crumbling under oppression their ministry continues on an international scale and they now also have several ministries to Russian groups here in Houston, the Woodlands and Bryan/College Station. God is so much bigger than anything our finite minds can fathom!