CIS Prayer: Visa Status

[CarlaSun@aol.com]

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support.   So many of you have written and told us you have been praying this week.   Olga was able to go to Ovir this week and unfortunately, nothing has changed.   They would not issue us one-year visas to return to Russia, but only 3-month, double entry visas.   This means that we can enter once when we go back home and only leave once in a 3-month period of time.   We all have to leave the country after three months to get new visas and return.   We are still hoping and praying that this situation will change by the next time we need new visas, which will now be around December1.   So, we ask you please to be in prayer.

When we first got this news this week we were quite discouraged, and I apologize that I didn't write sooner.   It kind of took the wind our of our sails.   We were very hopeful that things would work out for the one-year visas.   This is the first time in 11 years that we have been denied these visas.   However, I believe that God has been answering all of your prayers and He has given us a great peace.   We don't want to let this be a deterrent to our work and so, we will make adjustments and continue!   We serve a great and mighty God that wants to do great things in the former Soviet Union.   We are privileged to be partners with Him, and with all of you in this work!

Please continue to pray for the work.   This visa situation is just one example of some of the government clamp downs that all Protestants have been facing.   We are on furlough now in the US and have a little more freedom to write about what's going on, than when we are there.   There are those in the Baptist church who say that the persecution today is worse than it was under communist rule.   People need to be changed from the inside out -- and only God can do it.   So, there is a great battle going on for the souls.   Thanks for your prayers!

Chuck and Carla Sunberg