October 13, 2006

Dear praying friends, wanted to give you a brief update about our lives and work in Ufa.   We have been in Kiev (Ukraine) for about 2 ½ weeks now.  We are living in a small apartment not far from the center of Kiev, where one of the IMB’s field offices is located.  We have use of one of the IMB’s vans, for which we are most grateful.  Chris continues to work on a doctoral research paper and Eileen continues to homeschool our children.  We are attending a small Ukrainian Baptist church a few miles from our apartment…the believers there have been very warm and welcoming to us during this awkward time of transition and waiting in our lives.

 We are hopeful that the visa invitation process will begin soon in Ufa so that we can return there.   We were finally informed last week (by Ufa gov’t officials) that we can proceed with the invitation process in Ufa.  We began the process in earnest last week, only to discover that some new documents are required, documents which are available only in USA…Chris’ dad Gary has been gracious to spend a considerable amount of time rounding up these documents and getting them prepared for express mail to the IMB’s Moscow office, where they will be translated and notarized and sent on to Ufa, where local believers are gathering other documents on our behalf.  If all goes well, our friends in Ufa will turn in all visa invitation paperwork hopefully during the week of Oct. 23.  The big question right now is how quickly gov’t officials in Ufa will process our paperwork; in the past, we have been able to request and pay a little extra money to get rapid one-week processing (versus normal one month processing).  We are not certain that Ufa officials will honor precedent and allow us to apply for and pay for rush processing…PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT WE BE ALLOWED TO DO SO…otherwise, we will likely spend Thanksgiving in Kiev and such a delay would likely have a negative impact on a major volunteer project we’ve had scheduled for months.  

 If we are allowed to get rapid visa invitation processing in Ufa, then we would be able to be back in Ufa possibly in mid-November with new visas, maybe even earlier if EVERYTHING falls into place.  

 Pray for us as we live as a big family in a small apartment…we are truly grateful to the Lord, the IMB, to our colleagues here in Kiev who found the apt for us, and to Southern Baptists who have given sacrificially to secure this apt for us short-term, even though we are quite cramped and the cold weather that is starting to set in will limit the amount of time the kids can play outside. 

Our visa situation also has a bearing in several ways on our incoming team mates Victor and Susan Bauer, who have finished new worker orientation and are slated for arrival in Moscow in mid-November.  Pray for them also, that we be able to secure visa invitations for them from Ufa if at all possible.

 Thanks for standing with us in prayer…we have struggled with sickness since being here in Kiev, have gotten lost multiple times driving around in this large city, we want so much to be back in Ufa where our hearts and ministry have been for so many years now…we read many times in the New Testament of how God orchestrated times of waiting, transition, and (re) deployment of believers on mission with God…we genuinely believe our family is in the midst of such a time, and though it is discomforting in many ways, we know that God is in control and we are learning many things about ourselves and our great God.

 Blessings,

Chris Carr

Kiev, Ukraine