2002

Prayer Request Summer 2002:

First, Anna. We continue to rejoice that her eczema has lessened so much in the last year – but it’s also become more obvious as it has lessened, that it’s still food allergy related. She’s had so many good, and then bad days – that we began to again question what was different in those days. Despite all the official allergy tests coming back all negative – meaning that she ‘has no allergies’ – we’ve continued to suspect something in her diet. It’s just not as easy now as when she was first eating solids to determine what. Our kids all had a nasty stomach flu a few weeks ago – and while we weren’t glad they all got so sick – it did show again that Anna’s eczema IS food related – as her skin cleared up amazingly while she was so sick and not eating much of anything.

That stomach flu also gave us a chance to give Anna food slowly and watch for reactions – and we were very sad when we learned what we did. Anna’s allergic to milk – which is really a bummer for our ‘cheese girl’. Anna could live on yogurt and cheeses, not to mention ice cream. It was very obviously milk products – with clear skin getting red and itchy sometimes as soon as 20 minutes after she ate. So, we’ve put Anna on a no-milk products diet. In one sense it is a great relief to finally know one of the causes, and be able to do something about that. In another, it is very hard to cut out all milk products in all our family meals, and very hard on Anna – who keeps insisting that “cheese is okay, mommy, see – no red spots”. We have found goats milk to be okay, so Anna can have cereal – but it is also extremely expensive – so she’s getting more toast for breakfast as well. We’ve also found goats-milk cheese, which Anna is happy with – but it too is very expensive, so we’re trying to use it sparingly.

All in all – please keep all these things in prayer. We pray especially for Anna’s complete healing. She has so greatly improved, and we were originally told that she would most likely outgrow this by 18 months to 3 years. Anna will be three this summer. And we really have seen the greatest improvements in this last year. Dry and often itchy skin is normal for her now, she’s an old pro at putting lotion on herself already. Thank you for all the prayers for Anna over the years – we can’t wait for the day when we can report normal skin, and prayers for this no longer necessary!

Okay – the second big prayer issue right now is Rachel’s visa for staying in Hungary. Last October we got all the paperwork done and her application for a ‘long-term residency visa’ (similar to a green-card in the States) was submitted. At that time we were told it would take about six months to process. March has come and gone. Years ago, even just last year, there would not have been much to worry about. Hungary has always had a very relaxed attitude toward Americans, and pretty much all the missionaries we have known here never got official long term visas, they just used the common loop-hole in the tourist visa law that was so common the border-crossing guards all knew and helped in it. An American tourist could come and stay for 3 months, no questions asked. The loop-hole came when after 3 months, we would just go to the closet border, get the passport stamped for leaving, turn around in the no-man’s land in between, and re-enter Hungary for another 3 months – not having actually gone anywhere.

Rumors have been flying since January about a new law passed, but it was very hard to figure out what it all exactly meant. This past month it has finally been clearly posted on the American Embassy’s website here in Hungary (though many officials in Hungary are still clueless). In effect since January 2002 the new law states that an American can only be in Hungary for 3 months in any six month period with a common tourist visa. Any longer stays now require visas. Norbi has been going to all sorts of govt. offices, and has finally learned that this month, May 2002, they are just now working on the applications for the long term visas that were submitted in Jan. 2001. Rachel’s was submitted in October 2001. We can’t wait for that visa to come through, and so are working toward a simple one-year visa that ‘should be ready in 60 days’. We crossed the border last in March (we didn’t know all this then – but there was still no problems at that time) – so Rachel should be technically fine here until June. We don’t see any fear of immediate deporting – though we do know friends who got deported for not having left the country in time last year – still, they were stopped for a traffic violation – and as Rachel does not drive, and we really see no other reason for her to be brought to the authorities’ attention – we are praying that we can get her all legal before we need to leave the country. That would be August for the Missionary Conf. in Austria – and if we get the paperwork all done for this other visa, and in by the end of this month – they ‘should’ be done in time. Rachel is really praying hard for that – as she needs to get to that conference this year. J

To sum up these two prayer needs more precisely:

- Please pray for Anna’s eczema to completely heal up – and until then, that the no-milk diet helps, and that Anna isn’t too upset by the lack of her favorite foods. Please keep Rachel in your prayers as she tries to come up with substitutes for milk products. And that we would have wisdom in all this – the Dr.’s and test say one thing, and yet we see something else – that our Great Physician would guide us and continue to touch Anna’s skin.

- Please pray for this new, one-year visa for Rachel to be submitted and processed quickly, with no problems. And that her long-term visa would be done this year, before she needs another one-year visa. Also, that if it’s the Lord’s will for us to attend the missionary conf. in Austria this year, that this would all be taken care of by then.

Thank you all so much for your prayers – we know Anna’s improvement this year is in answer to so many prayers. And we’d also love to hear from any of you with your own prayer requests – praying for someone is such a wonderful way to stay ‘connected’, though the miles separate us!