Special Prayer Request

After three days of struggling, crying and dealing with a very large amount of anger, I have come to the point where I must ask for your help and prayers. Upon returning from our totally fabulous Thanksgiving festivities, I called my dear Russian friend, L, to see how her weekend had been going. She was at the Emergency Room!!! Her husband had beaten her so badly, she had to leave her 2 year old daughter with a neighbor she barely knows to go to the ER. Her husband, V, has been beating her for years…and he does not drink alcohol and attends Church! She has no family in Russia, no money and feels like she has no options, but to endure his beatings. She has spent the past 3 days confined to her bed.

I am so upset and surprised. I asked the head of the local Church how we could help her (4 months ago, she was baptized and joined the Church) and he said that I need to “pray for her and support her…only God can change her situation.” I know prayer is of the up most importance and that God can change her situation, but should not the Church body intervene? Are we supposed to just sit by (of course while lifting her up in prayer) and do nothing?!? We have noticed before that the Russian church is quite passive about dealing with these kinds of things, mostly because the Russian authorities themselves don’t do much about domestic violence.

Please pray for L. Pray that God would protect her, comfort her, heal her wounds and give her wisdom to know how to handle this terrible, on going situation. Pray that V would repent and stop hitting his wife. Pray for their daughter, D, that she would be safe and not be afraid. And pray for me. Pray that I would not be angry. Pray that we would wisdom to help this family, especially L, and that we would see God mightily intervene and work in this situation.