Licensing Update - Call for Prayer

Thank you for your prayers on behalf of ETSM. We have been working through the bureaucratic challenges appending our legal status as a "religious organization" to that also of an "educational institution."

In March, we submitted all of the paperwork (along with accompanying documents and contracts with various offices/agencies). On March 27, we were notified that our documents have been found in order and received the "Executive Resolution of Federal Service of Supervision in Education and Science" to have one final visit from an expert committee.

The tentative date for the meeting of the expert committee is April 2 - provided we can coordinate everyone's calendar. The expert committee will consist of a representative from (1) the Federal Licensing Bureau - Mr Alexander Gruzkov will chair the meeting, (2) the Department of Education for the City of Moscow - Erina Timchak, (3) a University representative specializing in State-Confessions Relations - Dr. Mikhail Shakhov, (4) a NGO serving society - Elena Polyanskaya, and (5) our religious union (the umbrella organization under which our denomination has its legal home) - Sergei Riakhovsky.

As you can tell from the above paragraph, this will be a very important meeting. We simply ask you to pray for the meeting that takes place on April 2, so that God will grant us favor in the eyes of the committee. Two of the five members are "our people," but the remaining three (the first three mentioned) are not saved and do not favor evangelicals.

"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." Proverbs 21:1