During the last couple of weeks, we have entertained a wonderful group of young people from Tucson, Arizona, who came to help us build a church and build relationship with the community.  They helped with both of these things and did so with joyous hearts and happy attitudes. They truly radiated the love of Christ in the love they showed to us, each other and to those they came into contact with.  It was an exhausting but blessed couple of weeks.

Today, I'm home waiting for a committee from the gas company to come inspect our pipes and connections, and to give their final approval. It's October, and we won't have heat until they take the seal off our heater.  Hopefully that will be soon - winter can't be too far away.

There are more praises today than prayer requests, however, if you read between the lines when you praise, you will find things to pray about in them also.

Praise

• The group that came was able to substantially aid us in building the church on the shelter. During the process, there were no injuries save for a few minor scrapes, bruises and blisters.
  
• The team from Tucson also enabled us to form relationship with a boarding school for the hard of hearing. To further that relationship, we were able to connect the boarding school to a ministry that teaches morals, ethics, and overall addiction free living.
  
• We were able to use the visiting youth as an encouragement to the two churches here in Donetsk province that have been partnering with us through active prayer and sacrificial giving of themselves.
  
• We were able to expose the youth group to a variety of ministry endeavors to help broaden their scope of what they could do in ministry/missions. Thus they shared the love of Christ at a children's shelter, English club, and ex-con rehab center.
  
• In all of this, God gave us a great time of mutual encouragement. Trying to keep up with  people less than half our age was not easy and yet God gave us the grace and the strength, as well as the vitamins that kept us well the whole time. This week we have been able to get rested up.
• A man not far from the church on the shelter has repented and is allowing God to turn his life around.  A month ago, he was able to give up drinking, smoking, and cleared all the bad images from his mobile phone all in one day's time.
  
• We have made great progress in our quest for full documentation with the gas company.
  

Prayer requests:

• The team from Tucson needs your prayers as they meditate on and process the experience they had here in Ukraine.
  
• Pray that we will be successful in finishing the block wall construction and at least the second floor ceiling panels at the church on the shelter construction before hard freezing begins.
• The first seminars of the church planting training program commonly referred to as Project 250, were postponed until November 18 - 20 in order to facilitate the cooperation with the Baptist Union's missiology program. Pray that hearts and minds would be open to what God would have for each student.
  

Every time the gas company says they are going to send someone out to do something, I have to stay home and wait because there is no way of knowing when they will actually come.  It has occurred to me that this may be God's way of making us slow down this week and get some extra rest after working so hard during the past month. In all circumstances, give thanks. Thank you for praying for us and the ministry during the last few weeks. We are buoyed up by your prayers.

 

Gratefully,