This week the temperatures at night have already gone south of 0 degrees F. and by the end of the week the prognosticators are forecasting -20 F.  Usually when it gets this cold, this Arizona boy and his Hawaii grown wife go into survival mode.  This year we don't have that luxury and will stay busy by finishing up details on the parsonage apartment at the shelter church, moving furniture to the site, holding our fourth monthly church meeting, and of course, making plans to be gone for the next month and a half. 

Regardless of whether we get everything done or not, we'll board a train to Kiev on Sunday evening and by Tuesday evening we'll be back in the states for a short while to visit Arizona churches. We asked you to pray more for the ministry until mid-February than you normally do as we worked through a critical stage of the ministry.  Your prayers have been felt and God has accomplished much through us and the people we work with here in Donetsk during the past month. I (Eric) have been able to get out from under a mountain of stress and have at times even felt refreshed. Your prayers have made a huge difference.  Work will continue while we are gone and we will try to monitor it from afar.

In other news for sports fans, the Donetsk Shaktar soccer team has made it to the 1/8 round of the European cup which is further than we have ever made it before.  Though our team has as many Brazilians as we have Ukrainians, it is quite a point of pride for the citizens of eastern Ukraine.

In closing, I wanted to share with you that the shelter church has officially been given an address by the township leadership. We'll share that with you in a future issue, but for now we simply want to say... thank you for praying!