Pray for Ukraine

I am sure you have seen on the news and on Facebook that riots are breaking out in the Ukraine. Joel has been to the Ukraine and was especially affected by scenes of riots and destruction in places he once visited.

You may be aware that we have a Josiah Venture team serving there. We received a prayer request from them this morning and would like to share part of it with you.

Would you stand with Ukraine in prayer? Two night ago, protesters in our city of Lviv took over government buildings and police buildings. The situation has remained peaceful but police are no longer working and university students stand guard at government buildings.

Our team is not afraid for our safety, but we worry for Ukraine. We are asking God to bring Ukraine to peaceful reform. You can also pray for discernment as we press forward in summer ministry planning; ministry partners are strongly considering canceling summer projects. We know that God is sovereign, and we trust his plans for summer.

We feel that this is an important time in the history of Ukraine. Our intercultural team of 8 doesn't have plans to leave Lviv. We are praying for safety and want to stand with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. You can especially pray for the Ukrainians on our team because this is even more painful for them.

They linked the following video that summarizes the protesters requests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvds2AIiWLA

Thank you for standing in prayer with our team mates and brothers and sisters across the globe!

Our IL trip

While traveling with kids is hard, we are so glad we all got to visit our friends and new team members in the Chicago area this past weekend. It was wonderful to reconnect with our congregation there and our team mates, the Millers. That time seemed to pass all too quickly!

We also met Reggie and Kim Frank in person and wish we would have been able to spend more time with them. Unfortunately, after two night of getting little and poor sleep, Eliana was a giant mess the whole time and just wanted to go back to the car to sleep. We rejoice in knowing we will get to spend plenty of time with the Franks down the road and are thankful for technologies like Skype.

We also met with another potential team mate, whom we hope to introduce to you soon.

All in all, a worthwhile and wonderful weekend for the Josiah Venture Eastern Germany team. We appreciate your prayers for all members of our team during each of our fundraising journeys which are filled with hope and disappointment, prayer and questions, and lots of other mixed emotions.