pray.

These are some basic things you can be praying for!

Winter trip:

Shipping: enough money, a good company, safe and speedy arrival in Ukraine.

Finances: we still need money for food, travel, the Ukrainian team, living and other expenses while we're there.

Translators: we've had some difficulties in the past. Pray for helpful, willing translators.

Communication with the Ukrainians: there are some things we need to get settled with them before we leave, and communication is hard.

Program: our organization and planning of Bible lessons, crafts, games Christmas/New Years' day activities.

The kids:

Winter: no heat at the orphanage, below zero weather, less food… pray for the kids to be encouraged, cared for and comforted in this hard time.

Graduates: the kids that have graduated, no longer living at the orphanage – safety, health, knowing God's love.

Salvation: most of these kids don't know God's incredible love for them. Pray that they can come to know Jesus as their Savior and know the grace that comes when you are a child of God.

Long term:

Organization: we're still learning how to actually organize and work all on our own.

Non-profit application: it can be a really long process – pray it all gets done quickly.

The blue house: a house is going to cost us about $50,000 and it's probably going to need a lot of work. Pray that we can have the money by spring, ideally, and that we can find and purchase exactly the amazing house God wants us to have.

Humility: we never want to take credit for the way that God is allowing us to be used by Him to do what we're doing.

Our heart: we never want to lose sight of God and His purpose in all of this, our focus needs to stay the same for as long as we are serving God in this. We never want to change our focus from being on the gospel and sharing God's love with the kids. There are way too many ministries that become a lot like businesses in the long run – we never want to become that.

Thanks for your prayers. We need them.