Thank you for praying Eric safely across Europe. The border crossing into Ukraine took over 5 hours, which is standard, but he was able to temporarily import our STL vehicle for free. For now, Eric will need to drive it out of the country and back in every two months. We are extremely thankful for this 4-wheel drive Toyota. Roads here are in disrepair, drivers undisciplined and dangerous, accidents commonplace. Praise God for Speed the Light, and pray for protection.

Praise God for adequate and affordable housing. At least 7 real estate agents told us it would be impossible to find anything acceptable within our budget in this incredibly inflated Kiev housing market. Finally, through a Christian e-mail newsletter, we discovered a spacious but fixer-upper 3-room apartment in an unfinished building on the edge of a suburb. (This requires a lot of driving - see first prayer request, above. The children's school is about 18 miles away.) We agreed to make some repairs and improvements as part of our rent. Eric worked hard doing the minimum to make it safe and livable before he left for Russia this Monday. He is once again trying to find a reasonably-priced solution to moving our things from St. Petersburg to Kiev. Eric's back is giving him trouble again. Please pray that both Eric and our things will make it undamaged to our new home. Pray for favor with customs officials in both Russia and Ukraine.

Cows, roosters and horse-drawn carts share the roads by our house with speeding BMWs and Mercedes. Ukraine, like Russia, is full of contradictions, two worlds co-existing. Pray for discernment and divine appointments as we seek to serve in and from this new setting.

Eric had to leave Russia to take care of our STL vehicle which we had stored in France during our furlough. We just learned that it should not have been in France for so long without being officially imported, which is very costly. Praise God for favor with French officials who charged us nothing on the condition that we take it out of the European Union as soon as possible. Eric's parents and I (Jan) drove with the kids from Nice to Paris and Eric met us there. Praise God for an earlier-than-expected reunion and a few days together with extended family. Eric had been away for a month, during which time baby Michael turned one and began walking.

Praise God the children and I (Jan) had a safe flight from Paris to Kiev August 7. We are staying with colleagues. Eric is driving our vehicle from Paris and hopes to be here tomorrow. Please pray for favor with Ukrainian officials so that there will be no problems getting the vehicle into this country and properly registered. While in St. Petersburg Eric was unable to ship our things to Kiev for a reasonable price, so he will try again after we find housing in Kiev. Thank you for praying for just the right place. Pray the entire move will be completed before school starts.

Please continue to pray for our budget to be raised completely by the end of August.

July 24, 2008

Praise God for a successful summer camp, "Run the Race! '08" July 7-13 in Voronezh , Russia. Nearly 70 students traveled from various Russian cities to attend this annual Students for Christ training event. The Chi Alpha team from Michigan and Eric all made it there, as well.

Thank you for praying for Eric's one-year, multi-entry Russian visa. He was able to obtain it in just a few hours at the consulate in France, at no charge. Getting it fast was a blessing. Getting it free was a miracle.

Eric is now in St. Petersburg trying to collect our stored affairs and arrange the move to Kiev, not an easy task. Pray for wisdom, favor with officials in Russia and Ukraine, and safe transport. Please continue to pray for adequate, affordable housing in Kiev.

Jan and the children are still in Nice staying with Eric's parents and dealing with major mechanical and paperwork problems with our STL vehicle. Praise God the breakdown occurred here and not en route, full of family and luggage. The French Riviera is not a bad place to be stuck, after all. (The photo at right shows our kids on the way to the beach.) Pray for repairs to be finished as soon as possible, and for favor with French officials, who could charge us or save us thousands of dollars. We have already spent several thousand on repairs. None of this was in the budget.

Our ministry funding status for the next four years will be determined at the end of August. We are close, but still haven't hit the mark to guarantee our ministry budget. Praise God for very generous donors who have gotten us this far, and please pray that last bit in.

April 5, 2008 - Furlough news    Our plans for returning to the field have been changed. Russia is closed to us at the moment due to the visa situation there (See December prayer request below.) so we plan to move our family to Kiev in neighboring Ukraine, homeland of Eric’s maternal grandmother. From Ukraine, Eric will be able to travel in and out of Russia and also follow up on invitations to help launch Students for Christ in other former Soviet Union nations.

    Praise God we have recently received some very generous offerings and new pledges. Also, some faithful supporters have raised their monthly commitment level. Thank you so much! Regrettably, some others have had to reduce or drop their support entirely. Times are tough all around. In Europe right now the dollar has lost almost half its previous value. Prices are soaring. Missionaries and their ministries in every country whose economy is tied to the Euro are hurting. We still need over $2,000 per month in monthly commitments. We must leave in June but we cannot be cleared to go with the support level we have now. We need a financial miracle - or a new calling...

    Please pray for many new or increased monthly commitments to come in quickly. One-time contributions are also welcome.

Field news    Praise God for all He has done in and through SFC-Russia students this past year. The SFC-Russia 2008 report (a PDF document) contains photos and updates on SFC ministries in several Russian cities. Please pray for struggling SFC-Rostov, whose leader will be graduating this year. If no new leadership is established, the ministry may die. Pray for SFC-Saratov, being planted this year.

December 2007    Please pray with us and all our colleagues for creative solutions to continuing ministry in Russia. In October 2007, the Russian government passed a new visa law which permits foreigners to be in the country up to 180 days per year with a maximum of 90 days at a time. While still allowing for trips into Russia, this new law makes it impractical to live there. Other arrangements such as residency are difficult to obtain and not necessarily desirable.