Happy spring to you all! We hope you are enjoying the growth of green grass and cheery spring flowers, as we are starting to see here in L’viv. The winter here was a mild one, but it’s still so refreshing to watch new life budding and to switch out winter coats for spring jackets!

Ministry Updates

New Horizons (the church where we serve) is moving! We’ve been praying for a while that God would provide a new location, as the church has outgrown our current home and we’ve been holding two Sunday services since February. The new building God has opened will allow enough space for the whole body to meet in one service and will even give us some growing room. The building needs a good deal of remodeling, and the church staff and congregation are already busy at work with that. We’re looking forward to our first Sunday in the new place, which will happen some time in May.

Josh continues to run the weekly English club, an evangelistic ministry of the church. Each week the students watch short video clips in English, learn vocabulary and phrases, and discuss the clips in order to practice their English. The ministry is growing, and there are regularly 30 to 40 people each week. It’s a unique opportunity for Josh and others from the church to develop relationships with the students and share with them the love of God.

Josh and Nicole are both heavily involved in the worship and sound ministries. Josh works regularly with Galya, a young woman who has been running sound for the church for some time now, and they share the responsibilities of working the sound system during several weekly church services. He is also gradually replacing or repairing equipment, training the worship team about how the music and sound ministries can work together, and preparing for changes to the system in our new building. Nicole is serving as the worship leader for a season. She leads one of the Sunday services and handles the administration of the worship ministry. She and Josh are also planning some joint training for the worship and sound teams.

Nicole is also involved in discipleship with women from the church and is meeting regularly with a number of young ladies from New Horizons. This is an area that she is particularly passionate about, and it’s a blessing to get to know these precious women! It’s also a ministry that she can do right in our home, while Nora plays.

Family Updates

God provided renters for our Indiana house in February, and in early March, we moved into our rental home here in L’viv. Thank you all so much for your prayers in these matters! The house is located close to public transport, a large store, and several small parks for Nora. It has a connected kitchen and living room, which is fairly unusual here and allows Nicole to cook while watching Nora or visiting with people who come over. The landlords live on one side of the house and have two small dogs that Nora thoroughly enjoys (and Papa and Mama enjoy the fact that we don’t have to get one for her!). It also has some courtyard space where Nora can run and play.

Nora is getting entirely too big and looks much more like a little girl than a baby now. She repeats everything we say and seems to be grasping the concept of switching between English and Ukrainian, depending on whom she is speaking with. She still loves being outside more than anything else, and her two favorite words are now “wee” (swing) and “fwide” (slide). She loves watching Winnie the Pooh and has become very attached to a little stuffed Pooh Bear. She’s also fascinated with animals and has learned many of their sounds. When we go to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house in the village, she’s always excited to point out the “tookies” (turkeys) and tries to gobble at them! We’re so grateful to be her Papa and Mama!

Praises and Prayers

Praise God with us…

• For the new church building and the people who have volunteered to help with the remodeling
• For the many people at New Horizons who serve in so many ways!
• For the worship and sound teams, that each person is so willing to help and be involved in God’s work
• For a house for our family

Please pray…

• That God would continually work in the hearts of people with whom we meet, whether for evangelism or discipleship
• That the church remodeling would go smoothly so we can move in quickly
• For our health – We’ve all been sick quite a lot since arriving in L’viv. Please pray that God would boost Nora’s immune system and that He would heal Nicole from some ongoing health problems.
• For our emotions – Our family has suffered several very difficult losses in the past couple months, so we appreciate your prayers for comfort.
• For encouragement and strength for the Pratt family, who is going through a great deal of spiritual warfare

Thank you, as always, for your support, encouragement and prayers! We pray that God is working in each of your lives in ways that grow and strengthen you and draw you closer to Him!