Spring has finally come to Kyiv, and we are enjoying somewhat warmer weather. It also means it’s time for the city to turn off hot water. That’s supposed to begin tomorrow. We are not looking forward to that.

First, some good news. Last Friday, *Zhanna*, who has been a participant in our Student Nights and Soup Group and other activities, gave her life to Christ and was baptized by Vitaly Samodin. You can see some pictures and read more about her at his blog, http://oppositeworldunion.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_oppositeworldunion_archive.html. Praise the Lord for her decision.

Zhanna, along with seven others from church, left for four months of Work and Travel, a program that places Ukrainian students in summer jobs. Eight of our church members are in Wisconsin Dells. Members of an area Church of Christ actually picked them up at the airport in Chicago and are helping them settle in. The church has six members so our group will double their attendance this summer! We will miss them. We had a departure orientation at our apartment a few weeks ago and pray that God blesses them while away from us.

Now that the students are mostly on vacation or have left Kyiv, many of our events have come to a close. Soup Group was a great experience for us as was my Monday English class. Student Night also went well. Some we will be able to restart in a few days, but the summer is definitely going to be slower without the students. And since we don’t have any visitors until July, things are going to be different this summer. Our Psalms study continues and I have a new English class with Alesha, a church member's boyfriend.

The UEC keeps marching forward. We have just posted several new articles at our new web address as well as the latest newsletter that was just mailed out. Please visit www.ueckyiv.org for UEC news.

Our *Thursday hospitality nights* continue and sometimes that gets expanded to Tuesday nights. We have been having a lot of conversations (some till almost midnight) about relationships. Vitaly and Lera are planning for their wedding in May. This will be the first wedding where both persons were converted through Nivki church. We are very excited about that. We have also been ministering to several others who are in relationships. And though we can’t reveal any of those details, we are glad to be a part of helping others have better relationships.

We’ve also spent much time in church planning meetings. The details of those meetings are long and complicated but the conclusion of the matter is that the church is growing up, able to better make decisions and deal with problems. This maturity is also forcing us to re-evaluate our plans for how long we will stay here and how we should phase out of the life of the church. *Please pray for us as we begin this period of evaluation. *

* *Personally speaking, Lena has completed her second MBA class on-line and is about to begin 2 more. My classes I had hoped to take this summer didn’t work out so I am playing the support role for her. I have been trying to study Greek on my own but haven’t made much progress.

We are very thankful to all those who continue to financially support the ministry and for those who were able to increase their regularly monthly giving. Life in Kyiv just continues to get more expensive. Your increase in giving helps us keep up with the cost of living. Thank you.

I regularly update the blog www.kyivmission.blogspot.com if you would like to know more about our life, work, and Ukraine.