Yep, we’re still here! Why? Just Google the terms “Iceland volcano” and you’ll find a whole pile of news stories covering the most recent act of God which has paralyzed European air travel. Bottom line: our original flight to Ukraine was cancelled, and we have been rebooked for April 27th, ash-cloud permitting. Please pray that God would remove this ash cloud and that we would have safe flying conditions for our return to L’viv. Traveling with us on the same day will be Bryan Shufelt.

The Steele Clan at a recent family night

House Update
As many of you know, the Lord provided last year for Kelsie and I to purchase our first house in the US. With the help of many dear saints, we’ve been able to complete all the repairs, and the house is now ready for leasing. Please pray with us that God would bring along just the right tenants. Below are a few pictures of the house since the remodeling.

Yes, God can provide through prayer alone.

The living room

The kitchen

Visa Problems
Remember a few months ago when we told you about some immigration snags that were part of our original reasons for coming to the US? Well, Ukraine is at it again! Just in the last week or two, we’ve learned that the local immigration authorities have decided that they will no longer register cultural visas. Most of the missionaries we know in Ukraine (including us) have this type of visa, so obviously this new restriction poses a significant problem. Without registration, you can only stay in the country for 90 days regardless of the term of your visa. We are currently pursuing some various solutions, but don’t yet have anything definite. It looks like we may have to get new visas of a different type. This may be a solution, but it’s very expensive. (~$300 per visa per person!) Please pray that God would work this out and that missionaries would be able to remain in Ukraine, preaching the Gospel openly.

Hank Thompson
Speaking of preaching, we recently had the honor of hosting Hank Thompson and his family at our house in Fort Worth. Hank and his wife Amy are just back from Thailand and are speaking and preaching at various locations in the US. Also traveling with the Thompsons are the Murphy’s. Like Hank, Bryce Murphy is a street preacher. Bryce, Hank, myself and a couple of other men went to downtown Fort Worth one night while they were here and preached the Gospel on the street corners for a couple of hours. I hadn’t done that in a while, and even though my voice gave out quickly, it was wonderful to once again be proclaiming Christ in the “highways and hedges.” I stand fully behind Hank’s ministry, and I believe that God is using him in a powerful way to open the eyes of sinners to their need for the Lord Jesus. If you’d like to get a fresh dose of encouragement and vision for front-line evangelism, contact Hank about speaking at your church. You’ll be glad you did! Here’s how to contact Hank:
E-mail: henry.hispower@gmail.com
Web site: www.HisPower.org

Hank Thompson, his wife Amy, and their two children

Bryce Murphy, his wife Jenny, and their four children

CMO Plans
Good news for all you procrastinators out there: the CMO 2010 deadline has been moved back to May 15! Time is running out, so if you want to come, download the app from our web site and get it to us ASAP! CMO begins June 1, and if you want to come we need to hear from you right away. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Since our last post (which, yes, has been entirely too long) much has happened. So much, in fact, that I’m not quite sure where to begin. I suppose I’ll start with the news that it most exciting:

Kelsie and I are expecting our third child!

The happy couple. Sorry, don't have a picture of Junior yet, so this'll have to do for now.

We only found out about the pregnancy a couple of weeks ago, so we still don’t have a lot of details. The due date should fall in November more or less. We’ll post more info as we get it. In the meantime, please pray for our return trip April 20 to Ukraine. Kels is already experiencing the effects of morning sickness, and we’re praying that she will feel well during the flight.

Young Men’s Conference
Some of you may recall from a previous post that I taught a two-day conference for young men here in Fort Worth, TX. My brother Jonathan is working on making that available on DVD and is nearly ready to begin distribution. Not long after that original conference, I visited No Greater Joy and was asked to do a condensed version of the conference up there. This was recorded on video and is now available for viewing through Vimeo. If you like, you can view all three of these sesssions right here on our blog. Just click the Men’s Conference link on the right-hand menu.

Travel and Reporting
God has recently opened several doors for us to share our work in Ukraine in various churches. (That’s one of my excuses for not posting more often!) As we noted in our last post, we were able to speak at a church in Alabama, then to several groups in Tennessee. We also had the opportunity to speak at a missions conference at South Side Baptist Church in Weatherford, TX this past Sunday, and I’ll be traveling to Austin next week to speak to a group there. It’s been great to be able to share our vision with believers here, and we are sincerely grateful to everyone who is praying for us and supporting us. Exciting days lie ahead, and we can’t wait to get back to the field and continue the work there.

CMO Plans
We already have a few guys planning to come to CMO this year. If you’re thinking about coming, you need to send in your application ASAP. The registration deadline is April 15th. Don’t put it off! If you have questions, check our web site or send us an e-mail. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to help advance the Kingdom of God!

The latest issue of Overseas Field Report has now been posted to our blog. Hard copies will going out in the mail this week, so if you’re on our regular mailing list, you should be receiving a copy soon.

Carpathian Mountain Outreach 2010 will begin on June 1st. Exciting things are happening, and we look forward to what God will do in Western Ukraine this summer.

CORRECTION: After mailing out the printed version of OFR, we realized that part of the last sentence on page 3 was cut off. The entire sentence should read: “Whether you support us in prayer or join us in the mountains, help us do what believers have been doing for 2000 years: go and tell others what Jesus Christ has done for you.” This has been corrected in the PDF file below.

Download the latest OFR here » January/February 2010 (888.94 KB)

If you would like to subscribe to receive Overseas Field Report by mail, please send us your name and US mailing address. We appreciate your interest in overseas missions.

After many weeks of preparation, the Steele family is finally departing for America! As we travel, we would greatly appreciate your prayers in the following areas:

• A smooth border crossing out of Ukraine (We don’t expect any problems, but you never know.)
• Strength for the children
• Safety
• Health (No one is sick at the moment, but international travel is quite stressful.)
• The safe arrival of all our luggage

Beka and Abby are growing all the time! Abby will be four in September. Beka is 19 months.

Nathan Day will be traveling to America a few days after we do. As many of you know, he will be getting married to Katelin Rebsch on November 7 of this year. Please pray for safe travel for Nathan and Katelin and for God’s blessing on them as they begin their new life together in Ukraine. Also, be sure to check out their new wedding web site!

The 2009 ETO staff team

Ministry Status
Although we will be in the US for several months, the ministry will proceed. The Beal family, Denise Hutchison, and Bryan Shufelt remain in Ukraine and will continue ETO’s many outreaches and projects in our absence. The following is a brief overview of our primary ministries and their goals over the next few months.

Chronological Bible Course (CBC)
Our team recently completed our final draft of Lesson 15 of the course. This lesson will be sent to our translator soon and later formatted before going to press. Lesson 14 is being translated right now. While in the US, we will continue writing new material for our course. At present, we have about 380 students enrolled, many of whom are advancing quickly through the lessons.

The first phase of our course will consist of 17 lessons, covering the entire book of Genesis. We are very excited to be nearing the completion of this phase. The following is a topical overview of Phase 1:

1. Introduction of the Bible
2. Who is God?
3. The Spiritual World
4. Creation Part I (Gen. 1)
5. Creation Part II (Gen. 1)
6. Adam and Eve (Gen. 1, 2)
7. The Fall (Gen. 3)
8. The Curse & The Promised Deliverer (Gen. 3)
9. Cain and Abel (Gen. 4)
10. Noah and the Great Flood (Gen. 5-11)
11. Abraham I (Gen. 12-14)
12. Abraham II (Gen. 15-17)
13. Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18-20)
14. Isaac (Gen. 21-22)
15. Isaac and His Family (Gen. 23-26)
16. Jacob (27-36)
17. Joseph (Gen. 37-50)

Audio Bible Studies (ABS)
Our Audio Bible Study sessions continue to progress well. We hold weekly meetings here in L’viv which consist of a one-hour English Club followed by a one-hour Bible lesson. During English Club, Ukrainians are invited to practice their language skills on various topics. We also make heavy use of No Greater Joy’s Good and Evil, which the students practice reading aloud in English. All of our students have copies of the book in Ukrainian, and we encourage them to compare the two languages and ask questions about what they read.

We have a handful of people who have been coming on a regular basis, and most opt to stay for Bible lesson as well. Over the past several weeks, we have been teaching through the book of Romans, recording every message in digital audio. Last week, we completed Romans 8. The Romans series will be on hold while our family is in the States, but English Club will proceed as usual.

Carpathian Mountain Outreach (CMO)
We had a great summer in the Carpathians this year. We showed Fireproof in several villages in the mountains were encouraged by the positive responses we received. Our team also passed out quite a bit of literature inviting Ukrainians to enroll in our correspondence course. As a result, we have gained many new contacts over the last couple of months. Click here to view the CMO 2009 photo journal.

Plans are already being laid for next year’s project, CMO 2010. We hope to have updated information available on our ministry web site in the next couple of months.

We are very grateful to all of you who faithfully supported this outreach in prayer. Please continue to intercede for those who were introduced to Christ this year in Western Ukraine.

Summary
We will continue to post ministry and family updates throughout our time in America. As always, we are grateful for your prayers and support as we strive to publish the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Ukraine.

Since we posted out last update regarding our trip to the US, God has provided us a car free of charge! A missionary family  based out of Illinois contacted us to say that they no longer need their ’95 Toyota Camry since they are moving to Japan. As it stands right now, we will be picking up the car when we come through Chicago on our way down to DFW.

We are, however, still in need in of housing for our nine-month stay in America. Please continue to pray with us about this need, and if you know of any available housing options in the Fort Worth area, please let us know.

Ministry News
I apologize for the lack of ministry updates lately. In short, there is so much ministry going on, that it’s hard to find time to write about it! God is blessing, and we are moving forward in many areas. Tonight, for example, is ABS. We’ll be starting Romans 8. We are excited to have the Romans series in digital audio, and look forward to distributing it to our CBC students in the coming weeks and months.

Below are a few pictures from CMO, ABS, CBC, and our other acronym-rich activities. FYI.

Our most recent Fireproof showing in the village of Tershiv.

Teaching Romans 7 at a recent ABS meeting.

Preaching the Gospel after a film showing

The ETO team edits our newest version of Lesson 1 from the Chronological Bible Course.

The CMO 2009 team. Thanks for praying for these guys!