diff --git a/app.py b/app.py
index d79f2f1d..b9a2bea9 100644
--- a/app.py
+++ b/app.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import os
 import sys
 import json
+from datetime import datetime
 
 import requests
 from flask import Flask, request
@@ -77,8 +78,15 @@ def send_message(recipient_id, message_text):
         log(r.text)
 
 
-def log(message):  # simple wrapper for logging to stdout on heroku
-    print str(message)
+def log(msg, *args, **kwargs):  # simple wrapper for logging to stdout on heroku
+    try:
+        if type(msg) is dict:
+            msg = json.dumps(msg)
+        else:
+            msg = unicode(msg).format(*args, **kwargs)
+        print("{}: {}".format(datetime.now(), msg))
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        pass  # squash logging errors in case of non-ascii text
     sys.stdout.flush()
 
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index fe15f173..34da0218 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-Flask==0.11.1
-Jinja2==2.8
+Flask==1.0
+Jinja2==2.11.3
 MarkupSafe==0.23
-Werkzeug==0.11.10
+Werkzeug==0.15.3
 click==6.6
 gunicorn==19.6.0
 itsdangerous==0.24
-requests==2.10.0
+requests==2.20.0
 wsgiref==0.1.2
diff --git a/runtime.txt b/runtime.txt
index ba85ab97..2ce112e3 100644
--- a/runtime.txt
+++ b/runtime.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-python-2.7.13
\ No newline at end of file
+python-2.7.14
\ No newline at end of file