Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my dear friends! I thank God for your encouragement, prayers and financial partnership with me. It has been a difficult year in Ukraine and the crisis continues in the eastern part of the country. Many Ukrainians are fearful of the future of the country and many are going to churches for help and answers. Pray for all believers to be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Pray for peace for Ukraine and for peace to reign in the hearts of the people. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Merry Christmas from my home to your home!

We Need More Chairs!!!

We are having a good problem in our church - we don't have enough chairs!!! Could  you help to purchase a new chair for $25.00 for our church for Christmas and then pray that God will fill that chair with a person seeking Him? We are asking God to provide us with 25 new chairs. You can send your donation to TEAM, P.O. Box 969, Wheaton, Illinois 60187 and mark it, "A Chair for Petrovka."

Upcoming Events in the Life of our Church

Please pray for our New Year's celebration with all the new believers and their families who will be attending a special evening on December 31 at our church. This will be the first year that these young believers will celebrate the New Year without alcohol. Pray that they will not be tempted by their neighbors and friends who believe the only way to bring in the New Year is with alcohol.
Pray for our Christmas children's meeting that we will have on January 2 from 10:00-4:00. We plan to share the true meaning of Christmas by sharing the Christmas story, to bake cookies for them to decorate and take home and to make Christmas cards for their families.
Pray for our Ukrainian Christmas Eve celebration with our church family on January 6 and our Christmas Day celebration on January 7. After our Christmas service we will be going through our town and singing Christmas carols to our neighbors and friends.
Lord willing, the end of January, Misha will be ordained as the pastor of our church in Petrovka. Pray for this long-awaited day for our church family.

Misha

Amazing Times at our New Church in Petrovka - November 30

Another special day as a lady, Lena, came to know Christ. One of our sisters, Julie, who came to know the Lord last year, had been witnessing to her about how she came to know Christ in the church where she heard about the living God. Lena asked her where she could find this church and Julie invited her to come with her. Lena's mother lives in Kyrgyzstan and is a believer in Jesus Christ. She has been praying for 20 years for Lena to become a believer!!!

Lena's Repentance

Our Church's Second Birthday - November 16

We celebrated two years of our new church in Petrovka on November 16. It was another special day for our church as two more young moms, Natasha and Larisa, repented. Our brothers and the children sang special songs and we gave thanks together to God for all He is doing in the town of Petrovka.

Larisa and Natasha

Igor, Oleg, Oleg and Misha

October 5 - Another Special Day in the Life of our Church

Praise to the Lord for Oleg, Leda and Natasha's repentance on this day!!! Pray for each one to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Valentina, Alonya's sister on left, Oleg with his wife, Alonya

Grandmother Leda's Repentance

Natasha's Repentance

Children's Playground Grand Opening on October 4

Thank you to all who gave to make this dream come true!!! May God bless you!!!

Wild and Wonderful!!! This was one of the most exciting days for the people in Petrovka - the opening of a children's playground for the children in their town. I thank God for two of my supporting churches and one personal supporter who gave to make this dream come true. We had over 150 children and over 50 adults attend the opening. The mayor of our town spoke and cut the red ribbon for the opening. The head doctor of the hospital also attended. We served popcorn, cotton candy and juice to everyone who attended. We had Bibles and Christian literature for the children and adults. People are still in amazement that our church would do such a wonderful thing for their town.
Pray that God will use this playground to bring many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Misha and the Mayor of Petrovka

Our Mayor Cutting the Red Ribbon

The calm before the opening!

Harvest Celebration 2014

We celebrated our Harvest celebration in our church on September 28. This is a special day to give thanksgiving to God for all the blessings He has given to us. Our children shared songs and poetry giving praise to God. This day was extra special this year since we had three young moms come to know Christ!!! We give thanks to God for these new, young believers.

Our Sweet Children

Valentina, Alyona and Lena

Fall Start Up of our Children's Bible Club

My pastor, Tim Kroll, visited us in September and spoke to our children's group about Noah and the flood. We talked about how God sent the rainbow as a promise to never flood the earth again. We gave bracelets with the colors of the rainbow so that the children would remember that God's promise are true.We are having 45-55 children attend our Saturday club every week. Pray for us to build relationships with these children and that we will share the love of Christ to each one. Pray also for us to be able to build a bridge to their parents as we pick up and take children home each week.

Our Theme "God's Promise are True!"

Young Mom's Group

Thank you for praying for the start of this new group. I had seen a real need for the young moms to have a group for quite a long time and after much prayer and seeking God's will, I decided to ask the moms that I had a built a relationship with if they would be interested in such a group. When all seven of them said yes, I understood it was time to start this group. On Wednesday, September 14, I started meeting with these moms. At our first meeting I shared how I came to know Christ and how I came to live in Ukraine. The very first day after our meeting, I took some of the moms home. One of the moms invited me into her home and after talking a short time, she began to repent of her sins. Lucy and I knelt down in her home and she confessed all her sins from when she was a little girl until the present. Praise be to God!
On September 28 we had our Harvest celebration and three more moms, Alonya, Valentina and Lena, repented. Praise the Lord! On October 5, Alyona's husband, Oleg, repented and another young mom, Natasha, from our group. Lida, one of our grandmothers, repented on this day too!!! Then on November 16, two more moms from my group, Natasha and Larisa, repented. I stand amazed at God's Spirit moving in the lives of the people in our town. Let us praise Him together for the great things He is doing!!! Pray for these moms to grow strong in the Lord. Of the nine ladies who have been attending, seven have come to know Jesus. Pray for Nadiya and Marina to understand the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

Natasha, Alonya, Nadiya, Lena, Lucy & Natasha 

Rejoicing with My New Sisters in Christ

Summer Camp 2014

You are Special!!!

Thank you for praying for our summer camp July 22-27. Our theme this year was "You are Special".
God blessed us with 72 children and we had a great week! We had five leaders who taught the lessons each day and two sports leaders. Our cooks did a great job feeding the children every day. We ended the week with a special program for the parents and many new parents came to see why their children were so happy to be at our church.

Sharing the Love of Jesus with our Children

Last Day of Camp

A Grateful Heart

Grateful for All of You!!!

Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support of my ministry in Ukraine. Please forgive my long silence in regards to getting out a prayer letter. While I was in the States last fall for home assignment I was able to share with many of you and those who are on Facebook have received updates. Many of you have expressed concern for my safety during this crisis in Ukraine. In mid-March a lot of the missionaries left Odessa because of the crisis, however, after two weeks most of them returned to their ministries. I continued my ministry in Petrovka and prayed each day that God would bring peace to Ukraine. I at no time felt that I was in any danger. My pastor friends told me not to panic and instead to pray and continue with my ministry. During the month of April I was able to register to stay in Ukraine for another year. I received my new document on May 8. It was an easier process than in previous years. Odessa continued to remain quiet and calm until May 2 when there were clashes among Pro-Russian groups and Pro-Ukrainian groups. The day ended in a fire where 48 people died. We all were praying for peaceful presidential elections on May 25. Praise the Lord a new president, Petro Poroshenko, was elected president without a runoff. He will be sworn in on June 7. Things still remain uncertain in eastern Ukraine. Please pray for the crisis to be resolved and for peace to return to Ukraine.

New Ministry for Young Moms

Please pray for God to provide us with helpers to start a new ministry with the young moms who started to visit our church. Their children have been attending our children's program on Saturdays for over a year. These moms are showing interest in spiritual things and we want to work with them.
Pray for God to give us wisdom in how to start and when to start this ministry.

Nadiya with Sasha, Vanya and Vicka

Lena with Dema and Eugene 

Valentina with Nikita and Yanna

Summer Ministry

On June 19-July 11, I will be making a three week trip to the States. I plan to visit with personal supporters and with Capital Baptist Church in Annandale, Virginia and have a two day debrief at TEAM's home office in Carol Stream, Illinois. I will be with my parents for a short visit and then head up to Michigan to visit with personal supporters and with Calvary Church before heading back to Ukraine. 

This Saturday, June 7, we start a summer program for our children's Bible club. We will be showing the children's film, "Keepers of History" and will be having special lessons on etiquette. Our children's camp will be held July 22-27. Pray for God to provide enough leaders for us. We were supposed to have a team come and join us in ministry, however, due to the crisis in Ukraine, they had to cancel. The team is still planning to send us funds for the children's playground project, but we are still in need of funds to be able to complete the project. If you feel led to give a gift to help us with the Petrovka Playground Project, please send your donation to TEAM, P. O. Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187-0969. If you would like to give online the address is team.org/give. By phone call 800-343-3144.

Petrovka Playground Project

New Church Van

Our New Church Van

In January we began our search to purchase a van for our ministry in Petrovka. We started out looking for a van with nine seats but the prices were too high. Some of the places where we found a van were in parts of east Ukraine where there was unrest. Months passed and we still couldn't find a van. On Monday before Easter we thought we had found the perfect van with the perfect price. However, after traveling for six hours to the western part of Ukraine, we discovered that the van had been wrecked. Our mechanic that went with us advised us not to purchase this van. Traveling back to Odessa our mechanic suggested that we should look for a transporter van that could be made into a passenger van. He said the prices were lower and that we could have the interior and seats installed in the back of the van. On April 29 we traveled back to west Ukraine and had agreed to look at three vans. The first van that we looked at was perfect! Our mechanic hooked up his computer diagnostic equipment and said there were absolutely no problems with this van mechanically and he advised us to purchase it. We bought a 2010 Transporter Volkswagen van that is automatic transmission. We were able to have the van title changed to a nine-seat passenger van. Already we are having more children and adults attend our services. We are picking people up and taking them home. Thank you to the four families and two churches who gave to this project. I pray that God will reward them for their generosity and kindness to our church.

Before

After

Easter Celebration 2014

Easter Sunday, April 20

Christ is risen!!! Christ is risen indeed!!! We had a blessed Easter celebration in Petrovka. We were so happy that this year we were able to celebrate on the same day as the rest of the world. We were filled with joy when some of the parents and young moms came to celebrate with us. We also had a few first time visitors. We had a special worship service and sang praises to our God and Savior. We gave each adult and child a Bible, a Ukrainian Easter cake and a wooden cross with the verse from I Corinthians 5:7b which says, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." After the service we had a special time of fellowship. Pray that the first time visitors and new people who attended will continue to come to our services. Pray for our team to show love and compassion to each individual that God sends to our church.

Easter Egg Hunt

400 Eggs

We were supposed to have an Easter egg hunt in Petrovka on April 12, however, it poured down rain the whole time and we had to cancel the hunt. We had 43 children show up with some new moms and we had to explain that we were rescheduling for April 19. Praise the Lord, we had 42 children come back for the Easter egg hunt on the 19th and it was a beautiful, sunny day!!! We shared the true meaning of Easter using the Resurrection eggs and sang songs and had the children hunt for 400 eggs! It was a glorious day filled with lots of fun and laughter.

Easter Song about the Death and Resurrection of Jesus

Listening to the Easter Story

Happiest Hunter, Sasha! He found one egg and was thrilled!!!

Easter Evangelism at English Courses in Odessa

I was invited to share the true meaning of Easter with 35 students who study English with one of my friends, Angelina, who is the director of English courses in Odessa. I used the Resurrection eggs and was able to share about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Please pray the seeds that were planted would grow and bring fruit.

Hot Cross Buns!

English Class