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

Baby Shower for Nastya and Zinove

It was a great privilege for me to host a baby shower for my teammates, Nastya and Zinove, on February 24. We had a great time playing games, singing songs and sharing a devotional from the Word of God.

Nastya and Zinove

Samaritan's Purse Gifts for Children in Petrovka

On February 13 we had the opportunity to share Christ with the children at the Petrovka public school and to present each child with a gift from Samaritan's Purse. Thank you to everyone who prepared these special gifts for children in other countries.

Gifts from Samaritan's Purse

Children Receiving Gifts

My Teammates

I thank the Lord so much for my teammates who serve together with me in Petrovka. We have Misha, our pastor, and his wife, Tanya, and their son David. We have Oleg who preaches every Sunday and is responsible for the church property repairs and remodeling. He also works with our children's program and youth ministry. Igor is our tech guy and also helps in keeping up the church property and works with our children's program. Natasha heads up our children's program and works with our teenage girls. Zinove and Nastya got married last June and had a baby boy, Timothy, in March of this year. Unfortunately, they are living in Russia right now with Nastya's parents and they aren't sure if they will continue ministry with us. Julie and Tanya, two girls from First Baptist Church of Odessa, helped us in our summer camp last August and they both felt a burden for the children and the people in Petrovka.  When we started our children's Bible club in the fall of last year, both Julie and Tanya expressed an interest to work with us. This year in the spring they both said they believed God was calling them to work with us full time. Tanya has already joined us on Sundays and she plays the piano and sings and is a great addition to our team. Julie plans to join us at the end of June full time and will be the coordinator for our children's camp this summer.

Natasha, Nastya, Zinove, Denise, Misha, Tanya, Oleg

Igor

Julie and Tanya    

David

Ukrainian Christmas 2014

Ukrainian Christmas in Petrovka

On January 6, 2014 our church had a Christmas Eve service with all the traditional Ukrainian dishes. We had a blessed time of fellowship as everyone shared what Christmas means to them.

Ukrainian Christmas Eve Service

On Christmas Day, January 7, we had a wonderful Christmas celebration. Our children had a special program and we shared the true meaning of Christmas through songs, poetry and preaching of the Word. After the service we had a blessed time of fellowship. We then went from house to house in our town singing Christmas carols and giving everyone a Christian calendar from our church.

Our Sweet Children

Our Children Receiving Sweets

Christmas Caroling

Harvest Celebration

Our Petrovka Church had so much to be thankful for at our Harvest Celebration this year. We had a great summer camp in August with 43 children. We have new people coming to church every week and we see signs of growth in our new believers. Julie, who came to know Christ in September, has been growing grapes every year since she can remember. She would make wine and sell it to people in the town. After her repentance, as she was studying the Word, she felt that she should no longer make wine. Her dilemma - what to do with her grapes? After prayer and much consideration, Julie called one of her husband's friends and asked him to come and take her grapes to sell. Of course, we also had the opportunity to eat some of these wonderful grapes.

Summer Camp

Julie's Grapes

On October 12, we had our Harvest celebration and our children took part in reciting poetry and singing praises to God. 

Harvest Celebration

We are grateful to the Lord that we have the opportunity to share Jesus every week to the children who attend our Bible club on Saturdays.

Children's Bible Club

New Believers - Julie, Igor, Alina and Valik

God has blessed our church plant with four new believers. On September 8, 2013, Julie came forward in the church and repented of her sins and received Jesus. She studies her Bible with another sister in our church every week and is faithful to all our services. She found out that she had cancer in the spring of this year and had to have surgery. She was a wonderful witness for Christ to all the ladies in her room before and after the surgery. Pray that she will have a full recovery from her cancer surgery.
On October 20, 2013, Igor repented. Igor had been working with us for over a year. We were praying for Igor to come to know the Lord and he kept saying he wasn't ready. When he repented he shared his testimony and then dropped on his knees and asked the Lord to forgive his sins. What a blessing for us! Please pray for Julie and Igor as they begin preparations for baptism. On February 2, Alina repented of her sins and is helping in our children's program. She studies the Bible two times a week with one of the sisters in our church and is growing in her love of the Lord. One of my friends in the States had written me an e-mail and said that she believed someone would come to know the Lord on Sunday, March 23.  Valik was standing next to the window. When our pastor said that anyone could pray to receive the Lord, Valik began to pray and ask forgiveness of his sins where he was standing. Our pastor, Misha, called Valik to come up front and he placed his hands on him and prayed for God's blessing on his life. It was a precious moment for our church family. Pray for Julie, Igor, Alina and Valik to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

Julie

Igor

Valik

Alina