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

Home Assignment - October 22-December 17, 2013

I thank the Lord so much for my home assignment last year from October 22-December 17. I visited with Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan and with personal supporters in Holland, Michigan. I spent a week with my home church in St. Petersburg, Florida and was able to catch up with personal supporters and my church family at Northside Baptist. I also had the opportunity to speak at three chapels at Northside Christian School for elementary, middle school and high school. I visited with personal supporters in Bonita Springs, Florida and then headed up to Sarasota where I visited with the church family at Bethel Church. I was able to spend time with my sister and her family in Oldsmar, Florida and then I visited my daughter and her family in Missoula, Montana for Thanksgiving. I then headed up to Lenoir, North Carolina and visited with personal supporters. I also spent time doing all my medical checkups and my doctor said I have excellent health. I am thankful to the Lord for my wonderful visits with friends, family and churches who all blessed me tremendously! Before leaving to go back to Odessa, my family and I were able to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. I am so thankful for my wonderful parents.

My mom, dad, sister and her seven grandchildren

Prayer Requests for Summer Ministry

Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support. I want to thank my new supporters who recently began to support my ministry. I lost a lot of support at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I prayed that God would supply my needs to that I wouldn't have to come to the States to raise support since we had just started our new church in Petrovka. God answered through you - my faithful supporters - and my new supporters. Some of my faithful supporters through the years raised their monthly support. I am so grateful to God for you and for your sacrifices for my new ministry. May the Lord repay each one of you for your generosity and kindness to me.

Pray for our remodeling project to be finished by the end of June. We are currently replacing the roof on our small building and remodeling the room next to our kitchen so that we will have a multi-purpose room. God provided all the funds necessary for these two projects. We also need to build some kind of shed so that we will have a place to store our tools and equipment. If you would like to make a donation to help with this please mark it for Petrovka Project and send it to TEAM Stewardship Department, P. O. Box 969, Wheaton, Illinois 60187-0969.

Pray for our teammates, Zirnove and Nastya, who are getting married on June 9. Pray for God to bless their marriage and new life together.

Pray for a four day summer camp we plan to have in the second or third week in July. We have some youth who are interested in helping us who have a program ready to use. Pray that the children will come and will hear about Jesus' love for them.

Pray for us to have wisdom about starting a weeknight youth fellowship and special events for the youth in our town during the summer. Pray that the young people would have a desire to come.

Pray for the people attending our church services to understand the great love God has for them. Pray that they will not be affected by the people who are talking against them for attending our services. Pray that they will understand their need for a Savior.

Pray for me as I visit families in our town who are attending our church. After visiting four families this past week, they all showed up for Sunday services. I am getting to know about their personal lives and their problems. Pray that God will use me to share His love for them and that they will begin to have a desire to know God.

Easter Sunday - May 5

 

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

We celebrated Easter in Ukraine late this year. We were thankful that the weather had finally warmed up and the flowers were in bloom reminding us of new life in Christ. When we arrived at church early Sunday morning one of our neighbors was sitting outside. We had purchased Easter cakes to present to those attending our services and planned to visit our neighbors who don't attend church in the afternoon and greet them with an Easter cake and Easter greetings. Since our neighbor was sitting outside I asked two of my teammates to go over and greet our neighbor and present him with an Easter cake. When our service started our neighbor and his son came for the first time to our church. We had 15 children participate in our Easter program and had invited their parents. We had so many people show up for our  service that all the chairs were filled. The pastor and some of his congregation from the next town came a little late to greet us with Easter and they had to sit out in the foyer. We had a lot of first time visitors and were so thankful that we were able to share about Christ's death, burial and resurrection. Christ is risen!!! Truly He is risen!!!

Little Children Singing about the Greatest Miracle - Jesus is Risen

Children Reciting Poetry with Spring Flowers

First Easter Egg Hunt for our Children in Petrovka

On April 27 we had our first Easter egg hunt for our children who attend our Saturday club. We were concerned that we wouldn't have a lot of children because some people in our town have started to persecute the adults and children who attend our services. They accuse them of being traitors of the Orthodox Church. We were thrilled when 30 children came for the Easter egg hunt and a lot of them came for the first time. We shared the Easter story using Resurrection eggs and sang songs about Christ's resurrection. The mayor of the town gave us permission to use the territory next to the hospital to hide the eggs. The grass hadn't been cut and so the eggs were truly hidden. The kids were so excited about hunting eggs that after we closed some of the children went back to hunt eggs just in case they missed some! It was a blessed day! Thank you for your prayers for us.

Church Work Day

On April 6 we had a work day at our church. Our goal was to haul a huge mound of black dirt into our church yard and make sure it was level so that we could plant grass. We also trimmed trees and cleaned up the outside territory of our church.