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