May 22, 2012

• 19th Wedding Anniversary in Kiev…

  Today is Jenni and my 19^th wedding anniversary! What a wonderful gift I received the day Jenni said “yes” to me. She is a remarkable woman who is godly, courageous, gentle, kind, and beautiful!!! I am blessed, and I know it! We enjoyed waking up to our special day to celebrate our first Kievian anniversary.

  We have had another great week of life and ministry here in Kiev.

  It was our privilege to be a part of the ministry of a traveling short term mission team from Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) this past week. The team was led by Dr. Dan Lawrence, a Physics professor at the school, who has led 9 teams to the CIS over the past 9 years. When they come, they stay for 3 weeks and do many different things to help the field.

  Each night last week, I (and sometimes the whole family) spent four hours with the team reaching out to the local community children near Poznyaki Church. On the final night, the NNU team divided into four groups and gathered with the kids to share a more specific witness to the kids. What a wonderful sight to see them sharing Christ after having spent a week building relationships with these children! Praise God!

  I was impressed with the team members and their leader, Dan. The church can be proud of the godly young people that are coming up through our universities!

  I was also blessed to see the Poznyaki Church leading so well. They planned, prayed for, and participated in the outreach with skill and passion. We are blessed to be a part of this church plant and believe that God is building His church through them!

  On Saturday, our whole family traveled with the team to two different tourist sites: the WWII memorial and the Chernobyl museum. Both of these sites are extremely moving and telling into the lives of the people in Ukraine. World War 2 claimed an estimated 60 million lives. Most people don’t know this, but 30 million of those lives were Soviets. Imagine that, 30 million people (mostly young men) killed in 5 short years from one nation!

  Chernobyl was the sight of the nuclear explosion in 1986 that is considered the largest unintentional nuclear disaster the world has known. The world still does not know the total effect this disaster had on the people of Eastern Europe.

  At one point during the WWII memorial, I notice a concerned look on Bekah’s face. We were hearing and seeing pictures of the horrible actions of evil and deceived men from the war. I asked Bekah if she was ok. She asked me, “Will this ever happen again?” I knelt down and told her that the Bible says that it would in fact happen again in the last days. But I also had her quote one of her memory verses from Bible Quizzing last year (Matthew 28-19-20) which ends with Jesus saying, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” What a blessing to know this promise is true and God is faithful!

  Later that day, Bekah was skyping with Jenni’s parents. They asked her about her day, and she began telling them about the two museums she went to. They said, “What were the two museums?” Bekah said, “One was for World Word Two and the other was for… uh, uh, uh, World War Three”.

  God is giving us many new opportunities to witness and disciple. Please pray that we don’t miss any chances God provides for us to make Christlike disciples in the nations.

  This week, there is another Work and Witness team from Point Loma Nazarene University in Kiev. We are excited to spend time with them as our study schedule allows. They are serving during the day at a children’s hospital for kids with endocrine problems. Each evening they will be doing outreach in a park near Kiev First Church.

  One other prayer request for us… The month of June will be an important month for us with regard to our visas. The process of acquiring a visa is complicated here. The process is basically: Come to Ukraine for 90 days without a visa, leave the country at the end of the 90 days and travel to a country that has a Ukrainian consulate, apply for a 45 day visa, return to Ukraine when this is granted, and then during the 45 days we apply for the 1 year, resident visa. In the month of June, we will travel as a family from Ukraine to Poland where we will visit the Ukrainian consulate in Krakow. Please pray that all the details of this trip and receiving our visas go well.

  Finally, this coming Sunday (May 27), I am preaching at Kiev First Church. Thanks again for your prayers! They are much needed and effective!

  • 7:46 am
  • 2 Comments