Month: September 2012

  • A Miracle of Timing in Volgograd

    The past couple of weeks have been filled with God’s blessings, life’s challenges, and great adventures.

    Often, people ask me, “What are some of the differences between the States and Ukraine?” Well since my last post, we had an experience that answered this question in an interesting way. The city workers in Kiev spend their summer preparing and fixing the water lines for the winter. There is much digging that goes on around every apartment building.

    In the States, the city water supply enters the home as cold water. Homes have hot water heaters that provide hot water. In Kiev, the city water comes into each apartment through two lines… hot and cold water. When there are repairs to the water lines, they might be happening to only ONE of the water lines. Sometimes, you have no cold water. Sometimes, you have no hot water.

    Well, a couple of weeks ago, we woke up on a Sunday morning with no cold water. Just for a moment, picture trying to get ready for breakfast and church with ONLY hot water. The shower water was too hot to use in a normal way. We didn’t have any drinking water. Very interesting morning to say the least!

    Our daughter, Bekah, has started second grade. We are homeschooling again this year. The last two years (pre-school and first grade), Jenni has done all of the teaching. This year, in our new setting, we share these responsibilities. Adding to this, we have our Russian language tutor now working with Bekah three hours a week in Russian. The other day, Bekah declared, “In second grade, I have three teachers!”

    I teach Bekah math, Bible, reading, poetry, and physical education. Jenni does a whole bunch of other things (organizing the teaching plans, phonics, writing, science, geography, art, and health). And then, of course, Russian. We complete her school week in four days (Monday – Thursday). So, Bekah’s school days are quite busy for her, and us.

    This past weekend, I made my first trip to Russia since 2002. I traveled to Volgograd, Russia, on Friday and returned on Monday. While in Volgograd, I spoke twice at a singles’ retreat, preached on Sunday morning at one of our churches, and spoke at a couples’ seminar on Sunday night. It was great to see old friend and meet new ones. God was with us and blessed our time together in so many ways.

    I want to tell you of a miracle of timing that ONLY God can accomplish! While at the singles’ retreat, I met a young man named Eugene (English translation of his name). Eugene met a Nazarene single girl from Volgograd about one year ago, named Katya. God used Katya to lead Eugene to repentance and faith, and they fell in love. After speaking the second time on Saturday, Eugene wanted to talk with me. We spent the next two hours talking about his spiritual journey and God’s love for him.

    I learned about his relationship with Katya and discovered that they were one week from their wedding day. Then, if you can imagine, one week after their wedding they are moving with Eugene’s work to Australia. They are both feeling the pressure/anxiety of getting married and moving far away from the love and support of family and church.

    I asked, “What city are you going to in Australia?” Eugene said, “Oh, it is a small town. You probably haven’t heard of it… Gladstone.” Well, about three years ago, there was a young couple from my former church in Houston, Kyle and Becky Sukanen, who moved with Kyle’s job from Houston, Texas, to (wait for it) GLADSTONE, Australia! I made contact that night with Kyle and Becky, and they are planning to welcome and befriend Eugene and Katya to their new city.

    I shared with Eugene that God does not miss anything! A year ago, when God brought Katya and Eugene together, He was calling us to come to the CIS as missionaries. God knew all along that I would be in Volgograd, speaking at the singles’ conference where Eugene and Katya were the week before their marriage. What a wonderful God we serve!!!

    I am back in Kiev now, preparing for next week’s pastors’ meetings in Kiev, Ukraine, and Rostov, Russia. This next week, I will have opportunity to meet around 30 of our pastors on the CIS field. It is a very important week for me in ministry as God opens doors of friendship and love with the pastors across our field. Would you please pray as we train them in evangelism and church planting?

    We know the Lord’s daily presence in our lives. He is faithful! We trust Him and see Him working in so many ways. Thank you for your continued prayers!

  • First Minstry Trip Out of Ukraine

    In the past few weeks I have taken my first trip out of Ukraine into another country of the CIS… Armenia. On Friday, August 17, I left Kiev for Yerevan, Armenia (the capital city). Traveling into Yerevan is very interesting. Flights arrive into the Yerevan airport at 3:30 AM! I met up with Lonnie Norris, the CIS field strategy coordinator, along the journey and we arrived in Yerevan on Saturday morning… at that very early hour after a night of missed sleep.

    I learned much about the country of Armenia while visiting there with the pastors. Did you know that Armenia was the first Christian country? Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion… early fourth century. Also, from the capital city of Yerevan, you can see (on a sunny day) Mount Ararat. I was only able to see a dim outline of the great mountain during this visit. I took a picture, but if I posted it and showed you where the mountain was you would doubt my sanity. Mount Ararat today belongs to the land of Turkey, which is a sore subject for many in Armenia.

    Armenia has a rough and difficult history of wars. One of the topics that came up often in simple discussions was the genocide that occurred in the early 20th century. The genocide occurred at the end of World War I. The Ottoman government (modern day Turkey) determined to eliminate the people of Armenia and massacred somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million people (mostly men). The people are still greatly affected by this history and speak often of great-grandparents who lost their lives during this horrible time.

    Another great point of discussion for the Armenian people was the devastating earthquake of December 7, 1988. It occurred near the city of Gyumri, where the Church of the Nazarene has four churches within 30 minutes of each other. The earthquake killed approximately 25,000 people and devastated many towns and villages in the area. Many people were forced to live in storage containers for many months. In fact, today (24 years later), there are still people living in these containers. When the earthquake hit, it was already very cold. Most families were forced to live outside in tents for up to a month to avoid further loss of life due to the collapsing of the buildings.

    During the three days in Armenia, we met with the district superintendent, the district’s kid’s club director, and 6 pastors. It was also my privilege to preach at Akhuryan Church of the Nazarene. God blessed our journey to Armenia. What a wonderful group of pastors we have there! We are working through some challenging things on the Armenia district, but there are reasons for excitement and the future is bright.

    The departure from Yerevan is a similar story to our arrival. The flight out of Yerevan left at 4:30 AM… meaning that we had to arrive at the airport at 2:30 AM… another sleepless night.

    Following my trip to Armenia, I traveled to the European Region Office in Busingen, Germany. We stayed at EuNC and were a part of a training session done by Dr. Gustavo Crocker and Dr. Stan Toler. We were surrounded by around 25 leaders from Europe and Asia for training in evangelism and church planting. My desire and challenge is to turn and train others across the CIS field on the same topics over the next two years. It was a great time of learning and growing.

    It was wonderful to return home to Kiev and my wonderful family. Jenni, Bekah, and Sarah did great in my absence, but we rejoiced as we were reunited together 8 days after I left Kiev.

    This past week was our week of VBS at Pozniaky Community Church of the Nazarene. It was a great success as this church plant continues to train new leaders for ministry and reach their community for Christ. The VBS was broken into two groups (younger kids from 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM and teens from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM). One of the highlights for me was seeing teenagers who came to faith in Jesus during the week of youth camp in Ukraine NOW serving and sharing with the younger kids the life-changing stories of Jesus Christ and salvation through Him!

    In the days ahead, I will be speaking to a group of 30-35 singles regarding godly relationships, preaching in one of our Kiev churches, and meeting with pastors from across our field. We greatly appreciate your prayers and loving support of our ministry here. God continues to help us learn the Russian language. We are seeing progress…