Greetings from Ukraine,

Transcription

1 Greetings from Ukraine, There seems no way it could be the middle of September but the calendar says Sept. 18th. It maybe just me but seems the older I get the faster time flies! We have had another outstanding month at UBI. Classes continue to go very well and the students are learning fast what it means to study every waking hour!! I really loved having the ladies again. For the first few days we shared our life stories. I started and I always share the good, bad and the ugly. I tell them they are to do the same. After the last story was told, Natasha looked over at me and said this is the best, most touching and emotional stories we have ever heard. I agreed. It s such a great way to start a class of total strangers. I no longer look out and see 14 faces I know nothing about but I can look at each one and know where she came from, the things in life, good and bad, that have happened to her, how she came to the Lord and why she is now at UBI. After sharing so much from our hearts we already feel closer to each other which is the whole point of this series~~if we are to grow spiritually together we must feel we know each other. One more thing about this class that I love is what I have them do when we have the lesson on growing in love. At the end of the lesson I have each lady write down one positive thing about each lady in the class. I then get my translator to cut and paste each ladies comments on a separate piece of paper. The next day I give each lady the paper that has all her positive comments on it. I LOVE to watch their faces as they begin to read their comments. A somewhat solemn face just starts to light up with a big smile growing bigger and bigger!! It happens every time to every lady, without exception. It s just such a great example of when we show others love we can make their day! Sorry about going on and on about this but I love teaching this and seeing how it makes each group of ladies grow closer together. Jay Don s class on Church History went very well and he loves teaching this course. He said that one of the things he loves sharing in the class is how that most church groups such as Catholic, Orthodox, etc. love to share their time-line to show that their roots go all the way back to the first century church. He tells the students that all of these time lines should be thrown in the trash! The thing that really matters is not men tracing their origins back to the New Testament church on a sheet of paper but planting the seed the Word of God (Luke 8:11) which will come up as a disciple of

2 Christ just like it did in the 1st Century. It is not a time-line that determines truth. It is the Word of God that determines truth. One weekend in August we were blessed to have Marion Bush and her translator, Nina, here with us. They had been working with our graduate, Fedor, who works in Poltava. He started a work there, about a year ago after fleeing Donetsk, with a group of about 4. They are having close to 50 now so it was a great place for Marion to go and minister for the summer. She was able to help them secure a bigger place to meet, buy a big tub for baptisms, give out lots of medicines and humanitarian help and many more things. I know she, like all of us, are very sad to have to give up our work in Donetsk but that s the way things are so we all just keep working where we can be the most help. She still just wants to help the work in Ukraine any where she can. We had a nice lunch after church and then they came up to see our apartment. This woman amazes me as she is in her 80 s and her number one priority is to still help in mission work. She is a great example. After our first 3 week term at UBI we had a 2 week seminar. Brandon and Katie Price from Kharkiv and Ronnie Morrison from Arkansas came to do the teaching. Brandon and Katie have been in

3 Kharkiv for 5 years and Ronnie has been doing mission work in Russia/Ukraine since the early 90 s. Brandon is teaching Exegesis and Ronnie is teaching Fundamental Theology. The first Sunday Ronnie was here he went with Dema Grischuk, one of our teachers, out to the Nivki congregation. Ronnie helps get support for Let s Love, another ministry Dema is involved with, which helps with refugees and orphans. We joined them at 5:00 for the baptism of one of our student s husband. There was a large group there and I was so impressed to see about half of our students there. Most of them had already gone to services in the A.M. but had wanted to come out for this to show their support. It may not sound like a big deal but Nivki is a good 45 minute taxi ride from our area and I don t have a clue how long it takes on a bus or the Metro. Most, not all, but most of the people here make Jesus and His church their main focus in life after they are converted and if there is anything going on connected with the church, they are there! Very inspiring!

4 Ronnie, Brandon and Katie have been to our home a couple of times for dinner and we always have a great visit with them. Brandon and Katie have been married just 10 years and Ronnie is more like us~~~older and in the 40 year range of marriage. Katie was sharing that Brandon surprised her with an awesome gift on their 10 year anniversary of a wonderful video he had made for her of their 10 years together. Last night they brought it up on U-Tube and it was so very sweet. I told them it made me think of the awesome video our kids did for us on our SURPRISE 40th! It s a true blessing from God to have a good and happy marriage. Tim Burrow came through Kiev this past Wednesday on his way to Mariupol where he and Mina worked 6 1/2 years. Tim wanted to take us all out for a late lunch after he got here. Indeed it turned out to be a late lunch because the airline he was on did not get anyones luggage on it!!! So every passenger was down in the area where you have to fill our forms for lost luggage which made it a long time before he left the airport! Tim flies all over the world and said this was the first time a plane had lost all the passengers luggage!

5 This past weekend Jay Don had been asked to speak at a seminar at Pushavaditska about half and hour from here. It was put on by Sasha Procupchuk, the preacher who does the TV series and the one who always put on the seminar in Crimea. His family is now in Kiev but on the opposite side of town from us, which is a long ways!! The seminar was on Prayer and Jay Don was asked to speak twice. There were over 100 there so that was encouraging. I went with him on Saturday to spend the day there. The weather was very cool and windy the first session was to be inside. I thought o.k. this will be fine but the room was freezing and if you have been to any former Soviet country you know you will NOT get any heat until October 15, no matter how cold it is!!! Before the session was over I was already getting a sore throat. I then learned the second session was to be OUTSIDE! One of our students who was there loaned me a blanket but it was still so cold. Jay Don did a great job and then a special highlight was getting to witness 2 baptisms. There were only a few of us who could go since we had to ride in cars to a lake nearby. I sure felt sorry for Sasha and the 2 who were baptized because I knew they were freezing but it was a very touching moment and we felt blessed to have been there.

6 The sore throat developed into a full blown head cold so I missed church Sunday and learned several had gotten sick plus some on our staff. I am sure it is partly the change from summer to fall but getting frozen INSIDE a building doesn t help!! The congregation that we have helped start at Poznaiky is doing great. Though I had to stay home Sunday, Jay Don said we had about 25 refugees that attended. Many of them came even though they were receiving no specific help that Sunday. It is so exciting to see them coming and showing interest in knowing Christ. We had a total of 65 which meant we were totally packed in like a can of sardines. This is a great problem to have. Praise the Lord. Last newsletter I told you our hot water had been cut off again. Well, would you believe we were without hot water for THREE weeks but then miraculously it came back on one morning!!! Never knew for sure why it was turned off but the road work in front of our place is finished so we believe it was that. Welcome to Ukraine!!!! Again Jay Don and I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the help you give to us and the work in Ukraine. We believe strongly that this is a wonderful work that God wants us to be involved in, or else we would not have stayed here so long!!! Blessed by the Name of the Lord, Jay Don and Mary Lee