News from Kiev

For more than a year I have felt like Ukraine is on the verge of a great spiritual revival.  As I look at what is going on here even now, I can see it unveiling.  Today in church I received a handout about the All Ukraine Youth Conference coming up in July.  I already have been eagerly watching for it and today I was even more excited about it.  July 13-15 will be the conference and then after that they will ask the youth for volunteers to evangelize throughout Ukraine.  The plan is to divide them into 27 groups and send them to each of the 27 regions of Ukraine to do evangelical outreaches.  I see this as preparation for the harvest when the Franklin Graham crusade comes in 2007.

Franklin Graham has already been to Ukraine to prepare the churches for the crusade.  He told them that there are 3 things that they need to do.  The first is to pray.  The second is to pray and the third is to pray.

Also separate from this, the Lord put on the heart of a pastor here in Kiev to have prayer walks all over Kiev.  Also this year he has started an Inter-missions prayer group of missionaries praying for other missionaries in Ukraine and for Kiev.  I feel that God is using all of this for the preparation for the revival.  What an exciting time to be here.

One praise item:

I have for years sponsored a family here in Ukraine and have become friends with them.  They are of the Orthodox background.  One of the daughters received Christ at one of the EEO camps and occasionally went to church with me.  This year the mother started coming along with both girls.  Usually Marina goes to the Church conferences with me, but this time Marina told me that her mother has asked her to stay home with her sister and father and take care of them so she can go with me to the conference.  I am so happy to hear that Tonya wants to go with me.  Even though she has been going to my church, she doesn’t know many people.  I hope this will help her develop friendships with some Ukrainian Chrsitian ladies.  This will be the all-Ukraine Calvary Chapel conference.  I love this conference because I have gotten to know many women and girls from villages that are such delightful sisters in Christ.  Please pray that Tonya will indeed go with me to the conference May 18-21.

As I looked at what God is doing here, I stand completely amazed.  This year I have felt in my heart that God is going to do miraculous things here.  Last month at least 3 Calvary Chapels have changed from American run to Ukrainian run.  Other denominations have also changed over as I hear different people talk.  I think of how I have witnessed so much growth over the years. 

The new pastor, Alosha, has been a pastor of a small town for 3 years.  This is no small task. The town is very difficult spiritually but he has been able to start a small church of people who love God.  As is common of new churches here, it mostly women. But they have a strong outreach to children and youth. Please pray for a pastor to take Alosha’s place.  Right now because of his heart for his church, he will pastor the small church and our church until a pastor is found for the Bordyanka church.

Then this summer, the youth conference will return.  Last summer there was about 4,000 youth who attended.  I expect more this summer.  My church’s praise band has been invited back to lead the worship. We do have an awesome praise band.

Then in 2007, I think in June, Franklin Graham will come.  They plan to hold the crusade in a stadium which holds 80,000 people.  This just blesses my heart.  I believe that people will come from all over Ukraine for this.  What a blessing to be here!

Last Friday, 9 Ukrainian from my church left for a mission’s trip to a closed country.  They have been dreaming of this trip ever since my pastor’s daughter and her husband left to be missionaries there.  They will be gone 10 days. Some of the things that they will do there are to give a music concert, show the Passion of Christ film several time, English club, possibly sports and a lot of street evangelism.  The goal is to help to prepare the field so that when the church becomes registered, the harvest will be ready.  They hope to have a larger group go in the fall after the church is registered.

Today I heard that last night they gave a music concert and 50 people came to it.  Sunday they will give another concert and also show the film “The Passion of the Christ”.

Please pray

1. For their safety while traveling and while they are there.
2. Since the country was also a part of the former Soviet Union, the people know Russian so the team can communicate well with the nationals.  Pray for God to give them the boldness and the words to share to each person that they meet.
3. For God’s protection while they are there.
4. For open doors and hearts.
5. That they will be able to see fruit from their labors.
6. That the team will be unified and that God will work personally in each of their hearts while they are there.

I wish that you all could see the children that I work with.  If you saw them, you would call them babies because they about the size of 1 to 1 1/2 year olds,  In actuality they are about 3 to 3 1/2 years old.  A year and a half ago, I was able to go to the orphanage with a friend of mine who was adopting a child with Down’s syndrome.  That opened the door for us to start working with the other babies in that room.  At the time, they only laid in bed.  They couldn’t sit up independently much less crawl or walk.  They were never on the floor.

 As time progressed, we were able to get them on the floor in the PT room and began to work on their sitting and crawling along with holding them and loving them. The workers were able to see that the children were not hopeless and they began to work with them as they saw us work with them. Now they are able to sit and stand independently and all but 4 of the 9 are able to walk.  4 are able to walk independently. One child can now eat independently and walk independently and was able to progress to the room with the independent babies and now sleeps in a junior bed instead of a crib.  This is my goal for all the children. 

 The orphanages in Ukraine are organized in three levels.  The first level is in the hospital until they are about 1 to 1 1/2 years old, although there may be a few younger.  Then they are transferreed to an orphanage for children up to 5 years old.  After that they go to the 5 year and older orphanage.  For the handicapped children which includes Down’s children, this is absolutely horrible.  If the children are in a crib when they leave, they likely will remain in a crib for the rest of their lives.  Therefore, it is my desire, for the children I work with, to become independent especially in eating and walking so that they can be independent and in a normal bed. Fortunately the orphanage where I go is very good to the children and they are happy children. I have considered adopting or fostering all the children in my room (9 of them) but then I would have my own orphanage in a sense.  I guess that wouldn’t be too bad of an idea because the children would be allowed to be on the floor and stimulated to progress.

Today was an awesome day.  My church of 7 years has been passed on to the Ukrainians and now it is Ukrainian run instead of American run.  It has come a long way in 13-14 years.  At first it was mostly women who attended.  Now there are a lot of mature men there.  Since the service will be in Ukrainian, I will probably change churches.  Even though I will be leaving many friends, I feel that it will better for me to be where I can understand the sermon.  At the time, when all the changes were occurring at my church, I was invited to a prayer group that is being started for missionaries to get together and pray for the work of each other and Kiev.  From there, I got to know the pastor, who is organizing the prayer group, and his wife.  This year they have started an international church within walking distance of me.  They are reaching out to internationals, which is a huge population here.  Many are refugees from their countries and now that they are Christians, they can’t return to their country or they will be killed.

I went to the church for the first time today.  There is quite a mix there.  The church is made up of English speaking Ukrainians as well as those from other countries. Several people are from closed countries. The pastor’s philosophy is come and stay a while.  Since he wants to reach many internationals, who have great needs (such as food and fellowship), he and his wife open their home afterwards for the members to have fellowship, then meet and talk further about the sermon, then have an inductive Bible study and those interested in eating…to have lunch.  If people want to hang around afterwards, they are more than welcome.  It was a great time of fellowship.

I met two men today who are now Christians and if they return to their country, they will be killed.  Their lives are very hard here.  One man’s parents have both died since he has been here.  He doesn’t know if they were killed or died from natural causes.  It was also very interesting to hear the other man’s story.  They are both very strong Christians and quite the evangelists. Please pray for them.  God knows who they are.  Their lives would be is grave danger if I gave their names.  One would like to become a citizen of Ukraine but that would be a total act of God because Ukrainians tend to be closed to other countries becoming citizens here. But with God all things are possible.