Prayer Letter

Church & Bible Lessons

The past few months have been very busy for our little church group. On February 12th, Yuri and Christina were married. We praise the Lord that they chose to take this step of obedience. They have also said that they would like to be baptized, but were not able to make it the day we rented a place because of sickness. Even though they were not able to be there, on Sunday, March 14th, I had the privilege of baptizing Max. What a blessing it is that even though his dad is not saved, he has not stopped Max from coming to church or from being baptized. We pray that God will put his hand upon Max's life and use him for the glory of God.

Our Valentine's banquet went well and we had many unsaved attend, including Lina's husband, Dema! This is the first time he has ever attended any of our activities. A lady named Oksana came and has recently started Bible lessons. She seems very open to listening. Please be praying for her.

Tamara is no longer coming to church and her mom has stopped taking Bible lessons. We found out that while she was coming, she was still practicing witchcraft. She would even sit behind people at church and try to get them to let her tell them their futures DURING the services! Ruselan finished the first Bible lesson. We are not sure if he will continue to do the lessons now that his mom is no longer coming to church, but we are going to send him the second lesson anyways.

A young lady named Olea has been faithfully attending services with the man she is living with now and her two sons. She is maybe 18 and already divorced. Please be praying for them. She claims to be saved. Costa (the man she is living with) is not.

On the 20th of March, we rented out a space with two ping pong tables for a church family day. We had a good group come out, again, mostly unsaved. Dema came for the second time to a church activity and Valentina's son Roman and his step son, Arteome, came for the first time. It is exciting to see people that we have been praying for start to come out. Even though Roman did not stay in the room while I gave a short salvation message, we know that God can still work on his heart.

Visas
It is almost time for us to renew our visas, so we have been preparing the needed paperwork. We mentioned in our last prayer letter about receiving a 3 year visa and applied here for the document that we were told we needed for that. When we called, they said we could not receive a 3 year visa without an "excuse". We are not sure what type of excuse is needed and no one is willing to give us that information, so we will only be able to get a 1 year visa again. Please be praying for our trip and that we will receive our visa without any problems. We leave for Poland the 8th of April.

Family & Health
Jessica's pregnancy is going well and we have been told that our new little addition will be a boy! She was able to get registered at a hospital and with a doctor, though not the same one she had for the girls. Please be praying for continued health and for a safe delivery.

On Sunday I had the blessing of baptizing Maxime, the first Ukrainian I had the opportunity to lead to the Lord. We look forward to seeing how God will use this young man for His honor and glory. Yuri and Christina have also said that they would like to be baptized, but were not able to make it because of Yuri's health. Please pray that Yuri, Christina and Vladamir will soon follow in baptism.

Also, tomorrow our church is having a "Family Day". We have rented out a room with two ping pong tables and look forward to spending time with family and friends. More than that, we are praying that God will work upon the hearts of the many attending who are not saved.

Trying and Strengthening

The past few months have been an exciting, trying, sad, and strengthening time for our church. We've been excited about the professions of faith made, the spiritual growth amongst the believers, Yuri and Christina choosing to get married...but like always, when God is working, satan is also at work. We found out a few weeks ago that during all of this, Tamara had been trying to practice fortune telling, healing, and other forms of witch craft amongst the believers at the church - sometimes even during the middle of the services! We pulled her aside and talked with her, showing her from the Bible that this is not of God. She still insists that it is a "gift" and has not been back to church since. Pray for her, as only God knows her heart. Through it all, we have seen God work on the heart of the believers and strengthen our little group.