Church Neighbors

The Lord has given us many opportunities to talk and witness to those living around the church.  Many of them are interested, but too superstitious to step foot in our church doors.

A lady named Valentina lives directly across from the church.  After talking with me for a little while, she accepted the Bible I offered her but said she would not come to church because she would be cursed by the Orthodox if she did.  She is also very afraid of the gossip which might be spread about her if she attended.

Tatiana lives next door and has stopped in occasionally.  She dislikes the orthodox priests and wanted another place to go.  When she enters she does a cross over her chest and one time she left some canned goods.  She usually only stays a few minutes to fulfill some religious duty, then leaves.  She has a desire to be religious but is not concerned with the state of her soul.

Last Friday while putting tracts on doors, we met Maria.  She was very excited about our church being here, especially since it was so close to her house.  She had been attending a protestant or charismatic church in the city, but it was hard for her to get to.  She appeared to be sincerely interested in coming but was having some memory loss problems.

Pray that God will defeat the religious superstitions of these people that they might be saved.  Pray for this one woman that God will give her the memory to come out. 

Salvation of Slavic!

Thank you all for your prayers concerning this man.  We are thrilled to be able to share with you the news of his salvation. On Friday evening we had our last Bible study.  As we came to the end of the lesson, I asked Slavic if there had ever been a time in his life when he had truly been born again.  He explained that he had gone forward in a charismatic service some years ago.  But as I questioned him concerning his salvation it seemed evident that what he was calling salvation was not what the Bible calls salvation.  As we continued talking he admittedly said even though he claimed this experience as salvation his life never changed.  He still continued in sin and drunkenness and he was even put in jail for stealing.  I then asked him if he wanted to sincerely repent of his sins to turn away from his alcohol and other sins and totally by faith trust Christ as his Savior and follow him the rest of his days. He said that he did.  Then in his own words he asked the Lord to forgive Him of his sins and told the Lord that He would now sincerely try to live for him and serve Him according to His word.

This man has been very quiet through all the lessons, but he seemed sincere in his decision of faith to forsake all and trust in Jesus.  Please pray that he would grow in his faith as we continue to disciple him.  When we all finished praying I went and shook his hand and said now you are my brother.  He lit right up with a big smile.  

God really worked miracles Friday to see this man saved.  Earlier in the day he had attended a party in a nearby village celebrating it's birthday.  He explained how he was offered alcohol many times but refused it because he was taking Bible lessons.  How like Satan it is to present temptations on the day of salvation!  Again, thank you for your prayers.  They do make a difference.

Baba Maroosa

 

This week I'd like to share with you a woman who calls herself Baba Maroosa.  As I was walking one day I met her, talked with her and gave her a tract.  She was surprisingly friendly and open to the gospel.  We did not come in contact with her again until one Sunday morning.  Because our van has been in the shop, we have been walking to church.  On our way, we pass out tracts to those we come in contact with.  Baba Maroosa was on the road and stopped to talk with us because of all of the kids.  When we gave her a tract and invited her to church, she said she would be there.  We continued on our way wondering if she really would come or not.  Church services were almost over and she still had not shown up.  Because Sammy was acting up, Jess took him out for a minute and there sitting on the doorstep was Baba Maroosa!  Jessica told her to come in and sit down.  After that, Baba Maroosa faithfully attended our services.  Jess has also had her over for tea (you can read about that visit here).

Baba Maroosa grew up in a very hard time and is part of the generation known as "a child of war".  She witnessed many things, including the death of her mother.  Because both of her parents were victims of the war, she was raised by her grandmother.  In her eyes, if Christ hadn't already "saved" her she would either be dead or an alcoholic like most of the other children of war.  She also says that she has seen Jesus and Mary, which she claims as proof of salvation.  At the moment, she is not interested in doing Bible lessons.  We are greatly burdened for this woman and pray that God will save her before it is too late.  She is in her 80s.  We recently saw her sitting at a friend's house.  Her face was all bruised and bloody.  They said it just happened because of an illness and she was living with her friend now.  We believe that her drunken son beat her.  She kept telling us that she was just going to die.  Please pray that God will save this woman.  Because of her "condition" she is not coming to church nor does she want us to visit.  We have found that many times when Ukrainians have something wrong with their faces they do not want to be seen and hide themselves away until they are healed.  Pray that God will either quickly heal her or that she will allow us to visit her.  How sad it would be if a bruise kept her from salvation!

Last Bible Lesson

Tonight we will be having the final Bible lesson with Slavic.  Up to this point he has said that he "already knows" everything that we are showing him.  We are asking that you pray for him that he will not rely upon an experience and baptism for his salvation, but only on the blood of Jesus Christ.  Pray that God will show him his need of salvation and for me as I present the last Bible lesson in this salvation series to him.  The lesson will be around 10 AM EST.

That They May See

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."  2 Corinthians 4:4

9 AM Sunday morning on our way to church I began to talk to a man walking towards us, inviting him to church and offering a tract.  He replied he was too busy and even at that early time, was already obviously drunk.  

Not too far behind him was another man.  As we approached he, understanding that "we believers" don't drink, immediately informed us that "it" wasn't for him and he was on his way to buy vodka so he could get drunk.

Returning home after the services we came across another man on the road, so drunk that he wasn't able to walk straight and even fell over once.

Today while I was working on the fence, one of our neighbors stopped by.  In his drunken state, he began talking to me about life telling me that alcohol makes things better.  I began witnessing to him and he asked me to come by with Yuri to talk with him.  (His name is also Yuri.)

Alcohol is one of the devils greatest tools in getting these people to ignore God and His Word.  On numerous occasions, it has been the reason people have not shown up for Bible lessons or come to church as they had promised.

The god of this world has blinded their eyes, making them believe that alcohol makes everything better - life easier to live, so that they have no time or desire to learn about the one who can truly give them the peace they long for.  Please pray that God would work in the hearts of the people of Vvedenka, opening their blinded eyes to the truth that can set them free.

We especially ask that you be praying for the visit with our neighbor Yuri.  Pray that he will still be open to us when we visit him later this week.

Slavic

For maybe 6 months now, Slavic has been faithfully attending services and taking Bible lessons.  We have mentioned him in almost all of our recent prayer letters.  We met Slavic through Yuri.

Yuri came in contact with Slavic at the local train stop.  Because of drinking problems, he was homeless and looking for work and a place to stay.  Yuri invited the man to work and stay with them on one condition - no drinking.  Except for a short period of time, Slavic has kept that agreement.

He has been involved in a charismatic group and believes himself to be saved because of different "experiences" he's had and also because he was baptized in the charismatic church.  He has testified that before meeting Yuri and our church, he disliked his life and had contemplated suicide.  We praise the Lord that God saved his physical body from death, but we pray that God will also save his soul.  He is reaching the end of the salvation Bible Lessons (only 3 left) and our prayer is that he will see, it is not some experience or even baptism which saves us but only the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

For an update on Slavic click here.

Coming Soon

 

We have decided to start a series of posts introducing you to the people we come in contact with.  We will try to weekly highlight someone we are ministering to (a neighbor, someone we meet on the street, someone we are doing Bible lessons with or a church member) so that you may better know how to pray for them and us.  We trust that this will be a blessing to you and look forward to giving you a better glimpse into the lives of the people God has called us to.  

Prayer Letter

Church & Bible Lessons

The past few months have brought us many witnessing opportunities.  For one, I have started meeting the train—the gate of our city– a few times a week passing out tracts and brochures.  Then, God turned the problem of a broken vehicle into an opportunity to witness.  As we walked to and from church we passed out tracts to those we met and introduced ourselves.  We know that work here will be slow. Many here are either very hardened to anything outside of their Orthodox church or so superstitious and afraid of something bad  happening to them if they attend.  Even with that, God has blessed us with a few visitors as a result of passing out tracts and our testimony here in the village.

Baba Maroosa is one of those people.  She has started coming to church, but is still a little shy about taking Bible lessons.  Jessica had her over for tea one afternoon and talked with her about salvation.  Maroosa believes that she is saved because she has had some visions and also how God has kept her over the years.  Please be in prayer for this lady as she is already in her 80s.

Valodia has continued coming to church off and on, whenever he is not working.  He is still interested in finishing his Bible lessons, just after he is done working.  We have found that to be the greatest hindrance to our ministry here during the summer months—work, even with the Christians.  It has been an answer to prayer this summer to see Yuri and Kristina put God before work.

Slavic has continued his Bible lessons and we are praying that God will convict him and show him his need of salvation.

We still have not had contact with Ruselan, but continue to pray for his salvation.

A while ago we mentioned a lady named Sveta.  Since she works for Yuri and Kristina and her boyfriend has been working on the church yard, we have regular contact with her.  But she still has not started Bible lessons or come to church due to her drinking problems.  They are both frequently drunk.  She also is a drinking partner of Yuri’s mom.  Alcohol has such a grasp on many of the people here, young and old, and would be among the top things keeping people from God.

For those who have helped with the purchase of our building, thank you.  We are now down to $ 12,150.

Family, Health & Registration

Jessica is 6 months pregnant now and, besides exhaustion, everything seems to be going pretty well.  She has had a more difficult time with the doctors as they keep finding things “wrong” with her, only adding to her exhaustion.  We have decided to meet with the previous doctor for private consultations, which will help us know how to handle situations which arise with the doctor who she needs to be registered under.  Please continue to pray for a healthy mom and baby.

As a family, we are still dealing with the parasite problem.  We have tried both natural and medicinal things, changed our drinking water, etc., but it continues to be a problem.  We have been especially concerned about how this will affect Samuel as he has only had a few normal bowel movements.  So far this has not affected his weight and or growth.  We are thinking it is in our water system and have started not only using purified drinking water, but have started boiling water for dishes and washing our produce as well.  We are starting another round with a natural parasite medicine we found that helps the best and appreciate your prayers.

Answered Prayer

Jessica posted this on her blog and I thought I would share it here...

What an amazing day - week - it has been!  We have truly seen Him work out everything for good...for HIS honor and glory, even if at first it just seems like another problem.

I'm so tempted to start with the frosting on the cake, but will try to start from the beginning instead.  In the last few weeks Eric and I have seriously been praying together that God would give us opportunities to witness and it seems like He has opened so many doors!  While Eric was driving into the city one day he picked up a man who needed a ride.  He ended up being drunk and kept asking Eric for money.  Eric told him no because he would just spend it on alcohol.  The man just gave him a knowing smirk.  Eric continued to tell him that what he needed more than alcohol was Jesus Christ and to read the Bible.  He kept saying what he needed was money.  He did take the tract and we pray that he will read it.

Then the other day as we were cleaning the church one of the church neighbors came by and Eric was able to witness to her for a long time.  She kept saying that no matter how hard she tries, she sins and because of this she has problems in her life.  She was not talking about big sins, but little things like talking too much.  She is already at a point where she realizes she is a sinner who cannot redeem herself.  The sad part is, she is so superstitious that she is not yet willing to come to church.  She believes that bad things happened to her because she threw out some orthodox icons and missed going to the orthodox church on a holiday.  She is afraid that if she comes to our church something else will happen.  Eric was able to give her a tract and a Bible and by the end she said that maybe she just needed to read the Bible more.  We pray that she will.  She has also invited the kids and I over for tea sometime, so I am looking forward to that and hoping that I am able to talk to her about doing Bible lessons in her home.

On Friday we went out to celebrate Anna's birthday (which I'll share more about in another post).  After a fun day, we headed back home with cake and ice cream.  We didn't get too far though before the car died.  It was extremely hot and took about 4 hours for us to find someone to help us.  We were able to witness some and give the taxi driver and tow truck driver a tract though, and figured that was God's plan.  Without a vehicle, we tried to prepare a little more on Saturday night for our walk to church.  On our knees later that night as a couple we specifically prayed that God would bring in one visitor to church.  Sunday morning we all loaded up and headed out.  We're quite a sight walking through the village for, not only are we all dressed up, but we have 3 kids so close in age!  Wow, huh? ;)  We met quite a few people on the road and passed out some tracts.  We also met a babooshka who we had previously talked with and given tracts to before.  We invited her to church and she said she would come.  We left, but didn't really think she would...how many times have you heard that?  Once people started coming into church, we were pleasantly surprised with a visit from Elena and also Valodia.  Even though both have attended services in the past, we thought that might be our answer to prayer.  Because Sammy was having a very hard time, probably from heat and being overtired, I ended up having to take him out.  When I reached our front door I was shocked to see the babooshka and a man sitting on the steps!  She had been too shy to come in so had just waited there!  After she went in and sat down the man started talking to me a little.  He didn't stay for very long because he was visiting a friend, but he took the tract.  As I went back in to play piano for the closing song, I felt like crying.  How sweet is an answer to prayer!  And, OH!  How quickly we neglect that precious time on our knees!  Sometimes I am amazed at His patience with me and love in answering when I am so neglectful of Him!  Maybe the car should break down every week. :) 

Prayer Letter

Church & Bible Lessons
We are now officially in the village.  There is still a LOT of work to be done, but the ceilings and walls are finished in our main meeting area and hopefully we will be able to complete the other rooms by the end of the month.  Everyone came out to help paint the main room and are anxious to do whatever it takes to finish the rest.  Praise the Lord for willing workers!  We also greatly appreciate all of you who have sacrificed to help us purchase this property.  So far we have had $1,4050 come in towards the purchase which leaves us at $13,050.

Since moving to the village we have been faced with some discouragements.  Shortly before we moved out here a Pentecostal group started meeting here in the village.  Also, Valodia quit Bible lessons and coming to the services near the end of his lessons.  The Lord did open up the door for more Bible lessons with a man named Slavic.  He believes that he is saved (as do many here), but we are praying that as he continues the lessons he will come to see the need of true repentance.  Baba Shora, Yuri's mom, has also been sitting in for the lessons and is very attentive.  What a blessing it would be to see her saved!  She is known around the village for her drunkenness.  We are praying for her salvation and for God to completely change her life for His honor and glory.

Ruselan is on his last lesson and should have completed it by now, but we have not heard from him.  During the winter months, we were sometimes his only supply of food so it is possible that this was the reason he wanted to continue with his lessons.  I am planning on visiting with him this month and ask that you pray for me and for this young man's salvation.

Family, Health & Registration
We were finally able to get Samuel and Lydia's registration.  Other than making us wait a while, we had no problems.
 
In early July, Brianna also returned to the states.  We praise the Lord for how smoothly her trip went.

In June, Sammy came down with whooping cough.  We were not aware of what it was until later in July after the girls came down with it.  Needless to say, much had to be put on hold (including remodeling of the church).  It has been a very rough couple of months and we are praising the Lord that everyone is starting to recover.  We greatly appreciate all of you who have kept up with us through our blogs and let us know you were praying for us during this time.  Your prayers were greatly appreciated.

Lastly, we are excited to announce that we are expecting another little boy!  Jessica is about 18 weeks pregnant, putting our baby boy due around Christmas/New Year's.  Please pray for a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery and healthy baby.  Also strength for Jessica as she deals with the Ukrainian medical system and opportunities to witness. 

(More remodeling pictures here, and pictures from our first services in the new building here and here.)

Open Doors

Well, Valodia has not been coming as frequently to church or Bible lessons.  He is still very friendly, he just has other things right now to keep him busy.  We pray that God will use the scripture that he has heard to work upon his heart.

God has blessed with more people interested in taking Bible lessons.  On Thursday we started lessons with Slavic.  He is working for Yuri and Kristina.  When we showed up on Thursday we were only expecting him, but Sveta (the lady who never showed up for Bible lessons with Jess) was working for Yuri and stayed for the lesson, and Yuri's mom (Baba Shora) sat through the lesson. 

Today as I was driving to meet Yuri, I gave Sasha (Sveta's boyfriend) a ride.  We had planned Bible lessons with him in the past, but he was always too drunk to come.  Today he was very interested.  He said that Sveta had told him about the first lesson and now he is planning on doing lessons Monday at 6 PM (11AM EST).  Pray that his drinking will not keep him away.

Pray that God will work upon these hearts and bring them to salvation.

Jess and I are also counseling Yuri and Kristina.  While I talk to Yuri about the biblical role of a husband, Jessica and Kristina are studying the role of the wife.  Please pray for this young couple that God will protect and strengthen their marriage.

Church Remodeling & Bible Lessons

Yuri has been working very hard on the remodeling of the church.  He is doing an excellent job.  I praise the Lord for such a trustworthy worker.    The paperwork (switching our church from the city to the village) should be finished in about 2 weeks so if at least the main room is finished, we should be able to start meeting there by the end of June.  We are anxious about moving in, but we know that God's timing is perfect.  We have posted a video (above) and pictures below of all of the work that has been done.

Until recently, Valodia has been extremely faithful to both Bible lessons and church.  This week he missed both Wednesday night service and his Bible lesson on Thursday.  He says that he has work, which is very possible.  We are praying that this is not just an excuse for him to quit.  He is planning on attending services this Sunday so we will talk to him about changing the Bible lesson times to work around his schedule.  We ask that you pray about this.

Prayer Letter

Church & Bible Lessons 
The church is doing very well.  We are all excited about the new building.  So far we have received $1,000 towards the purchase, leaving us at $14,000.  We have started remodeling and the building has come a long way.  Lord willing, it will be ready to meet in by the end of June.  We have been told that the paperwork for the church will be ready in about 3 weeks.  Little by little the news is leaking out that our church will be starting in the village.  Please pray that God will prepare the hearts of these people to receive the Gospel.

Valodia is still coming every Thursday, now at 10 AM EST.  He has also been very faithful to services.  As his lessons come to an end, we pray that he will accept Christ as his Saviour.

Ruselan has moved to an in-between prison house, where he is allowed to work and have a phone.  He has also been reading the Bible on his own, along with the lessons that we are sending him.  This week I will be sending him the last lesson and will be following up shortly after.  Please pray for him to have clear understanding of the Gospel and that he also will accept Christ as his Saviour.

Visas & Paperwork
Our trip to Poland went very smoothly.  We received our visas but the embassy accidentally gave Lydia and Sammy residential visas.  There is a new law here stating that if you have a religious visa, you do not need to get registered, which was a blessing that saved us a lot of work.  But since they gave Lydia and Sammy residential visas instead, we have to work on getting them registered.  Pray that this gets taken care of quickly and smoothly.  It is always a lot of work and takes a lot more of my time than I desire.

Family & Health
While we were in Poland, we had no problems with parasites, but have had problems since returning.  We recently switched to bottled water and are praying that that takes care of the problem.

As you pray for our ministry and work here in Ukraine, we ask that you remember the salvation of our children.  It is our desire that each of our children be saved and fully surrendered to Christ.  Anna has already made a profession and still seems very sincere.  Lydia and Samuel are still too young to understand, but they are growing fast.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

The Curtis Family

Visas

We received our visas with no problem and they are good for one more year.  We will be leaving Poland tomorrow morning and are anxious to be back home in Ukraine.  Thank you for your prayers!

Visas

We have applied for our visas and everything looks good. We should be able to pick them up on Tuesday.

Prayer Letter

Church and Bible Lessons In our last prayer letter we mentioned a man named Valodia and said that he was not interested in Bible lessons. Just a few days after we sent out our letter, he came forward after services and said that he would like to meet with us weekly to do Bible lessons. This is a huge praise for us and we are excited to see what God will do in his life. He has been coming to church every time the doors are open and has also had two Bible lessons. His Bible lessons are every Thursday at 11:00 am EST. We are still keeping regular contact with Baba Nora, our elderly neighbor. She has come over for tea once with Jessica, but didn't stay very long. We are still praying that God will reach her heart before it is too late. Bible lessons with Ruselan seem to be going well. He is always very excited to have us visit as right now we are the only ones visiting him. The guards come by frequently to listen, but we think it is more to make sure he doesn't tell of the conditions they live in then out of interest for the gospel. God could still use that though. Recently God has opened the door for us to purchase a property and building here in the village for the church. This is an exciting step for us, though we know it will be hard as village people are very hard, but we know this is what God would have us to do. There is still much work to be done on the building and lots of paperwork to switch the church address before we can start meeting there. lord willing, we will be able to start meeting there by summer. Valentina recently had a skin cancer spot removed. We praise God that all went well and she is again back in church with us. Our church was recently hit with a hard virus, so we had to cancel a Wednesday and a Sunday service. Everyone seems to be recovering except for Vladamir Vonovich who just came down with it. He has missed a Sunday and will miss a Wednesday because of it. Family, Health & Visas Once again it is time for us to renew our visas. We will be gone from April 6-22. We ask that you pray that we receive our visas without complications and for our safety traveling. We are also looking forward to getting some rest and visiting with another missionary family there in Poland. We have had an up and down struggle with the parasites and it again seems like they ahve returned. We have started treatment once more and pray that we can be rid of this problem. We have had some excitement here as Jessica's sister, Brianna, is visiting with us. She flew into Kiev on January 26th and will be with us until sometime in July. She has been a big blessing and help to Jessica.

It's Ours!

Yesterday afternoon, after many hours spent at the lawyer's office, we finalized the purchase of the church building! This is a very exciting step for our church and we are anxious to get moved in, but it will still be at least a little while. Lina will be working on getting all of our documents in order to move our church to the village and we will be installing doors, windows and fixing up one room to meet in. We are planning on having many tracts ready to do a major "tracting" of the village once we get there. We ask that you continue to pray for us as we get things ready and for prepared hearts.

More pictures and videos to come!

Church building and Bible lessons

The past few weeks have brought a few answers to prayer. The first is a possible building for our church here in the village. We have made a downpayment on it and are now just waiting for them to finish the paperwork. Below are a few pictures of the property and the little building on it. I didn't take any pictures of the building we would using for the church. I did take a video inside the bigger house, but I haven' t been able to get it to upload.

The second is that Vladimir (Yuri's friend who has been coming faithfully to church) agreed to start Bible lessons. His first lesson was on Thursday evening. He was very attentive and asked many questions. He has also studied with the Jehovah Witnesses but was unsatisfied with their answers. It seems like most of the people here that we have met have studied with the Jehovah Witnesses at some point and time. Praying that he continues to be faithful to church and Bible lessons, but more importantly that he will be saved.

I also visited with Ruselan in the prison on Friday. He seemed more open and friendly than he has been. Right now he has no one coming to visit him, and his wife has said she is filing for a divorce, so he is very eager for fellowship.

Thank you for your prayers. They are greatly appreciated.

January 27, 2011

Church and Bible Lessons

Everyone in the church has been very faithful lately, including Vladamir. Now that Vladamir has gotten his affairs in order after the death of his wife, he has been to every service. Alina has not been allowed to ocme back since that first time. Be praying that God will work in this family. A man named Valodia, who lives here inthe village, has also been coming to every service for the past month. He is not interested in Bible lessons at the moment, but continues to come.

Not only have Yuri and Christina been faithful to church, but they have also come with us on evagelism to pass out tracts. We are very excited at how they have been growing.

Baba Nora, our elderly neighbor is still very friendly. Since she didn't seem very open to studying the Bible with me, Jessica is planning on having her over for tea and seeing if she will come over for weekly tea and bible lessons.

I visited with Ruselan a couple of times since our last prayer letter. We were told on the first visit that there was a minister's room where we could meet in to do Bible lessons with him that was never used, but before we left they told us that we would need to get permission to do this. When we went to ask about getting permission, they said that there were enough ministers with permission to the prison and it would be hard for us to get one. They also said that they would have to send someone to evaluate our church again. Because of this, we have decided against trying to get permission. We will continue to send him the Bible lessons through the mail then we will talk about it when we meet, we just won't be able to meet in a private room like I had wanted.

We have been looking at buildings in the village again and found one property that we were really interested in, but at the moment the owners do not have their paperwork in order for us to be able to purchase it. Please be praying that God's will be done.

We had a New Year's meeting at Yuri and Christina's house and Lina's husband Dema came. We continue to pray that God will work upon his heart that he will be saved.

It seems like God has really been working in Pasha's life, but Pasha keeps hardening. He understands the gospel perfectly and can explain it better than some Christians, but still refuses to believe in God. We pray that God will soften his heart.

Family and Health

Our prayer for our children has always been that as soon as they understand the gospel that they would accept Christ as their Saviour. During our regular morning devotions a few days before Christmas, Anna asked to pray and asked Jesus to clean and come into her heart. We were shocked at her understanding of the scriptures and praise the Lord that He has answered our prayer for Anna much sooner than we expected.

Since our last prayer letter, we have had a few more bouts with the Giardia. For the last month we have been taking a pill against parasites. We just went off of it on Sunday and are praying that we have finally seen the last of it. Please pray for us. We are still not sure that we are through with this problem.