Prayer Letter

November 17, 2014

Dear Pastor and Prayer Partners,

“I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”

  It is amazing how the Lord works in our lives to bring to pass His will for our lives!  So often we don’t understand, but His way is perfect and His timing is always on time.

  

When Jessica and I surrendered to go to Ukraine 10 years ago, never once did we think or consider that we would ever go anywhere else.  We thought surely we will be lifetime missionaries.  We had surrendered our lives to preach the Gospel in Ukraine and we planned on being buried there.  But God had different plans.  We can plan and organize our lives the way we think He would want them, but nonetheless we must still be surrendered to His plan and His will for our lives even when it doesn’t go with our plans.

  When we came home from Ukraine this time, something different took place in my heart that I had not experienced before.  Every other time I had come back to the States, not only did God give me a peace and a desire to go back, but I really wasn’t happy being here because I knew God wanted us in Ukraine.  I just wanted to be back in the land of our calling.  This time, every time I have sought to buy plane tickets, God has hindered me and not given me peace.  At the same time, He has given me a desire to come back to the USA and serve here in the land of my fathers.  Every time that I would pray about God’s direction for our family, it seemed that God directed me to verses about Jacob and the Patriarchs going back to the land of their fathers.

  

   For such a long time I wrestled with God about this, telling Him that I was a “lifetime missionary”.  Finally I started praying about where God would have us serve.  God laid on my heart a particular church.  They are a good, solid, Fundamental, Bible believing church and their former pastor surrendered to the mission field of South Africa and announced his calling to the church in March.  This is the same month that God brought us home.  I started praying that if God wanted me to pursue being the pastor of Victory Baptist Church, that He would have the former pastor to call me, and I really had no reason to expect him to call me.  The very next day, he called me.  From that moment I started pursuing being the pastor of Victory Baptist Church.  I did not share this with many people because I did not want to share this until God confirmed that this was what He was doing. 

About 2 weeks ago on November 2nd we candidated, and this past Sunday, November 16th, they voted to have us come as their pastor’s family.  We have whole heartedly accepted for God has confirmed over and over again in our hearts that this is what he wants for our family.

   It is really quite amazing to me how God has worked out all the details.  As God was starting to move us to pastor, God was moving in the hearts of Mark and Donna Kuenzi to go to Vvedenka, Ukraine.  Our prayer was for them to come work with us and their plan was to be our co-laborers. I shared with them what God was doing in our hearts and he said although it wasn’t what we had planned, God has called them to go and we are going to go.  In fact, Mark and Donna are already in Ukraine.  They left on November 6th.  They have already had 2 Sunday services.  They had 6 Ukrainians out for the first service, which is very good since they do not have a car to pick people up with.  We have told Mark and Donna that our van (currently in Western Ukraine), our house, the church building, everything there we own will all be left for them.  This is our best means of helping them do the work that God has called them to and also to help them continue the work which God allowed us to start.  God has made it very evident that He has called them to Ukraine and that He has called us to the States for such a time as this.  Despite the difficulties they have faced and the ongoing violence in Ukraine very close to where they are at, they have said “God has called us and we are going to go.”  Mark and Donna have left for the field with almost no regular financial support.  They have sold most of their possessions and their houses and plan to live off of this money, trusting that God will provide a more permanent means of financial support.  The reason I am sharing this with you is because I would like you to prayerfully consider supporting the Kuenzi family in our place, as they will be continuing the ministry that most of you have already supported through us for the last 7 or more years.  They are being sent from our sending church, Grace Baptist Temple.

   We will be transferring into the pastorate by the end of this month, so we ask that you would discontinue our support the end of this month. Our email will remain the same.  My telephone number will remain the same for at least another month.

   Again, we would like to thank you for your faithfulness to pray for us and support us financially over the years of our ministry in Ukraine.  We have grown to love you all and to greatly appreciate each of you as you have teamed up with us to get the Gospel to Ukraine.  May God richly bless each of you as you continue to faithfully serve our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 Eric, Jessica

Anna, Lydia, Samuel, Daniel & Abigail

July 2014

Our newest prayer card

Dear Pastor and Prayer Partners,

“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Proverbs 25:25

   Though the news coming from Ukraine right now is not always good, we have been encouraged by the news we have from the believers in Ukraine.  Vasily has a very good report among the believers and from our neighbors.  He opens the church doors every week.  Vladamir Vonovich comes every other Sunday and meets with him.  It is hard for any of the others to come without us there to transport them, but Vasily goes to their homes an meets with them.  They have been encouraged by his knowledge in the scriptures and said that he even councils them with scripture!  Hearing this was definitely “cold water to a thirsty soul..”.

   July 3rd, we received news that the train tracks 2 stops from our village had been blown up.  Many of our church people, including Lina and Max, used this to get to church.  We also used it to get back and forth from the city.  Gala, who lives near there, seemed in good spirits and not bothered by it.  She said everything was quickly repaired and the train was running as usual.

   Vasily said someone also sent some men to search our home for “contraband”.  Vasily was cordial with them, and after searching from top to bottom, they left apologizing.  We are praising God for protecting Vasily as sometimes the officials can be pretty corrupt.  Continue to pray for his protection and growth.  

   Our furlough has been going well.  We started in Maryland and have traveled down to Georgia and are now in Maine.  God has truly blessed us with some good churches and it has been refreshing to visit with them again.  We have meetings scheduled in New England until the end of August.  The Lord has even blessed us with a few new contacts.  The Kuenzi’s are continuing to sell-give away-and pack things.  They are hoping to fly back with us when we go.  I know they would also greatly appreciate your prayers.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Update on Where We Are

It has been a busy few weeks for us.  The first two weeks was spent tending to sick kids.  They all picked up a stomach bug somewhere.  Then Jess’ parents came down to visit for 2 days.  On Tuesday, we headed down south.  We are now in Blackstone, VA and are keeping busy and filling up our schedule.  We are trying to keep in contact with our people in Ukraine and are excited to hear that they are still meeting together to encourage one another.  As far as the country situation, things still don’t look good and they have advised us to wait a little longer.  We are anxious to get back but know the Lord has a plan.  He has already blessed us so much this past year.  We think particularly in that we did not have to leave the country last year so had money for tickets.  Please continue to pray for the people of Ukraine and us as we minister here during our visit.

Update

I am sure many of you are aware of the situation in Ukraine, at least to some extent.  In the past few weeks, the violence has only been increasing.  Less than 25 miles from us, on the Russian border, Russian troops were gathering and about 10 miles from us the Ukrainian military was training.  From our home we could hear the explosions and even feel a slight rumble.  At night, the sky lit up and looked on fire.  Many of the Ukrainians believed that if war was to break out in the country, it would be in our front yard.  There may be no danger of a major war there, but there was still the threat.  Even the locals were becoming more bold in their threats toward us.  After much prayer and counseling with the locals, Pastor Scoggins (from ANTBM, our mission) and Pastor Rhew (our pastor), we decided that for the safety of the family we should come back to the States for a little while. 

We are keeping in close contact with people there and want to get back to them as soon as the Lord allows.  We want to make sure that we keep you as informed as possible and that we have an open line of communication.  To do that, we will be trying to email out a weekly update.  We also look forward to visiting with some of you during this short mini-furlough.  We understand that many of you may not have the extra finances for an surprise missionary visit, and we do not wish to be a burden to you.  We greatly appreciate your support over the years.  If we are in your area we may stop in just to be a blessing to you and if you would like, we would be more than willing to share an update with you as well.

God Answers Prayer!!!

Shortly after we sent out our prayer letter, God greatly answered a few of our prayers.  We had mentioned that Vasily and Olea were completing their Bible lessons.  Olea's last lesson was on Friday evening. 

Following her lesson, we asked her if there was ever a time in her life when she had been born again.  She said no, then prayed and asked Jesus to forgive her of her sins and be her Savior.  We were all very excited and praising the Lord with her!  As she was leaving, she began listing off people she was going to call and tell about her salvation.  Pray for her as we continue to disciple her.

Sunday after services, we had the last lesson with Vasily.  It seemed like the closer we got to completing his lessons, the more God was working upon his heart concerning his need of salvation.  What a blessing it was when he said he wanted to pray and ask God to save him.  He had said at one time that he did not think he could get saved because he could not give up smoking.  Continue to pray for him that he will grow in Christ.  We will be continuing to do discipleship lessons with him too.

Another person many of you have been praying for is a man named Ruselan, the same Ruselan that I did Bible lessons with while he was in prison.  He is now out and living just down the road from the church.  He expressed an interest in doing Bible lessons again as he did not understand everything since the lessons were given through the mail.  But besides coming to a few services, he has been too busy to do them.  Friday he rode with me to the nearby city of Chagooiv to buy cement.  While there, his son, Bogdan, did not want to go with him anywhere.  Ruselan admitted to having gotten drunk the night before and was not feeling very well.  When he returned from the market, he also came carrying a bottle of beer.  I told him he was not going to get into my car with that.  So he said he'd drink it.  For me, that was not an option.  The only option if he wanted a ride home was to throw it away.  He was angry with me at first, but did it.  Later he apologized and said that he needed help.  He admitted that his son is scared of him when he is like that and wanted to start doing Bible lessons.  I have talked with him since then and he is still very serious about Bible lessons.  We will be starting this upcoming Wednesday.  Please be praying for this family.  The boys are very faithful to Sunday School.  We would love to see all of them saved.

Prayer Letter

March 18,2013

Ministry

Since our last prayer letter, we have been busily preparing for our ladies’ meeting/banquet.  March 8th is a big holiday here called Women’s Day.  We planned our banquet for the 9th.  The Lord really blessed the meeting and about 12 ladies came.  Almost all of these women are not saved.

We are continuing with the Bible lessons.  The young lady, Nastia, has not been coming for her Bible lessons because she said she can’t get out of work in time but has continued to come to Wednesday evening services.  She says she is interested in continuing.  Her sister also hasn’t been allowed to come back to church in a few weeks. 

Olya and Vasily have continued with their Bible lessons and only have one lesson left.  We are earnestly praying that they will be saved.  They both seem very sincere.  Please pray for them.  Olya’s lesson is on Friday and Vasily will have his on Sunday after services.

Ruselan and his wife Katia have not been coming very frequently to services.  I have visited with him a few times, but they don’t seem very interested in Bible lessons at the moment because of her new job.  Work is the biggest reason most people either don’t finish their Bible lessons or never start in the first place.  You may remember Valodia.  He almost finished his lessons, then got work.  He still faithfully attends services when he is not working.

We have had two new ladies start coming to services.  Their names are Zoya and Sveta.  Sveta has stated that she is searching and very interested in learning more about the Bible.  Zoya has brought her granddaughter to services last week.  Pray that God would work in the hearts of some of these people and save them.

The Sunday School class has been doing pretty well too.  In the past two months we have had 6 visiting kids come to Sunday School...just not at the same time.  Two of those are our neighbors, Nastia and Masha.  Some of you may remember Anna asking for prayer for their salvation.  Anna has been praying for them constantly that they would come to church and get saved and she has been very excited the few weeks they have come.  Pray that their parents will continue to let them attend Sunday School.  Bogdan and Nikita, Ruselan and Katia’s sons, have continued to be regulars.

During Sunday School, I have been teaching the adult class in Russian.  This has been challenging, but I feel like God is allowing the message to still be clearly presented. 

 Family

Everyone is doing well.  Jessica has had a few doctor’s visits and even though I know they are exhausting, she doesn’t get as discouraged by them as she has in previous pregnancies.  Thank you all for your prayers concerning the visits and the pregnancy.

Prayer Letter

January 14, 2013
 

Ministry

  

We have only been here 2 months but already there is so much to fill you up on!  Since returning to Ukraine, the Lord has opened up the doors for us to do 3 Bible lessons.   A young lady named Nastia has hers on Wednesdays.  She listens intently and has started sharing what she is learning with her grandmother.  Her grandmother wasn’t very happy when she first started attending a “cult” and I think she was even more unhappy.  Even with that, Nastia said her grandmother almost came to church on Sunday with her!  Be praying for this family.   Nastia’s mom comes to church, but Nastia and her sister live with her grandmother.  This past Sunday, Nastia’s sister was allowed to come.  We think this is mostly because Jessica started an English class after church.  That may be, but she will be hearing the Gospel from Sunday School, church and in Jessica’s English lesson. 

The second person who asked for Bible lessons was Olya.  She comes every Friday afternoon.  A man named Vasily is the third.  His lesson is Friday afternoon before Olya’s.  Both of them seem interested, but especially Vasily.  He always has questions and he has talked to me about how he feels God is working in his life. 

We have had a good group of adults and kids coming to the services, most of whom are not saved.  Please be praying that those coming to services and to Bible lessons, who are unsaved would be convicted of their need of salvation.

New Year’s Eve we had a special service.  Ruselan, the man I did Bible lessons with, and his wife Katia both came.  Their sons have been attending regularly, but they have only come once.  Katia also came to our Christmas service.  The boys, Bogdan and Nikita, were in our Christmas skit and also played in our bell choir.  She has said she would like to meet with us as she has some questions about salvation, but she has just started a new job so said she is too busy now.  Pray for the salvation of this family.  What a testimony it would be if they were saved and serving the Lord!

Family

The Lord has greatly blessed our family since we have returned.  We received our registration with minimal problems.  This means we are free to stay here in Ukraine for a year.  Our passports expire soon after so we most likely will not be given another year extension.  Another big blessing is a VAN!  After living here years without a reliable vehicle, we were greatly appreciating the little, blue car the White’s left us, but our family is quickly outgrowing it.  Also, I was having to make several trips before and after services to transport everyone.  The van has saved me many trips.  Even with the van, sometimes I have to make more than one trip.  The Lord provided the van at the perfect time!  After paying for the church building, we have been saving most of our love offerings for a van.  We greatly appreciate the many sacrifices you made! 

Shortly after we arrived in Ukraine, we found out that Jessica is expecting!  She is now over 13 weeks and the morning sickness has lightened up a lot and she is not as exhausted now.  She will be visiting the doctors soon and I know would appreciate your prayers.

A New Van!!!

As you know, for some time now we have desired to get a van...one that would work regularly.  We have been saving and started looking around.  A neighbor, who knew we were looking, found out about the perfect van and shared the information with us.  Today, we finalized the purchase.  What a blessing and answer to our prayers!  This will make transporting people to and from services much easier as it will reduce the amount of trips I need to make.  Thank you all for your prayers for this over the years and your generous love offerings when we were stateside as much of that was used in the purchase of this van.

Prayer Letter

October 27, 2012

Church

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” 1 Corinthians 3:6  What a blessing it is to be able to be used of God!  He definitely does not need us, but chooses to let us take part in His plan.  Over the past few weeks, multiple people have come forward acknowledging their need of salvation.  We are unsure how many have prayed, but among those were Valodia (the man we did Bible lessons with and who came faithfully for years), Ruselan (the man we did Bible lessons with in the prison) and Baba Maroosa!  Slavic has grown abundantly over the past year and the others who came forward were a result of his witnessing.  One lady in particular seemed to be greatly burdened over her need of salvation and Slavic himself had the opportunity to lead her to the Lord!  Her name is Olya.  Although we had met her and given her tracts a few times, she did not start coming to church until recently.  She has been quite faithful during the time the Whites were there and appeared 

greatly convicted after every sermon as Mike White clearly presented the Gospel each week.  The others that came forward were Olya’s sister, Nastia and her daughter Naomi, Tonya, Olya’s friend, and Arteum and Sergay, friend’s of Slavic.  We are excited to get back and talk with these people.  Since the Whites were required to leave the country, the church is without a Pastor for two more weeks.  We praise the Lord that He allowed Brother Mike to stay there two weeks longer than expected!  Do remember to pray for our little church.  Especially with so many newly saved, we know that Satan will try to hinder their growth.  Even with no one there, the church is continuing to see around 20 people in attendance.

We also ask for you to pray for Slavic as Yuri has sent his nephew to persecute him, trying to get money from him, threatening to beat him and throw him in prison.  Satan does not like Slavic’s witness and we are praying for God’s protection on him during this time.  They will think that without a missionary there, Slavic will be more vulnerable, but God is still there!

 Family

We have our passports, visas and plane tickets and are ready to be home.  We fly out of Washington, D.C. November 8th at 5 pm!  We have said goodbye to our family and friends, though Jessica’s parents may be making one last trip up to see the kids before we fly out.  You all have been a blessing and encouragement to us.  Some of you knew about Daniel’s ER visit due to 3 days of fevers around 105 and we greatly appreciate the gifts you sent in for that.  We also appreciate the money sent in to replace our transmission.  I don’t know if we could begin to express our gratitude for the blessings you all showered over us during our furlough.  We came, intending to be a blessing to you and leave overwhelmed by your love.  Thank you all for your prayers and support over the years!

“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1

Visa Update

We received our visas!!!  They only issue 45 day visas now, but that can be extended up to 2 years (a year at a time) depending on the registration office.  We ask that you be praying even now about our registration process as they can sometimes be difficult.  Thank you all for your prayers concerning our visas.  We know you are rejoicing with us.

Visa Update

We received a call yesterday concerning our visas from the postal service.  The lady said if we checked online, it would say that they were returned then AGAIN delivered to the Pakistan embassy.  She said the man who typed it in said that he knew it went to the correct embassy, and it was just a 'typo'.  All we could do was wait and see (she said 2 weeks).  Today we received a call saying that we had a package from the embassy waiting for us in VA.  We had our pastor pick it up and waited anxiously to see if we had gotten approved.  We are excited to say, WE HAVE OUR VISA!!!  Thank you all for your prayers!  We do ask that you continue to pray as they only give out 45 day visas now.  If we are able to get registered, we can stay a full year.  We ask that you be praying about this even now.  Again, thank you for your prayers!!!

IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!

We have further tracked our visa applications and passports and have discovered that they were delivered to the Embassy in Washington...but not to the Ukrainian Embassy.  Instead, they were delivered to the Embassy of Pakistan.  Pray as we try to get everything worked out.

Link to Update

Jessica made an update talking about our visas and the White's registration.  You can read that here.  Thank you for your prayers!

Visas and Church Fines

Just a quick update to ask you to be praying for the White's and also our little church in Ukraine.  We received news that the White's were told they had broken the law and would be required to go to court and pay a fine.  The church would have to do this as well.  Lina said the fine could be anywhere from $300 - $1,000.  The reason?  When you go into Ukraine, you are required to register. When they went to re-register this time, they were told they had broken the law because they had not UN-registered before their last registration expired.  This is something new and we ask that you will be praying for them and also pray that it will not cause problems for us when we go to register.

Concerning our visas, we have sent in the paperwork and are just waiting to see if they will be accepted.  Pray that God allows everything to work out as we have been hearing of other missionaries who have had their request for visas denied.

Bible Camp Update

Jessica just posted an email from Joyce White updating us on the first day of Bible Camp (VBS).  If you'd like to read the excitement, click here.  Thank you for your prayers!

Prayer Letter & Update

July 25, 2012

Family

The past few months have been busy ones for us.  We have traveled from Virginia to Florida, from Georgia to Maryland and will soon be heading to New England for the remainder of our time here in the states.  It has been a blessing to visit with old friends and meet new ones.  During our 2 week stay in Georgia we had a chance to spend time with Jessica’s family and the kids enjoyed getting a chance to know their grandparents.  On our way up from Georgia we stopped in North Carolina to help pass out tracts for the 4th of July and stayed to watch the fireworks.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed their first celebration of the 4th of July and probably got out more tracts than the adults!  We also just finished helping with the VBS here at our Mission’s church in Maryland.  We feel like we have been going steady, but there’s no complaining from our kids—they are loving it all and the new friends they are making.  Still, we are anxious to get back and have started preparing to leave.  We have applied for passports for Anna and Daniel and should be receiving those by sometime next week.  We will then work towards receiving our visas.  Pray that we receive those without problems.

 Ukrainian Church

As some of you may know, Brother White had to come home for the month of July to have a small operation.  Everything went well and he is doing much better.  They are getting ready to fly out and will be in Ukraine by Friday evening. 

The church has still been seeing about 5 unsaved people attend each service.  Baba Maroosa is one of them and she has started bring one of her friends.  Also, Tamara and her mom have started coming and bring her grandsons with her.   Valodia is still attending and sometimes a new lady (one of Slavic’s friends), Olya.  A few other ladies who are working for Slavic are coming as well.

They have started doing weekly Bible clubs and had 14 kids come out the first day.  Some kids have since not been allowed to attend again, which I know has been discouraging.  Our neighbors have even been allowing their daughters, Nastia and Masha, to come.  Nastia was allowed to go to church once, but her father doesn’t let her go any longer.  Please be praying for this young family.   They seem to be opening up slowly to the Gospel and the White’s will be talking with them more soon.  They  also have been using the Bible lessons as punishments/rewards with Nastia so she has not been allowed to attend lately.  In the beginning of August they will be having a VBS and would appreciate your prayers during this time.

And we are excited to announce that almost exactly one year after moving into it, THE CHURCH BUILDING HAS BEEN COMPLETELY PAID OFF, thanks to the many generous love offerings we have been given.   What a blessing it is to have this taken care of!  Thank you!

The following is a little bit of an update from the White's about the ministry there in Ukraine:

 On the Bible Club

We praise the Lord for the weekly summer Bible Clubs. Our neighbors         

      have allowed their children to come.  Pray they will also be able to come

to the Bible Camp the week of August 20^th.  Some children were not

allowed to return when the parents realized we were not just playing

games, singing songs, and doing crafts but teaching from the Bible.

On the Church

Continue to pray for these dear folk. (Ola, Maria or Baba Maroosa, Valodia)  They come faithfully to church but as of yet have not truly seen themselves lost and need to receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

We ask that you continue to pray for us as we serve our dear Lord and Saviour in this Satan controlled area.  In our 20 years of giving out the Gospel in this part of the world we have never faced such a satanic assault as we do here.  Pray for the Children's Bible Camp the week of August 20th.  Pray that God will send the children to us and that we will be able to reach them and their families for the Lord.  We are praying for 20 children.

This is taken from their prayer letter.  We ask that you will pray with them and us over this Bible camp and the village of Vvedenka.  They also were able to dig the well in Ukraine and build a pump house, thanks to their church who gave the rest of the needed money.  We appreciate all of you who have given towards that as well.  They are now enjoying the benefits of cold water.