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

April 18, 2012

“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”  Proverbs 25:25.  Proverbs 25:13 says, “...so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.”  As we travel to those who have faithfully supported us over the past 5 years (or more), that is our goal, to refresh your souls with good news from a far country.   We know we are quite late with our update and apologize.  We do desire to keep you informed.

Family
The family is doing well and baby Daniel (born on January 10th) is growing fast!  We have been surprised by how well the kids are traveling and praise the Lord for protecting our family on the roads.   We have been sick quite a bit, but the Lord continues to give us energy.  We pray that He will revive our hearts and use us even more for His honor and glory.  We are anxious to get back to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Church

Thank  you all for praying for our little group of believers  as they were left by themselves  for a month and a half after we left until brother White arrived to fill in for us.  Thankfully in January brother White and his wife safely arrived in Vvedenka with a warm welcome from our believers.  They have  settled in well and seem to be doing a very good job.
As for the church we have good news and bad news.  The good news is that Slavic who recently got saved last fall seems to be growing in his faith.  We also have had many guests attending since we have left.  Tolic and his family,  Baba Maroosa,  Baba Vera, and Valodia, as well as some others that we havn’t mentioned in earlier prayer letters.  It is exciting for us because each of these individuals are people that we have personally witnessed to and given tracts to in the past.   Please pray for the salvation of each of these guests that have been attending the church.  The rest of the  members are faithfully attending services as well, except for  Yuri and Kristina.  Unfortunately Yuri had to be church disciplined out of the church and Kristina hasn’t been attending.  Please pray for this young couple. 
In our absence brother White and the church has continued to remodel the church property.  Just recently we received some large love offerings and we were able to send over  money for them to install a new heating system ,  which was desperately needed as they were really freezing in this past years extreme winter.  The small heaters that we had just weren’t enough to battle the extreme cold.  So we praise the Lord that the funds were provided for them to install this new system.
Since we have been on furlough we have tried to put as much of our love offerings as we can toward paying back the money our sending church gave us to purchase the church building .  We now owe only  $5,080.  Please pray with us that we can totally pay that back before we go back to Ukraine in November. 
As we get closer and closer to our departure, please pray that we will be able to get our visas without any problems.  And please pray that God would enable us to pick up the needed support before we go back.  We needed to raise $500 more of support per month but with some increase from our supporters we are down to about $400  more needed.  We know God will supply all our need.  Thank you for praying.
Pray also that we will be able to save enough to purchase a vehicle when we get back.  We rarely had the convenience of a vehicle during our first term, which made life a lot more difficult.

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.

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.

A Week of Blessings

On Thursday, June 17 at 12:27 PM (5:27 AM EST), Samuel James Curtis was born. Both mother and baby are doing well. To read more about the many answered prayers concerning the birth of our son, visit Jessica's blog. We ask that you pray that we will receive his birth certificate, passport, etc. without any problems.


That same day, God answered another prayer request by providing a 9-seater van for our family and church.

Another praise is that we were finally able to get a hold of Oksana. She has not been to services or Bible lessons for the past two weeks and we have not been able to contact her. We were beginning to wonder if she was through with Bible lessons and avoiding us. Today, Lina talked with her and we found out that she has been out of town. Lord willing, she will be starting up Bible lessons again on Monday. Please be praying for her salvation as she has had a hard time letting go of her Orthodox heritage.

Lastly, a prayer request. On Sunday Vladamir Vonovich (the elderly gentleman who was recently saved and baptized) told us that his wife who had alzheimers had passed away this past week. He has been taking care of her for many years now and recently had not been able to attend many services because of her increased need of care. Please be praying for this man and his family. I wish that we could say that she was saved.

Baptisms

On Wednesday night in the river in Vindinka normally used for just fishing, drinking and swimming, I had the privilege of baptizing Yuri, Vladamir and Christina. They had all expressed a desire to be baptized and it was exciting to see them take this step of obedience. For Christina, it was especially hard. An hour before she was supposed to be baptized she called and said that she was not ready. The whole time during the message about baptism and when Yuri and Vladamir were getting baptized, I could see the struggle on her face. She desired to get baptized but was not wanting to be harrassed afterwards by Yuri's mom and her friend. After I climbed out of the water I told her whenever she was ready to let me know. She said, "Let's do it now." Praise the Lord!

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.

Valentine's Banquet 2010

This year we had our 2nd Valentine Banquet. It is not a usual Valentine's banquet because it is open to everyone, not just couples. This year's theme "The Most Important Relationship". We didn't get as many pictures as usual because Jessica was busy serving and handed the camera over to me and Valentina. The women all worked very hard and not only was there more than enough food, but it was all excellent.

Oksana, Lina, Anna, Jessica and Lydia - the main servers (the girls brought the bread baskets to the tables)
Unsaved: Oksana, Anna and Lydia

Alla, Boris, Constantine, Olea and Pasha (Dema, Lina's husband, also came but requested that his picture not be posted due to the fact that he is in the military. This is the first church activity that he has attended. What a blessing it would be to see this man saved!)
Unsaved: Constantine, Olea ?, Pasha and Dema

Valentina and Elena
Unsaved: Elena ?

Evan, Yuri, Christina, Lela (Christina's mom), Max and Vladamir
Unsaved: Evan and Lela

During the banquet, we had a few activities and contests. Pictured below are wives from our church holding "portraits" that their husbands drew of them. After the husbands who wanted to participate drew the pictures, the wives had to guess who was who. They all guessed correctly.

Please be in prayer for the unsaved who attended. We praise the Lord for those saved in 2009 and are excited to see what the Lord will do in 2010. We ask that you pray for the ministry here as satan would like nothing more than to stop the unsaved from coming to Jesus, but also to destroy the work here and hinder the growth of the believers.

"Baba" Shura & Tamara

Thanksgiving Day

Wordless Wednesday

Saved on "satan's Day"

Lina, Tamara, Jessica

October 31st, while most in America were preparing to celebrate Halloween, satan was trying desperately to keep control of a woman named Tamara. For 52 years she had been under his control, living in a home with a mom who practiced witchcraft and practicing it herself later. At the same time, she was searching for the truth. Seeking for answers through the Russian Orthodox church, a charismatic church, the Jehovah Witnesses...all telling her the same thing-she must do something for her salvation. They told her that right now her "gifts" were from satan, but that after she was "saved" she could use them for God. She came to our house Saturday, October 31st at 8:30 AM and talked until 3 PM. First she told of all of her visions, experiences, and "gifts" asking us if they were from God or from satan. She wanted to know "What is truth?" and "How can I KNOW that you are telling me the truth?". She pointed to a book she had brought and said that the man who wrote it was older than we were, so how could we claim to know more about the truth than him? Each time Eric would point her to what the Bible says. Near the end, she said "I believe you because you have not once said nice words to convince me, you have only pointed to the Bible." What a blessing it was when she said she wanted to receive Jesus as her Saviour! She bowed her head and prayed accepting Jesus into her heart but didn't stop there. She then prayed for her son, who is in prison for stealing, that he might find the truth like she had saying that she knew he was where he was because of her. So, on a day many consider "satan's day", satan lost control over another soul!

ALMOST FINISHED!

A corner in the kitchen...girls room on the left, living room/our room on the right

Entry way/dining area?

The girls' room

The kitchen going into the girls' room...the walls are the same color green. It's just the lighting.

Living Room

The bathroom is almost complete too. Just needs paint and the sink and toilet hooked up. It has a beautiful white floral tile on the walls and a cream floral on the floors (though, I don't think you would see the floral print in pictures because it is almost the same color as the tile). I am so thankful for the beautiful little house that God has given us and I can't wait to move in! I am like a kid asking "Are we there yet?". I think that it just might be the most beautiful little house in all of Ukraine!

Wordless Wednesday

Because you can't really see it in this photo, need to explain this picture...these boys were smoking outside of our apartment building.

Updated pictures of the House

This is what the house looked like when the girls and I returned from America. A HUGE difference from the last time I saw it! Eric was working hard. Be praying for one of the workers. His name is Alexander. He said that he was going to visit our church on Sunday.

New Windows!

Kitchen then girls room

Kitchen...Look at the cute little table the workers found. You'll probably see that somewhere in the house later.

Corner in the girls room

Living room/our room

Bathroom