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

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

Chosen Frozen

An email from Mike and Joyce White in Vvedenka Ukraine:

 

  Hello to all,

We just got back from church. It is about -15F. We are not able to heat the church building, so we closed

off the large room and met in the hall way. It is about 10' x 12'. We have 3 electric wall heaters which brought the temperature up to about 38F. Even though it was freezing a lost man that has already come twice before came back again today. He seems to be truly interested in knowing more about Jesus. Please pray for him, his name is Anatoly.

 

We've attached a few pictures. In one the door way to the regular meeting room is closed off with a

blanked. We call it the Lion of Juda. One is two of the heaters. The bottle of water in front was frozen even though we keep one heater on all the time. The other is of Bro. Mike with a few of our chosen frozen men! We need heat! This is our major prayer request.

Trust you all have a good day in the house of the Lord and enjoy not only the warmth of the Word of God but the warmth you receive from the central heating system!

Christ our Saviour,

Mike and Joyce White

Your missionaries in Ukraine

We received an update that it had warmed up to around 20-30 F.  We are praying that the worst of winter is past.

Daniel Mark Curtis

Thank you Aunt Penny for putting this together for us!

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.

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. :) 

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.

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.