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.