food closet ministry

last tuesday at our youth meeting, a new little girl came to visit. her name is albina. she is 12. during game time after bible study, she and i got to talking. she told me that she hadn't eaten in 2 days - that her father was out of work and her mother wasn't around. i couldn't sleep that night thinking about that little girl trying to go to bed hungry. it has been quite cold and rainy here lately. oleg found this little girl's address and phone number in our contact list and we called her father. he said that he wouldn't object to our church helping their family during this down and out time in their lives. we were able to minister to their family thru the food closet ministry that the lord helped us start several years ago. we were able to give her father the gospel as well as provide staples (potatos, onions, eggs) for their family to eat. he seemed open to coming to friday night bible study. please pray for him, his name is anatoli. unfortunately in our part of the world, this story is not uncommon. we thank those who faithfully give to the food closet ministry and pray that the lord will continue to burden the hearts of his people to help us with this ministry. it really helps us to get out there and show the love of jesus as well as telling about it.

meeting kristina

our wonderful friends and babysitters natasha and marianna now have a little niece - her name is kristina. we often go out to the village to visit with them. abigail is trying to get used to mama holding another baby. for now, she tolerates it. we are praying that she will love her new baby brother and that we will have the wisdom and energy to show her the love and attention that she needs after the baby is born.

Sliding fun

Our favorite outside cafe just put in a slide for kids. Abigail's new goal in life is to see how many times she can go up and down the slide in a 2 minute period.

Abigail's new friends

Myrna Gregory and Sabrina Lewis, UPWARD representatives and good friends of ours from the States, were in Ukraine for an UPWARD camp in another region and were able to get to Mukachevo for our end of season celebration. They were a tremendous help to us as they took great pictures of the celebration and made sure that Abigail didn't get into the cake that she so desperately wanted to have! They also allowed me to participate in the service by watching our precious girl. We praise the Lord that they were able to come!

End of season UPWARD celebration

Tonight we had our end of the season UPWARD celebration for our soccer outreach. We had been praying that the boys parents would attend. We had 5 parents come out - a huge answer to prayer. Parents aren't that active in the lives of their children here in Ukraine and we were so excited to have these folks come to our church. Oleg was able to clearly present the gospel, we had an excellent book on Christian child raising to give to them - that also clearly presents the gospel, and then we just had a good ole time playing games and enjoying each other's company. The boys really enjoyed the Wii game and will be coming back to our church this fall for a youth club that will meet on Tuesday nights. Please continue to keep our children's outreaches in your prayers as this seems to be the most effective inroad to getting to know the people of our community.

Jesus Film Evangelism

Thank you for praying for the showing of the "Jesus" film in the courtyards surrounding our building. We had about a total 300 people come out to see the film the 4 nights that we showed it this week. We had invitations to Holy Trinity's Friday night Bible study to give to each person who came. We had many opportunities to witness and interact with the people who attended. We didn't have a great turn out at Bible study this week but we are praying that next week's evangelisms will draw more people to our services. Please keep us in your prayers as we try to start a new work with people from our community.

Abigail singing the ABC's - 2 yrs 4 months