Gettin' so big

My sweet precious children

Abigail 3.2 Simon 4mnths

It is so hard to believe that I am the mother of these 2 precious gifts from the Lord. I thank Him everyday for these precious gifts. Of course, I haven't yet got a picture of them together where they are both looking at the camera - and Simon has a lot less pictures than Abigail did at this age. I sure do hope he doesn't hold it against me like I hold it against my mother (I am also a second child with hardly any baby pictures:).

Simon at 4 months old

Together again!

3 years old

April 2, 2010 our baby girl turned 3 years old. Time has flown so incredibly quickly. She has grown into such a little lady and we are so thankful to the Lord for this child. My parents, her cousins and friends were able to help us celebrate her day. After the initial shyness of being sung to - she jumped right into the festivities and had a great time. We praise the Lord for Abigail Joy!

Mornings at Bah's house

While we are here in the States staying with Bah and Grandaddy, our mornings are quite peaceful. Abigail usually occupies herself with books or like today, playdough and Simon sleeps peacefully in his bassinet. The Lord has given us two very precious children for which we are most grateful!

Big Sister

The Lord has answered our prayers for Abigail's adjustment to being a big sister and having a very attention getting little brother. She is doing wonderful and really seems to love Simon. She helps me change his diaper and puts his socks on and doesn't seem to really mind when he nurses, etc. She is growing up so fast and truly is a joy - we named her right - Abigail Joy.

Simon Joshua Enskyy

Thank you for praying for the birth of our son, Simon Joshua Enskyy. He made his grand entry into this world on Monday, February 8,2010 at 14:31 in Greenville, SC USA. The Lord was so good to give Lori a fast and safe delivery of our son. Abigail is adjusting quite well to her little brother. She loves to put his socks on him and help Lori change his diaper. Oleg is at home in Ukraine and Lord willing, will be able to come to the US in March to help get the children home. We praise the Lord for His goodness to us!

Christmas 2009

Thank you so much for praying for our first worship service. Even though Christmas isn't really celebrated here until January 7 - and the 25th of December is a work and school day, we had 20 people come out to celebrate the birth of our Savior on that day. It was a really special service. It was especially fulfilling to see our new believers excited about the work they had done passing out brochures - and seeing the fruit from that labor. Please continue to pray for Emil, Luba, Tonya and Sasha as they grow in their faith and allow the Lord to change and restore their lives.

We are having another Christmas service on January 7th - the official Christmas day in the Orthodox world. We are praying that the Lord would use our personal testimonies, brochures and prayers to draw more unsaved to our services. We covet your prayers as well!

Christmas card evangelism 2009

We have been praying for effective ways to get the word out about Holy Trinity Baptist Church. The Lord impressed upon Oleg's heart the need to emphasis Christmas in our evangelistic efforts. He worked and prayed over these Christmas cards for a long time and the Lord really blessed his efforts. We just got them back from the printers, all 5,000 of them :). Our goal is to put one in the door or every apartment and home surrounding our church building before December 24. For those of you who don't read Ukrainian :), these Christmas brochures wish the reader a Merry Christmas, invite the reader to our special Christmas services (both on Dec. 25th - called Hungarian/Catholic Christmas here and on Jan. 7th - Orthodox Christmas,) give a brief synopsis of what we believe and a short run down on how our church is "different" from what the typical idea of what a "church" is.

Please pray that the Lord would use these Christmas cards for His glory and that they might tweek the interest of non-believers who are inclined to go to church on Christmas to come and visit us! After Christmas, we will also be meeting for Sunday worship services in our rented facilities.

From wintery, snowy Ukraine, we wish you a very Merry and Christ-centered Christmas Season!!!

Wii Bible Club at Holy Trinity Baptist Church

Tuesdays and Saturdays are Wii Bible Club days at our church. The Lord has given us some wonderful kids from our neighborhood to work with. They are from 11-16 years old and very open to the Word of God. They are memorizing scripture, learning Christian songs, playing the hand chimes (getting ready for Christmas) and of course, playing Wii. Abigail loves to go to church now b/c there are children there! Please pray for this ministry.

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

Holy Trinity Baptist Church

The Lord gave us a wonderful rental property to begin work on Holy Trinity Baptist Church! It is in a great location with parking - surrounded by thousands of apartments. We even have a cleaning lady! Please pray for us this coming week as we show the "Jesus" film in the courtyards surrounding our building - inviting people to our Friday night Bible study - beginning at this site on Friday, August 28th at 6pm.