Easter Program for Children

Map of Ukrainian ATO

     I had the great opportunity and privilege to help with an Easter program for at-risk kids near the war-torn part of Eastern Ukraine. I worked with 2 other Americans, Armando and David and the organization they represent, "Children to Love". We left in the evening on Orthodox Easter and traveled 17 hours by train to a city in the Donetsk Region. We were about 25 miles from the war zone, known as the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation zone). Although we did hear in the news of some fighting while we were there, we felt completely safe and didn't hear or see anything. God kept us safe on the way there and back, so we thank Him for this.

The "Smile" team

     We worked with a group of Ukrainians and a their team which is called "Smile". They formed in 2014 after the fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine. Their mission is to support at-risk children, and orphans impacted by the war. They do Christmas and Easter programs as well as summer camps. At the last Christmas and Easter programs, over 3000 kids heard the Gospel message. The team uses very interactive plays that include participation from the audience, puppet shows, and different games to keep it interesting for the children. Every evening we packed thousands of goodie bags for the children, which included sweets, toys, and a small Bible and other Christian literature.

Regional orphanage for disabled children

        One of the hardest things we did was visit an orphanage for physically and mentally disabled children. It is one of the largest of these type of orphanages in Ukraine and the only such one in this region. There were almost 270 children there, many of them in wheelchairs. As hard as it was for us to be there, we kept smiles on our faces, and did our best to share the love of God with them. Just another reminder for me that we live in a broken world, but one day God will right all wrongs.

        We also had the opportunity to buy groceries for and visit with a family who lost their only daughter to an artillery shell that hit just outside the kitchen window where she was cooking. She left behind a 10 year old son whose grandparents have now taken him in, even though they barely have enough to live on for themselves. It was an emotional time for all as they tearfully shared about their daughter and showed us pictures of her. Their grandson Vlad often cries at night asking to see his mother just one more time. I know there are many conflicts around the world, and just because they aren't talked about anymore in the news it doesn't mean everything is ok and that we should stop praying. There is still fighting in Ukraine, and young soldiers and innocent civilians are still losing their lives every week. That's over 10,000 lives lost since the fighting began.

Family that lost their daughter (Valentina and Volodya)

So please, we ask you to join us in prayer today in 3 areas: 1- Pray for the "Smile" team and the work they are doing, that God would continue to provide for them and that the Gospel would spread through their work with at-risk and orphan children; 2 - Pray for the family of Volodya, Valentina, and their grandson Vlad, as well as for all the people suffering from conflicts around the world. 3- Pray for peace in Ukraine and around the world. And that God's justice would come to those less fortunate. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. I am always happy to share with you these stories, and if you have any questions or would like to help in some way, let me know. May God continue to bless you all as well and keep you safe. May His kingdom come sooner, and may His will be done through us as we await Him, so that we will be found faithful!

Church Planting 101

The last few months have been very challenging for us. We are still struggling to finish renovations and repairs on our apartment before winter. The temperature is already in the 30s-40s! This definitely is not Florida,  but we are making progress even if it's slow and more expensive than expected. (More about that in a future update). However we have been busy not only at home but also at our church. Our church here in Lviv, "Trinity Church" is 8 years old, and as a young church still has a lot to learn. I'd like to share with you about some of the "growing pains" we have been having. These last few months we have been meeting 2-3 times a week trying to figure out some important questions and solve some problems that we noticed have surfaced in the last few years in our church. I have the great privilege along with the guys in this picture to serve on the leadership team at church.

 There are 7 of us in all. Although 8 years is long enough to not call the church "new" we still noticed there were a lot of things missing and we are trying to address those issues. For example at Calvary there is a clear mission and mission statement, a strategy, defined church bylaws and organizational structure. It helps the church stay focused and move towards where they believe God is calling them. We as a small church of 30-40 people were missing that clarity and we noticed that it was causing some problems. So as I said we have been researching a lot and praying and trying to decide where our church is headed and what structure is best for us. It has been frustrating at times but a great learning experience for me and I am happy to be apart of it. Please pray for our church and the leadership in our church that God would give us wisdom and that He would make our church a great instrument for raising up disciples and reaching the lost people of Lviv, Ukraine. You know, we noticed that you really need balance in the church. I will explain it like this. If the world is full of lost people, we say they are sick and in need of a doctor to take care of their illnesses. We as believers know that that illness is sin, and only Jesus can take care of that problem with his precious blood. However, what we noticed was that we, as a church, were focused too much on outreach and neglected the health of our own doctors. We realized that we can't neglect the spiritual and physical needs of our congregation because they can't reach out to others if they themselves are sick and struggling with personal things. We as a church had to repent of some of the mistakes we made in the past and we are now moving forward. It is wonderful to see God working in our church, healing broken relationships, and putting a desire to serve in the hearts of members who before seemed not to care about such things. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Pray specifically for wisdom and guidance for our church leaders at Trinity. Pray by name if God leads you to. (The leaders are Andriy, Oleg, Viktor, Nazar, Serhiy, Vova,and myself.) Pray also for Yuliya and I to finish our apartment enough to make it a little more livable. If God leads you to help in anyway, or if you have any suggestions or encouragement please write us a comment here, or pass it along though Calvary or through my parents. God bless you all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support. We couldn't do it without you.

We also celebrated a day of Thanksgiving in our church to thank God for all the blessings He has shown us this year. Here is a picture of our children at church at this Thanksgiving service as we pray over them and bless them before sending them to Sunday School.

"Ocean Fest" (500 years - Protestant Reformation)

A few months ago I posted about the Protestant Reformation. As this year is the 500 year anniversary, the President in Ukraine signed a law allowing Protestants to hold different conferences and events to teach about this historical event that changed the face of Europe and the World. So our church and many of the Evangelical churches in Ukraine are taking advantage of this great opportunity to teach about the Reformation and through it to share the gospel.

 Our church is focusing on one area of Lviv, Ukraine that we call the Ocean region. (The name comes from an old store in the area called "Ocean") We have been working there for the last few years and decided to put on a small festival to celebrate the Reformation. We started the week by presenting many famous paintings and the history about the paintings and what they mean. Many of the paintings have Jesus in them or are biblical in nature so we used the paintings to make people think and to ask questions about things like sin, the nature of man, and God. It was a great opportunity to get to know some people in this area where we are ministering and to share the gospel with them through these famous paintings.

We did this evangelism using the paintings for a few nights during the week then on Sunday we had a concert and celebration. It was June 4th in Ukraine which is a big holiday known here as the "green holiday". However, it is actually the celebration of the Trinity and the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles and believers obediently waiting in Jerusalem. We had many games, activities and relay races for the kids. We also set up the paintings again for evangelism. Then we had a concert, told some historical facts about the Reformation and what it means. Then I gave my testimony. I talked about the true reformation that we need and that it is a reformation of the heart. I shared with them that man by himself cannot do this. We need God's help, and only through the working of the Holy Spirit can our hearts and minds be reformed and changed.
It was a very fitting theme for this holiday of the Trinity and the day of Pentecost. Then our pastor Oleg also shared a short message about the reforming or transforming work of the Holy Spirit. We then invited everyone to come every Sunday for the next 5 weeks to different seminars about the Protestant Reformation, it's history, and it's influence on Ukraine.

Please pray that God would bless our work in the "Ocean region" and that many people would hear about Jesus and come to repentance and a personal relationship with Him. Pray that Ukraine would truly be reformed from the inside out, starting with the hearts and minds of it's people. Pray that the Holy Spirit would work through us and that God would use us in amazing ways as His instruments to reach these people.

We also are in the process of fixing up our apartment and are in need of help both physically and financially so please pray that that process would go smoothly and that God would provide for all our needs. If you are able to help us in anyway it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for anyone reading this and to family, friends, and church members who continue to support us and lift us up in prayer. I encourage you all to get involved with missions in some way whether it is local or international. God Bless!

Nepal - Week 1

This spring Yuliya and I had the opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip to Nepal with a team from the seminary here in L'viv, Ukraine. Our time there was basically divided into 3 weeks so I will post accordingly. We first flew through Dubai and landed in Kathmandu.

Immediately our senses were bombarded with a new culture as we exited the airport and rode in jeeps to our host home. They don't really seem to have many rules on the road, besides one - honk your horn a lot to let everyone know you're coming. We had 1 day in Kathmandu to walk around but mostly we searched for some things at the market that we would need for the mountains including sleeping bags, hiking poles, and food. We then left on a 9 hour bus to the city of Pokhara in the Annapurna mountain range region. We stayed there for one night, then set out the next day for our first destination. We hiked mostly uphill for about 6-7 hours and got to the first village where we stayed for a few days with a kind, old grandma. We would sleep and eat there and in the day go visiting the surrounding villages.

In the villages we showed kindness to the people, made conversations with them and just played with and talked to children. The people were very kind and often invited us to sit and drink tea with them. The kids were really sweet, and we made them balloon animals, handed out candy, and our girls checked their girls for lice and brushed/braided their hair. Our friend and brother in Christ Min, a former shaman who was saved and is now a preacher, would preach while we spoke with the people in the villages. Then we invited them to watch the Jesus film in the evening if weather permitted. The first few nights it was raining and wet and only a few people came. However, on the last night it was dry and more than 40 people were there from the surrounding villages. Join us in praying for these villages. On almost every mountaintop there are temples to different Hindu gods.

These beautiful people are desperately in need of Jesus! The first week was difficult, wet, and humid but God gave us strength and we were able to help Nepali missionaries reach out to these people and preach the Gospel. We pray that God will continue to use these people like Brother Min to reach the lost in these mountain villages in Nepal.

"Then He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15 CSB

Nepal - Week 2

After our first week we understood a little bit of the price you must pay to be a minister or missionary in Nepal. Praise God instances of physical persecution are not common in Nepal, as far as I know, but it is still very difficult for believers there. There are many gods, temples, and shrines all over the place and for us it was a little disconcerting at times.  There are so few people willing to go...but some ARE going, and God is working through them and people are hearing all about Jesus in these remote places!
We often prayed that those false places of worship would be ruined and that the one true God's name would be lifted up in those places instead. Please join us in praying. Also we understood the physical cost of evangelism and discipleship in these mountain villages. It is very hard to climb from one day to a couple weeks to get to some of these villages. As Jesus said -->

In week two a couple of our girls, including my wife Yuliya, went back to Kathmandu to help with some camps in the orphanages instead of going with us to Tibet. The rest of us got back on a bus and then took a jeep up very steep mountain roads, past a few guard checkpoints and into the Tibet region of Nepal (near the border of China). The place where we were the first week we worked mostly with Hindu people, but closer to Tibet Buddhism is the dominate religion.

Everywhere we saw the very colorful Buddhist flags which actually have prayers written on them. They believe the winds blow the prayers to heaven. Our plan in Tibet was to climb all day for 2 days to reach a village and show the Jesus film there where it hadn't previously been shown before, and in a few villages on the way up. So we climbed, and climbed, and climbed with the sun beating down on us and the dust kicking up and resting inside our nostrils. It was much harder than the first week in terms of climbing but we kept going and helped each other as much as possible. We finally reached our destination at 3500+ meters which is more than 11,000 ft. It is already high enough that no trees grow as you can see in this picture, and it was freezing cold at night. We woke up to snow and our translator was very happy as it was his first time seeing snow! We showed the Jesus film to about 40 people again. At the base of those mountains is a Christian church so we shared with them our plans and route so that they could also continue working with these people.

Please join us in praying for the people of Tibet. Buddhism has a strong hold on the area and the work there is very slow, often without a lot of visible fruit. Please pray that pastors, and missionaries would be called to reach these people who again are in need of a Savior, and that he would give them strength and boldness to preach the Gospel to these remote mountain villages.

Nepal - Week 3

After our second week we went back to Kathmandu and had a couple of days to rest and prepare for the camp we would help do with some of the orphanages. There are a couple of missionaries from Ukraine, USA, Belarus, Russia, and some other countries as well who run small orphanages with 20-30 children. We did camp for 4 of these orphanages. The work these missionaries are doing with these kids is amazing. They are helping raise up missionaries, pastors and ministers from among these orphans. They teach them and help them gain necessary life skills, as well as teaching them about God, the Bible, and salvation through Christ alone. Many of them have given their lives to Christ and we were amazed as we spent some evenings with them during their devotional times (which the kids themselves lead). Hearing them sing their hearts out in Nepali (even though we didn't understand anything) was truly a humbling experience we will not soon forget. Our task for week 3 was to help teach these children and help them mature in their walks with God. In one photo I am with the translator teaching the Bible lesson at camp.

We taught them that God made everyone with a purpose and that our purpose is to love, glorify, and serve God in all that we do. Please join us in praying for these orphans, orphanages, and the local missionaries who are working with them. They are really doing a great job! Also they are always looking for sponsors for the kids so if anyone reading this is interested just let me know and we will get you in contact with them. We really enjoyed the 3rd week. We spent all week with these kids and really got to know and love them.

I don't know what God has in store for us in the future with regards to Nepal, but we hope someday we will get the opportunity to at least visit and see these beautiful children again, they were really special. Pray also for Kathmandu there is around a million people here. This panorama is of Kathmandu (photo was taken from a Buddhist temple). A million people, many that never heard of Jesus and his love for them. Please join us in praying for Nepal, and for missions and missionaries all around the world. I encourage everyone reading this to be a part of missions in some way, either by going, sending, praying, or supporting mission both local and international.

God has a heart for missions and our churches should as well. Please pray for the persecuted church, and for believers all around the world that are suffering for Christ. A good resource with facts and stories about the persecuted church can be found here"Open Doors".
I encourage you all to make lifting up these people and their needs in prayer a part of your daily life and walk with Christ.

Thanks as always for your love and support for Yuliya and I. We miss you and hope to hear from some of you soon. Let me know if you want to hear more. If we get the chance to come to the USA this summer we would be happy to show you more pictures and tell your more in detail about what we are doing in Ukraine and our trip to Nepal. God Bless!

For some Fun Facts about Nepal click here

500 years later: The Protestant Reformation

If you aren't already aware, next year is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. You're probably thinking now, "so exciting," right?   Of course I'm joking,  and maybe it's not so exciting at first glance, however it is actually a very important part of who we are and how we understand our God and his plan of salvation for us! I am not going to bore you with all 95 theses, but let's look at the basics. I hope this will be encouraging,  helpful,  and that you might even find it interesting.

These are the five solos or solae in Latin of our faith.  Solo means in Latin "only" or "by this alone."  1. Sola Scriptura (by scripture alone). 2. Sola Fide (by faith alone). 3. Sola Gratia (by grace alone). 4. Solus Christus (through Christ alone). 5. Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone). This list formally came after the initial beginning of the Reformation but the process of reform started with Martin Luther 500 years ago. It was important for them then as they realized the Catholic church was not preaching and behaving as it should. It's also important that we know and remember these important pillars of our faith and don't try to create or follow other paths to salvation that aren't based on these truths. Thank God for the brave men and women of the reformation, some of whom gave their lives, so that we could have these truths. Just think, without the reformation we wouldn't have the Bible in our language, and we would still be buying indulgences for salvation, or trying by some other means to earn salvation. We have direct access to God, through Jesus and what he did on the cross! Remember these truths and share them with others!

 Besides using this as a teaching moment,  I also wanted to share what's happening in Ukraine. In Ukraine the Catholic and the Orthodox  churches are the main religions in Ukraine and often have a lot of power and influence in other spheres as well. However, by what can only be explained as a miracle,  the president himself signed a law giving protestants the power to celebrate, teach, and speak about the Reformation for its 500th anniversary.

This means we, as evangelical christians, now have basically unlimited access to share our faith in schools, universities and public places through teaching about this historical event and its impact on life as we know it today. A lot of good things came from the Reformation for humanity as a whole. We will teach these benefits all while speaking openly and freely about the message of the Reformation, which in essence is the gospel itself! This is an amazing and unprecedented opportunity for spreading the gospel in Ukraine. Please pray that many doors would be open, and that we would be bold and faithful to do it. God is so big, and is still performing miracles to accomplish his will. Praise God!