April 2005 Kyiv Prayerletter

Visit our blog at www.kyivmission.blogspot.com for lots of updates and pictures from last month’s happenings.

With the snow finally melted and temperatures staying above freezing, Kyiv comes out of its hibernation. The best news of the month came near month’s end. During a bizarre snowstorm on April 22, Yulia Idemenko was baptized into Christ at Nivki church’s meeting place with about 25 friends looking on. Part of church activities for more than a year, Yulia is an ICU. She had been sick for a while and unable to set a date for her baptism; it finally all worked out. She is spending this summer in New Jersey with a program called Work and Travel. It enables Ukrainian students to work minimum-wage jobs in the US for four months and earn enough money to pay for much of their fall education.

Like Yulia, we have about 15 people who will be gone this summer on programs like Work and Travel. It’s very hard for us when so many people are gone. Although trips like this can be very good financially, it can also weaken faith. In order to stop this spiritual erosion, we held a small workshop for many who will be gone and offered counsel about conflict management and stopping spiritual erosion.  We have also set up a blog run by five church members to encourage our travelers while they are away. Pray for these young people as they are scattered from southern California, the Wisconsin Dells, New Jersey, to Maine. 

Along with our mini-workshop for those traveling abroad, we have continued our Wednesday night hospitality nights. Instead of always working with groups of people, we decided to spend time every week with just one or two people, for fellowship and to encourage them in any way we can. We pray that God will use these agenda-less times to give us opportunity to minister. So far, it’s been better than we ever hoped. Most of what has been discussed is of a private nature, but God has used this time to allow us to help heal some broken relationships, to give godly counsel, and to help make the church stronger. Pray for our Wednesday night times of ministry. 

Our outreach English class finally got off the ground, and we have six people who come regularly. It seems each week we have added a new person. Right now, we are just learning English—I’m trying to show them God’s love in a practical way. Last week we had a special lesson on Easter and discussed holiday traditions in America and Ukraine. We also read a resurrection account from a gospel.  They seemed interested. They will all be invited to come to our summer outreach. Pray for Olga, Lora, Vika, Sasha, Denis, and Lyuba. 

This last month we also visited Lyuda and were able to facilitate their family getting a new, German furnace/hot water heater. We also spent a Saturday looking for construction materials and have gone back for a follow-up visit to see the new furnace. The next step is to rebuild the kitchen floor and install a shower cabinet.  Thanks to the generosity and efforts of Central Church of Christ (Athens, TN) members and three other churches, more than $3,500 has been raised to improve their living conditions. Pray that this work can be finished soon and that this act of generosity will be a sign of God’s love and reality to Lyuda’s daughter and husband who are not Christians. 

As for the UEC, we’ve begun an effort to inform churches and organizations about the UEC’s offerings. We’ve already given presentations at the Obolon and Vinogradar Churches of Christ. Since the UEC finally offers a unique, high quality service to the small but growing Christian community in Kyiv, we want to make sure Christians in Kyiv know about us. Already, a missionary working with the Vinogradar church has used the library and they plan to host a training seminar at the UEC in June. That’s our goal: to serve churches and Christians by providing a high-quality library and meeting space. We do have a special need in this area. The cost of books printed here is rising. Currently, we have a small budget to buy Christian books. But it buys very little since book prices are growing.  If you would like to help with this need—and help us build the best Christian resource center in Ukraine—email us at ribki@svitonline.com. 

Our Soup Group at the UEC finally came to a close. Though it wasn’t as well attended as past semesters, Vitaly Samodin and I managed to minister to about 6 ICU students. Pray for these students as they struggle with their faith; there is so much that distracts them. 

We’ve also been planning for summer visitors. Paul Prill comes May 20-May 30. Richard Gurley is visiting the UEC earlier in May. The interns we were hoping for this summer have decided not to come. We are still looking for internship candidates if you know anyone!! Our Knoxville team arrives June 9. These summer visitors mean lots of extra emailing and doing some ground work here. Vitaly Samodin found a great place for our June outreach event and so far, the church has really taken to the idea of hosting this outreach. We pray our summer guests will be an encouragement to all.   

And finally, Jonathan Shaub is doing better. He’s even taken a few steps. They update his blog once or twice a week www.kievster.blogspot.com. Keep praying for his healing and for his family.