This year’s conference was genuinely exceptional: more Ukrainians took part in preparing and planning than ever before, the sessions were more creatively thoughtful than ever before, one of our dear friends was baptized into Christ, and the entire conference was funded without outside assistance (a first for us!).

The week before many were busy preparing, reading, planning games, or trying to make sure we knew who was coming. Lena was in charge of keeping up with money and I was in charge of not that much, just being there to support whatever I could.

A two-hour van ride brought us to the familiar home on University Street. Our advance team had most everything set up and immediately, we had to start cooking our evening meal. Friday evening we had some fun mixers, I gave a math quiz on the numbers in Numbers, and everyone I think was just glad to have made it to Cherkassy one more year.

We spent the next night talking about preparing for marriage. Lena and I shared what we had learned about money and power in relationships. We then broke into small groups for more discussion. Following the groups, for several days, Lena and I continued to talk with people about their concerns about marriage, their fears and frustrations, and everything in between. With so many young, unmarried people in one room, it turned out to be a great opportunity to minister.

As the week passed, other opportunities arose to minister. Late-night conversations led to discussions about the perils of full-time ministry and other topics we rarely address. Of course, we were all surprised by Anton’s Tuesday lunch announcement that he wanted to baptized. After lunch, we took the walk to the river and with great pleasure watched Anton be baptized. He shared with the group how God had brought him to this point. It’s been an amazing thing to watch God work in his life and his family. He told me later that he now wants to share his faith with his parents. We will miss Anton—he will be working on a master’s degree in economics this fall in Budapest.

There were other joys and surprises: one afternoon we learned that our friends Lena and Anya had decided to remain in Kyiv and not move to France. Though it was a difficult process for them, we are so glad they will be in Kyiv since they are some of the strongest and most active Christians in the church.

One of the oddest sessions was a new aspect of the conference. The conference committee had decided to watch a movie and then discuss it. Partly as a little fun and partly to encourage people to think Christianly about what they watch, we watched the recent The Kingdom of God about the Crusades. The post-film discussion turned into a debate about whether we would die for our faith and how in a real sense, we are called to die every day for our faith.

During some of the unplanned time, we had opportunity to discuss some problems in the church. We came to see that we need to spend more time teaching. We also need to alter our ministry “system” to do more to encourage, strengthen, and challenge older Christians. Several of the evening sessions I led focused on our need to “train in righteousness,” that spiritual growth does not solely occur organically (like fruit growing on a tree), but requires training and discipline. Jesus and Scripture use both figures to illuminate how it is that we become more like Jesus. This teaching resonated with many, and thus we are taking serious steps toward changing some structures so that we can become more accountable to one another in our growth as believers.

We thank all our financial partners for enabling us to be at this eighth Cherkassy Conference.