February 2005 Kyiv Prayerletter

The best news of the month came as this short month came to a close.  Ira Ryzhenko was baptized into Christ at the beginning of our Sunday service on Feb. 26. We had a nice group of about 30 gathered.  A few people had come from the morning service to witness the baptism as well. After Ira’s baptism, we learned that Yulia Idemenko had decided to be baptized. We are waiting for her to announce the date. 

Most of February was consumed by getting over jetlag and getting back into Kyiv life. We returned on Feb. 1 and it only seems like now that we have finally settled back into the pace of life. Our Study Center course on heaven and hell is progressing; we are glad the class is well attended. The Tuesday and Friday groups are going well also—a more positive tone hovers over the church for which we are thankful. We have also renewed the Soup Group for the first-year students.  Vitaly Samodin is helping me lead that open discussion for seekers.  About 10 came to the last gathering. 

Kyiv remains “quarantined” by the flu. Schools have been closed and almost everyone we know has been fighting some kind of illness.  Lena has been sick for a week while Sergiy Lyakh was ill as well.  Thus, I spent a week working extra hours at the UEC. It was a blessing to see all the people come through the Center and see how they value what we offer there. We also managed to mail out our mission’s annual report and the UEC annual report.

The thing that has occupied most of our attention has been the tragic accident involving Jonathan Shaub in NYC. Please keep praying for him as his condition is still quite critical. Reports on his condition are being posted at www.kievster.blogspot.com. 

Read more about these events and others at our recently established weblog www.kyivmission.blogspot.com. With some help from our techie-genius friend Anton, we were able to incorporate the blog into our website. We hope to post regularly with pictures of our life and work, news about Ukraine, and whatever else comes to mind. For any interested supporters, we hope it will give a better window into our world.