Greetings!

Dear family!
It is a great joy for us to share what God has been doing in our lives and through our lives since the last time we sent you an update. It has been both a time of great joy in ministry and a time of great challenges. But let me share with you in details…
Matters of the past:
Something that was of a great challenge to us was registering Anneke as a pregnant woman at the local clinic. It was an essential step. If one is pregnant and is not registered at the clinic as a pregnant lady and something goes wrong with the baby or the mother (something that is related to the pregnancy) the person will not be admitted to the hospital, also, the hospital won’t admit a person for the delivery unless she has been registered and supervised throughout the whole pregnancy process. I hope it all makes sense . We are planning on having the baby in Ukraine unless there are complications of some sort then we will have to come up with a different plan. But we were happy to have all of the registration done.
One of the main challenges during this time to me, Arkadiy, personally was registering Anneke at the clinic and looking after her. The latter was most difficult because Anneke was feeling really bad and I did not know what is normal for “feeling bad” during the first trimester. A lot of times I felt very inadequate in helping her, but God has been giving strength and wisdom.

Looking back at April

Looking back at April
Four days after the Basketball camp team left Anneke and I went to my hometown for my dad’s 60th birthday anniversary. It was a big thing and he was happy to have us over. It was a surprise for him. While at my hometown we were able to visit and consult the doctors, make some arrangements for the baby’s delivery and get all of our dental work done. It is much cheaper in my home town than in Odessa. Between Anneke and me we had 6 teeth treated and it cost us $65 total. In Odessa it would be 5-6 times more without any guarantee of the result. We were so happy!
From my hometown we took a trip to Poland (IM annual conference location) via Slovakia (the closest route). The conference went well; it was a very special time of sharing with one another, praying with one another and enjoying studying from God’s word together.

Current Matters April 09

Currents matters #1

It is a blessing to participate and watch what the Lord is doing here in Odessa. Our two interns from the Missionary Training School (Lesya and Marina) came back from Belarus where they have spent half of their internship. It was a blessing to hear how the Lord was using them, challenging them and changing them during their time of ministry over there. They have changed a lot and have matured so much! It is an answer to prayer! They are at the moment in Prydnistrovya, serving and working at the orphanage that we attend about once a month.

Current Matters April 09

Current matters #2
The Church is growing in quantity and quality. We keep on training and discipling the Church members to the glory of God equipping them with various tools for the work of the ministry. The equipping process involves one-on-one meetings and small group meetings (like Biblical Training Institute (BTI) and the University Bible Studies). We have finished the topic of Baptism and will start the “Principles of Faith” at the BTI, and at the University Bible Study we are finishing the series on dating.

Current Matters April 09

Current matters #3
On the 25^th of April we started an Upward soccer league in our neighborhood. It was encouraging to see that 11 kids came, enough kids for two teams! Another great highlight was to see the people from the church serving and taking their roles in all the organizing and activities. Please keep praying for this ministry, we need more kids to come and join.

Current Matters April 09

Currents matters #4
From the 30th of April till the 3rd of May Arkadiy was at a pastor’s conference in Kharkov (Eastern Ukraine). It was a very good time of learning and sharing with others that were at the conference as well. The speakers shared a lot of fundamental principles about planting and running the church. They presented it in a very practical way and we (Zhenya and I) were happy to be there and learn together from the Bible and about His bride. It was indeed a delightful time. P.S. The church that you see in the picture had nothing to do with the conference :) It is just one of the pretty, dead churches in Kharkov

Current Matters April 09

Current matters #5
The greatest challenges for us at the moment are time management and Anneke’s health. There are a lot of ministry opportunities and needs around and we are just asking the Lord to help us choose wisely and as we choose we ask Him to help us manage our time properly in order to bring Him glory through what He appoints us to do.

What is to come...

What is to come…?
**Arkadiy was asked to teach a seminar on discipleship for a few village Churches about 90 miles away from Odessa. This coming weekend Arkadiy and two other guys that Arkadiy is working with will go there.

**Few Churches in our Church Association have started a weekend Bible school and are interested in our participation. We will discuss it further and see to what extent we will be able to get involved. It is a fantastic project!

**A few more people have approached Anneke and I and have asked whether we could meet with them one-on-one and help them grow. We are excited about getting together with them and helping each other grow in the knowledge of God, ourselves and His will for our lives.

Answered Prayers

Answered prayers!!!
• Please pray for us to finish well with the basketball/English camp.
The Basketball camp went great! As far as Anneke and I are concerned it was the best basketball camp out of the all three we have done so far.
• Please pray for our one-on-one meetings that we have and the people we meet with.
Meeting with people has been good and it looks like we will be meeting with more people.
• Please pray that God would continue to grow the Church.
Church has grown in quality and quantity. We were able to see few people start taking risks and getting involved in different ministries.
• Please pray for wisdom with the BTI.
BTI is going well. The groups that are coming have been consistent, and they show a desire to learn and change.
• Please pray for the follow up of the Basketball/English camps.
Please keep praying. The soccer league that we started is one of the follow up tools. We are hoping that the Lord will use it and we will be able to follow up with the kids from the basketball camp.
• Please pray for our trip to Poland for the annual IM conference that Anneke would be able to handle the traveling well.
The trip and the conference went well. Traveling was really hard on Anneke. Probably this trip was the last long distance trip until the baby is born.

Current Prayer Requests

Please pray:
*We are hoping to move to a bigger place so that we could at least fit in a cradle. Please pray for God to provide the right place for the right price.
*Please pray for the preparations for the Discipleship seminar this weekend..
*Please continue to pray for Anneke and the baby’s health.
*Please pray for wisdom with setting the priorities in ministry and time management.
*Continue to pray for the Upward ministry- that God would use the leaders in their small groups and also that God would provide more kids to come