Greetings!

Dear family and friends!

Please let me share what the Lord has done in these past few weeks and what we believe He has planned for the near future.

Looking Back on August:

Water baptism:

On Sunday the 28^th of August we had a water baptism service. It was wonderful to baptize Ira and Andrew.  We had a good time of sharing and hearing their testimonies. We are rejoicing with them in their walk with the Lord.

Looking Back on August:

Girls retreat:

On the 21-23th of August we had a retreat for the girls. The purpose was to encourage and equip them to do follow up with the girls from camp and to disciple those who have professed Christ as their Lord and Savior.  It was a good time and the girls are encouraged. It will be interesting to see how the Lord will use it.

Current Matters- September:

Going to South Africa:

Anneke and Mikki will be taking a trip to South Africa to get a second opinion on Mikki’s diagnose and the way we should go about treating and handling his diabetes. We are excited about the trip but not excited about being apart. They will leave on the 7^th of September.

Current Matters: September:

Missionary Training Center

On Tuesday September the 6^th we start with the missionary training center. We have 9 students, 7 from Ukraine and 2 Polish. We are excited to have these guys come and learn, we excited to learn with them. There will be a lot of growth opportunities for all of us. (Photo of the last class)

Current Prayer Requests - Sept

Please pray:
• Anneke and Mikki’s travels to South Africa
• For wisdoms for the doctors to give valuable and helpful information
• For the girls to start/continue with the follow up and discipleship. For wisdom for us as to how to help them with that
• For the training center students to come with the right attitude. For wisdom to lead them.
• For the Living Hope Church and wisdom to shepherd  His flock His way

Greetings!

The summer is almost over and we have skipped almost two months and have not updated you as to what the Lord has been doing to us, through us and despite us. Let me cover the biggest events we have had in Chronological order…

Looking back at July

English Clubs:

                We had two teams of world racers come and join us in our English Clubs ministry. We would invite people from the streets to the events we have planned and it turned out great. We had a lot of fun and a lot of people come. We used it as an opportunity to invite people to English Evangelistic Camp and to the Church events we have.

Looking back at July

Timothy Leadership Training

                On the 25^th – 26^th along with Timothy Leadership Institute we hosted a conference on Pastoral Care. We had about 22-24 pastors and Church leaders attend. It was a good time of thinking, sharing, planning and learning together.

Looking back at July

SHOCKING NEWS:

On the 28^th of June Mikki was admitted into Intensive Care Unit. Anneke and I didn’t know whether we will see him alive. He was slowly sliding into a coma and was starting to turn blue and cold. We prayed and asked the Lord to save his life. He did. Few hours later we were told that he has type one diabetes. He spent two and half days at the ICU and then was transferred into a different department of the hospital. Anneke joined him for a week and half and then got sick so I substituted her for about 4 days until we were released from the hospital.

We are grateful to the Lord for a spared life, for all the prayers and help we received!

Right now Mikki is getting 4 shots of insulin a day. It is a constant battles with the level of the sugar in the blood jumping up and down.

Looking Back at July

Camp ministry

The Lord blessed us with a wonderful camp! The team and the campers were great! Campers were very open to talk about spiritual things! We had 3 people commit their lives to Christ and quite a few who are counter plating the decision. The Gospel was shared very clearly and we prayed for them that they would not find rest until they find the answers to the questions and doubts they have. Now there is A LOT of follow up to do, we are excited about the fruit that the Lord has given to us.

Current Prayer Requests- Aug

Prayer requests:

Please pray for Mikki and his health. We believe the Lord can heal him.

Please pray for Anneke and I as we adjust to this new life style.

Pray for wisdom for me to lead my family and the ministries here.

Please pray for the follow up ministry.

Please pray for the preparations for the Missionary training center (starts the 5^th of September).

Greetings!

Dear fellow servants!

The summer seems to have finally settled in which means a different season with many ministry opportunities is here.

Racism is here!!!????

Racism is here!!!????

                The three of us were invited to visit a family whom Anneke ministered to while she was pregnant. They are unbelievers. There was another family invited. We were half the age of those families present. The families are Ukrainian citizens but consider themselves Russians and Russian Orthodox as far as their religious beliefs. We started talking about history and the visit turned to be a 5 hour heated debate with an extreme racist bent. I was shocked! They desired for the Russian empire to be back and one of the engines for achieving it would be the Russian Orthodox Church. I have heard of it before but I have never seen it face to face, it was ugly. But it gave us an insight as to what we can expect as far as the opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia is trying to create a strong spirit chauvinism and it uses the Russian Orthodox Church as a tool for it. The latter one is being very aggressive as they fight for the control over the person, and once they have it they will fight in order to maintain it. It was an eye opener to me to see that there is a tremendous, purposefully placed political and religious mechanism, designed for expanding Russia’s geopolitical control.

Current Matters - New Church Members

New Church members:
We are happy to announce that this last Sunday we had a meeting with a couple and one gal. They have expressed a desire to become members of our church and for us to hold them accountable as to their spiritual growth. We are excited to have them join us. They are excited about serving the Lord and have been doing it for quite some time now at various places in the past.

Current Matters - Camp ministry

Camp ministry:

Camp preparations are going well. We are grateful that the Lord has provided the funds we were short of and the team members. It is a huge answer to prayers. We will have a mixed team: 6 South Africans, 3 Americans and 1 Canadian. It will truly be an international camp. We are excited about what the Lord will do. He has already done so much!

Current Matters - Upward

Upward:

Last Saturday we started upward soccer ministry in our neighborhood. And it was exciting. It will go on for three weeks. There were about 13 kids that came and we are looking forward as to what the Lord will do.

Current Matters - World Racers

World Racers:

We have a team of World Racers with us again this year. They will help us with street ministries and the English Clubs. We are planning on having three English Clubs this week and are hoping that it will attract a lot of people from this neighborhood who would come, learn some English and hear the Gospel. We are praying that it will also help us to recruit people for camp.

Current Matters - Us

Us:

We are well. Mikki is completely weaned and pretty much sleeps through the night. We are enjoying this adventure of being parents and we are grateful to the Lord for many growth opportunities in different areas.

Current Prayer Requests - June

Prayer requests:

Please pray for the preparations to the camp and recruiting campers.

Please pray for the English Clubs with the World racers, that people would not just hear the Gospel but would respond to it.

Please pray for the soccer ministry with the kids that it would be a wonderful time of proclaiming the Gospel in this area.

Please pray for us as a team and as a church while we make transition while the Huffmans prepare to leave.

Greetings

Dear friends and family!

It has been a wonderful month in many ways. Let me share briefly what the Lord has been up to here in Odessa

Looking back on April

Huffmans leaving:

Some of you might be already aware of the fact that our friends and ministry partners, the Huffman family is leaving for the US for one year to try and address Kim’s health issues. We were sad to hear that they will be leaving but we have to remind ourselves that we serve a sovereign God. So, keeping it God-centered we are encouraged for if God allows us to part for a year it implies at least the following:

1. Kim needs it 2. Huffman family needs it 3. Church in Odessa needs it 4. Team here needs it 5. Ministry here needs it. How all of that will play out, we don’t know, yet we are confident that our God is not only sovereign but also is faithful and His plans are not for evil but for good, to give us hope and future (Jer 29:11). So, it will be interesting to see how the Lord will help all of us grow during this year: to the Huffmans in the US, to us and the ministry in Odessa.

Looking back on April

Easter/Passion Friday:

Our Church got together on Passion Friday to remember the sufferings Christ endured for us. We had around 23 people come (including few unbelievers) and had a great time of reminding ourselves of what the Lord has done through communion and meditation upon the purpose of the Lord’s supper and it’s significance to us as the believers. We had some unbelievers show up for the Easter Sunday as well, we hope and pray that the message of the Gospel touched their hearts and it is just a matter of time before they respond.

Looking back on April

Feeding the hungry:

We were approached by our former training center student and asked to teach a seminar on Spiritual disciplines in Tzebrikovo, a small village 100 km north of Odessa. It was wonderful to be there since people were so hungry and willing to learn. It was a blessing to come and to help them to grow. They were so hungry to learn! Praise the Lord!

I was challenged while we were there by realizing what we have as a church, access to books, information, preachers and teachers and by what do we do with what we have. We have probably 50 times more than this Church in a small village, and one day we will be asked by our Master to give an account for what we received and what we did with it, individually and as a Church.

Looking back on April

Another wedding at Church:

We had another wedding on the 23^rd of April. One of our Church members and a dear friend Lera (Valeri) got married to an American brother Jacob Nelson. Both of them feel called to serve the Lord full time and it will be interesting to see how the Lord will use them as a couple to display His glory through them and their marriage. They intend to join the missionary training program this fall.

Current Matters - April

Missionary training students update:

Szymon and Vali are in transition at the moment getting ready to go to their new places of ministry. Due to internal regulations they could stay in India only for 3 months. Szymon will go to Pitest, Romania  to serve with the local church there along with Florin Soare (dear brother), and Vali will go to Radom, Poland to serve with Steve Snyder.

Other students are continuing strong at their places of ministry. 

Current Matters- Us

US 3

We are doing well. We are trying wean Mikki and it is not so much fun for either party, however Mikki is being a good sport and a blessing to mom and dad.

Current Prayer Requests - April

Prayer requests:
Please pray for the preparations to the camps, recruiting campers and for more native speakers to come
Please pray for us as a team and as a church while we make transition while the Huffmans prepare to leave.
Please pray for strength for us as we continue with little sleep while weaning Mikki

Dear family and friends

Dear family and friends:

The Lord has blessed us with a busy and a wonderful month. So let me share with you what He has been doing in us, with us, through us and despite us.

Looking back on March

English Outreach:

From the 12th of March till the 20th we had a team from Clear Lake, Iowa come and serve to us and with us (us meaning the Church) and that was exciting. The Lord opened up many doors like HIV center, facility for taking care of the HIV affected individuals and families and also the doors of the public schools. We had programs there and used them to invite people to the American Clubs in the evenings. God has exceeded our expectations by bringing a large number of people to evening American Clubs where the team members got to share the Gospel in a form of an interview. We were excited about it since it made the Gospel presentation more of a relational rather than informative only. People seemed to respond well and some would want to learn more and some agreed to having a Bible Study together. That was just exciting. It was a great encouragement for us to see how the Church and the team worked together for the sake of the Gospel serving each other with the gifts the Lord has given to them. It was a blessing to see the Lord at work.

Looking Back on March

Mikki’s eye and the staff conference:

On the 20th of March we took a trip to Arkadiy’s hometown to apply for the visa for Slovakia in order to go to the staff conference. While waiting for the visa applications to be processed we did most of our “doctor visits”. The eye doctor said the Mikki will need another incision to be done on his eye. So, we did it and praise the Lord, the eye looks the best we have ever seen it! We are grateful!
The staff conference went well and it was a good time of visiting with friends who are serving the Lord in various parts of the world. It was an encouragement to hear about the Lord’s work worldwide.

Current Matters - March

Personal challenge/reminder:

This past month we have been challenged and reminded of the great need that is around us and which is hidden by others presuming that no one cares. So often people would choose to say I am fine, even though they are not, and we choose to believe this answer, just because it is convenient! I sat next to a girl, member of our Church, at the English Club and thought I would “bug” her with questions as to how she is. I was shocked and overwhelmed. She seemed to be well and happy and once asked intentionally she shared that her family has gone through the divorce this passed year, father moved out and what a traumatic experience it was for her. It was going on for one year, and I had no idea! I choose to be satisfied with “I am fine” answer through out the year and was missing an opportunity to be intentionally loving and caring for that sheep.
I was humiliated by this challenge but I am grateful for it. What about you? People you see daily and weekly, most of them are hurting in some way (the fact that they seem fine, doesn’t mean they are), what will you choose to do about it?

Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Current Prayer Requests - March

Prayer requests:

*Arkadiy was asked to teach a few seminars on discipleship and counseling at one of the Churches in Odessa, from our Church Association, please pray for wisdom

*For the follow up for the English Outreach

*For us to continue to be mindful and intentional about the need which is around us

Thank you so much for being a part of our ministry and helping us to move forward to the goals the Lord, we believe, established.