PRAISE

  • Abe had a great workshop with about 70 people on Thursday and Friday. The theme was “Renewing the Mind” because they need a fresh approach to ministry with non-Christians. People were very responsive, very receptive. The next workshop will be held Dec 27-28 and they expect between 25-30 couples to come. This basically means they are committed to starting a Center of Hope. It is an overwhelming response!! Abe said it is going to run the gamut from working with university students to working in small villages. Right now he is not turning anyone away. Thanks for your prayers!

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  • At the workshop there were also some representatives from other Ukrainian organisations offering their help and materials. The one man is responsible for Bible lessons for unchurched kids and he is even willing to visit individual Centers and help them on site, as well as providing materials! People are willing, even anxious, to be involved. What a blessing!
  • Abe had another meeting on Saturday which I had not even written about. A church had asked a couple months ago if he would come and teach about small groups. Abe is using the Discovery Bible Method and so that is what he taught on with the help of a couple colleagues. About 30 people were there, all experienced in leading small groups, and they were very responsive and open. So another cause to rejoice! (Abe almost never takes requests from individual churches because he doesn’t have the time. This was a special request because it is Vera’s church.)
  • We have already been able to help Vera (next photo) and another leader (Vasyl Furta) get a battery system so that their heat (which is gas) will continue to run when the electricity goes out. It is below freezing all the time, and people are terribly cold. It is expensive, running almost $700, but a critical need. We will help 4 other leaders yet if we can get the equipment. Right now we are targeting these key leaders so that they can function better. We have been distributing a number of battery-operated lights and rechargeable lights, and backup batteries for recharging phones etc. People don’t have money. Some of them even sit in the dark when the electricity goes off. So we are trying to get everyone that we work with up to a functional level. Praise God for resources to do this.

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  • Abe actually will be home for two weeks. Time to regroup, take care of the multitudes of details, plan, prepare for the next meeting—and decorate for Christmas! Perhaps celebrate a little!

 

PRAYER

  • It is a constant stress getting funds over here. I won’t go into all the reasons but please pray that we will find creative ways to manage this.

  • Pray for these couples and families as they work through the materials they have been given and their assignments to get them on the right track for ministering to people. And pray that God will lay a very specific calling on them and that Abe and Vera will be able to discern if there are people who should not participate, or that God will weed them out!

  • Continue to pray for our housing situation. Abe will be meeting with the lawyer this week and find out where we are at, what we need to do. It would be such a blessing if we could buy it. Rather than paying increasing rent. Well, the Lord knows. Just pray He would protect and guide. An extra testimony. A man came up to Abe at the workshop and said he and his wife were in our house several months ago. Abe said we weren’t here. The man said, no, it was while we were gone, but there was such a spirit of peace in our home. That’s even when other people are living here! We have gotten that comment from other people through the years. It has been God’s house.

I will take a moment to address an issue. Zelensky is being vilified over the issue of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However you have to understand that it is the part of the church that is aligned with Moscow—where the leader says this is a holy war. The Orthodox Church in Russia is known to be an instrument of the Russian government and infiltrated with KGB etc. Zelensky is not a dictator, but he is a war time president and unusual things sometimes need to happen. The Russian language is NOT banned! People speak it freely everywhere. It makes me ill to read some of these things. Usually I do not, but someone drew to my attention some of the “opinions” (that is all it is, people) being spouted by conservative news sources! Please be careful what you read and what you believe. Of course Russia is going to make a big deal of it. Never mind that they have gone into churches where they occupied, stolen everything, imprisoned pastors, burnt the churches down, and this includes Orthodox churches. Ukraine is far from perfect. Zelensky is far from perfect. But nothing compares to the evil coming out of Russia. I’m sorry to take time to do this, but I have a feeling many of you are getting this skewed take on things. Remember, it is a spiritual attack. The enemy will do anything to destroy. We have had a lot of religious freedom here in Ukraine. Wherever Russia takes control, freedom leaves.

“When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding. When the wicked meet disaster, the godly flourish.” Proverbs‬ 28:28‬ NLT‬‬

"Once more, we are called to be fellow-laborers together with God, in prayer, as in all other ministries. The exalted Saviour ever lives to make intercession; and to His redeemed people He says, ‘Tarry ye here, and watch with Me’ (Matt. 26:38). There is a great work to be done in the hearts of men, there is a fierce battle to be waged with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. Demons are to be cast out, the power of hell to be restrained, the works of the devil to be destroyed. And in these things it is by prayer above all other means that we shall be able to co-operate with the Captain of the Lord’s host."

The Hidden Life of Prayer - David McIntyre

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