Visiting the Larson family

While we were in MN we decided we would take a day and drive up to Fergus Falls to visit the Larson family.  It had been almost 5 years since we'd seen them all and we miss them.   MN was pretty much like I always imagined it to be, which is to say I haven't really imagined it since I was 6 when my mom read us Little House on the Prairie.

We had a lot of fun with the Larsons and really enjoyed getting to know Lizzy and Amy (whose favorite color, we found out, is stripes). Elysia took us to MapleWood state park which is where the woodlands meet the prairie and the fall colors are amazing.   We hiked around and enjoyed the sunshine, having Peter and Gretchen tell us about all the flora and fauna, and catching up with Elysia.

I don't think we'd been able visit with the whole Larson family since we moved to Kaharlyk and we realized how much we've missed all of them.  

Liese and I doing the famous "Larson squint".

The DG National Conference

Last week Liese and I went to the Desiring God National Conference to represent In Lumine Media.  It was a crazy trip, I'm not sure if we got over jet lag before coming back to Ukraine or if we just slept well each night because we were so tired.

The conference was really good (you can listen to the sessions here) and I was able to have quite a few really good meetings as well as talk with a lot of organizations that are active in the Russian speaking world. 

We met up with Justin Reimer from The Elisha Foundation.   God is doing some amazing things through the Elisha Foundation. 

We met quite a few Russian speakers and gave them free copies of Randy Alcorn's book Heaven.  A few of them talked with us about their desire to see the Russian speaking church in America mobilized to go back to their homeland to spread the gospel.  They told us that most Russian speaking churches in America have become very lethargic and don't see the point in going back or sending people back to their homeland to build up churches or preach the gospel.  This is what we desire to see as well and we want In Lumine to equip and build up churches not only in Russia and Ukraine but also throughout the world.

Liese with an In Lumine book at the conference bookstore

A very blurry picture of John Piper at one of the main sessions

Saying goodbye at the rehab center

Over the last few months there have been some big changes in the works at the rehab center that I visit once a week to lead a bible study.  The parent church in Kiev has had to close its main rehab center as it was evicted from the building it had been renting (Kiev city zoning/planning politics can be really fun) which has meant that they have had to close their doors to new people entering the program.  So there have been no new additions to the crew out in Sloboda since early spring and by the end of summer they had all finished the rehabilitation program and were ready to go home.

With nobody left to stay at the center, the church in Kiev decided to change the way the center operates and instead of having the center in Sloboda be the second part of rehabilitation/halfway house to have it house the full program.  That means that now people who want to get off drugs or alcohol will come to Sloboda as the first step instead of the facility in Kiev and then hopefully stay in Sloboda for the full program.

With these changes the staff is also changing.  All the guys that I have been meeting with over the last year are leaving and there will be a rotating staff of leaders who will run the center. 

I went out to visit them this afternoon to say goodbye and to have a chance to talk with the pastor from Kiev who oversees all the rehab centers.

I was very encouraged as I thought about the 6 men that are leaving — three of them are going to help start a new center in the city of Feyodosia (on the Black Sea), and three of them are starting bible college this week.  God has done so much in their lives during their time in Sloboda and instead of being ready to simply get on with life these guys want to stay in a place that will keep them near to God, where they can continue to grow and serve God, and where they can be used to help other addicts. 

Because this group hasn't changed over the last year, all the guys stayed for the full program and nobody new came in, I felt like we were able to build deeper friendships than before and I am, actually, really sad to see these guys go.  Pasha played cricket with us this year and we had made plans to hang out and listen to jazz sometime, but now he'll be in Feyodosia (a 14 hour drive) and it looks like we'll have to take a vacation to the Black Sea to make that happen.  Vitya (the guy in the glasses in the picture) always had a random history fact for me and I'll miss him asking me at the most inopportune times if I've heard of "General ________ who fought for/against the Revolutionaries in the country of ______ in 1924".  Hopefully he'll put his good memory for random facts to better use as he studies at the bible college and seeks to rebuild his relationships with his daughter and ex-wife.   They are good guys and I'm happy to see them truly seeking God because it seems like most of the time when people leave rehab they are just ready to get out of that place and get on with their lives.

I don't know how my ministry there will change, I'm praying and seeking God.  But as I was talking with everyone today about how the new rehab program will run I realized that when I first started going out to do bible studies with them I had no idea what I was doing and God has taught me a lot about ministry to former addicts and used these simple times of bible study to help these men grow in their faith and in their ability to understand the bible.

Global Mission Mondays: Gambia

Tonight at our church's weekly prayer meeting we will be praying for the country of Gambia.

The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa with a population of 1.7 million and a total area of only 4000 square miles.  Since gaining independence from the British Commonwealth in 1965, Gambia has enjoyed relative political stability.  An agriculturally fertile country, its economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and tourism. About a third of the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.

A wide variety of ethnic groups live in the Gambia (more than 25), each preserving its own language and traditions. The Constitution protects the rights of citizens to practice any religion that they choose and there is no established state religion.   Islam is the predominant religion, practiced by approximately 90 percent of the country's population, and the Christian community represents about 8 percent of the population.  Most of the Christian community identify themselves as Roman Catholic.   Indigenous animistic beliefs permeate all religions.

The literacy rate is 45% which means many of those with access to the bible in their own language are not able to read it.

[information from wikipedia, UNICEF, and the joshua project]

Starting up home group bible studies

Our church took a break from home groups during the summer but now that school is back in session and everyone's lives have returned to a bit of normalcy we are starting up home groups again.


To kick off the new season we decided to have a special dinner together so we all gathered at the church and had a pot luck.  Then we spent some time singing worship songs and praying together. 

We'll be having two groups that meet on Wednesday evenings and we'll be going through John Piper's book What Jesus Demands From the World.   We've been going through this book all of this year and it has been a good book to look at what Jesus taught and springboard into discussions.  

Global Mission Mondays: Senegal

Tonight at our prayer meeting we will be praying for the country of Senegal.

The climate of Senengal is tropical with two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season. Senegal’s economy is stable and growing . The main industries include food processing, mining, cement, artificial fertilizer, chemicals, textiles, refining imported petroleum, and tourism. Exports include fish, chemicals, cotton, fabrics, groundnuts, and calcium phosphate, and the principal foreign market is India as well as the USA and Britain. 

Senegal has a population of about 14 million and a wide variety of ethnic groups with, as in most West African countries, several languages widely spoken.

Islam is the predominant religion, practiced by approximately 90 percent of the country's population; the Christian community, at 10 percent of the population, includes Roman Catholics and diverse Protestant denominations.   However these statistics are disputed with some saying that due to the permeance of animistic beliefs in all religions indigenous beliefs could be as high as 99%.

[information via wikipedia and the joshuaproject.net]

Kaharlyk Day festivities

Sunday was Kaharlyk Day.  Each city in Ukraine has a special city day and the festivities usually include a concert of some sort, food, and sporting events.

This year the festivities were more family oriented and centered around children.  There was a bounce house, RC car track, and the concert was all kids performing.  The town council asked our church to be involved and organize activities for children and so we did games, face painting, cookie decorating, crafts and a bible story. 

Remodel projects

The last couple weeks we've been working really hard on getting our remodel projects finished before we go to the Desiring God conference at the end of this month.  We didn't want to leave with a half finished fence and our heating system unplugged. 

Jamin and Magdala Barkely are here visiting and they've been coming over and helping us pour concrete, set fence poles, seal fence boards, paint radiators, and install flooring.  

We've only got a about about 15 feet of fence left to build outside. 

Inside the laminate flooring is nearly done in one room (laying laminate is not as easy as it looks when the walls are not square) and the radiators are nearly finished being painted in the other room.  

Global Mission Mondays: Mali

Mondays have been crazy lately so I haven't been posting the info about the countries we have been praying for at our prayer meeting.  But today I'm working on getting book ready for print for In Lumine so I thought I'd take a few minutes to post about Mali, the country we are praying for tonight.

Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world.  The average worker's annual salary is approximately US$1,500. About half the population of 14.5 million live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.  Eighty percent of Malian workers are employed in agriculture.  The country's economic structure centers around agriculture and fishing.

After years of drought, political unrest, and coups, Mali is now one of the most politically and socially stable countries in Africa.

In 2007, about 48% of Malians were less than fifteen years old, 49% were 15–64 years old and the median age was 15.9 years.  Mali has one of the world's highest rates of infant mortality.

Mali faces numerous health challenges related to poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. In 2000, only 62–65 percent of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water and only 69 percent to sanitation services of some kind. Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, and medicines are in short supply.

An estimated 90% of Malians are Muslim, approximately 5% are Christian (about two-thirds Roman Catholic and one-third Protestant) and the remaining 5% adhere to indigenous or traditional animist beliefs. Atheism and agnosticism are believed to be rare among Malians, most of whom practice their religion on a daily basis. Islam as practiced in Mali is moderate, tolerant, and adapted to local conditions; relations between Muslims and practitioners of minority religious faiths are generally amicable. The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.

[information from wikipedia]