Notes From The Footes in Ukraine

A problem of epidemic proportions

2012-02-04T01:14:00.001+04:00

A fellow missionary in Ukraine brought to my attention not long ago a news article that said:

"The United Nations says Ukraine has Europe's worst AIDS epidemic with 1.3 percent of the population above 15 infected with HIV." (read more here)

Ukraine is the only region of the world where the AIDS epidemic is still growing, other countries have managed to stabilize their epidemics.

This is partly due to governmental corruption and mismanagement of funds, partly to lack of awareness of the problem among the general population, and partly because the medical community is not prepared to deal with a problem like this.

Ukraine needs to take this seriously. As Christians who are called to love our neighbors as ourselves we should be also taking this seriously and leading the way in helping people with HIV find the care that is available and education that is needed.

Visiting Yuba City

2012-02-02T08:32:00.001+04:00

We are in Yuba City, CA for the next few weeks, spending time with family and connecting with friends and supporters.

We'll be speaking at Calvary Chapel Gridley on Sunday the fifth if you are on the area and want to hear about our ministry.

Danny went to the doctor today to talk about the headaches he's been getting several times a week. They decided it would be better to find out more about the headaches sooner rather than later so we are scheduling an MRI and doing blood tests. So, that's fun.

Some photos of our week

2012-01-25T22:20:00.000+04:00

I remembered to take our camera with me a couple times this week and so here a few photos of some of the things we've been up to:

Remodeling the stairwell at our church workday. We set up scaffolding and then scrapped the walls clean of whitewash pealing plaster. It was incredibly dusty work.

The view from our roof. I had to climb up and clean the snow off as nearly a foot had built up and was starting to ice over. The snow is beautiful but makes driving not fun.

Senior citizens enjoying a meal at our church's monthly Evening for Seniors.

Christmas gifts for orphans

2012-01-21T17:33:00.001+04:00

In December some families in our church put together shoebox gifts for the kids in the orphanage that our church visits. We had a special Christmas party for the children at our church with games, snacks, a participatory reenactment of the Christmas story, gifts of fruit and candy from the elderly ladies in our church, and the shoebox gifts. It was a very special time for the kids, and a special time for those in our church who were able to come and give the gifts and show the children that they were not forgotten.

having a blast playing games

having a blast not playing games (also, twinsies!)

preparing to reenact the Christmas story

Oksana and Tanya, the event's organizers, serving cake

Alexandra telling the children they are loved and that she, with the other grandmothers in our church will be their substitute grandmas this Christmas

Vova opening his gift

A video about the rehab center in Sloboda

2012-01-20T16:59:00.000+04:00

This video the guys at the Halle Project put together a while ago, and I just realized that I haven't posted it up here yet. This was done before the major changes in the program at the center this fall, but the Halle guys did a great job capturing the feel of the place and showing what God has been doing there over the last couple years.

New books from In Lumine

2012-01-20T13:33:00.000+04:00

I went down to the post office today and picked up some of In Lumine's latest books:

I'm happy with the way the design and the print turned out on these, especially the little black book by Mark Driscoll. The other two are the workbook and leader's guide for The Gospel Centered Life course that our church will start going through starting in February.

First real snow of winter

2012-01-15T11:11:00.000+04:00

Global Mission Mondays: Cameroon

2012-01-09T19:42:00.001+04:00

Cameroon's population is about 19 million and the population is young: an estimated 41% are under 15 years old. Compared to other African countries, Cameroon enjoys relatively high political and social stability. This has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, railways, and large petroleum and timber industries. Nevertheless, about a third of the population live below the international poverty threshold.

Both monogamous and polygamous marriage are practiced, and the average Cameroonian family is large and extended. In the north, women tend to the home, and men herd cattle or work as farmers. In the south, women grow the family's food, and men provide meat and grow cash crops. Cameroonian society is male-dominated, and violence and discrimination against women is common. Cameroon has one of the highest school attendance rates in Africa. The HIV/AIDS seroprevalence rate is estimated at 5.4%

Estimates identify anywhere from 230 to 282 different folks and linguistic groups in Cameroon, with French and English being the official languages.

Cameroon has a high level of religious freedom and diversity. The predominant faith is Christianity, practiced by about two-thirds of the population, while Islam is a significant minority faith, adhered to by about one-fifth. The Christian population is divided between Roman Catholics (38.4 percent of the total population), Protestants (26.3 percent), and other Christian denominations (including Jehovah's Witnesses) (4 percent).

[information from wikipedia]

Christmas festivities

2012-01-09T18:54:00.001+04:00

On Saturday our church gathered to celebrate Christmas with a special church concert. Quite a few people prepared a song or a poem to perform. The worship band played Christmas carols in the traditional Ukrainian style as well as the traditional western protestant style. A good time was had by all and one person even went so far as to say he was so joyful he just wanted to jump up and down (I wasn't sure how I was expected to respond to that so I just smiled).

Throughout the holiday season kids (and I'm told adults, though I've never met any) go around caroling which means they sing you a song or recite a poem and you give them candy or money. Unfortunately we are never prepared because they come either on New Years day, Christmas day, or Old New Years. This year two unfortunate boys came and knocked at our door and recited a poem only to find we had no money or candy for them, only tangerines. After they left I locked our gate because I didn't want the rumor to perpetuate that weird Americans live here and they don't even know that one is supposed to give money or candy to carolers.

Going through Kaharlyk's downtown today I saw that even though Christmas was on Saturday the festivities are continuing. There was a brass band playing outside the House of Culture, but I didn't stop to find out what they were playing because I'm pretty much all partied out.

A strategy for discipleship in our church

2012-01-05T14:04:00.001+04:00

Having a more structured and long-term approach to discipleship in our church has been something I've been wanting to do for the last few years. Since finishing the major parts of our remodel last autumn I've had more time to spend forming a long-term goal and strategy for discipleship in our church. Reading The Trellis and the Vine was very helpful in working out a framework for what was needed in our church and what steps we should be taking to get there.

After working out a strategy, making a plan that would take nearly all the members of our church through a small group discipleship course over this next year, and working with In Lumine to get The Gospel-Centered Life course printed, in December we embarked on the first step of the strategy.

I started with a group of 5 people who are already ministering and able to communicate God's word and we went through The Gospel-Centered Life course learning how to lead it. We went quickly and finished by the end of December. The plan now is for those 5 people to lead small groups over the next few months.

When we return from our trip to the US we'll do a debrief with these leaders and then have them either start new groups or else go through a different bible study course with their groups. Then I'll begin to train another group of 4 or 5 leaders to lead their own small groups.

Our goal is that by the end of the year our church, having gone through this course in small groups, will have grown in knowledge of the gospel and faith in Jesus Christ, and that the gospel would be more central to all that we do. We will have 8-10 people who can lead small groups that will continue to meet together to grow in their understanding of the gospel and become stronger disciples of Jesus Christ.

Global Mission Mondays: Nigeria

2012-01-02T18:17:00.002+04:00

We are continuing Global Mission Mondays at our weekly prayer meeting this year. Our goal is to have our eyes opened to the needs of people around the world and be active in spreading the gospel throughout the world by prayer. So each week I find a few facts that give us a picture of what is going on in a country and at our prayer meeting we pray for that country, for the gospel to be spread, for the strengthening of the church there, and for those who are oppressed or suffering in that country.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, the seventh most populous country in the world at 167 million people.

Previously, economic development had been hindered by years of military rule, corruption, and mismanagement. The restoration of democracy and subsequent economic reforms have successfully put Nigeria back on track towards achieving its full economic potential. It is now the second largest economy in Africa (following South Africa).

Health, health care, and general living conditions in Nigeria are poor. HIV/AIDS, cholera, and polio are major health problems (there are 2.6 million people with HIV/AIDS). Life expectancy is 47 years (average male/female) and just over half the population has access to potable water and appropriate sanitation. 42% of the population are under 15 years old.

The number of languages currently estimated and cataloged in Nigeria is 510, The official language of Nigeria, English, was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country.

50.4% of Nigeria's population are Muslims, 50.8% are Christian (15% Protestant, 13.7% Catholic, and 19.6% other Christian).

According to these statistics there are roughly 80 million Christians in Nigeria, half of them are urban, and most of them are under 40 years old.

[information via wikipedia and the CIA world fact book]

Evening for Senior Citizens

2011-12-22T16:39:00.000+04:00

Wednesday night was our monthly evening for senior citizens at our church. We held the evening in our newly remodeled cafe/fellowship hall. The atmosphere was great, but when 40 people showed up we found out that it is too small so next time we'll go back to meeting in our main hall.

Liese helped out in the kitchen and they cooked an amazing meal that kept with the Orthodox Nativity fast that is going on right now (more about that fast here). Everyone who came seemed to enjoy the evening (I measure that by how many hugs I get as people leave) and we had a lot of helpers come to clean up and put everything away. It is great to see our church reaching out to the elderly in the community.

Global Mission Mondays: Ghana

2011-12-19T14:12:00.003+04:00

Ghana has a population of about 24 million people. It is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups. Ethnologue lists a total of 79 languages spoken in Ghana with English being the official language.

Since 1992 Ghana has had several open elections and now has the status of a stable democracy.

The economy of Ghana has been listed as The World's Fastest Growing Economy in 2011 with an economic growth of about 20.146 % for the year 2011. Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has more than twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Ghana is one of the world's top gold producers and is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world. The economy relies heavily on agriculture which accounts for 37.3% of GDP and provides employment for 56% of the work force, mainly small landholders.

The adult literacy rate in Ghana was 65% in 2007, with males at 71.7% and females at 58.3%. With 83% of its children in school, Ghana currently has one of the highest school enrolment rates in West Africa, although some 500,000 children still remain out of school because of resource constraints in building schools, providing adequate textbooks and training new teachers.

According to the CIA World Factbook, religious divisions are as follows: Christian 68.8%, Muslim 15.9%, Traditional African beliefs 8.5%. In 1960 only 24% of the population identified as Christian.

[information via wikipedia and the world factbook]

10 Reasons to Go on the Mission Field

2011-12-13T19:30:00.003+04:00

[original graphic from theResurgence]

A while ago I was reading theResurgence and I came across this article by Justin Buzzard about 10 reasons to join a church plant. As I read the list the thought that kept coming to mind was "these are reasons to go on the mission field, not just join a church plant".

So here are the Top 10 Reasons Justin Buzzard gave for joining a church plant, and my explanation why they are also reasons to go on the mission field:

1. If you want to see Jesus do something new and are sick of the status quo.
God's plan is to gather for Himself a special people from every tribe and tongue and if you want to get out of the status quo of life then give up that which you can not keep to gain that which you can not lose and give your life for the spreading of the gospel throughout the world. You will see Jesus do something new.

2. If you dream of being part of something bigger than yourself.
God's mission has been going on since the creation of the world. It is bigger than any one person, than any one local church, than any one generation. Yes, the church is God's main vehicle for His mission but His mission is bigger than a church plant and if you want be a part of something bigger than yourself go overseas to spread the gospel.

3. If you want to get into a fight/enter a battle for the kingdom of Christ.
If you want to enter a battle for the kingdom of Christ go to India where the spiritual darkness is almost palpable. Go to tribes in Africa that are seeped in animism and witchcraft. Go to countries where government, economic, and political corruption are so entrenched in the culture that every good deed, every act of righteousness is a long drawn-out battle.

4. If you feel a constant itch to see people who don’t know Jesus come to know Jesus and you believe church planting is the best way for the gospel to advance.
If you feel a constant itch to see people come to know Jesus take a look at the statistics of countries in Africa, Asia, and the middle east and see how few people are out there telling people about Jesus. If you believe church planting is the best way to advance the gospel then go to those countries and plant churches.

5. If you want to give your time, money, energy, and talents to starting something new and you want to make sacrifices to see a mission succeed.
This applies directly to overseas, cross-cultural missions.

6. If you fully support the vision, mission, doctrine, and leadership of a church plant.
If you see the reason to plant a church, the vision of why churches need to be planted, and what the mission of the church is, then take one step further and see that while America needs healthy churches most places in the world just need churches.

7. If you want your faith to grow and you want God to fundamentally meddle with and change your life.
This is not a reason to go on the mission field, but if you go you will find at every step of the way God will fundamentally meddle in every area of your life and change everything about who you are.

8. If you want to love your city.
Loving your city can easily become more about the place than about the people who live in the place. Loving your city can include cooperation between the local church and the international mission to build a bridge from your local city to the rest of the world. This can enrich your city as God's creation of multiple cultures, languages, and peoples are introduced to the glory of God in His plan to save. This isn't the only way to love your city, but loving your city doesn't only mean staying and planting another church.

9. If you want to watch God move in ways you never imagined and you want an adventure (with all its discomfort and risk).
Don't stay home. Go.

10. If you’re not afraid to bank your life on Matthew 16:18 (“I [Jesus] will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”).
This promise is the foundation of missions: Jesus is building His church and calls us to be a part of it in every corner of this earth.

What do you think?

Global Missions Monday: Togo

2011-12-12T19:42:00.004+04:00

This week we are praying for the country of Togo in West Africa. Togo has a population of about 6.7 million people and is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with a climate that provides good growing seasons.

Most of the population (65%) live in rural villages dedicated to agriculture or pastures. Approximately one half of the population lives below the international poverty line.

The largest religious group in Togo are those with indigenous beliefs (approximately 51% of the population), but there are significant Christian (29%) and Muslim (20%)minorities.

There is not much current information available about Togo, apparently due to political instability over the last 7 years.

The Nativity Fast

2011-12-09T23:24:00.001+04:00

The Orthodox Church throughout the world is celebrating the 40 day Nativity Fast right now and as our church prepares for Christmas I thought it would be helpful for us to look at the reasons for the Nativity Fast and to see what we can learn from the Orthodox traditions.

In the Orthodox Church fasting is seen as purification and the regaining of innocence. Fasting is the means for a Christian to rid himself or herself of the passions, the desires of our fallen carnal nature. The underlying philosophy is that the physical things in this world are at odds with the spiritual things of God and fasting is a way to move away from the physical in toward the spiritual.   In general fasting is usually simply abstaining from meat and dairy, and on the stricter days also abstaining from oil and wine.

In general in Ukraine most people know about the Nativity Fast but thanks to the Soviet Union making the New Year holidays the main holidays of the year, not very many people actually observe the fast because that would mean not being able to party on New Years Eve. Often the Orthodox fasts (which happen every couple months throughout the year) are looked at as a healthy thing to do because it means not eating meat and other fatty foods. Many understand the Orthodox fast as testing yourself, making your spirit strong, or simply doing something that is healthy and will make you a more complete person. Many see the fasts as good things, something that one should do to purify oneself because of all the partying that is going to happy during the holidays.

In this week's sermon I'm going to talk about how the culture around us looks at fasting and then we'll look at what fasting looks like in the bible.

The main thing we will learn from the Orthodox tradition of fasting is that it is good to discipline yourself to fight your flesh and seek God as we seek to know the power of God in our lives.

Preparing for special holidays is a good reminder to be disciplined in drawing near to God and seeking the fullness of His grace in our lives.

Global Mission Mondays: Benin

2011-12-05T16:21:00.001+04:00

Benin is a country in West Africa with a population of approximately 9 million. It was ruled by France until the 1960’s and then in the 1970’s after more than a decade of ethnic strife, coups, and regime changes Benin became a Marxist state. At the end of the 1980’s the Marxist state collapsed.

Now Benin is highly dependent on agriculture, with substantial employment and income arising from subsistence farming. The literacy rate in Benin is among the lowest in the world: in 2002 it was estimated to be 35% (48% for males and 23% for females).

 There are about 42 African ethnic groups in Benin. In the 2002 census, 43% of the population of Benin were Christian (27% Roman Catholic, 5% Celestial Church of Christ, 3% Methodist, 7% other Christian denominations), 24% were Muslim, 17% practices Vodun, 6% other traditional local religious groups, 2% other religious groups, and 7% claim no religious affiliation.

[information from wikipedia and the world factbook]

The Advent Season

2011-12-03T16:49:00.001+04:00

This week our church is starting to celebrate the Advent season as we prepare for Christmas. These words from the Anglican Church's Second Book of Homilies beautifully remind us of the reasons for Christ's birth.

These were the chief ends wherefore Christ became man, not for any profit that should come to himself thereby, but only for our sakes, that we might understand the will of God, be partakers of his heavenly light, be delivered out of the devil's claws: released from the burden of sin, justified through faith in his blood, and finally, received up into everlasting glory, there to reign with him for ever.

Was not this a great and singular love of Christ towards mankind, that being the express and lively image of God, he would not withstanding humble himself, and take upon him the form of a servant, and that only to save and redeem us?

O how much are we bound to the goodness of God in this behalf? How many thanks and praises do we owe unto him for this our salvation wrought by his dear and only Son Christ who became a pilgrim in earth to make us citizens in heaven, who became the son of man, to make us the sons of God, who became obedient to the Law, to deliver us from the curse of the Law, who became poor, to make us rich; vile, to make us precious; subject to death, to make us live for ever?

What greater love could we silly creatures desire or wish to have at God's hands?

(via reformation21)

Orphanage Ministry

2011-11-29T15:32:00.001+04:00

For the last few years a group from our church has been visiting an orphanage/boarding school (called an Internaught) in the village of Kuzmintsy (just outside of Kaharlyk). This Internaught is an intermediary stage for children who have become wards of the state but have not yet been placed in either an orphanage or a foster family.

Recently Liese joined the ministry team and they have been visiting the Internaught every other Monday to spend time with the kids doing crafts, telling bibles stories, and playing games. On the weeks that they don't visit the Internaught they bring the children into Kaharlyk to be a part of the Kids Club that is at our church on Saturday afternoons.

Global Mission Mondays: Niger

2011-11-28T18:46:00.001+04:00

By area Niger the largest nation in West Africa and over 80 percent of its land area covered by the Sahara desert. Its population is about 15 million. Much of the non-desert portions of Niger are threatened by periodic drought and desertification.

Since independence in 1956, Nigeriens have lived under five constitutions and three periods of military rule. Niger remains handicapped by its landlocked position, desert terrain, poor education and poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor health care, and environmental degradation. A Nigerien study reports that 800,000 people are enslaved, almost 8% of the population. According to the organization Save the Children, Niger has the world's highest infant mortality rate.

Between 80 and 98% of the population is Muslim, with small Animist and Christian communities, the latter a consequence of missionaries established during the French colonial years, as well as urban expatriate communities from Europe and West Africa. Missionaries are allowed to work freely and the Christian population is growing.

[Information via wikipedia, the US Department of State, and Save the Children ]

CC Kaharlyk video

2011-11-28T11:56:00.001+04:00

Our friends at the Halle Project put this video together as an overview of our church's vision and mission:

Global Mission Mondays: Burkina Faso

2011-11-21T20:37:00.001+04:00

Burkina Faso ranks as the third least developed country in the world. It is home to about 15.3 million people. The average life expectancy was estimated at 52 for females and 50 for males. The median age of its inhabitants is 16.7. As of 2009, it was estimated that there were as few as 10 physicians per 100,000 people. The UN Development Program Report ranks Burkina Faso as the country with the lowest level of literacy in the world with only 22% of the population above age 15 being able to read and write.

The official language of Burkina Faso is French. In addition, there are about 60 native African languages. 80% of the Burkinabé live in rural areas where there is little contact between different communities and as a result, monolingualism is predominant.

19 percent practices Catholicism,60.5% of the population practice Islam, and 20% practice animism. Wikipedia quotes a popular saying in Burkina Faso that "50% are Muslim, 50% are Christian and 100% are animist". This shows the large level of acceptance of the various religions amongst each other. Even for Muslims and Christians, ancient animist rites are still highly valued. The JoshuaProject.net says that many of the people groups have portions of the bible translated into their language and available in audio format.

Road trip to Budapest

2011-11-14T15:01:00.001+04:00

Last week we took a road trip with our friends Jake and Anya Knotts to Budapest. Thanks to the Christian Hospitality Network we were able to stay at a hotel for free. We had a great time spending 3.5 days on the road with the Knotts talking about everything under the sun and 3 days in Budapest sightseeing, shopping at Ikea, and resting.

Global Mission Mondays: Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)

2011-11-14T14:19:00.001+04:00

Ivory Coast (or Côte d'Ivoire as it prefers to be called) is a country of 20 million people and is the world's largest exporter of cocoa. Political corruption has caused economic instability and 2 civil wars over the last 10 years. Because of this about a quarter of the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.

An estimated 65 languages are spoken in Côte d'Ivoire. French, the official language, is taught in schools and serves as a lingua franca in the country.

Religion in Côte d'Ivoire remains very heterogeneous, with Islam (almost all Sunni Muslims) and Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic) being the major religions. Muslims dominate the north, while Christians dominate the south. In 2008, 38.6% of Côte d'Ivoire was Muslim, followed by 32.8% Christian, 11.9% practicing indigenous religions and 16.7% with no religion. Wikipedia explains some of the complexities of religious life:

Lineages are important in understanding the organization of many Ivoirian religions. The spiritual unity of the descent group transcends distinctions among the unborn, the living, and the deceased. In this context, religious differences are not based on disagreements over doctrine. Rather, groups living in different social and physical environments encounter different spiritual and physical dangers, and their religious needs differ accordingly. This diversity accounts, in part, for early missionaries in West Africa who often described the spiritual "chaos" they encountered, when they were actually observing different social groupings, each with different spiritual obligations to ancestral and other spirits, acting in accordance with common beliefs about the nature of the universe.

The economic situation has resulted in poor health care and education. There are 12 physicians per 100,000 people. The literacy rate for adults remains low: in 2000, it was estimated that only 48.7% of the total population was literate (60.8% of males and 38.6% of females). Many children between 6 and 10 years are not enrolled in school.

Part III: We live our lives based on our understanding of the gospel

2011-11-09T21:06:00.000+04:00

If we do not understand that the gospel tells that the plight of all mankind is that we are utterly lost, utterly guilty before God, spiritually dead, and deserving the eternal wrath of God then the call to take the words of Christ to the whole world teaching all men to obey them is something that God calls special people to do, but it is not very important.

Richard Baxter wrote (sometime in the 17th century) "but now as I better understand the case of the world, and the method of the Lord's Prayer, so there is nothing in the world that lies so heavy upon my heart as the thought of the miserable nations of the earth. . .No part of my prayers are so deeply serious, as that for the conversion of the infidel and the ungodly world, that God's name may be sanctified, and his kingdom come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Understanding two things: the plight of mankind and the coming of the kingdom of God should affect us the same way it affected Baxter - it should change what we value in life and how we pray.

Part II: We live our lives based on our understanding of the gospel

2011-11-07T21:09:00.000+04:00

This is the second in a series of posts about how understanding the gospel affects the way we live our lives.

If our understanding of the gospel is rooted in the phrase "God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives" then we will live in agreement with that phrase. We will seek the best for our lives. We will seek to protect ourselves from harm, from suffering, from the stress of not knowing if we'll have enough tomorrow.

While the bible doesn't say we are to seek those things, an understanding of the gospel that starts and ends with God as the center of the universe and shows us our place in his cosmic plan to display the greatness of his glory, will inevitably lead us away from a life that is free of suffering. It will lead us to put ourselves in harm's way for the sake of others because their good becomes more important than ours. It will cause us to trust in the provision of our Father instead of our ingenuity and hard work, and it will cause us to not care about seeking the best for our lives because we will be seeking the best for others' lives so that God's glory might be exalted more fully in us.

I'm not saying in this that we are to seek suffering, or foolishly suffer, or not work hard to provide - I'm talking about a value shift as we live a new life that is radically different from the life we lived before we heard the gospel.

We live our life in agreement with our understanding of the gospel

2011-11-05T16:53:00.000+04:00

At the retreat that our church went to a few weeks ago one of speakers was talking about what the gospel is (and what it is not) and as he spoke he said that we live our lives in agreement with our understanding of the gospel.

A few days after the conference a conversation with my family gave a good example of how the gospel affects not only our salvation but how we live. My mom was telling me about the funeral of her brother Wayne who died in a mountain climbing accident in the Rocky Mountains. At the funeral one of her brothers spoke about how he had asked God why God didn't save his brother, why God didn't catch him and keep him from falling. The answer that God gave in that moment was wrapped in the gospel as he felt God saying "I was there. I saw Wayne fall and in the same way that I didn't save my own son when he was dying I didn't save Wayne".

The gospel proclaims the good news of Christ's love in enduring the cross to save us, it speaks of God's great mercy in allowing his son to die in our place, it speaks of plan that is bigger than momentary suffering, it speaks of a kingdom in which death will no longer reign and in which unrighteousness will have no place, is speaks of a King who knows what is best for his subjects and rules them in justice and mercy. It is knowing this gospel that comforts us when someone dear to us dies in an accident, it is knowing that God knows not only what happened but how it is affecting us and He is the King who knows what is best for each of us.

I'll be writing more about how this in the next few days.

An Austalian named Merv and the magnitude of the mission

2011-11-03T11:44:00.000+04:00

An Australian named Merv was visiting our church recently and he shared a few words of encouragement with our church from the book of Joshua. In Chapter 13 God speaks to Joshua and tells him that Joshua is very old yet there is still much land that remains for Israel to possess. Merv encouraged us to look at our city and our country and see that, though God has done much, there is still very much land that remains to be possessed.

I had spoken a few weeks ago at our church retreat about the mission that the gospel compels us toward and how it is a lifestyle that we never finish, that we never retire from. Joshua was old, he had led God's people into the land of promise and at the end of his life God doesn't give him a pension, or say "mission accomplished" God says "there is still very much land to possess".

The magnitude of the mission of God - redeeming a people from every tribe and tongue - means that there is always very much left to do. Our calling to follow Jesus, to make disciples, to spread the gospel is not a career it is a lifestyle. We don't retire from it because it is not simply what we do, it is who we are in Christ. No matter how much we do, like Joshua we look out over the land and see that there is still very much that remains for us to possess.

Books and the need for truth

2011-11-01T11:39:00.000+04:00

This month In Lumine media is getting two books back from the printer: This Momentary Marriage, and The Jesus Storybook Bible. As we get two more books ready for print this month I am reminded of an article by Ernest Reisinger about Christian literature in which he quotes Daniel Webster as saying:

"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; if the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness, will reign without mitigation or end".

Truth needs to be proclaimed, spread, taught, read, absorbed, known, manifested, and discussed in Ukraine and Russia. The propaganda of times past and the lies and corruptions of the current society have blurred the lines between truth and lie giving rise to a relativistic and pragmatic approach to life. That is why I am part of In Lumine Media; to shine the light of God's truth through the written word. Because as Samuel Zwemmer said "No other agency can penetrate so deeply, witness so daringly, abide so persistently and influence so irresistibly as the printed page."

Global Mission Mondays: Liberia

2011-10-31T19:07:00.004+04:00

Liberia is home to 3.7 million people. English is the official language, while over 30 indigenous languages are spoken within the country.

Beginning in 1820, the region was colonized by freed American slaves with the help of the American Colonization Society, a private organization that believed ex-slaves would have greater freedom and equality in Africa. Slaves freed from slave ships were also sent there instead of being repatriated to their countries of origin. In 1847, these colonists founded the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States.

A military coup overthrew the Americo-Liberian establishment in 1980, marking the beginning of political and economic instability and two successive civil wars that left approximately 250,000 people dead and devastated the country's economy.

Today, Liberia is recovering from the lingering effects of the civil war and related economic dislocation, with about 85% of the population living below the international poverty line. The civil war destroyed approximately 95% of the country's health care facilities.

Liberia is one of the world's poorest countries, with a formal employment rate of only 15%. In 2010, the country's nominal GDP per capita stood at US$226, the third-lowest in the world.

As of 2006, Liberia has the highest population growth rate in the world (4.50% per annum). Similar to its neighbors, it has a large youth population, with half of the population under the age of 18.

85.5% of the population practices Christianity. Muslims comprise 12.2% of the population.

[information via wikipedia]

Autumn colors

2011-10-31T18:03:00.001+04:00

A little history lesson at the evening for Senior Citizens

2011-10-27T20:01:00.000+04:00

This Wednesday night our church held its monthly special evening for senior citizens. We had a great turnout and it seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves more than usual. Maybe it had something to do with the gardening, canning, and yardwork season finally being over.

Liese and Olya Zschech headed up the kitchen and they did a great job with some dessert assistance from Christy Claycamp and a huge pot of plov from Natasha Simonenko. Liese spent most of Tuesday morning with Natasha going around the local market and shops to purchase all the food.

During the meal I sat at the "Christian" table, the place where a group of elderly charismatic ladies sit. I had never really talked with them and was interested in how they became Christians. But something about them told me they probably went to the Orthodox church years and years ago so I asked them if they had ever attended an Orthodox church. They all looked at me for a second as they processed the question (it was a little weird to ask) and then answered with a resounding "of course, we all did". They said that now that they have been in churches that teach the bible in modern Russian (as opposed to old Slavonic use in the Orthodox church) they understand the bible more. Now when they are at a funeral or a baptism they understand what the priest is talking about; but before when they would attend services they had no idea what was going on or what the priest was saying. They told me that they've noticed over the last 10 years as other churches have grown in our area that the priests have started to take more time to explain the scripture, traditions, and rituals of the Orthodox church to people.

I asked about churches in our area and they said that during the Soviet Union Kaharlyk didn't have a single Orthodox church, it had been burned down and nobody wanted to rebuild it. The priest in the area still baptized the children of people who would bring them to him, but he did it without registering with the state. There were times when the KGB would come to one of the ladies and ask her to fill out a list of all the baptisms that the priest did because she lived near him (she didn't do it, and didn't tell the priest that the KGB was making lists but did warn him to be careful). In the West we usually only hear about Protestant believers that were persecuted by the Soviet state and it was interesting to hear about Orthodox priests who didn't register as agents of the state lived in fear of the KGB coming in the night to recruit or arrest them.

The Kaharlyk Orthodox church began to meet in a house by the lake as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed. That is when these ladies started going to church, they had been taught the orthodox faith by their grandmothers but hadn't practiced their faith aside from baptizing their children.

I couldn't get the specifics of why they started going to other churches, but it was interesting to hear a bit of the local history from people that don't go to our church.

Join us in praying for Orphans on November 6th

2011-10-26T11:06:00.000+04:00

Sunday the 6th of November is Orphan Sunday. Our church is going to have a special service about God's heart towards orphans and what our heart towards orphans should be.

A few weeks ago we showed a video in our church from the alliance Ukraine Without Orphans that showed a picture of what the churches in Ukraine could do if one family in each church adopted an orphan. There are 30,000 registered churches in Ukraine and 30,000 orphans.

There are many more children in the care of the state, children that have been taken from their parents or whose parents can not afford to care for them. These children live in orphanages, or boarding schools for most of the year. The organization A Home for Every Orphan gives the statistics that upon leaving these orphanages and boarding schools

"roughly 10% of these teens will commit suicide, 40% of the girls will succumb to a life of prostitution, 40% will abuse drugs and another 40% will get involved in crime to varying degrees."

A friend recently posted these statistics from Ukraine's Ministry of Statistics about what happens to children when they graduate from orphanages:

- only 25% find full time jobs
- only 1% go on to get a college degree
- 1 in 5 end up homeless
- 1 in 7 try to commit suicide
- 50% will be arrested for a crime.

Join us in praying for the orphans of Ukraine, for the children who live in orphanages and boarding schools. Join us in praying that God would provide homes for the orphans through churches in Ukraine and that God would use the Christians in Ukraine to change the statistics.

Global Mission Mondays: Sierra Leone

2011-10-24T16:34:00.003+04:00

Tonight at our church's prayer meeting we will be praying for the people of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has a population of about 6 million people and is home to fifteen ethnic groups, each with its own language and customs.

Between 1991 and 2002 the Sierra Leone Civil War devastated the country leaving more than 75,000 people dead, much of the country's infrastructure and over two million people displaced in neighboring countries. The civil war broke out mainly due to government corruption, mismanagement of diamond resources and abuse of power. Sierra Leone is known for its blood diamonds that were mined and sold to diamond conglomerates during the civil war, in order to buy the weapons that fueled the atrocities of the civil war. Since 2007 the government has generally stabilized.

Sierra Leone is a predominantly Muslim nation (60-70%), though with a large Christian minority (20-30%). Sierra Leone is ranked as one of the most religiously tolerant nations in the world.

Although English is the official language of Sierra Leone, the Krio language (derived from English and several indigenous African languages) is the most widely spoken language across the country, spoken as a first language by about 10%, but understood by 95%.

About two-thirds of the population engages in subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 52.5% of national income. The government is trying to increase food and cash crop production and upgrade small farmer skills. The government works with several foreign donors to operate integrated rural development and agricultural projects. The country has relied on mining, especially diamonds, for its economic base; it is among the top 10 diamond producing nations in the world, and mineral exports remain the main foreign currency earner. Despite this natural wealth, over 70% of its people live in poverty.

Public health in Sierra Leone is generally poor and in 2007 the country had the highest level of child mortality in the world and and a life expectancy of 41 years. One in eight women risks dying during pregnancy or childbirth, the death rate of children under 5 is 19 per 100 births.

[information from wikipedia]

Summer 2011 newsletter

2011-10-20T09:14:00.000+04:00

Our ministry video

2011-10-19T10:23:00.000+04:00

This video was made for us by the guys at the Halle Project to give a picture of life in Kaharlyk, our church, and our ministry.

Church retreat

2011-10-17T21:45:00.001+04:00

Last weekend our church went to a retreat in Chernigov that we organized with churches from Chernigov, Nezhyn, and Priluki.

The theme of the retreat was The Gospel in the Center of Your Life. Each of the speakers did a great job talking about what the gospel is (and is not), how the gospel transforms community, how the gospel transforms us, and how the gospel compels us to missions. I got to speak on the last topic and I'll be sharing some of my thoughts on this blog soon.

About 40 people from our church went and everyone I talked to really enjoyed the teaching and just being able to go set time aside to seek God. Our worship band played a couple times and I was proud of how much they have grown, not as much as musicians even though they are better, but in the way they lead the group in worship, the songs they chose, and their attitude in it all.

Here are some pictures that I took from various people's facebook pages. I figured since they tagged us in them they wouldn't mind.

Our worship team doing their thing.

Wayne Zschech speaking about the gospel transforming community.

Joking around with Olya Velichko from Chernigov.

Liese with Tanya, Oksana, and Lyuda from our church.

Me speaking about the gospel compelling us to missions.

Global Missions Mondays: Guinea-Bissau

2011-10-17T17:36:00.002+04:00

Tonight at our prayer meeting we will be praying for the country of Guinea-Bissau, a country of 1.6 million people in West Africa.

Guinea-Bissau was ruled by Portugal from the 16th century until 1956 when the PAIGC began an armed rebellion that culminated in independence in 1973. Historically Guinea-Bissau is part of the Slave Coast of Africa, a formerly densely populated region of Africa from which more than 2 million slaves were exported by the Portuguese, French, and British. After independence Guinea-Bissau has had military coups, instability, assassinations of leaders, and military unrest.

The GDP per capita is one of the lowest in the world and more than two thirds of the country live below the poverty level. Guinea-Bissau is a transport point for drug trafficking into Europe from South America. Health care is a huge problem with less than 5 doctors per 100,000 people.

The population of Guinea-Bissau is ethnically diverse and has many distinct languages, customs, and social structures. The main religion is African animism, 35% are Muslim, 10% Christian - though animism is often mixed with all religions. Foreign missionaries operate in the country without restriction.

[information from wikipedia]

Global Mission Mondays: Guinea

2011-10-10T19:10:00.002+04:00

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

Guinea is a natural resource rich country of 10 million people made up of 24 ethnic groups. French is the official language of Guinea.

Since Guinea declared its independence from France in 1958 it has had autocratic rule in which one person possesses unlimited power. This has contributed to making Guinea one of the poorest countries in the world.

The literacy rate of Guinea is one of the lowest in the world: in 2003 it was estimated that only 29.5% of adults were literate. While school is mandatory many children, particularly girls, are kept out of school in order to assist their parents with domestic work or agriculture. Agriculture employs 80% of the nation's labor force.

Islam is the majority religion. Approximately 85% of the population is Muslim, while 8% is Christian, and 7% holds traditional animist beliefs.

Fall in rural Ukraine

2011-10-06T21:13:00.000+04:00

I went out to the village of Sloboda today to lead a bible study at the rehab center, but when I got there I found that a group of guys who had finished the program last year had come to help dig potatoes. So no bible study but I was glad to see the guys and catch up with them a little. I took some pictures and then came home.

Visiting the Larson family

2011-09-30T14:49:00.002+04:00

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

2011-09-30T13:40:00.001+04:00

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

2011-09-20T23:07:00.000+04:00

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

2011-09-19T12:15:00.001+04:00

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

2011-09-13T10:59:00.000+04:00

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

2011-09-12T19:34:00.002+04:00

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

2011-09-12T14:22:00.000+04:00

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

2011-09-12T09:02:00.000+04:00

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

2011-09-05T16:52:00.000+04:00

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]

It was 20 years ago today...

2011-08-24T11:25:00.000+04:00

No, it was longer ago that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. But 20 years ago Sgt. Pepper could finally be freely heard on Ukrainian radio and literally dozens of hardcore Beatles fans could finally go to a music store instead of the black market to buy their bootlegged albums.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union.

“In view of the mortal danger surrounding Ukraine in connection with the state coup in the USSR on August 19, 1991, Continuing the thousand-year tradition of state development in Ukraine, Proceeding from the right of a nation to self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other international legal documents, and Implementing the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, The Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic solemnly declares the Independence of Ukraine and the creation of an independent Ukrainian state – UKRAINE.”

- Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, August 24, 1991 (via US embassy Kiev blog)

I remember being here in 2001 at the 10 year anniversary and though I was young and naive it seemed like Ukraine was young and already disillusioned with independence. That was mostly due to corrupt government and poverty throughout most of Ukraine. The government was still running the same as it had during the Soviet Union though the populace enjoyed a much greater degree of freedom (especially religious freedom).

Five years later at the 15 year anniversary of Independence the mood was very different. The Orange Revolution had united many people against corruption and for change. There was a new power structure that promised a new era of fighting corruption in government. The economy was strong and people's lives were improving. Ukraine had held its first open elections and it seemed like not only was the country independent but its citizens were finally independent as well.

Now at the 20 year anniversary much of the progress of the Orange Revolution has been reversed, lost, or forgotten. The man charged with rigging the 2004 elections is now president and has taken huge steps in consolidation of power (some if has actually helped stabilize Ukraine) taking away many democratic reforms and processes that had made people feel like Ukraine was moving forward. The average person seems to feel that independence means not being dependent on their government as opposed to being an independent nation.

In spite of these ups and downs in Ukraine over the last decade Ukraine has been one of the few post soviet nations to avoid civil war, to have free press (well at least some), and to continue to have massive religious freedom. We'll see where the next 20 years takes Ukraine but for now I'm thankful that God has given Ukraine independence and caused the gospel to flourish here. We pray that the gospel would take root and and transform the culture of Ukraine so that people would see that their freedom and hope is not found in a government or constitution but in Jesus Christ.

Global Mission Mondays: Mauritania

2011-08-22T15:27:00.000+04:00

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

Over the last 30 years there have been 3 coups and much political instability in Mauritania.

Now in Mauritania about 20% of the population live on less than US$ 1.25 per day. Modern day slavery is still a common practice and according to some estimates, up to 600,000 Mauritanians, or 20% of the population of 3.2 million, are still enslaved.

Mauritania has one of the lowest GDP rates in Africa, despite being rich in natural resources. However, a majority of the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood. In the early 21st century there were only 11 physicians per 100,000 people.

The country is nearly 100% Muslim, with almost no Christian presence. The Joshua Project lists the people groups of Mauritania among the least reached with almost no Christian influence.

The need for the gospel in Mauritania is great.

Vacation

2011-08-18T17:36:00.001+04:00

We spent the last week up in Chernigov hanging out with the McNamee family and the Knotts family and relaxing at the Knotts' dacha (cabin). We spent the first couple days with the McNamee's and had a great time eating amazing gluten-free food, talking about roof installation, and making friends with Arden.

Then we went up to the dacha for some relaxation. The weather was great, a little on the chilly side at night, but warm and sunny for most of the day. I read most of John Piper's book Think which is a great book about using our minds to love God without becoming cold intellectuals. I also started reading Rid of My Disgrace. It was great to have nothing to do but read, rest, and swim. The McNamee's came up and joined us for an afternoon of swimming and BBQing.

BBQ at the Dacha with the McNamee family

Then we went back to Chernigov to spend some time with the Knotts family. Jake and I spent a whole day talking about book publishing and planning out the next six months for In Lumine Media and taking our employees out to lunch (at the best Italian cafe this side of the Dnipro). Liese and Anya went thrift-store shopping and came back with bags of loot. We had a lot of fun with the Knotts family and Maia was, as usual, a riot.

Maia with a smoothie

In Lumine lunch with Olya, Marina, Jake, and amazing food. Conor also was there.

God has made our hearts capable of great joy in these things

2011-08-08T14:12:00.000+04:00

John Piper on the joy of missions:

One of the terrible effects of the Fall is that our souls have shrunk. We are content with very small vision. And our ability to be amazed is often exhausted by artificial worlds in movies. This is tragic.

The real world is a stunning place. World population is an astounding size. Complexities of languages and cultures are mind-boggling. The universality of sin is manifest and terrible. The misery of suffering is appalling. The prospect of eternal suffering is the most sobering truth in the world. The coming of Jesus to save repentant people from every culture is the greatest news in the world. The hope of the end of sin the arrival of a new world of righteousness and joy in the presence of God is worth everything. And God’s granting us to be essential in this global redemption is astounding.

These are the greatest realities we were made to live for and think about and pray over and dream toward and throw ourselves into.

And my point here is that God has made our hearts capable of great joy in these things. Joy that can be had no other way. Not all are to be missionaries. But all are to tap into the joy of this great global cause of Christ.

via Desiring God

Global Mission Mondays: Morocco

2011-08-08T14:00:00.001+04:00

We've continued praying for countries in northern Africa at our church's weekly prayer meeting even though I haven't put the info up on our blog. Tonight we are praying for the country of Morocco.

Morocco has a population of about 32 million people, 99% of whom fall into the general category of Arab-Berber however there are many distinct ethnic groups through Morocco with their own dialects. Islam is the state religion and about 99% of the population is Muslim, however Morocco has always been known for its islamic liberalism and openness towards the Western world. Christians make up about 1% of the countries population and are free to openly practice their faith but proselytizing Muslims is illegal.

[information from wikipedia and the joshua project]

An American Pickle in Ukraine

2011-08-06T13:06:00.000+04:00

Pickled cucumbers are a big part of Ukrainian cuisine and the variations of recipes seem to depend largely on availability of ingredients as well as the tastes of those preparing them. For the most part the pickling process is based on a brine of salt, water and various herbs from one's garden. Vinegar is rarely used and the result is a pickle that we Footes deem an excellent addition to any number of salads that are traditionally prepared here. However it is merely tolerable on sandwiches, which is where most North Americans would consume pickles. There are a number of things wrong if their desired application is for a sandwich endeavor. They tend to lose their crispness, many times dill weed is not added, and they are also occasionally extremely salty.

We always plant way too many cucumbers. So I end up making way too many pickles. We sometimes donate them to prisoners when guys from our church visit them. Incarcerated hommies need supplies for the Z.A. too!

I don't remember where I got my recipe but one year I made a batch of dill pickles and D raved that they came out similar to the Vlasic variety. Here's how I make 'em:

Dill Pickles

(per 1 large 3 liter jar)

1 liter of water
1/3 cup of salt
2 cups of white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

Smallish cucumbers- washed
1 clove of garlic
peppercorns
1 horseradish leaf
seeds of dill weed plant

Sterilize jars by washing them well and then placing them in the oven on low for 20 min. Turn oven off but leave oven door closed so that they stay warm. There are other methods of sterilization but this is the easiest in my opinion.

Wash cucs, horseradish, and dill weed. Combine first 4 ingredients from recipe above in saucepan and bring to a boil.

Add herbs and garlic to warm jars and pack them with washed cucs, not too tightly.

Add the salt and vinegar mixture. It should come most of the way up the jar. Top it off with boiling water from the kettle (to about and inch below the rim).

Use a chopstick or butter knife and slide it down the sides in a few places. This helps the trapped air to escape. Sometimes I forget this step and they still come out fine. However I have noticed that those on YouTube who really seem to know what they're doing always include this step. Pish posh!

Wipe the rim with a clean wet cloth so that nothing remaining could cause the seal to break.

You should have lids simmering in a pot. I use tongs to grab them one at a time and put them in place.

This here contraption is called a key (as are a number of other things in the Russian language). It is used to "lock" the seal in place. There are other, much easier methods of canning, such as twist-on lids. But this was the method I photographed. So this is what you get.

The key is place over the lid and turned. As the spiral moves inward the metal lid is sealed around the rubber. Below is a blurry photo of how it looks afterward.

I use the inversion method to process pickles. This method is not really used in the States anymore in favor of a water bath, which would kill any bacteria. I usually do the water bath method when canning jams and chutneys, okay I don't. But I'm not too worried about this method for pickles because of the salt and vinegar content. The acid keeps anything from growing. Actually many Ukrainians don't even bother to seal out the air. They just fill the jars and put them directly in their cellars and they keep all winter.

So choose a spot in your house that won't be disturbed for a few days. Lay a folded blanket or a few towels down. Invert the jars with a few inches between them for air circulation. Cover them with a few more blankets, or as some locals do, with a fur coat.

Leave them 3-4 days undisturbed. Then store them right-side-up in your cellar or pantry. They should be ready in a few weeks.

Annnnnnnnnd Voila, pickles galore!

Some Photos of Kaharlyk

2011-08-05T22:33:00.002+04:00

I realized it has been quite a while since I've taken any pictures of Kaharlyk so I took my camera with me today as Liese and were walking around town and snapped away. This is Kaharlyk:

One of Kaharlyk's many small residential streets.

The always lovely Liese.

People waiting for a bus near The Tank.

People checking out our town's classifieds.

Doing some public utilities maintenance in front of the hospital.

A lady selling onions and melons from a van.

Selling milk out front of the newest addition to Kaharlyk's retail stores.

Kaharlyk's roundabout, we don't need stop lights in this town.

A bus ostensibly bound for Sushana that was parked most of the day on this street near our house.

The Desiring God National Conference

2011-08-04T16:21:00.000+04:00

We just booked tickets to go to the Desiring God National Conference in September. Liese and I don't usually attend conferences, partly because of scheduling and finances and partly because we are somewhat introverted and large crowds of people can be a bit overwhelming. But since we've been trying to expand In Lumine Media we've realized that attending conferences can be very beneficial not just for In Lumine but for our ministry here in Kaharlyk. At last year's DG National Conference we met a number of people with ministries (like The Elisha Foundation) who we hope will help our church to further spread the gospel in our region.

When we found out that the theme of The DG Conference this year was world missions we decided that it could be advantageous to network with organizations and people that minister on this side of the world, both for In Lumine and for us. We prayed about it, talked about it, and then wrote in our newsletter that we would like to go. The next month we were given about half of what we would need to go, so we decided to go for it.

We found out we were a little late to register for an exhibitor's booth for In Lumine which means that we won't be able to promote In Lumine as much as we would like, but it will still be good for us to be there. Our hope is that we will meet like-minded people and work together to spread the gospel throughout Ukraine and the Russian speaking world through our local church and In Lumine Media as well as be encouraged by the speakers and what God is doing around the world.

This week in photos

2011-08-01T10:30:00.001+04:00

I was going to write various blog posts last week but we had thunderstorms that knocked our power out several times so I figured I'd do one mega-post for the whole week. . . with photos.

getting warmed up on the freshly mowed field.

With all the rain we've been having the field at the elementary school where we have cricket practice has been getting very overgrown. So I suggested we take our lawnmowers out and mow the soccer field before practice. Nothing like playing on a nicely mowed field. Our cricket team is improving, we had two games over the weekend and our guys played really well.

Wayne sharing from the bible after dinner.

Wednesday night was our monthly evening for senior citizens. Usually in July we have the evening in our church's back yard and we grill hot dogs as a fun summer theme. But this year the weather forecast was for thunderstorms so we set up inside and grilled hot dogs anyway. As soon as the evening ended and people started to leave the predicted thunderstorm hit and turned out to be more of a monsoon than a thunderstorm. So we gave everyone a ride home.

Serving up plates of food.

Saturday afternoon we had our monthly church work day. We've been putting up fence boards to finish the fence around our church property. We got quite a bit done for a half day of work.

Wayne and Timor cutting boards.

about a third of the way done with our fence.

At home I've been working on getting our fence put up. I've got most of the poles in place for this section, concrete poured for a foundation, and the rest of the boards cut and ready to be sealed.

100 boards ready to be sealed.

Liese has been working inside painting, plastering, and canning (we'll write about her canning exploits another time). We took off radiators so that she could plaster and paint behind them. We are getting very close to being done.

A full weekend

2011-07-25T10:22:00.002+04:00

Saturday morning Kaharlyk's Cricket team had it's first game in 3 weeks. We played one of the best teams in the league and got soundly beaten. I think everybody on our team had a bad day. Liese, Josie Sprague and Christy Claycamp came to watch which might have jinxed us. But we did get to eat really good Indian food (which is pretty much the reason I'm playing cricket), the weather was perfect, and the field actually had grass on it which made playing a lot more enjoyable.

After the cricket game I went and bought 22 pounds of meat for a men's BBQ. We've been meeting once a month to study what it means to be a disciple of Christ and we decided it was time to do another BBQ. There is an old granite quarry about 20 miles from Kaharlyk and it has the best water for swimming in our region so we drove out there and grilled shashlyk, swam, and hung out, sang some praise songs together, and prayed. We invited a church from the city of Rokitne to join us and we had about 30 guys in all.

Motivations for missions and ministry

2011-07-21T18:20:00.000+04:00

I've been studying I Thessalonians for the bible study at the rehab center and I remembered that the last time I studied through it I noticed that it paints a very clear picture of how the apostle Paul thought about missions.

In chapter 2 Paul writes about the struggle that it was to preach the gospel in that area and yet how in everything they did they sought to serve God and not simply please man. Then in v. 8 he writes that his group had so grown to love the people that they were teaching the gospel that they were ready to give them not just the gospel but their very selves. Throughout the whole epistle over and over Paul writes about how important these people are to him.

Often we look at the epistles to Timothy and Titus to learn about church planting, about raising up leaders. We look to the book of Acts as a model for going around preaching the gospel. But we rarely look at I Thessalonians as a ministry model. Yet here Paul talks the most about how he actually lived among the people he was serving. Here Paul writes the reason he was willing to stay and preach in the midst of suffering. That reason is not simply that he is compelled to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world but because those very people whom he is serving have become so dear to him that he is ready to give his own life for them.

That is the motivation and the sustenance of missions. Not simply a response to a need for churches, or for the gospel to be spread but loving people so much that one is ready to give one's life along with the gospel for their sake.

Rehabilitation Center

2011-07-19T13:44:00.000+04:00

Saturday afternoon Wayne and I went out to Sloboda for a birthday BBQ at the rehab center. We got there to find we were a bit over dressed.

A bunch of guys who finished the rehab program a couple years ago came out for the event. I enjoyed catching up on what has been going on in their lives and was really encouraged to see them strong in their faith, serving God, and employed.

As we sat around the table eating shashlyk someone started asking what people's goals and dreams in life are. Some who were newer to the program said very simple things like having a stable life, being able to work and buy a car. But the majority of the guys there said their dreams were to be able to serve recovering addicts in various ways. A couple guys are starting a new branch off the main rehab center in Kiev, a couple are going to join a group starting a center in Crimea. A few guys are looking for a steady job that allows them to continue to serve in various rehab centers. Some want to start a business that will provide jobs for people leaving rehab. Some want to go to seminary or bible college to grow in their knowledge of the bible so they can more effectively serve.

I was really encouraged to see a half a dozen men who had come through the rehab center in Sloboda with vision, passion, and commitment to serving God. And the BBQ was great.

Global Mission Mondays: Tunisia

2011-07-18T19:07:00.001+04:00

It has been a few weeks since we've done Global Mission Monday, but we are back today and at our prayer meeting tonight we will be praying for Tunisia.

Tunisia is a country on the northern most part of Africa with a population of about 10 million people. The south of Tunisia lies in the Sahara desert while the coastal areas are fertile.

Tunisia became an independent country in 1956 after being ruled by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Ottoman Empire, and The French. From 1987-2011 Tunisia was ruled by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali whose rule stifled the economy and was the source of widespread corruption. In December 2010 protests over government corruption began which forced the President to resign and flee the country and sparked revolutions in many Arab countries.

98% of modern Tunisians are Arab-Berber, about 1% are Berbers, and 1% European.

The constitution makes Islam is the state religion and gives significant religious freedoms. The majority of Tunisia's population (around 98%) are Muslims, while about 1% follow Christianity and the remaining 1% adhere to Judaism or other religions. The Christian community of around 25,000 is mainly Catholic (22,000) with a small number of Protestants.

[information from wikipedia and the joshua project]

Thoughts on being gone

2011-07-10T16:31:00.000+04:00

I left home in the year 2000 to study at bible college in Austria and from there I moved to Ukraine. I was following God’s call and leaving family and friends behind, though not easy, was not the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

Now it has been more than 10 years since I left my life on the Central Coast of California. My life has changed, I speak and think in a new language. I am part of a new culture that influences the way I think and talk. But I don’t notice these changes, they are just a part of me.

What I do notice is the changes in my family and friends that I left. After being gone for about 5 years I noticed that lots of my friends were having kids. Their lives had changed and I was not a part of that change. But 5 years ago I was barely connected to the internet, didn’t have skype, and didn’t have facebook. My friends’ lives were far away and I didn’t see them.

But times have changed. Skype now connects me with my family almost every week and I get to see my nieces grow up and they know me because of skype. Facebook connects me with my friends and I get to see their kids, their lives, how things have changed and how they’ve grown.

It is great to have these digital means to connect but lately I’ve been realizing that 10 years is a long time to be gone. People that I was really good friends with have kids that I don’t know. Their lives have changed and I am not there to change with them. When there was nothing to connect us I didn’t think about it very often, but now I see pictures on facebook and read tweets and realize that I am not a part of my friends lives anymore. That is a sad thing to realize. It is also something that most people don’t say about being on the mission field.

You hear things about leaving family and how Jesus said if we leave our family we’ll get more family in this world and the next, but nobody really talks about how that happens over 10+ years of living on a different continent. Family is always there and is stable in a way that only a family can be. Friendships are different though, they change in a way family never does.   Now that social networking can give us a window into what we have left behind we have the loss of those close friendships brought into our view anytime someone posts a picture of a group of people that used to include us but now doesn’t.

Maybe everyone doesn’t experience this, or at least not in the way I do, but I’m learning that it is part of what it means to leave one place and live in another following the calling of God. Friends’ lives move on without you.   It is the natural result of being gone. For all the good that social networking does to help us stay connected to friends and family it also is a window into the lives of my friends and a reminder that I’m not the part of their lives that I once was.

Our Garden

2011-07-04T17:02:00.001+04:00

Now that we've had some rain and our garden is really growing I thought I'd take some pictures. This year we planted 3 kinds of tomatoes, jalapenos, red and yellow bell peppers, spicy peppers (I don't know what their real name is), cucumbers, lettuce, beets, spinach, arugula, cilantro, basil, and dill.

We've already harvested all the spinach and arugula. The cucumbers are starting to get ripe this week. There are lots of green tomatoes so it looks like we'll have a good tomato year.

Having a garden gives us fresh vegetables that are often hard to find in Kaharlyk (like spinach and cilantro) and Liese cans and pickles the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers which saves us a lot of money in the winter time when we would have to buy them canned.

Spring 2011 Newsletter

2011-06-27T16:32:00.000+04:00

Global Mission Mondays: Libya

2011-06-27T16:28:00.000+04:00

Tonight at our prayer meeting we will be praying for the country of Libya which is in the midst of civil war.

Libya is a predominantly desert country. Up to 90% of the land area is covered in desert. It is a very large country with very small populations that is concentrated narrowly along the coast. About 88% of the population is urban, mostly concentrated in the three largest cities, Tripoli , Benghazi and Misrata. Libya has a population of about 6.5 million, around half of whom are under the age of 15.

The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which constitute practically all export earnings and about one-quarter of gross domestic product (GDP). It has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production.

The World Bank defines Libya as an 'Upper Middle Income Economy', along with only seven other African countries. In the early 1980s, Libya was one of the wealthiest countries in the world; its GDP per capita was higher than that of developed countries such as Italy and Singapore.

Native Libyans are primarily Arab or a mixture of Arab and Berber ethnicities

By far the predominant religion in Libya is Islam with 97% of the population Coptic Orthodox Christianity, is the largest and most historical Christian denomination in Libya. There are over 60,000 Egyptian Copts in Libya, as they comprise over 1% of the population.

The Joshua Project says

“The Libyan Arabs are one of the most unreached people groups in the world. No form of evangelism or missions work is allowed in Libya. Congregations of expatriots are able to meet. However, they are closely monitored, and a Libyan would not be able to attend for fear of being watched, betrayed, imprisoned, or even killed. There is also a limit of one church, per foreign denomination, per city.”

Evening for Senior Citizens

2011-06-23T20:02:00.001+04:00

Last night was our church's monthly evening for senior citizens. We had a pretty good turn out, around 35 people some of whom came for the first time. Liese headed up the meal preparation which was pasta and meatballs with greek salad on the side.

Here are a few snapshots of the evening I took on my phone as I ran around helping get everything set up:

The ladies in the kitchen chopping veggies.

Enjoying the evening's entertainment, a song performed by some girls in our church and a slideshow of photos taken over the last year.

Global Mission Mondays: Chad

2011-06-20T11:29:00.000+04:00

This week our church will be praying for the country of Chad.

Chad is one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world; most inhabitants live in poverty as subsistence herders and farmers. The United Nations' Human Development Index ranks Chad as the seventh poorest country in the world, with 80% of the population living below the poverty line.

Chad was ruled by France until 1960 and from 1965-1900 was in a nearly constant state of civil. Chad remains plagued by political violence and recurrent attempted coups d'état. Recently, the Darfur crisis in Sudan has spilt over the border and destabilised the nation, with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees living in and around camps in eastern Chad. Chad hosts over 280,000 refugees from the Sudan's Darfur region, over 55,000 from the Central African Republic, as well as over 170,000 internally displaced persons.

The population is about 10 million; 25.8% live in urban areas and 74.8% in rural ones. The country's population is young: an estimated 47.3% is under 15 and the life expectancy is 47 years.

To give an idea of the poverty level of Chad there are only 14,000 fixed telephone lines in all of Chad and only 1.5% of the national population is covered by the state electrical company.

Chad has more than 200 distinct ethnic groups from the Arab Nomads in the north to the sedentary Sara in the south. About 54% of Chadians are Muslim, 20% Roman Catholic, 14% Protestant, 10% animist, and 3% atheist. Muslims are largely concentrated in northern and eastern Chad, and animists and Christians live primarily in southern Chad.

Our week

2011-06-18T14:12:00.000+04:00

I haven't managed to blog recently, so I'll just give a run down and some pictures of some of the things we've been up to this week.

We had Wednesday night home group at our house this week, and decided since the weather was nice to have it in our yard. Danny went out to the rehab center to lead a bible study on Thursday.

Liese is helping her friend Tanya do some plaster work, she is getting pretty good at plastering.

I worked on our front door overhang/pergola and got it pretty much finished. I haven't decided if I'm going to put a finish coat of lacquer or something on the wood.

Liese is going to plant a grape vine to grow up the back and we'll put a bench under it.

We are starting to gather fruit and Liese is making jams. We had a small strawberry yield this year because there hasn't been much rain. The water table has dropped quite a bit and we can tell as our well goes dry if we leave the water on too long. But we are getting lots of cherries, both the black and white varieties. We'll get sour cherries in another month or so.

We've been plastering the little room that I use for a study and once that is done it will be the end of plaster work in our remodel. It is nice to see light at the end of the tunnel. The next project is to make a fence out of these boards:

Global Mission Mondays: Sudan

2011-06-13T17:13:00.000+04:00

This week our church will be praying for the country of Sudan. So much is going on in Sudan and so much has happened over the last two decades that it is difficult to sum up anything about the country that would help us to pray for them.

This quote sheds some light on the situation:

"Sudan's independent history has been dominated by chronic, exceptionally cruel warfare that has starkly divided the country on racial, religious, and regional grounds; displaced an estimated four million people (of a total estimated population of thirty-two million); and killed an estimated two million people." J. Stephen Morrison

Sudan is officially a federal presidential representative democratic republic but the politics of Sudan are considered by the international community to take place within an authoritarian dictatorship.

From 1955-2005 two civil wars were fought in Sudan the first from 1944-172, the second from 1983-2005. In 1989, colonel Omar al-Bashir led a group of army officers in ousting the unstable government in a bloodless military coup. Under al-Bashir's leadership, the new military government suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the second civil war.

Sudan has 597 ethnicities that speak over 400 different languages and dialects split into two major ethnic groups: Sudanese Arabs of the largely Muslim Northern Sudan versus the largely Christian and animist Nilote Southern Sudan of the south.

An estimated 70% of the population adheres to Islam, while the remainder of the population follows either animist and indigenous beliefs (25%) or Christianity (5%).

Recently south Sudan is rated as one of the poorest place in the world. People are still dying of hunger, children are dying of malnutrition. Starvation was responsible for more than half of the 2.5 million people who died during the civil war. South Sudan largely lacks basic sanitation, clean water, clinics, hospitals and other essential infrastructure. NGOs are still feeding more than half of the population there.

The Darfur Conflict is an ongoing guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Arabs. The rebels accused the central government of neglecting the Darfur region economically. Both the government and the rebels have been accused of atrocities in this war, although most of the blame has fallen on Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. According to declarations by the U.S. government, these militias have been engaging in genocide; the fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad.

Colin Powell termed the Darfur conflict a genocide, claiming it as the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. So far, over 2.5 million civilians have been displaced and the death toll is variously estimated from 200,000 to 400,000 killed.

Men's Monthly Bible Study

2011-06-06T16:09:00.000+04:00

We've been having a monthly men's meeting at our church for the last few months. We want the men to be meeting together regularly and we want to raise the bar for them in their spiritual lives.

We've been talking about what it means to be a disciple of Christ, specifically the three things that Jesus said in the gospel of John that are the marks of a disciple: 1) abides in Jesus' words, 2) loves other believers, 3) bears much fruit.

Last night we got together and had a BBQ before the bible study. I cooked the meat (shashlyk) with some help from Vladik (who is 11 years old, but we let him come and pretend to be a man because we figure it is better than never growing up) who is learning how to BBQ Ukraine style (with few American things thrown in).

After dinner I taught about about abiding in the words of Jesus and the natural outworking of those words in our lives being that we pass on what we have learned to others. A disciple who abides in Christ's words cares about those around him and communicates Christ's word to them to help them know Christ more.

Vladik helping BBQ shashlyk

dishing up the food in the backyard at our church


getting ready for the bible study

Global Mission Mondays: Egypt

2011-06-06T11:31:00.001+04:00

This week our church will be praying for Egypt.

Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the third most populous on the African continent, at about 80 million. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. In income distribution, an estimated 35 to 40% of Egypt's population earn less than the equivalent of $2 a day, while at the high end 2-3% may be termed rich.

Egypt is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country with Islam as its state religion. There is a significant Christian minority in Egypt, who make up between 5% and 18% of the population. Over 90% of Egyptian Christians belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Church.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life ranks Egypt as the fifth worst country in the world for religious freedom. The Pew Forum also ranks Egypt among the 12 worst countries in the world in terms of religious violence against religious minorities and in terms of social hostilities against Christians. Coptic Christians are minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and are being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion.

Since Mubarak took office in 1981, more than 1,500 violent attacks against Copts left thousands of Christians killed and injured. After the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, violent incidents have continued. Numerous cases of anti-Christian violence by extremist groups have gone unpunished. On May 7th, 2011, a Church was burnt down in Cairo.

[information via wikipedia]

In Lumine Media video

2011-06-01T11:44:00.000+04:00

Our friends at Halle Project put this video together for In Lumine Media.

If you want to know why we are involved in book publishing in Ukraine this video explains it all.

The Elisha Foundation comes to town

2011-05-19T15:33:00.001+04:00

Over the past few days Justin and Tamara Reimer, the founders of The Elisha Foundation, visited us. In their words "The Elisha Foundation was founded to provide refreshment and encouragement to families caring for people with special needs. Through our programs we seek to provide access to resource professionals, educational specialists and other valuable resources."

I met Justin at the Desiring God National Conference last October and as we talked about our various ministries we both realized that Ukraine was in need of a ministry like the Elisha Foundation. All the pieces fell into place and last Wednesday they arrived in Ukraine to see what ministry needs and opportunities are here as well as to get to know us better.

Justin sharing with our church and Olya translating

On Thursday night we held a special evening at our church where Justin shared a biblical perspective on disabilities and practical ways that we as a church can serve families with special needs children. Our church has been reaching out to special needs children and their families in our community for several years now and they had tons of questions which Justin and Tamara were able to help with. It was a very informative time and a huge blessing to us.

After spending a few days with us in Kaharlyk the Reimers went up to Chernigov and were able to visit an orphanage, a mental hospital, and a center for children with special needs as well as share with Christian Bible Church in Chernigov.

On Monday we all met with Jim and Marianna Peipon of Ukraine Medical Outreach in Kiev to talk about the state of care in Ukraine for children with special needs.

In Ukraine there are two huge stigmas for any family with a special needs child: the stigma that comes from the Soviet State declaring that there were no special needs children, that all children were strong and physically able, and the stigma that comes from teachings in the church that disabilities are God's punishment for sin or a curse.

Due to the Soviet Union's stance on disability there are very few resources available for children with disabilities or special needs although things are beginning to change. Though in our city there is almost nothing available to help children and their families in some larger cities there are fully equipped medical centers that offer free therapy and treatment for children. Still the majority of Ukrainians don't have access to these services or programs.

Some of the ministry possibilities that we talked about are:

- Hosting family retreats for families with children with special needs.
- Training churches in how to minister to these families.
- Bringing teams of various therapists to work with children in orphanages.

We are excited about ministering together with The Elisha Foundation and reaching out to children that are largely shunned or mocked by society and their families who often live in guilt and shame.

Spring flowers in our yard

2011-05-17T09:24:00.000+04:00

Global Mission Mondays: Turkey

2011-05-16T12:40:00.000+04:00

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

Turkey has a population of 73.7 million people of whom more than 97% are Muslim. There are about 120,000 people who are Christians, mainly Orthodox and Catholic.

Turkey has the world's 15th largest GDP-PPP , 17th largest Nominal GDP, and close ties to both Europe and the Middle East.

Over the last several years there have been several attacks against Christians in Turkey even though Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion and the Turkish Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience.

Victory Day!

2011-05-09T18:31:00.000+04:00

Today is Victory Day in Ukraine (and the rest of the former Soviet Union) the day when Ukraine celebrates victory over the Nazi aggressors. There was a big ceremony in the central park at the war memorial and I drove down there at about 8:30am because in previous years I'd been late and I didn't want to miss it. Turns out it started at 9am and I had to leave by 9 so I missed it anyway. But I took some pictures of what was going on.

People starting to gather, lots of kids with flowers to place at the memorials in the park.

A group of ladies dressed in traditional Ukrainian costume were ready to perform in front of the memorial. They lit the "eternal flame" for the occasion.

School kids arriving, they look like they are going to perform something. Why else would they have those huge bows in their hair?

This old guy was sitting in what looked like seats reserved for veterans. The list behind him is a list of all the people from the Kaharlyk region who died in the war.

Global Missions Monday: Israel

2011-05-09T17:58:00.001+04:00

Tonight at our prayer meeting we will be praying for the country of Israel. I have gathered some facts to show a little bit about the country of Israel, however with the ongoing conflicts in the region it is difficult to state what life is like in Israel in one short blog post.

I have noticed in some Christian circles that people pray for peace in Israel linking the current political conflicts with Psalm 122: 6 ("Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you!"). When Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday he wept because Jerusalem did not know "on this day the things that make for peace!" (Luke 19:42). The peace that Jesus was came to bring, and the peace that we should be praying for is not rooted in political stability but in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

We will be praying for political stability in Israel, because of the fear, danger, and suffering that come from political instability. But we will also be praying that the people of Israel find peace in Jesus Christ.

Now here are some facts about Israel to give a very small picture of how this country needs God's salvation:

Israel's population is about 7.7 million people - 5.8 million Jewish and the rest are mostly Arabs.

Israel ranks highest among Middle Eastern countries on the UN Human Development Index, and it has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Israel is considered one of the most advanced countries in Southwest Asia in economic and industrial development. In 2010 Israel was also ranked as the worldwide leader in its supply of skilled manpower.

Since the Gulf War in 1991, when Israel was attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles, all homes in Israel are required to have a reinforced security room impermeable to chemical and biological substances.

Despite limited natural resources, intensive development of the agricultural and industrial sectors over the past decades has made Israel largely self-sufficient in food production, apart from grains and beef.

The religious affiliation of Israeli Jews varies widely: A Social Survey for those over the age of 20 indicates that 55% say they are "traditional," while 20% consider themselves "secular Jews," 17% define themselves as "Religious Zionists"; 8% define themselves as "Haredi Jews."

Making up 16% of the population, Muslims constitute Israel's largest religious minority. About 2% of the population are Christian and 1.5% are Druze. The Christian population primarily comprises Arab Christians, but also includes post-Soviet immigrants and the Foreign Labourers of multi-national origins and followers of Messianic Judaism, considered by most Christians and Jews to be a form of Christianity.

[information from wikipedia, scripture verses from the ESV]

Great study group resource from In Lumine Media

2011-04-29T10:09:00.001+04:00

This week In Lumine Media posted a pdf of Theological Clarity by Scott Thomas on their site. Theological Clarity is a work book written for studying Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem (which In Lumine published in Russian in 2009).

Theological Clarity is a great resource for study groups to use to go through the 20 major Christian doctrines that Grudem wrote about in Christian Beliefs. It is a free download from In Lumine's site and soon In Lumine will print the workbooks to be given away with bulk purchases of Christian Beliefs.

I'm excited to have something that we can give away for free that will help people study what the bible teaches.

Bible Study at the Rehab center

2011-04-28T23:29:00.000+04:00

Today was the first time in a couple weeks that I've been able to drive out to Sloboda for the weekly bible study at the rehabilitation center there. We finished our study through the letter to the Ephesians and it turned out that everyone who is at the rehab center now wasn't there when we started studying Ephesians in January. It is a whole new group of guys and they are quickly learning to have fun studying the bible inductively.

After the bible study we had tea and a special cake that they made for my birthday. Tea and cake with a bunch of former drug addicts, totally normal in Ukraine.

So, thirty. Ok.

2011-04-27T22:55:00.000+04:00

My introduction into my 30's was kind of fitting and anticlimactic. I got up early to go meet a guy about purchasing a couple cubic meters worth of boards for our fence (only to have him not sell them to me because I didn't have a truck with me right then). Then a friend and his father-in-law came over and we tore down our old fence and started installing a new corrugated metal fence.

Liese meanwhile went and bought me a surprise birthday present (which is pretty hard to do because she can't keep secrets from me).

The evening was our church's monthly Senior Citizen's evening so Liese went to church to help cook, but then found out that the city water was turned off so some of the ladies came back to our place to peel and wash potatoes.

The fence installation took longer than I expected so I was late to the Senior's Evening but there was lots of helpers and the evening went pretty well. Pastor Wayne talked a bit about the meaning of Easter and one of the newcomers repented. As we were cleaning up the cooks surprised me by bringing out a cake with sparklers (which surprised them by going out by the time they barely got through the first "happy...").

Spring is here!

2011-04-26T13:59:00.001+04:00

Global Mission Mondays: Lebanon

2011-04-25T19:33:00.001+04:00

Tonight we will be praying for the country of Lebanon.

Lebanon has a population of about 4.2 million people 59% of which are Muslim and 39% of which are Christians. Most of the Christians are either Orthodox or Catholic. The percentage of Christians is dropping due to emigration. Lebanon has the most religiously diverse society in the Middle East.

There are over 350,000 refugees in Lebanon from Iraq and Palestine. About 75% of the population of Lebanon have directly suffered from the internal strife and wars that have been going on for the last 50 years.

Easter 2011 at CC Kaharlyk

2011-04-25T10:36:00.000+04:00

Global Mission Mondays: Jordan

2011-04-18T18:57:00.000+04:00

Tonight we will be praying for the country of Jordan. Here are some facts (mostly gleaned from wikipedia, but I did check the sources) about Jordan to help us know how to pray.

Jordan is classified as a country of "high human development", it has been classified as an emerging market with a free market economy and has more Free Trade Agreements than any other country in the region. Due to a reliable police force and many years of a stable government Jordan is one of the safest countries in the world.

Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with representative government. Jordan's state religion is Islam and the Constitution provides for the freedom to practice one's religion in accordance with the customs in the Kingdom, unless they violate public order or morality. The Government bans conversion from Islam and efforts to proselytize Muslims. While proselytizing to Christians may not be banned, it is equally not favored and very hampered with bureaucratic red tape that renders it near impossible to legalize.

Out of a population of about 6.5 million approximately 92% are Muslim by religion. Christians made up 30% of the Jordanian population in 1950 but that number is currently at about 6% due to emigration and low birthrates among Christians. Indigenous Jordanians of the Christians faith, are, like their counterpart indigenous Jordanians of the Muslim faith, an Arab people in language, culture and identity. Christians are a religious minority both among the Arab and non-Arab segment. Christians of all ethnic backgrounds permanently residing in Jordan form approximately 6% of the population and are allocated respective seats in parliament. The majority of Christians in Jordan are part of the Orthodox Church.

Less than half of Jordanians regularly attend religious services the lowest rate in the Arab countries.

Jordan is a transit point and destination for human trafficking of women for the purpose of domestic work or employment in the kingdom's nightlife scene. Women mainly from Eastern Europe and North Africa are trafficked to Jordan each year to work as prostitutes in nightclubs and bars across the country. While there has been some improvement in combating human trafficking, Jordan remains a Tier 2 country for loopholes in legislation and lack of protection of human trafficking victims.

Missions exists because worship doesn’t

2011-04-16T15:58:00.000+04:00

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God.”

John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad!

Global Mission Mondays: Yemen

2011-04-11T19:02:00.001+04:00

Tonight at our church's prayer meeting we will be praying for the country of Yemen. Here is some information about Yemen to help us see what the country's needs are:

Yemen has a population of approximately 24 million. It is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government.

Yemen is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the Arab World, with a formal 65% employment rate, dwindling natural resources, a young population and increasing population growth. Rampant corruption is a prime obstacle to development in the country, limiting local reinvestments and driving away regional and international capital.

Since 2004, a civil war is being fought in Northern Yemen between Yemeni forces and Shiite Houthi rebels.

Yemen has one of the world's highest birth rates; the average Yemeni woman bears six children. Although this is similar to the rate in Somalia to the south, it is roughly twice as high as that of Saudi Arabia and nearly three times as high as those in the more modernized Persian Gulf states. Yemen's population is increasing by 700,000 every year.

According to the World Bank, the number of doctors in Yemen rose by an average of more than 7% between 1995 and 2000, but as of 2004 there were still only three doctors per 10,000 persons.

Virtually all citizens of Yemen are Muslims and the constitution declares that Islam is the state religion. There are also approximately 3,000 Christians most of whom are refugees or temporary foreign residents. Muslims and followers of religious groups other than Islam are free to worship according to their beliefs, but the Government prohibits conversion from Islam and the proselytization of Muslims.

Christian missionaries and nongovernmental organizations affiliated with missionary groups operate in the country. Most of these groups restrict their activities to the provision of medical services while others were employed in teaching and social services.

There are ongoing protests against the government in Yemen. The protests were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify the constitution of Yemen. The protestors' demands then escalated to calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Police have used live ammunition to disperse crowds and several people have been killed since the protests began in January.

[information from wikipedia]

More In Lumine news

2011-04-06T16:50:00.000+04:00

Thanks to the wonder of the internets we had a remote In Lumine staff meeting this morning. I usually take a few notes on a small piece of paper during our meetings but today I filled up 3.

Here is what is new with In Lumine:

:: We just got the rights to do a Ukrainian language edition of the Jesus Storybook Bible (we are working right now on the Russian edition). For this edition we are looking for ministries that work with orphans or at risk children in Ukraine to partner with us so we can get them bibles at cost. If you are interested in working with us please e-mail us at info@inlumine.org and we'll send you our project brochure.

:: We have the rights to publish a Russian language edition of Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin.

:: We are starting the translation of A Gospel Centered Life from World Harvest Mission.

:: We are nearly finished with the Russian edition of Porn-Again Christian by Mark Driscoll which we will begin distributing online soon.

Thoughts from Keller's Generous Justice

2011-04-05T15:49:00.015+04:00

Liese and I have been reading Generous Justice by Tim Keller together. It is an amazing book that I would recommend to everyone.

As we read through it one thing that kept coming to my attention was that Keller often used the word "immigrant" as he wrote about texts from the old testament that spoke of hospitality to foreigners and helping the strangers in society. Immigration (especially the illegal kind) is a pretty big topic these days which I think was Keller's intention in using that word. The idea stood out to me in what Keller was saying was that God identified with not only the poor and oppressed but with the stranger, the immigrant. To seek justice for the poor meant to seek justice for those marginalized in society and that includes immigrants (legal or otherwise). As I was reading I started thinking about 3 things:

1) I think the conservative church in America that is holding up the law and being an active voice for immigration reform/anti-immigration laws is missing a huge opportunity to display God's heart for strangers and foreigners by focusing on laws instead of people. It seems that the Church should be an active force for change in the social structures that bring in illegal immigrants and keep them poor and illegal.

2) There are very few immigrants in our city, and yet that doesn't mean that our church doesn't need to learn how to seek their good. Many immigrants in Ukraine are from the central Asian states or India and Pakistan. They have darker skin, they stand out from the rest of society, and they are not welcomed or trusted as a rule. Keller's book has got me thinking about how our church should be thinking about racial relations and being a force for change in how immigrants in Ukraine are treated.

3) I've started playing cricket with a group of guys from our church. More people play cricket worldwide than play baseball because of places like India and Bangladesh where it is the national sport. What does this have to do with immigrants? Nearly all the immigrants to Ukraine from south Asia have come to Ukraine looking for a better life and they like to play cricket. They make up the teams we will be playing with this year. They are marginalized by Ukrainian society. Often there are such deep prejudices that many Ukrainian's don't realize their own racism. Cricket may be a good way to build relationships between Christians and minority immigrant groups in Ukraine which could then lead to Ukrainian Christians learning how to show better hospitality to the strangers in their midst.

Praying for our city

2011-04-05T14:08:00.002+04:00

This week I didn't post the usual "Global Missions Monday" because the first week of each month we choose one of the public works/utilities/government agencies of our city and throughout the month we pray for them. Last month we prayed for the gas company, and this month we we will be praying for the police force.

Ukraine ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and as a government agency with much direct power the police force is especially corrupt. If you've ever seen movies like Serpico you have some idea of the level of corruption, but it is even more pervasive and deeper than you'd think.

In Jeremiah 29:7 it says "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." God tells his people to pray for a city that does not know Him, that does not follow Him, that is evil and corrupt. So we are praying for our city. We are praying for those who have power and use it corruptly that God would save them, that God would change them, and that God would change the power structures in Ukraine.

In Lumine's newest book: Heaven

2011-03-30T12:14:00.001+04:00

In Lumine Media just received a shipment of 3,000 Russian language copies of Heaven by Randy Alcorn.

This book has been in the works for a long time and we are excited to finally have it in stock.

I did the artwork for the cover and I was a bit worried about how it would turn out as it was my first foray into design that didn't rely heavily on type as the main design element.

[photo thanks to Conor McNamee]

D.A. Carson on the whole council of God

2011-03-29T05:09:00.001+04:00

“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”

—The Apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20:27

I read this excerpt from Carson's essay “Challenges for the Twenty-first-century Pulpit” on Justin Taylor's blog. I often hear churches that tout verse by verse through books of the bible as declaring the whole council of God and I think that here Carson gives a balancing perspective on what that phrase actually means:

When Paul attests that this is what he proclaimed to the believers in Ephesus, the Ephesian elders to whom he makes this bold asseveration know full well that he had managed this remarkable feat in only two and a half years.

In other words, whatever else Paul did, he certainly did not manage to go through every verse of the Old Testament, line by line, with full-bore explanation. He simply did not have time.

What he must mean is that he taught the burden of the whole of God’s revelation, the balance of things, leaving nothing out that was of primary importance, never ducking the hard bits, helping believers to grasp the whole counsel of God that they themselves would become better equipped to read their Bibles intelligently, comprehensively. It embraced:
God’s purposes in the history of redemption (truths to be believed and a God to be worshiped),
an unpacking of human origin, fall, redemption, and destiny (a worldview that shapes all human understanding and a Savior without whom there is no hope),
the conduct expected of God’s people (commandments to be obeyed and wisdom to be pursued, both in our individual existence and in the community of the people of God), and
the pledges of transforming power both in this life and in the life to come (promises to be trusted and hope to be anticipated).

Global Mission Mondays: Oman

2011-03-28T15:28:00.001+04:00

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

Oman is a muslim country of 3.3 million people of whom more than 600,000 are guest workers. The skilled labor force in Oman is small and many of the larger industries depend on foreign workers. Omani citizens enjoy good living standards, but the future is uncertain due to Oman's limited oil reserves. Oman is one of the most developed and stable countries in its region.

Islam is the state religion and that Shari'a (Islamic law) is the source of legislation gatherings of a religious nature are not allowed in private homes or any other locations except government-approved houses of worship. Most citizens are Muslims. Non-Muslim religious communities individually constitute less than 5 percent of the population and include various groups of Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Baha'is, and Christians.

The Christian communities are centered in the major urban areas and include Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and various Protestant congregations. These groups are organized mainly along linguistic and ethnic lines. More than fifty different Christian groups, fellowships, and assemblies are active in the Muscat metropolitan area, formed by migrant workers from Southeast Asia, although there are small communities of ethnic Indian Hindus and Christians that have been naturalized. Many of the non-Muslims in Oman are due to the historical and cultural influence of India.

Citizens who convert from Islam to another faith, however, generally face problems under Oman's law which specifically prohibits a father who leaves the Islamic faith from retaining paternal rights over his children. The law does not prohibit proselytizing, but the government will stop individuals or groups from engaging in proselytizing if it receives complaints.

The head of state and of the government is the hereditary sultān. Oman has been ruled by the Al Bu Sa'idi dynasty since 1744.

For more information see The Voice of the Martyrs and Wikipedia's articles

The Halle Project comes to town

2011-03-27T18:18:00.000+04:00

Last week Tyler Wohlford, Ben Potter, and Drew Barefoot from the Halle Project came out to Kaharlyk to shoot some videos for us and the church here. Cameron Ingalls came to offer his amazing portrait skills to missionaries.

I had a great time getting to know these guys, showing them around Kaharlyk, talking about life in Ukraine and our ministry, shooting video. I realized how much I've gotten used to the idiosyncrasies of life in Kaharlyk when I saw them stop and take pictures of Soviet vans, tractors parked in a parking space, mustaches, etc. We had fun and I'm excited about the videos that they will put together.

Cameron took some awesome photos of Liese and me. Check out his blog for a great post about his trip here.

Thanks Cameron, Ben, Tyler and Drew!

Seniors' Evening

2011-03-23T21:28:00.001+03:00

We just got home from our monthly evening for Senior Citizens at CC Kaharlyk. We had about 40 seniors come and what seemed like the same amount of helpers.

Each month we vary the entertainment somewhat and this month we had and evening of songs. So we had everyone from a trio of fourth grade girls to a quartet of "well advanced in years" ladies singing folk songs, as well as performances from various musicians in our church.

Liese and Natasha cooked up a meal in accordance with the Lenten fast that is going on in Ukraine right now. We aren't sure how many people actually keep the fast, but we try to stick to it anyway just in case.

Global Mission Mondays: United Arab Emirates

2011-03-21T09:55:00.000+03:00

Tonight at our prayer meeting we will be praying for the people of the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) consists of seven states, termed emirates (because they are ruled by emirs). The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the country's center of political, industrial and cultural activities.

The form of government used in UAE is a constitutional monarchy with a presidential system of government. When contrasted with other Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia for instance, the UAE has comparatively very liberal laws. in addition to the Civil Courts, each of the seven emirates maintains a parallel system of Sharia Courts which are organised and supervised locally.

Its oil reserves are ranked as the world's sixth-largest and the UAE possesses one of the most-developed economies in West Asia.

In 2010, the UAE's population was estimated at 4.9 million of which just under 20% were UAE nationals or Emiratis, while the majority of the population were expatriates. 23% of the population are non-Emirati Arabs and Iranians and the majority of the population, about 50%, is from South Asia.

The population of the UAE has a skewed sex distribution consisting of more than twice as many males as females. About 88% of the population of the United Arab Emirates is urban.

Islam is largest and the official state religion of the UAE, though the government follows a policy of tolerance toward other religions and rarely interferes in the activities of non-Muslims. However, it is illegal in the UAE to spread the ideas of any religion apart from Islam through any form of media as it is considered a form of proselytizing. There are approximately 31 registered churches throughout the country. 76% of the total population are Muslim, 9% Christian, and 15% other (mainly Hindu and Buddhist).

Global Missions Monday: Bahrain

2011-03-14T18:19:00.000+03:00

This week our church will be praying for the country of Bahrain.

Bahrain is an archipelago of thirty-three islands in the Persian Gulf. It has the freest economy in the Middle East, and is tenth freest overall in the world. Unlike other countries in the region, its prosperity is not solely a reflection of the size of its oil wealth, but is also related to the creation of an indigenous middle class. The government is a constitutional monarchy.

In 2010, Bahrain's population grew to 1.2 million, out of which more than 54% were non-nationals. Though majority of the population is ethnically Arab, a sizable number of people from South Asia live in the country.

The official religion of Bahrain is Islam, which the majority of the population practices. However, due to an influx of immigrants and guest workers from non-Muslim countries, such as India, Philippines and Sri Lanka, the overall percentage of Muslims in the country has declined in recent years. According to the 2001 census, 81.2% of Bahrain's population was Muslim, 9% were Christian, and 9.8% practiced Hinduism and other religions.

While Islam is the main religion, Bahrainis have been known for their tolerance, and churches, Hindu temples, Sikh Gurdwara and a Jewish synagogue can be found alongside mosques. The country is home to several communities that have faced persecution elsewhere.

There are ongoing protests against the royal family right now that have resulted in the police killing protestors and the Saudi government sending troops to help break up the protests. The protests have been going for a month now.

[information from wikipedia]

Winter 2011 Newsletter

2011-03-12T17:07:00.000+03:00

Global Mission Mondays: Praying for our city

2011-03-07T16:08:00.000+03:00

Each month our church prays for a different government department, public utility, or other service provider in our city. Corruption is ingrained into every area of life in Ukraine and one of the ways that we as Christians are seeking justice is to pray for those with authority to change. We want to see the gospel spread into every level of our city so we are praying for public servants and those who work to keep our city running that their eyes would be open to the gospel.

This month we will be praying for the Gas Company. This year there are rumors (some pretty reliable) that the Gas Company in Ukraine is pumping air into the gas lines to thin the gas a little in order to build up their profit margins. This means everyone getting low quality gas which doesn't burn as well with the result of them needing more gas than in years past. For some this will mean that they fall into a higher bracket for yearly use and have to pay double the amount they paid last year to heat their homes.

So tonight at our weekly prayer meeting we are remembering Provers 11:1 "A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight" and praying the way that the Gas Company sells gas would be just. We are remembering Psalms 103:6 "The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed" and praying that God would work righteousness and justice for those who are trying to heat their homes and paying twice as much as they should. And we are remembering Matthew 5:44 "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" and we are praying for those who make decisions about how to sell gas that God would save them, change their hearts, and bless them with His life-changing grace and mercy.

This month we will be praying for our local gas company's director, office workers, welders, meter readers, emergency response teams, and accountants that God would bless them with His salvation.

Exciting In Lumine projects

2011-03-07T16:05:00.000+03:00

This year In Lumine is working on its biggest project yet: The Jesus Storybook Bible in Russian and Ukrainian. This full color illustrated children's bible goes through the bible showing how the whole bible is about Jesus and is one of the best children's bibles around.

Through a generous donation we have all the funding for the Russian edition. Our original goal was to print around 2,000 in Russian in order to get the ball rolling for a larger print run in Ukrainian but interest in this book has been so high that we are hoping to print about 10,000 instead.

For the Ukrainian edition our goal is to work with as many organizations as we can find that work with at risk children, orphans, and children who live in boarding schools to distribute as many bibles as we can at cost. With the interest we've had so far in the Russian edition we are aiming at printing about 20,000 to distribute at cost to organizations that will give the bibles away. This will depend on how many organizations are interested, but there is a possibility of printing twice that amount and of getting this bible to thousands and thousands of children throughout Ukraine. Contact us if you are interested in getting involved with this project!

Check out The Jesus Storybook Bible website for more information on the book and In Lumine's website for more information on In Lumine.

This year we are planning on also publishing A Praying Life by Paul Miller and Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin. A Praying life is probably the best book on prayer that I've ever read and I'm really excited about having it available in Russian. We are also working with the ministry SeeJesus.net to translate a study guide for A Praying Life that they have put together so that the book can be used by bible study groups, home groups, and book clubs to deepen the prayer life of the Church. Worship Matters is an awesome book on worship that we've been talking about publishing for a while as it would be a huge help for the Church in Ukraine and Russia.