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October 26, 2006
Hello Everyone!
Thank you so much all of you who prayed for our first Ukrainian
leadership conference that took place from the 11th to the 13th
of Oct. The Lord heard and answered your prayers for us and we are
truly thankful to Him and to you!
About fifty leaders from thirteen works in Ukraine attended as
did Jed Gourley from CC Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Pastor Bill Goodrich
from Horizon Indianapolis was the main speaker and Pastor Bill Mobley
from Naples, Florida also participated. The conference took place
at a Youth for Christ facility in Irpien just west of Kiev. The
first day was for the head pastors only and then we were joined
on the second and third day by the elders, deacons and various leaders
of the churches.
The time in the Word was powerful and timely as Bill shared with
us many precious and needful things from the scriptures, and from
his own ministry and life experience. The days were very full, but
no one seemed to mind as it was time in the Word, in fellowship
with each other and in the presence of the Lord. Our Saturday evening
meeting was over five hours long (it was the fourth meeting of the
day!) as we worshipped the Lord and prayed for each church. Even
after the meeting finally broke up at one in the morning some guys
kept going worshipping the Lord!
At a certain point in the Saturday meeting as I looked around I
realized that only a couple of the men in the room had been in any
Ukrainian Calvary Chapel ten years ago. I remembered at that time
Pastor George Markey talking about the possibility of doing a men’s
retreat but then we realized there were so few men in the couple
of Calvary Chapel’s that then existed it would not really
have been worthwhile. Yet here we were now ten years later in a
room with fifty leaders and missionaries representing fourteen churches
each with many men. I tried to think back, “Where had these
guys come from?” Then the Lord helped me to understand, they
had been prayed in! Every single man in that room whether missionary
or national was there as an answer to prayers that had been prayed
for the churches and for the work in Ukraine (or Kyrgyzstan) as
a whole. Our God is a God who is faithful to His promises and faithful
to answer prayer! To you who over the years have been part of the
work in Ukraine through your prayers, please know that God is answering
them in wonderful ways!
Here in Zap things are going well but it is an emotional time for
us as we prepare to leave the place that has been our home for the
last six years. The Thursday night meetings with the brothers who
will assume responsibility for the church as we go have been going
well. Please pray for Dima, Pasha, Misha and Petro. Pray for the
outpouring of God’s Spirit upon their lives, for wisdom, courage,
faith, and love in abundance. Please pray that the Lord would keep
them humble and yielded to His Will and protect and bless their
families. Please pray for the church that the Lord would bless the
teaching of His Word to the growth of the believers and the salvation
of the unsaved, that the church would be led forward and empowered
in all areas of church life and ministry by the Holy Spirit, and
that the love of God would be foremost in all things. Please pray
for the provision of the pastor that God has for this church whether
from among the brothers here or from outside.
We would ask your prayers for us as we pack up our lives here.
(I never realized I had so many books!) Please pray for God’s
Grace to cover us in the move. We will leave here on the 9th of
November by over-night train to Kiev and be there for the Sunday
service then travel the next day on a 24 hour train trip to Budapest
and then on to Vajta. Please pray for the children that they will
do well in all the traveling and not get sick. We always sort of
feel that if we can just stay healthy we can deal with everything
else!
Thank you for praying!
Much love in Jesus, John, Karen, Johnny and Esther!
