These are financial needs.
They have to do with our camps.
1. For our VBS Day Camp we need $750. We have no money raised for this, but are going forward on faith that we will have American Friends help us out.
2. For our Bible Camp we need $2,500. We have $4,000 pledged for this 2 week camp, but for we have never charged more than 300 Grievnas ($60) per person before, but right now we will have to ask for at least 500 Grievnas per person for this camp (projected cost is 1000 Grievnas - $200). The average income in Ukraine 750 Grievnas a month, so you can see how hard this is for a family do to do this, especially if they have more than 1 child to send. We are trying to take between 40 and 45 people to camp with us this year. Camp costs continue to spiral with our 17% inflation that we have right now in Ukraine.
If you will assist us with either of these needs, please email me and also let the Church in West Fayetteville know by calling Steve Jefferson (931-433-0189) as soon as possible. Thank you!!!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Journal for April 1-15, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
There are several things I am working at improving my discipline in: better eating for health and weight loss, daily walking for exercise, deeper and more consistent prayer life and personal study of the Word of God, always working on lesson study and sermon preparations ahead of time to take away all stress, better use of my time to touch more lives and daily communication with people through email, phone and in person. Whew! Now doing that every day, day in and day out is a good challenge! This is my life style, this is what I want and am working on. As Paul said, “I have not yet reached perfection, but I press on the upward call!” I went walking today to Ksusha’s pizza place where she works and had a SMALL pizza. I went there to eat and encourage her. Then I walked some more afterwards! I worked on my lesson for tonight’s devo. I fixed chocolate chip cookies before devo – I wasn’t going to eat any, but I did, but I didn’t eat any supper – does that count??? So pizza and chocolate chip cookies – I guess that is not eating to healthy today! We had 13 for devo tonight and that was good and a good time and fellowship afterwards!
Wednesday, April 02
I spent most of the morning trying to record a sermon to send out to churches requesting one. 3 times I did something wrong and the recording didn’t work! At least I got to practice the sermon a lot! Finally it worked. After lunch I worked on my English Club for tonight until 4:45pm. We had 8 for our English Club. Right now, 4 of those are also coming to our Bible Club, so already English Club is a success!
Thursday, April 3
I talked to my TN Elders this morning on the phone, working out some details about the future – at 5:30am my time. It’s ok – I was already up! There is some conflict – not the bad kind – about who is going to be working with the Orphanage in Svetlovodsk and so we didn’t go today, but Lord willing, we will next week. Again, I was blessed to spend some time with some of our group, but overall, a pretty quiet day.
Friday, April 4
I have been working, or I should say trying to work on some video and sound files and not having a great deal of success. I will try to get Artem to assist me with some of these things! I use the computer quiet a bit, but some things just seem to baffle me. I haven’t done my April Newsletter yet, because I am waiting to hear if the Dec. and Feb. newsletters have been – the physical paper ones – sent from TN. I feel like people don’t need to be receiving 3 newsletters from me all at once. We had a quiet fun night with just 6 of us here – but we did have a good time together!
Saturday, April 5
Bible Club was pretty much as usual. We had 5 in each of the 2 Bible Clubs. We had about 20 people in the Church Discussion time at the Church building today at 4. The Bryans and Gerganus’ are here for 3 weeks. They are such great people and it is so good to have them back with us!
Sunday, April 6
We had really good attendance today at services. Andrey, who does our song leading and translating was ill today, so Peter led the singing and Sasha older guy did the translating for Charles Bryan who preached a good sermon. To me the sermon was normal, but for Yulya – she said that it was great and just what she needed to hear! Everyone was so busy today, so we didn’t go to the Orphanage at Potoki. I finished up my sermon for tonight and then we had 15 at evening services, with 2 new ladies walking in to be with us. We celebrated Vika’s 15th birthday tonight and had a grand old time!
Monday, April 7
Personal study and prayer started my day. I spent some time working on this journal. I prepared for my Bible Study tonight with the Orphan family. Please pray for this family that they will come to faith and put their life and trust in Christ and become a part of His Church. It has been such a long study, I struggle what to teach and how to teach it to help them become obedient to Christ. I don’t understand why it is so hard for them. I spent some time with my brothers and sisters today helping them with personal things as well as some spiritual things. Ksusha, Olya and I went to the twins/Orphanage family tonight at 5:30 and I got home around 9. I do enjoy the family and we did have a good study, too.
Tuesday, April 8
I had a bad headache most of the first ½ of the day and it was hard to do anything, but then it lifted and went away – well mostly. I was preparing for the evening devo, when I got a text message from Yura asking if he could do the devo tonight. I said sure. We are in transition again. With Oksana leaving on Saturday, we are having to develop or find other translators to take her place in assisting me in my teaching in the village of Bugkivka. Everything has become increasingly more difficult and so we have had to do what we can well and keep on serving the Lord. Yura did a devo on what is the right church and are there Christians in all Churches? Wow – he really took me by surprise! He did it as question and answer/discussion. At first, I was really upset with him for doing such a devo, but I believe that it will turn out very good as this seems to something that has been buried and been on the minds of several of our young people and so we are going to study and share more about this now that it is out in the open. Afterwards, Yura and I talked for maybe an hour and made a lot of good progress. He didn’t mean to speak badly about the Church, but as so many do, wandered about all the other stronger believers in other Churches and what about them. So, it is an open door into deeper study into God’s Word. The last went home around 9:30 tonight. Oh yeah, we used the after devo time to say good bye to Oksana. It was a good time for her and us.
Wednesday, April 9
2 days in a row with a bad headache. I am doing a lot of study on future sermon preparations. This morning I also spent a lot of time in Bible study about last night’s devo and found 2 really good books in my library that have been a lot of help and have sent some emails off to people I know that translate brotherhood books into Russian and or Ukrainian to see if they have these 2 books or at least one of them. I ate lunch out today and shortly after I came back in, Serge came in. He is not a member of the Church, but we have studied off and on for the last 2 ½ years. He is my main translator for Tuesday and Sunday night. He faithfully translated last night without saying anything, but of course he was thinking. So he came about 12:45 and we talked and studied for almost 3 hours! And still have a lot to talk about! Then Gregory and his son, Sasha came over and we went to the church building to get them some new songbooks for the prison from the church building. The Library at the building was locked so we couldn’t get the books out, but made arrangement for later. I came back about 4:30 and quickly made plans and arrangements for our English Club tonight. 1 girl came and I did help her with some English and we had a nice talk and she left about 6:45. I then went out for a salad for supper and went for a walk – it is beautiful outside – about 68 today – with about mid 40’s in the morning. The trees are now all in bud and the bushes are really turning green! Some of the flowering trees are in bloom. I love spring!
Thursday, April 10
Good news! No headache today! Spent time getting ready for 2 classes today with crafts, etc. for the Orphanage in Svetlovodsk. Yulya, Olya and Natasha and I went. We were able to only have 2 classes today and not 4 because they had a concert program an hour after we got there. But we had a good study and then got home around 5 after taking the girls home.
Friday, April 11
Spring is here in full force. Today, I left my house at 6:30am to pick up Natasha and then Oksana and take her to Kiev for her trip to Germany. She leaves tomorrow, but had to be in Kiev today and with her luggage had no other way. After getting lost a bit in Kiev and terrible traffic, we got back to Kremenchuk about 4pm. Then Frisbee at 6 – we had 10 and a great time! But I did a lot of running and oh am I sore! Everyone came over here to eat sandwiches afterwards as they were all hungry! (10 hungry kids can really put the food away!) We had a good time with people leaving around 10. The heat in our city is distributed by the city and it was turned off today because we have had an earlier than normal warm spring – normally the 15th. So no more heat!
I heard of a terrible accident today. A drunken rich man, driving about 110 miles an hour in Kremenchuk at 1:30am hit 3 people walking and killed them all – terribly so. He will get off because he is rich and they are blaming the accident on the walkers because they were not walking in a cross walk!!! Can you believe it? Horrible!
Saturday, April 12
Bible Clubs today were good with 5 and 8 here. After the last one, several came over and went for a walk together. I am still very sore and almost ill from abnormal exercise for me and didn’t go.
Sunday, April 13
We had good attendance today and then our Tea or sort of Potluck afterwards. Also, afterwards I met with people in the church about helping with our VBS day camp. We had 6 ladies and 1 man and 2 of my students come. They will help a lot. We will do this for the first 2 weeks in June from 8 am to 4:30pm. Our 4 American guests the Braynt’s and Gerganus’ were our guests at evening services and Charles B. preached and LT helped with the communion service, too. We had 16 this evening. We went home around 8 but 5 came home with me and we watched the movie about the Twin Towers with Nicholus Cage in it, then I took all home, getting home around 11.
Monday, April 14
I am working on 2 studies right now to make into charts and teaching materials. One is how you come to be in the Church – become a Christian – from a more detailed look than normal and another is “Who is Jesus?” Also I went back to School #10 today and found out that we could get in to the school to teach and we will teach a 6th grade class on Fridays at 2pm. Then at 5pm I picked up Ksusha and Olya and we went to the twins home until about 8 to have tea with them and study the Bible.
Tuesday, April 15
I worked all morning on the Who is Jesus study and chart and finished it after lunch. I had a great walk outside in our spring weather and met one of Kelli’s neighbors and sort of chatted with her for awhile. I worked on my April Newsletter today and sent that out. I used the Who is Jesus study for my devo tonight – we had 14 with 2 new people! Alina came and said she really wanted to come more and it was such good news! We had such a blessed evening together and all left around 9:30.
There are several things I am working at improving my discipline in: better eating for health and weight loss, daily walking for exercise, deeper and more consistent prayer life and personal study of the Word of God, always working on lesson study and sermon preparations ahead of time to take away all stress, better use of my time to touch more lives and daily communication with people through email, phone and in person. Whew! Now doing that every day, day in and day out is a good challenge! This is my life style, this is what I want and am working on. As Paul said, “I have not yet reached perfection, but I press on the upward call!” I went walking today to Ksusha’s pizza place where she works and had a SMALL pizza. I went there to eat and encourage her. Then I walked some more afterwards! I worked on my lesson for tonight’s devo. I fixed chocolate chip cookies before devo – I wasn’t going to eat any, but I did, but I didn’t eat any supper – does that count??? So pizza and chocolate chip cookies – I guess that is not eating to healthy today! We had 13 for devo tonight and that was good and a good time and fellowship afterwards!
Wednesday, April 02
I spent most of the morning trying to record a sermon to send out to churches requesting one. 3 times I did something wrong and the recording didn’t work! At least I got to practice the sermon a lot! Finally it worked. After lunch I worked on my English Club for tonight until 4:45pm. We had 8 for our English Club. Right now, 4 of those are also coming to our Bible Club, so already English Club is a success!
Thursday, April 3
I talked to my TN Elders this morning on the phone, working out some details about the future – at 5:30am my time. It’s ok – I was already up! There is some conflict – not the bad kind – about who is going to be working with the Orphanage in Svetlovodsk and so we didn’t go today, but Lord willing, we will next week. Again, I was blessed to spend some time with some of our group, but overall, a pretty quiet day.
Friday, April 4
I have been working, or I should say trying to work on some video and sound files and not having a great deal of success. I will try to get Artem to assist me with some of these things! I use the computer quiet a bit, but some things just seem to baffle me. I haven’t done my April Newsletter yet, because I am waiting to hear if the Dec. and Feb. newsletters have been – the physical paper ones – sent from TN. I feel like people don’t need to be receiving 3 newsletters from me all at once. We had a quiet fun night with just 6 of us here – but we did have a good time together!
Saturday, April 5
Bible Club was pretty much as usual. We had 5 in each of the 2 Bible Clubs. We had about 20 people in the Church Discussion time at the Church building today at 4. The Bryans and Gerganus’ are here for 3 weeks. They are such great people and it is so good to have them back with us!
Sunday, April 6
We had really good attendance today at services. Andrey, who does our song leading and translating was ill today, so Peter led the singing and Sasha older guy did the translating for Charles Bryan who preached a good sermon. To me the sermon was normal, but for Yulya – she said that it was great and just what she needed to hear! Everyone was so busy today, so we didn’t go to the Orphanage at Potoki. I finished up my sermon for tonight and then we had 15 at evening services, with 2 new ladies walking in to be with us. We celebrated Vika’s 15th birthday tonight and had a grand old time!
Monday, April 7
Personal study and prayer started my day. I spent some time working on this journal. I prepared for my Bible Study tonight with the Orphan family. Please pray for this family that they will come to faith and put their life and trust in Christ and become a part of His Church. It has been such a long study, I struggle what to teach and how to teach it to help them become obedient to Christ. I don’t understand why it is so hard for them. I spent some time with my brothers and sisters today helping them with personal things as well as some spiritual things. Ksusha, Olya and I went to the twins/Orphanage family tonight at 5:30 and I got home around 9. I do enjoy the family and we did have a good study, too.
Tuesday, April 8
I had a bad headache most of the first ½ of the day and it was hard to do anything, but then it lifted and went away – well mostly. I was preparing for the evening devo, when I got a text message from Yura asking if he could do the devo tonight. I said sure. We are in transition again. With Oksana leaving on Saturday, we are having to develop or find other translators to take her place in assisting me in my teaching in the village of Bugkivka. Everything has become increasingly more difficult and so we have had to do what we can well and keep on serving the Lord. Yura did a devo on what is the right church and are there Christians in all Churches? Wow – he really took me by surprise! He did it as question and answer/discussion. At first, I was really upset with him for doing such a devo, but I believe that it will turn out very good as this seems to something that has been buried and been on the minds of several of our young people and so we are going to study and share more about this now that it is out in the open. Afterwards, Yura and I talked for maybe an hour and made a lot of good progress. He didn’t mean to speak badly about the Church, but as so many do, wandered about all the other stronger believers in other Churches and what about them. So, it is an open door into deeper study into God’s Word. The last went home around 9:30 tonight. Oh yeah, we used the after devo time to say good bye to Oksana. It was a good time for her and us.
Wednesday, April 9
2 days in a row with a bad headache. I am doing a lot of study on future sermon preparations. This morning I also spent a lot of time in Bible study about last night’s devo and found 2 really good books in my library that have been a lot of help and have sent some emails off to people I know that translate brotherhood books into Russian and or Ukrainian to see if they have these 2 books or at least one of them. I ate lunch out today and shortly after I came back in, Serge came in. He is not a member of the Church, but we have studied off and on for the last 2 ½ years. He is my main translator for Tuesday and Sunday night. He faithfully translated last night without saying anything, but of course he was thinking. So he came about 12:45 and we talked and studied for almost 3 hours! And still have a lot to talk about! Then Gregory and his son, Sasha came over and we went to the church building to get them some new songbooks for the prison from the church building. The Library at the building was locked so we couldn’t get the books out, but made arrangement for later. I came back about 4:30 and quickly made plans and arrangements for our English Club tonight. 1 girl came and I did help her with some English and we had a nice talk and she left about 6:45. I then went out for a salad for supper and went for a walk – it is beautiful outside – about 68 today – with about mid 40’s in the morning. The trees are now all in bud and the bushes are really turning green! Some of the flowering trees are in bloom. I love spring!
Thursday, April 10
Good news! No headache today! Spent time getting ready for 2 classes today with crafts, etc. for the Orphanage in Svetlovodsk. Yulya, Olya and Natasha and I went. We were able to only have 2 classes today and not 4 because they had a concert program an hour after we got there. But we had a good study and then got home around 5 after taking the girls home.
Friday, April 11
Spring is here in full force. Today, I left my house at 6:30am to pick up Natasha and then Oksana and take her to Kiev for her trip to Germany. She leaves tomorrow, but had to be in Kiev today and with her luggage had no other way. After getting lost a bit in Kiev and terrible traffic, we got back to Kremenchuk about 4pm. Then Frisbee at 6 – we had 10 and a great time! But I did a lot of running and oh am I sore! Everyone came over here to eat sandwiches afterwards as they were all hungry! (10 hungry kids can really put the food away!) We had a good time with people leaving around 10. The heat in our city is distributed by the city and it was turned off today because we have had an earlier than normal warm spring – normally the 15th. So no more heat!
I heard of a terrible accident today. A drunken rich man, driving about 110 miles an hour in Kremenchuk at 1:30am hit 3 people walking and killed them all – terribly so. He will get off because he is rich and they are blaming the accident on the walkers because they were not walking in a cross walk!!! Can you believe it? Horrible!
Saturday, April 12
Bible Clubs today were good with 5 and 8 here. After the last one, several came over and went for a walk together. I am still very sore and almost ill from abnormal exercise for me and didn’t go.
Sunday, April 13
We had good attendance today and then our Tea or sort of Potluck afterwards. Also, afterwards I met with people in the church about helping with our VBS day camp. We had 6 ladies and 1 man and 2 of my students come. They will help a lot. We will do this for the first 2 weeks in June from 8 am to 4:30pm. Our 4 American guests the Braynt’s and Gerganus’ were our guests at evening services and Charles B. preached and LT helped with the communion service, too. We had 16 this evening. We went home around 8 but 5 came home with me and we watched the movie about the Twin Towers with Nicholus Cage in it, then I took all home, getting home around 11.
Monday, April 14
I am working on 2 studies right now to make into charts and teaching materials. One is how you come to be in the Church – become a Christian – from a more detailed look than normal and another is “Who is Jesus?” Also I went back to School #10 today and found out that we could get in to the school to teach and we will teach a 6th grade class on Fridays at 2pm. Then at 5pm I picked up Ksusha and Olya and we went to the twins home until about 8 to have tea with them and study the Bible.
Tuesday, April 15
I worked all morning on the Who is Jesus study and chart and finished it after lunch. I had a great walk outside in our spring weather and met one of Kelli’s neighbors and sort of chatted with her for awhile. I worked on my April Newsletter today and sent that out. I used the Who is Jesus study for my devo tonight – we had 14 with 2 new people! Alina came and said she really wanted to come more and it was such good news! We had such a blessed evening together and all left around 9:30.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Doug’s Journal in Kremenchuk
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Well 2 days after travel and I catch a bit of jet lag today and am pretty tired. My car insurance is due today (I renew it each year on about the date I bought the car). I couldn’t get into the insurance office until the afternoon after 2 and it took about an hour and then I will have to finish it up next Monday – signing papers and all that. I am of course just making it for 4 months this year or until the end up July. I picked up working on a Sermon plan for a year that I had started before I went to England. I think that it is a very good plan, but will try to mold it what a local congregation may want or need in the way of preaching.
Friday, March 21
I continue to work on my year sermon plan. Also I am working and planning for tonight’s Bible Study in 1 John and that took several hours. At about 2, I fixed lunch for Yulya after she finished her University and we had a good couple of hours together. She was up until 4am studying and then got only 3 hours of sleep, so she went home tired. We had 6 for our Bible Study and fun night afterwards.
Saturday, March 22
My Saturdays are pretty much consumed with Bible Clubs, preparations, and lessons. We had 5 for our Adult Bible Club and then only 2 for our evening Teen Bible Club. In between I went to the Church discussion at 4 at the church building and that went well and was enjoyable.
Sunday, March 23
I went birthday shopping before services for Sasha’s gift. After morning worship services, we fixed sandwiches and I cooked for 7 of us. Then, because it is spring break week, we didn’t go to the orphanage and so had a bit of a break. I prepared my evening lesson and picked up people and went to services. We had 11. Afterwards we celebrated Sasha girls 15th birthday and a good evening together.
Monday, March 24
Today Artem is 24, but we won’t celebrate his birthday until Friday. Also today is James and Anya’s 1 year wedding anniversary, so congratulations to them, too! I worked more on my one year sermon plan and began to work on redoing a sermon that I preached recently here. What I am doing with this sermon is to prepare it to be delivered for taping purposes. All my sermons and classes that I do here are with a translator and I am sure stateside churches wouldn’t be interested in hearing a sermon that way! This took up most of my day. Olya and I did go to the twins family and studied and spent about 2 ½ hours with them about 6pm this evening.
Tuesday, March 25
I noticed the first green leaves on some of the bushes and the some of the trees are starting to bud – kind of early. Spent a lot of time in study today with sermon and devotional prep. I have more free time this week than normal because of this being spring break, so no orphanages, no village, etc. We had a nice group for the devo with 11 present. Everybody seemed to be pretty busy and went home early.
Wednesday, March 26
I am making extra effort to try and spend more individual time with people, so was with a few people extra today. As time draws nearer for my departure, it becomes a more urgent time with people. It reminds me that it should always be that way! I spent time preparing for English Club as well as practicing a sermon I want to tape and deliver onto CD. We had 9 for our English Club tonight and that lasted from 6 until about 8. One of the things that I have been thinking about this English Clubs and my English Bible Clubs is that they would be very effective tools to be used in the US to reach out to other language cultures such as Spanish speaking people as an example. I am excited about using them when I move back to work with a Church in the States!
Thursday, March 27
I am involved in a lot of personal Bible Study and prayer for the work here and for my future work in the states that I want to strengthen me and also to use in the building up of the Christians here. I had several of our group in and out today and so that was good. At 5pm, Vika (she is 14 and in Technical School or equivalent to 10th grade) came to me and we went to the Circus together! I had invited all who wanted to go to come, but Vika was the only one who could come, but it was great because we had a good time together and then I took to McDonald’s to eat and it was only the 2nd time in her life that she had eaten at a McDonalds – the first time was in Kiev several years ago. I got home around 9:30pm.
Friday, March 28
As I have mentioned, this has been rather a slow week, because the schools and the orphanages being on spring break. The weather has been beautiful. I prepared for my study tonight on 1 John. At 5pm Ksusha came for the study but no one else. It is frustrating right now that people are so busy, but again as last night with Vika, we had some good quality time together. 9 more people did come by around 6:30pm and we celebrated Artem’s birthday together with him (he has just turned 24). We were together until around 9pm.
Saturday, March 29
A busy morning in the Market and final lesson preparations for Bible Clubs. We had much better attendance today than we have had for awhile with 7 in our Adult/University Club at noon and then 7 in our Teen Club in the evening. In between times, I started a personal Bible Study with Ksusha’s mom. That is something we have been working towards and wanting for a long, long time! Ksusha became a Christian 4 years ago and has been a strong steady influence on many. She has brought her cousin Vika to Christ last May and now Lord willing we will see her Mother added to Christ before long! Her Mom, Nadya has been coming to services and other activities for a long time and has been a host mother to many of our American friends that have come to Ukraine to work with us in summer mission work.
Sunday, March 30
It was a pleasant surprise to have Charles and Margaret Bryan and LT and Jo Ann Gerganus here this morning! They are here to teach at the Bible College for the next 3 weeks. They are such fine people! I thought they weren’t coming until May. Well, after services I took several people home and then went and ate lunch with Zhenya, who had been in Germany for 3 weeks and we had a nice lunch and visit together. I went home and finished working on my lesson for tonight from Isaiah 53. We had 12 for evening services and that went well. Everyone went home around 8.
Monday, March 31
Inna, who is also 23 and one of my first students, was married back in September to a man from Peru who is now living in Spain. She had been in Peru to meet his family and to have a honeymoon that they never had. She came at noon and we ate together and looked at pictures of her travels. At 3 I picked up Olya and we went to our Wal mart type store – Prostor and did some shopping for a birthday present for one of our orphan boys with the Orphan family that we study with and have become very close to. He is 4 years old. We got a couple of presents for him and some food I needed. Then I took Olya home and she wrapped the gifts and I went home for awhile, eating supper and then at 5:40pm I picked her up, then Oksana who we met at the train station, who had just come in from Kiev getting her visa for Germany. Then we went and bought a birthday cake and went to the family and was there until 8:45pm. We Didn’t study tonight, just celebrated Artem and visited and ate! I got home about 9:30.
Well 2 days after travel and I catch a bit of jet lag today and am pretty tired. My car insurance is due today (I renew it each year on about the date I bought the car). I couldn’t get into the insurance office until the afternoon after 2 and it took about an hour and then I will have to finish it up next Monday – signing papers and all that. I am of course just making it for 4 months this year or until the end up July. I picked up working on a Sermon plan for a year that I had started before I went to England. I think that it is a very good plan, but will try to mold it what a local congregation may want or need in the way of preaching.
Friday, March 21
I continue to work on my year sermon plan. Also I am working and planning for tonight’s Bible Study in 1 John and that took several hours. At about 2, I fixed lunch for Yulya after she finished her University and we had a good couple of hours together. She was up until 4am studying and then got only 3 hours of sleep, so she went home tired. We had 6 for our Bible Study and fun night afterwards.
Saturday, March 22
My Saturdays are pretty much consumed with Bible Clubs, preparations, and lessons. We had 5 for our Adult Bible Club and then only 2 for our evening Teen Bible Club. In between I went to the Church discussion at 4 at the church building and that went well and was enjoyable.
Sunday, March 23
I went birthday shopping before services for Sasha’s gift. After morning worship services, we fixed sandwiches and I cooked for 7 of us. Then, because it is spring break week, we didn’t go to the orphanage and so had a bit of a break. I prepared my evening lesson and picked up people and went to services. We had 11. Afterwards we celebrated Sasha girls 15th birthday and a good evening together.
Monday, March 24
Today Artem is 24, but we won’t celebrate his birthday until Friday. Also today is James and Anya’s 1 year wedding anniversary, so congratulations to them, too! I worked more on my one year sermon plan and began to work on redoing a sermon that I preached recently here. What I am doing with this sermon is to prepare it to be delivered for taping purposes. All my sermons and classes that I do here are with a translator and I am sure stateside churches wouldn’t be interested in hearing a sermon that way! This took up most of my day. Olya and I did go to the twins family and studied and spent about 2 ½ hours with them about 6pm this evening.
Tuesday, March 25
I noticed the first green leaves on some of the bushes and the some of the trees are starting to bud – kind of early. Spent a lot of time in study today with sermon and devotional prep. I have more free time this week than normal because of this being spring break, so no orphanages, no village, etc. We had a nice group for the devo with 11 present. Everybody seemed to be pretty busy and went home early.
Wednesday, March 26
I am making extra effort to try and spend more individual time with people, so was with a few people extra today. As time draws nearer for my departure, it becomes a more urgent time with people. It reminds me that it should always be that way! I spent time preparing for English Club as well as practicing a sermon I want to tape and deliver onto CD. We had 9 for our English Club tonight and that lasted from 6 until about 8. One of the things that I have been thinking about this English Clubs and my English Bible Clubs is that they would be very effective tools to be used in the US to reach out to other language cultures such as Spanish speaking people as an example. I am excited about using them when I move back to work with a Church in the States!
Thursday, March 27
I am involved in a lot of personal Bible Study and prayer for the work here and for my future work in the states that I want to strengthen me and also to use in the building up of the Christians here. I had several of our group in and out today and so that was good. At 5pm, Vika (she is 14 and in Technical School or equivalent to 10th grade) came to me and we went to the Circus together! I had invited all who wanted to go to come, but Vika was the only one who could come, but it was great because we had a good time together and then I took to McDonald’s to eat and it was only the 2nd time in her life that she had eaten at a McDonalds – the first time was in Kiev several years ago. I got home around 9:30pm.
Friday, March 28
As I have mentioned, this has been rather a slow week, because the schools and the orphanages being on spring break. The weather has been beautiful. I prepared for my study tonight on 1 John. At 5pm Ksusha came for the study but no one else. It is frustrating right now that people are so busy, but again as last night with Vika, we had some good quality time together. 9 more people did come by around 6:30pm and we celebrated Artem’s birthday together with him (he has just turned 24). We were together until around 9pm.
Saturday, March 29
A busy morning in the Market and final lesson preparations for Bible Clubs. We had much better attendance today than we have had for awhile with 7 in our Adult/University Club at noon and then 7 in our Teen Club in the evening. In between times, I started a personal Bible Study with Ksusha’s mom. That is something we have been working towards and wanting for a long, long time! Ksusha became a Christian 4 years ago and has been a strong steady influence on many. She has brought her cousin Vika to Christ last May and now Lord willing we will see her Mother added to Christ before long! Her Mom, Nadya has been coming to services and other activities for a long time and has been a host mother to many of our American friends that have come to Ukraine to work with us in summer mission work.
Sunday, March 30
It was a pleasant surprise to have Charles and Margaret Bryan and LT and Jo Ann Gerganus here this morning! They are here to teach at the Bible College for the next 3 weeks. They are such fine people! I thought they weren’t coming until May. Well, after services I took several people home and then went and ate lunch with Zhenya, who had been in Germany for 3 weeks and we had a nice lunch and visit together. I went home and finished working on my lesson for tonight from Isaiah 53. We had 12 for evening services and that went well. Everyone went home around 8.
Monday, March 31
Inna, who is also 23 and one of my first students, was married back in September to a man from Peru who is now living in Spain. She had been in Peru to meet his family and to have a honeymoon that they never had. She came at noon and we ate together and looked at pictures of her travels. At 3 I picked up Olya and we went to our Wal mart type store – Prostor and did some shopping for a birthday present for one of our orphan boys with the Orphan family that we study with and have become very close to. He is 4 years old. We got a couple of presents for him and some food I needed. Then I took Olya home and she wrapped the gifts and I went home for awhile, eating supper and then at 5:40pm I picked her up, then Oksana who we met at the train station, who had just come in from Kiev getting her visa for Germany. Then we went and bought a birthday cake and went to the family and was there until 8:45pm. We Didn’t study tonight, just celebrated Artem and visited and ate! I got home about 9:30.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Family Pictures
I want you to know my family! So I am going to share some pictures.
My family is my eldest Butch is 32, his wife Erin and their 2 girls Hannah, 5 and Ella 3. Butch is a Chiropractor and Erin is a housewife. Then Ben is 29 and his girl friend is Erica. Ben has been a missionary in Japan for 5 years and has just started on working on His Master's Degree in Missions and Erica works in the Bible Department as a secretary. Jenise is 26 and her husband is Jon and their 1 year old son is Malachi. Jenise is now a housewife after Graduating with a commercial artist degree. Jon is the treasure for a fast growing oil company. My youngest daughter is Janessa and she is 24 and her 3 year old son is Gavin. Janessa is working as a Manager in Day Care.
Janessa, Ben, Erica, Jon, Jenise, Butch and Gavin and Malachi in arms.
Jenise and Jon Grottis on their wedding day! 
Erin, Butch, Ella and Hannah
I have tons of more pictures, and would be glad to share them with you if you want!!!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Doug’s Journal in Kremenchuk
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Good Bible Clubs with 7 in each.
Sunday, March 2
We did sandwiches and went to the Potoki orphanage and then evening service at 6 with 11 people present.
Monday, March 3
Things are getting real crazy for Oksana (she is 19 and has been one of my Christian students for 3 years and one of my most faithful students and translators) as she prepares to go to see her Mother’s wedding at Stoke-On-Trent in England. Back in late January, when her Mom was here, they invited me to this wedding and I said I would like to go. Then I promised I would help Oksana go, if I could. Then this developed into the fact that she needed a Sponsor by the British Embassy for her to be able to go, so I said I would go – her parents would pay me back for Oksana’s flight when I got there. She didn’t get her visa until today at 4:10pm! 3 of did go to the Orphan Family for our weekly Bible Study today at 6.
Tuesday, March 4
I literally spent all day trying to get us last minute tickets to go to the UK. I started at 8 and finally finished up at 4:30pm! At 6 we had our evening devo with 12 present. Then a lot of last minute packing and early to bed for our drive to the airport – we left at 1am to get our early 6:30am flight!
Wednesday, March 5 – Tuesday March 18
I went to Great Britain or as they prefer to call themselves, the United Kingdom - England, Wales and Scotland. It was terribly expensive to go as it was a last minute ticket and everything there was very expensive - basically twice as expensive as the US. But I made a promise to help Oksana get to her mother's wedding and the only way she could get her visa was for me to be her sponsor. Our flight was good and the first 4 days was basically taken up by wedding planning for the family and the wedding on Saturday and family celebration on Sunday. On Monday, Oksana and I went to Manchester, a city close by to tour and it was good and fun. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we went to London and that was great and great fun! Thursday and Friday we were back with her family - that city is called Stoke-On-Trent and there are many beautiful things to see and do around there. On Friday afternoon I rented a car for 3 days. On Saturday we went to what is called the "Lake District" - a hilly and mountainous region with many beautiful lakes - a national park. That night we ate with a pretty wealthy family from her parent's church in a beautiful 200 year old home. We had a great meal and conversation. On Sunday, I drove to a Church of Christ 38 miles to the south in another large city called Birmingham. It was a 2 year old congregation of about 50 people with a large variety of nationalities and persons. It was a good worship time with them and they had potluck afterwards! On Monday we did some last minute shopping. On Tuesday morning we got up at 3am to get ready to get to our flight that flew out at 7:30am. We arrived back into Kremenchuk at 7:30pm, worshiped and prayed with some of brothers and sisters, took Oksana home and crashed!
Wednesday, March 19
Today was a very busy catch up day, but didn't get everything done as I forgot to take time to buy groceries! We had 9 (we had 2 Christians attend – so that means 7 non-Christians in attendance) for our English Club at 6 and that went well. So I was really scrounging for food tonight after English Club!
Good Bible Clubs with 7 in each.
Sunday, March 2
We did sandwiches and went to the Potoki orphanage and then evening service at 6 with 11 people present.
Monday, March 3
Things are getting real crazy for Oksana (she is 19 and has been one of my Christian students for 3 years and one of my most faithful students and translators) as she prepares to go to see her Mother’s wedding at Stoke-On-Trent in England. Back in late January, when her Mom was here, they invited me to this wedding and I said I would like to go. Then I promised I would help Oksana go, if I could. Then this developed into the fact that she needed a Sponsor by the British Embassy for her to be able to go, so I said I would go – her parents would pay me back for Oksana’s flight when I got there. She didn’t get her visa until today at 4:10pm! 3 of did go to the Orphan Family for our weekly Bible Study today at 6.
Tuesday, March 4
I literally spent all day trying to get us last minute tickets to go to the UK. I started at 8 and finally finished up at 4:30pm! At 6 we had our evening devo with 12 present. Then a lot of last minute packing and early to bed for our drive to the airport – we left at 1am to get our early 6:30am flight!
Wednesday, March 5 – Tuesday March 18
I went to Great Britain or as they prefer to call themselves, the United Kingdom - England, Wales and Scotland. It was terribly expensive to go as it was a last minute ticket and everything there was very expensive - basically twice as expensive as the US. But I made a promise to help Oksana get to her mother's wedding and the only way she could get her visa was for me to be her sponsor. Our flight was good and the first 4 days was basically taken up by wedding planning for the family and the wedding on Saturday and family celebration on Sunday. On Monday, Oksana and I went to Manchester, a city close by to tour and it was good and fun. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we went to London and that was great and great fun! Thursday and Friday we were back with her family - that city is called Stoke-On-Trent and there are many beautiful things to see and do around there. On Friday afternoon I rented a car for 3 days. On Saturday we went to what is called the "Lake District" - a hilly and mountainous region with many beautiful lakes - a national park. That night we ate with a pretty wealthy family from her parent's church in a beautiful 200 year old home. We had a great meal and conversation. On Sunday, I drove to a Church of Christ 38 miles to the south in another large city called Birmingham. It was a 2 year old congregation of about 50 people with a large variety of nationalities and persons. It was a good worship time with them and they had potluck afterwards! On Monday we did some last minute shopping. On Tuesday morning we got up at 3am to get ready to get to our flight that flew out at 7:30am. We arrived back into Kremenchuk at 7:30pm, worshiped and prayed with some of brothers and sisters, took Oksana home and crashed!
Wednesday, March 19
Today was a very busy catch up day, but didn't get everything done as I forgot to take time to buy groceries! We had 9 (we had 2 Christians attend – so that means 7 non-Christians in attendance) for our English Club at 6 and that went well. So I was really scrounging for food tonight after English Club!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Tests of Faith - Who Comes 1st?
1. Who and what are we to seek first in our lives?
Bible verse(s)_________________________
2. What are the 2 greatest commands?
Bible verse(s)_________________________
3. To come to Jesus, what must we do with the cross?
Bible verse(s)_________________________
4. As a Christian, whom do I belong to?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
5. To love Jesus, who are we to love less?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
6. What does it mean to be crucified with Christ?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
7. What should we consider everything else in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
8. Write the top 5 things of importance in your life.
9. What does it mean to you to put God (Jesus and His Church) first in your life?
10. What price should we be willing to pay so that Jesus would be first in our lives?
Bible verse(s)___________________________
Bible verse(s)_________________________
2. What are the 2 greatest commands?
Bible verse(s)_________________________
3. To come to Jesus, what must we do with the cross?
Bible verse(s)_________________________
4. As a Christian, whom do I belong to?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
5. To love Jesus, who are we to love less?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
6. What does it mean to be crucified with Christ?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
7. What should we consider everything else in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus?
Bible verse(s)__________________________
8. Write the top 5 things of importance in your life.
9. What does it mean to you to put God (Jesus and His Church) first in your life?
10. What price should we be willing to pay so that Jesus would be first in our lives?
Bible verse(s)___________________________
Every 4 Years
What happens every 4 years? Some ideas from the internet and life.
Ø Of course Leap Year.
Ø The Olympics are held.
Ø The World Cup of Soccer/Football is held.
Ø The United States elects a President.
Ø The internet says you should change all the hoses on your car every 4 years.
Ø Legend says that there is a town, Brigadoon, Scotland that appears for 1 day every 100 years (I double checked on the internet – I thought it was every 4 years!).
Ø General Motors, that makes Chevrolet, will make a new hybrid car every 3 months for the next 4 years.
What are you going to do and become in Christ over the next 4 years? Will you allow God to use you and grow you so that you are becoming the mature and complete child of God that your Father God and Brother Jesus want you to be? They love you and invite you to grow! The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will help you every step of the way!
Ø Of course Leap Year.
Ø The Olympics are held.
Ø The World Cup of Soccer/Football is held.
Ø The United States elects a President.
Ø The internet says you should change all the hoses on your car every 4 years.
Ø Legend says that there is a town, Brigadoon, Scotland that appears for 1 day every 100 years (I double checked on the internet – I thought it was every 4 years!).
Ø General Motors, that makes Chevrolet, will make a new hybrid car every 3 months for the next 4 years.
What are you going to do and become in Christ over the next 4 years? Will you allow God to use you and grow you so that you are becoming the mature and complete child of God that your Father God and Brother Jesus want you to be? They love you and invite you to grow! The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will help you every step of the way!
Who Is God? Answers from last week Test of Faith
1. God has always been and He lives in Heaven. Genesis 24:7; Rev.1:8; 22:13
2. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Genesis 1:1,2; John 1:1-3
3. 6 days. Genesis 1:31
4. God loves everyone. John 3:16
5. We are separated from God. Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 6:9
6. Jesus dieing on the cross and being raised to life. Romans 6; Galatians 3:26-29
7. God wants all to be saved. 1 Timothy 2:3,4
8. Prayers of the righteous. 1 Peter 3:12; James 5:16
Prayers of those seeking God. Acts 10:1-6
9. God is not physical and is everyone at once. Joshua 2:11
10. Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Genesis 1:26; John 1:1-5
2. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Genesis 1:1,2; John 1:1-3
3. 6 days. Genesis 1:31
4. God loves everyone. John 3:16
5. We are separated from God. Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 6:9
6. Jesus dieing on the cross and being raised to life. Romans 6; Galatians 3:26-29
7. God wants all to be saved. 1 Timothy 2:3,4
8. Prayers of the righteous. 1 Peter 3:12; James 5:16
Prayers of those seeking God. Acts 10:1-6
9. God is not physical and is everyone at once. Joshua 2:11
10. Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Genesis 1:26; John 1:1-5
Steps for Deeper Spiritual Growth!
1. Faith Partner - James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. One of the things that is important for us to do to continue to grow spiritually and at a deeper level is to have at least one other person involved in our spiritual lives that we can trust them with our deepest struggles and having them pray for us. I need to confess my sins to them and have them pray for me. That person needs to confess their sins to me and I need to pray for them! This is a powerful tool for our continue spiritual growth! I would recommend that you get together at least once a week with this person to confess and pray together.
2. Meditation; Alone Time - Matthew 14:22-23 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. We need alone time with God, His Word and in prayer. Not just 10 or 15 minutes here or there, but some quality time where we just get alone with God without interruptions or cell phones. You will find that this is a very uplifting, encouraging time that will draw you closer to God.
3. Fasting - Matt 4:1,2 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Matt 6:17-18 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting , but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Mark 2:19-20 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
Fasting is not eating for a period of time. Jesus fasted for 40 days. Often people in the Bible fasted for 1 to 3 days at a time. Jesus fasted to prepare himself to have the spiritual strength to face Satan. Jesus tells that when He is left to go back to Heaven, we would need to fast. When we fast we are to do it not to show off our faith, but rather to grow in our faith with God. Notice that fasting and praying in the New Testament was always including prayer. So when you fast, start slow and be careful of your health. On days of fasting, drink plenty of water. When you get hungry go to the Bible and read it for encouragement and pray to God for strength. Fasting drives us to knees as we realize how much we need God in our daily lives!
2. Meditation; Alone Time - Matthew 14:22-23 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. We need alone time with God, His Word and in prayer. Not just 10 or 15 minutes here or there, but some quality time where we just get alone with God without interruptions or cell phones. You will find that this is a very uplifting, encouraging time that will draw you closer to God.
3. Fasting - Matt 4:1,2 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Matt 6:17-18 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting , but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Mark 2:19-20 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
Fasting is not eating for a period of time. Jesus fasted for 40 days. Often people in the Bible fasted for 1 to 3 days at a time. Jesus fasted to prepare himself to have the spiritual strength to face Satan. Jesus tells that when He is left to go back to Heaven, we would need to fast. When we fast we are to do it not to show off our faith, but rather to grow in our faith with God. Notice that fasting and praying in the New Testament was always including prayer. So when you fast, start slow and be careful of your health. On days of fasting, drink plenty of water. When you get hungry go to the Bible and read it for encouragement and pray to God for strength. Fasting drives us to knees as we realize how much we need God in our daily lives!
TESTS OF FAITH
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
2 Corinthians 2:9 The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
God tells us to test our faith to make sure we are right with Him. We are to test to make sure we are following God’s will for our lives; to see if we are obedient; to see if we are in the faith and that Christ is in us; and to see if we will stand up to the test and trials of life so that we can receive eternal life. So in the next few weeks, I will be putting a test in the this newsletter for you to personally take to see if you are passing the test to live this life in faith and walk right with God and to be sure that you are prepared for eternity.
No one is going to grade you on these tests, but take them for your own growth and development. I will give rewards for good marks of 8-10 correct. Correct Answers will be given in the next newsletter. If you can give a Bible Verse(s) for your correct answers, I will double the reward!
2 Corinthians 2:9 The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
God tells us to test our faith to make sure we are right with Him. We are to test to make sure we are following God’s will for our lives; to see if we are obedient; to see if we are in the faith and that Christ is in us; and to see if we will stand up to the test and trials of life so that we can receive eternal life. So in the next few weeks, I will be putting a test in the this newsletter for you to personally take to see if you are passing the test to live this life in faith and walk right with God and to be sure that you are prepared for eternity.
No one is going to grade you on these tests, but take them for your own growth and development. I will give rewards for good marks of 8-10 correct. Correct Answers will be given in the next newsletter. If you can give a Bible Verse(s) for your correct answers, I will double the reward!
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