Sasha again

Finally, we're back home and back to ourselves.

(I reread our last entry and want to update you on Michael Merrill. He is in the US and is still undergoing treatments. At this point the doctors have not been able to come up with a solution that's going to work long-term. Please keep praying. Trevor Hope has recovered from the sickness he had on our travel to Germany.)

Back to Sasha: to make a long story a little shorter, I wrote back to all the contacts I'd received from the website manager. One of the people I wrote to again was Sasha. He was interested in meeting to talk about life. He suggested one of the many McDonald's restaurants we have here in Kiev, near a school where he is learning English. We talked about his walk with Christ, which had stagnated over many ears of D.I.Y Christianity- no church attendance, no Christian friends, only that whole 'I can worship God where ever I am' type of deception that so many people try to make work.

Anyway, we had a good talk about where he was and where he needed to be headed if he wanted to get to the Abundant Life that Christ promised. This was on a Saturday so I invited him to an English international church service the next day. It turned out the church was within walking distance of his apartment so he could have gotten there easily, though we did meet him in our car. [We're looking for a buyer for our car before we leave in 45 days, please pray]

Anyway, he loved the service and determined to go to a Russian-speaking small group, which he also loved. And since that first meeting 4-5 months ago Kim and I have been meeting with Sasha weekly for discipleship.

But what was interesting was his attendance at a gathering of some old friends of his who invited him to come to a 'religious' group meeting. He went because of his re-newed interest in spiritual things and a renewed desire to tell people about life change through Christ. He was surprised to find a group of disciples of a woman, who had recently died, gathering to pray to a pyramid...

That's it for this entry. We'll try to get back to this story soon, (which I can already tells you ends, as of this writing, with a group of new believers meeting in our apartment).

Thanks for reading along.

Quick update

Hi to our readers...you know who you are,

We just wanted to give you a quick word on what we've been doing and where we've been.

2 1/2 weeks ago Parker came home for Spring Break. We had a nice time in Kiev together but we are quite busy with ministry nowadays, which we didn't realize until we tried to find 'just hang out with Parker' time and we found it difficult. Anyway, all was good. Parker and Jerry did spend a full day working through college acceptance letters (George Fox University, in Oregon and Wheaton) and financial aid packages (a word to young fathers: start saving now). Parker had all but decided on GFU until the Wheaton financial aid info came and the amount they offer makes the choice difficult again. Oh well, on Life's Big Scale of Problems this one doesn't weigh anything.

So, as Spring Break was winding down our Russia (and Ukraine) Field Forum was gearing up in southern Russia. Kim, Parker and I went to Anapa, on the Black Sea, for this annual gathering. It was especially nice for us to be there as a family so that Parker could do his goodbyes for the last time with kids he's known, or know about, for his whole MK life. He had a good time there and we had a good time watching our nearly full-grown baby (18 years old this month) interacting with his friends.

Then, with school starting in Germany the kids had to get back. I had the job of escorting them (since Lisa Merrill (who was the original escort) is in America trying to help her son Michael deal with a chronic health problem. Plllllllllleeeeeeeease pray for Michael. He's one tough kid but he'd really like to get his medical issues resolved so that he can get back to school.)
The need for an escort was only too clear as a couple of the guys got really sick. Trevor Hope, another tough kid, was indescribably ill every hour or so all day l0ng, including airports, airplanes and trains. I haven't heard but I hope he's better today.


Well, anyway, I'm typing this in Parker's dorm while waiting for him to come back from school. This is our next-to-last visit to BFA, at least as parents of students. We'll be back in 7 weeks for graduation. For all the difficult stories that you may have heard about missionary kid boarding schools we can only say from our own experiences with Black Forest Academy that we have nothing but positive things to say. This is true about the quality of school and social life and especially about the spiritual input our kids have received.
Our thanks to all the professionals who have sacrificed time in their careers to give something to our kids.

Ok, that's it for this update. I plan to be back at my computer tomorrow in Kiev and will try to remember to continue the Sasha Saga for those of you who might have been waiting.

Bye for now.
Jerry

Sasha

So, as promised here goes the story about Sasha.

It begins with our arrival here, now almost 1 1/2 years ago. Through a series of contacts- which are themselves an interesting story -we met Steve Webber, the director of the Christian Broadcasting Network for the whole Russian-speaking world.

In talking with Steve about what we were trying to do here, he offered to connect us with Andrey, the CBN guy in charge of their evangelistic outreach website. Andrey began to send us contact information from people who'd written into the website with questions or because they wanted to say that they'd just prayed a prayer of repentance or re-dedication to Christ.

We did a lot of work, writing to these people, but got little response. One thing we did try was to invite people to an Alpha evangelistic group, in English. In this way we hoped to do something we were good at- English -and combine it with the Gospel. (The attempt was technically successful, but actually the people who came were already believers, which sort of defeated the purpose...)

Anyway, it was at this time that I got a response from a man who was very excited to think that someone would take an interest in him and could show him to a church where they could help him find a job. I wrote back right away explaining that the church could help, but that didn't mean that they could get him a job.

He wrote back right away to say, "Well, what's the use then?"

So I wrote back right away again and said that there was more to life than just a job and not to be discouraged if I couldn't promise him that a local church could help him.

I was to find out later that this guy was Sasha. We'll tell you more of his story next time...

93 days

Today, (March 19...the day Vitya and his family and friends come over) is the first day Deutschbahn- the German railroad company -will allow us to buy tickets from Frankfurt, Germany, down to Kandern, Germany, where Parker goes to school. We will be on our way to Parker's graduation, and then continue on our way to the US for a year.

Wow, our lives as parents of kids in missionary boarding school ends with Parker's graduation on June 11th. Where did all those years go?

Anyway, 93 days from now (June 18th) we are scheduled to land in Eugene, Oregon. We've been in Kiev nearly 1 1/2 years now...where did THAT time go?

Actually we're thankful that, though the time has been short, way too short in fact, we've made tons of friends and through those friends are connected to other friends and we keep praying and telling the story of Jesus and asking God to do something in the lives of these people.

Tonight Sasha will come over to be with us and Vitya, et.al. I'm going to take time in future blogs to tell you of our relationship with him and how God has used some simple discipleship to encourage Sasha and then he has used Sasha to bring 8 people to faith in Christ.

Anyway, thanks to those of you who have/are praying for our dinner tonight. We'll keep you posted on the results.

AND, more news: on Sunday members of the Sauna Team will be coming over for dinner. We recently spent some time skiing with these three couples and so my personal hero, my wife, wanted to invite them over for dinner. They'll come for dinner at 6pm...but before that Sasha will be here for more discipleship...and before that, a Ukrainian couple will be here for lunch to talk about the potential for working together with us in church-planting.

Yep, all on one Sunday.
And Kim will be working to be hostess to all of them.

You see why my wife is a personal missionary hero for me. Please pray for her this weekend.

Jerry

More work

Hi,

Our last post was about the people you could help us minister to by praying for them.

Here's a quick update:

We have a new friend, Sasha, who is a very gifted personal evangelist. We want to connect him with some more friends, Vitalic (a 5th year medical student) and his parents and two of their friends. They are coming for dinner on Friday, March 19th.

Please pray for our time together.

Thanks

Jerry and Kim

Work

HI All,

I'm sort of in a revival of updating the blog. I had, what I'm SURE you'll agree is a great idea: a prayer list.

What follows is a partial list of the people that we have regular contact with and for whom we need your prayers. All of these are open to spiritual themes and discussions but we seem stuck in the discussion phase...

Anyway, so you don't overload I'll give you ten names and a little about these people so you can join us in our work by your prayers:

Yura and Luda Serikov- The orignial Sauna Guy, Yura has become a good friend. Once when we were all together and 'God' came up (as he often does when we're hanging out) Luda told the story of a life after life experience she had while undergoing an appendix operation. I would say the Serikovs are willing to be convinced that there is a God and that he loves them. Pray for their eyes to be opened; for steady construction work for Yura who's dealing with the weak economy; for recovery from a minor operation for Luda. (Yura is in the picture on the left- This was taken recently when I went skiing with him and Volodya Tikomirov.)

Volodya Kompanyets and Volodya Tikomirov(in the picture on the right) these are two more of the Sauna Guys- The first Vova is a jet aircraft engine mechanic and sharp, sharp. He's an 'orthodox' believer, which means he can live however he wants as long as he calls himself 'Orthodox'.

The second Vova is an electronics repairman and is sharp, sharp. He doesn't know what he is, religioulsly speaking, but has expressed a desire to know what God wants from him and to live right.

Pray that these guys get more and more hungry...

Ilya G- It's funny we don't know his last name. Ilya is a professor at the University where we teach English and we've known him for a year. We have wide ranging spiritual discussions by email and we see each other from time to time at the U. He has a lot of arguments against Christianity: "If Jesus is real why do Christians kill other people?" I think he means things like war. Anyway, he's a new father and I think, humanly speaking, if God works in his life it will be through his needs as a father and husband. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to reason him into repentance.

Galina and Enver- Our two oldest friends in Kiev, they live one floor above us. Galina is an avid reader of Christian books we give her and she also shares them with others. Getting from avid reader to the assurance of salvation is really our prayer for her. Enver is a Georgian who credits Stalin with bringing order to Soviet society. He smiles a smile that says, "You poor, naive person" whenever I bring up life after death. He's in his 70s so he thinks about dying, he just wants to avoid any topic that might suggest a Judgement Day.

Pasha and Halya- These two ladies we met on the street selling potatoes and cottage cheese when we first got here. We have great relationships with them. They've read verses from the Bible and other books but we are clueless as to how to take this to a higher level. These two ladies are 'salt of the earth' quality and we would just like them to experience true joy in Christ.

...and last? Sasha the van driver and (11th) Vitalic the taxi driver. Two guys who we've really been blessed to know because we can trust them completely with guests coming and going. We've talked with both about Christ and Vitalic, at least, is open. Sasha is just a great guy but smiles that same, you-poor-naive-person smile as Enver.

We are confident that these guys have good hearts and that God could really work there.

Well, thanks for reading along and praying for even one of these people.

Until next time

Fish

Had an exciting meal a few days back-a baked carp. Um, unforgettably forgetable.
The issue, apart from the fact that it was a Carp, was that it hadn't baked long enough and was a little raw-ish towards the back bone. Anyway, I'll eat more carp if it's served to me but I can't see Carp-shore-lunch ever making my Top Ten list.

But it does lead me to digress a little, bear with me...
'Fish' is such an easy word in English.
For instance: Fish- the noun; Fish- the adjective; Fish!- the imperative; to Fish- the verb; Fishy- the adverb

Without boring you with a Slavic grammar lesson I can tell you that fishing is not such an easy thing to, uh, tackle in the other languages. However, the actual task of fishing is exactly the same no matter the language.
But that makes perfect sense, right? Languages, by definition, are different ways of describing experience but the experiences themselves are often identical.

And if the fishing experience is the same so are the fishermen! There is a Far Side cartoon that shows two fishermen in a boat. In the background, presumbly over their own homes, mushroom clouds from nuclear explosions are rising into the air. Their response? Something about how what this really means is that there are no longer any fishing limits. Perfect. Gary Larson must be a fisherman. I know Russians and Ukrainians who would also get a good laugh out of that cartoon.

There is something about fishing that gets in your blood and makes you ask: "How can I catch more?" and "How can I catch better?" And the biggie: "Are there any loopholes in the law, in the absence of the thermo-nuclear destruction of the very foundations of society, which say I can catch all the fish I want?"

So here's the good thing about my job: I can fish by any method I want and there are no limits either to size, or type, or number.
Sauna evangelism? Perfect.
Sports night evangelism? Perfecter.
Inviting people over to watch World Cup Alpine Ski Races? Pure Heaven.
Trying new types of food with unbeliever-friends? Absolutely, even half-cooked Carp.

This kind of fishing is open to all- to us here 'on the mission field' (we're really all 'on the field') and to you 'at home' (Home for true believers is where ever God is.)

And remember this: When Jesus said, "Follow me and you will be fishers of men" he wasn't offering a distraction from the fun of fishing for fish. Instead he was offering a life that made regular fishing pale by comparison.

This is what we find in our work here, it's exciting; probably on par with the guy who goes fishing for Great White Sharks and uses himself for bait...Whatever else you might think about someone like that you'd never think they were bored.