Wrapping Things Up

We are on the ground in Arizona. The last month has been a whirlwind. The closer we got to leaving, the more hectic. We spent time with many good friends.

Bill spent the majority of his time with his good friend Roman who because of cancer is now paralyzed from the waist down. During the last week he was especially desirous of giving him messages that would shore up his courage, trust, and joy in the Lord.

We have taken turns teaching English. One favorite memory is of an 18 year old in our class who was excited for the opportunity to work in Alaska this summer and asked what a processing job was. I came up with several options (loan processor,etc.) and then he said he thought it was a fish processorJ. In November, we shared pumpkin pie and the history of Thanksgiving with these students. And one of our favorite students surprised us with a turkey for the evening. In addition to teaching grammar, idioms, etc. we have shared Christ with these students through videos and passages in the Bible. Our students have been eager high school kids, college kids and grandmothers. Some were unbelievers. Pray for high school age Nastia, Christina, 18 year old Stac(Alaska), Bogdan and his brother Ruslan and others who may have been impacted.

Ann had the privilege of speaking to a women’s group in a large church – through a translator, of course. After describing God’s faithfulness in my life, the women had many questions. Pray for these women many of whom have very difficult situations at home.

Our Saturday morning kid’s club will continue after we are gone with Lena, Christina, and Sasha leading. We have had fun with these kids. Although it was designed originally for grade school children, one 15 year old boy has been bringing different friends every week. Last week was the best because our friend Darryl, a former cowboy and rodeo rider, came in all his gear and taught the boys how to lasso. The little girls in our group were the targets. He gave a great message regarding his past life and how Christ can help these kids with the choices they will be making. Of course, pray for these kids – that they will believe and grow.

Our last night was a surprise party and a lot of goodbyes. We have been so impressed with the maturity of many of our Ukranian friends. In addition to a crazy political situation, Ukraine is looking at a financial crisis that may dwarf ours and we know that our friends will be affected in one way or the other. Pray for these believers, that God will see them through, that many of the believers in Ukraine will rise to the challenge, and that the church will be inspired to evangelize and minister to its countrymen during the upcoming years. We are uncertain regarding our future involvement in Ukraine but have a real love for this country.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Psalm 46: 1-2

Past Persecutions

Last month Bill went with our friend, Pasha to a conference at the largest Baptist Church in Kiev. The purpose of the conference was to honor the men and women from Soviet times who had been publicly faithful to their beliefs and did not retreat when faced with intimidation. At that time the Soviet solution for this “problem” was imprisonment.

At the conference a number of stories were told about life under enforced atheism. One elderly woman explained how during her imprisonment she used the bags from her small portion of daily rations to write children’s Bible stories. Someone was able to copy and distribute them to families whose Bibles had been confiscated and destroyed.

Another older German spoke of how his business frequently brought him from Germany to the Soviet Union on trips. When his wife, a believer, asked him to take Bibles with him to distribute, he quickly replied “No.” But, on a subsequent trip she placed a few in his valise anyway, along with the name and number of a contact. When he got to Moscow and found them he was angry, but nevertheless made the contact. After witnessing the recipients’ tears of joy in receiving them, some actually kissing their new possession, he himself believed. Through the rest of his business career, he made it a priority to bring Bibles to places where they were illegal. When the Ukrainian pastor asked him if he was ever afraid, he replied “Da.”

One of our friends, Oleg, is the Director of the Bible College here in Kiev. He is in his 30’s and tells of being a 10 year old boy growing up in a typical Ukrainian village. He was different because he was a Christian. When his teacher discovered this, she made it a point to single him out. He was moved to the front of the class, called a “fool” and repeatedly ridiculed.

God has given the people of Ukraine a window of freedom but who knows what the future holds for this country and the believers here?

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 31-39

Masha and Pasha

Bill describes nine year old Masha as a cross between Little Orphan Annie and Helen Keller. She is an orphan who our friends adopted this last month. Because they encountered some bureaucratic difficulties in trying to take her home, she lived with us for a few weeks while her new passport was being processed. Masha was always happy and eager to go to America, very excited about her new cat, dog, swing in the backyard and the 2 brothers and sister that awaited her. She was always singing and doing cartwheels – really irrepressible – you might expect her to break out into “Tomorrow, tomorrow” in Russian at any moment. Like Helen Keller before Anne Sullivan got her under control, Masha was somewhat uncivilized. She didn’t want to brush her teeth, insisted on making her own eggs (some cracked on the floor), didn’t know about washing hands after the bathroom, explored everything, pushed all buttons (including mine) and was quite stubborn and defiant at times. As most of the orphans in Ukraine, she had had few rules and likely had even less with her mother before being abandoned by her a year ago.

Our weeks with Masha were quite a challenge and I will admit the first morning when I woke up knowing that we were in charge, I was scared. Here was a little girl who did not hesitate to fold her arms and say “Nyet!” and had a tendency to run wild in public. I kept repeating Philippians 4:13 over and over to myself. With the Lord’s help, we made it and grew attached to her in the process. She went home a few days ago and we just saw her on Skype. We were happy to hear that she is adjusting well in California. And we have one more grandchild, but this one calls us Babucya and Deducya.



Pasha is a godly young man who has moved into our apartment to tutor us in Ukrainian. We are trying to have a Ukrainian speaking household this fall, although it is difficult as he also speaks very good English. The temptation when we want to speak about anything important is to go to English to get our point across.

Fall ministries are starting up. Outreach English classes start next week, we are involved in helping with a kid’s club on Saturday mornings, and Bill is preparing to teach a class at the Bible College here. Nona, our landlord and a young Dr., has also requested to have English instruction at our home. Please keep these ministries in your prayers.

Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him.

Police and Angry Babushkas

The last three weeks have been action-packed. We held Vacation Bible School for two weeks in local neighborhoods. Jake, our son, came for a visit and helped with the last week of VBS. During Jake’s second week here we toured the city and got together often with the young people in our church for fun.

Vacation Bible School is done differently here than in the states. We determined the two neighborhoods we wanted to target. The first day of camp we hand out flyers to any children we see in the neighborhood and issue personal invitations. Then an hour before camp starts, we begin playing games. The children join in and also run and get their friends to come. The first day we typically had eight children in both neighborhoods and by the end of the week we were up to eighteen by word of mouth. Our team was made up of mostly Ukrainian young people from our church with a few Americans.


Because we had the camp outside and not in a church building, we encountered some opposition from the older people who live in the area. Some are angry because they are Orthodox and are concerned that any form of Christianity outside of orthodoxy is a cult and trying to change the faith. Others agree with former Communist atheistic teachings and believe that we are stupid, have been brainwashed, and are trying to brainwash the children.




We had one man who accused us of this and called the police. A police jeep with several officers in it pulled up to see who the trouble makers were. When one officer saw that the children were playing, doing arts and crafts, and having fun he made a sarcastic comment that “this kind person called to tell us there was some trouble here.” He got names and numbers just so that something official was done and left. The older man came back later and tried to attack one of our workers with his cane. The same day we had three neighborhood babushkas (grandmothers) come and yell at us. Their complaints were that we were ruining the grass (50% weeds), making too much noise (laughing children), and, sadly, that there were dark-skinned children there (Armenians). We moved to a basketball court the next day so as not to be accused of ruining grass. We just had to sweep the court first to clear off the broken glass (drunks break bottles for fun most nights).

We reached several children and many seemed to have an understanding of Christ by the end of the week. We are hoping to be able to follow up through a weekly Saturday morning club but as yet have no Ukrainians who are able to lead it on a regular basis because of work schedules.

Matthew 19:14 …Jesus said “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

Prayer requests: Pray for follow up with the children that came to VBS.
Pray for the current political situation with Russia and how it will affect
the spiritual future of Ukrainian believer and unbelievers.

Back from SE Asia

I am trying to think how best to describe our six weeks in Vientiane, Laos.

It is a poor country, the people are small, generous, kind, polite, always smiling. They consider us fat which is a good thing in their eyes. They are entrenched in Buddhism and there are idols everywhere.

We took a trip to Luang Prabang one weekend with a family who have become good friends. Memories of that trip include villages clinging to jungle-covered mountainsides, wondering how they don’t lose their children over the sides, babies tied onto the backs of sisters and mothers. People always selling things. In Luang Prabang we saw beautiful waterfalls, sat in a van for an hour waiting for a monsoon downpour to stop and watching naked children playing in the rain.

Ornate temples were everywhere with orange clad monks who appeared to be anywhere from eight years old to aged. Took a ride on the muddy Mekong in a narrow boat with no life preservers. We missed out on riding elephants because they were angry after the major rainfall.

Our work was to build friendships while coming alongside staff in a hospital to help improve conditions by cleaning and teaching English. The English was to prepare the staff for doctors coming to consult, furthering education, and helping them to do business in an English speaking world. English classes were held daily and the students were eager despite being shy to practice.

We worked with a team of three twenty something kids. Jake is a medical student from Kansas and will be a wonderful Dr. someday. Dorcas is a Chinese American who is waiting to be accepted to med school. She was our great tech support and constantly confused for being Lao. And Emily, a college student from Colorado with a very big heart. Our team worked hard to clean the walls of a pediatric ward – tough to do in a hospital that rarely has running water.

When we left it was emotional – we had made good friends, some who called us brother, father, and mother. We were overwhelmed by their generosity and statements of appreciation. Constant requests were made for us to come back.

Pray for the Lao.

Pray for us as we go back to Kiev and will be involved with two weeks of Vacation Bible School in different neighborhoods in our area.

Colossians 4:3 …praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ …

Walking through Fluff

Spring has been beautiful here. Lots of lilacs in bloom. Margaret, one of the translators for the college, is a wonderful saint who is always giving gifts to people. She spent her birthday taking me to the botanical gardens on the other side of the Dnieper River. They were full of lilacs and it is a Kiev tradition to visit there at least once during lilac season. Ukraine is very green and similar to Illinois with all of the big trees and similar plants.

An interesting springtime phenomenon in Kiev is fluff. It is everywhere, lining the sidewalks, stuck on plants, coming in at the open windows and piling up in the corners of our living room. Friends told us that when the left bank was in its building stage after WW2, cottonwood trees were planted along all the streets. Cottonwood trees can be male or female, and in order to avoid the fluff fall out the city planners planted mostly male trees. Guess what gender the fluff comes from – somebody made a mistake!

We are currently on a plane on our way to Asia. Our first destination is Bangkok where we will meet with our team of four people from the states for planning and education. Then on to a nearby country where we will be working in a hospital, teaching English and doing service projects to help improve the conditions there. This will be a six week trip with a debriefing at the end in Bangkok. We are thrilled to have this opportunity and the people in the hospital are very anxious for us to come as this will be part of a program to allow them to raise the standards of the medical care at this facility. Education in English will give them the opportunity to read English medical materials and consult with English speaking Drs. who will come at a later time. We will update about this trip later but may have limited internet access while we are there.


“Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society, or he may be a blessing spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world.” -Thomas Chalmers

A Full Week

The Day of Europe: Sunday we went downtown with our friend Roman to visit the different booths representing various European countries. Roman talked a local TV channel into interviewing Bill about how he felt about the European Union and Ukraine. He exercised great diplomacy as he was to be on the news that evening. We finished the day with a walking tour of famous monuments and cathedrals.

(With Roman at the "Arch of Friendship")

The Moldovans: A group of students and graduates from a Bible College in Moldova are in town and we had the privilege of having them for dinner last night and helping provide a place for them to stay. We had a great time and because they learn English throughout their time in Bible College there was no difficulty in communicating. We learned all about Moldova, the poorest country in Europe. Their problems are many but these young people are involved already in working with their countrymen to bring them the truth. Some had just graduated last week and this was a celebration trip and a chance to attend an American concert that was in town.

Passion World Tour: What a great evening. We cancelled English teaching for the opportunity to attend the concert with several of the younger people from our church and English class. The concert was free and put on by several well-known Christian bands from the states in the downtown Palats Sportu. Everyone enjoyed the music and the message. This group is touring the major cities of the world and Kiev was the first stop. If anyone is interested in their music or more information their website is www.passionworldtour.com

Good Fathers: Earlier in the week we had the privilege of attending a conference put on by Josh McDowell with a message for the fathers of Ukraine. He had some excellent things to say about a problem that is creating multiple issues for the generations to come here.

Theological Discussions: There are multiple pastors who visit here to teach two week sessions at our Bible College. We usually try to get together with them at least once while they are here. It’s not unusual to spend the evening talking theology and all things related. This week we had Pastor Mark Perkins over and we were talking about atheism. He made an interesting comment that it’s not that people don’t believe in God, even the staunchest atheist believes in God. Anyone who is able to thoughtfully observe our world; the amazing variety; the way that all things works together to provide for the cycles of life; or who has even a limited knowledge of the intricacies of molecular structures has proof enough that a creator exists. To quote from Romans “….what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power…” Mark went on to say the real question for an atheist is not “why don’t you believe in God?” but “what has happened in your life to cause you to hate God?”

Prayer Requests: Pray for our upcoming trip to southeast Asia, that this trip will be a benefit to those people we will be serving. We will be gone all of June and half of July and are preparing for that trip now. Also for guidance when we return. We will continue to focus on learning the language and on determining the best ministries to be involved in here in Ukraine.