Our final days in Ukraine were spent in Kiev with our kids Mike, Rachel and Ellie. We walked through the ornate but empty Orthodox churches and toured the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) where the great Motherland statue was erected just before the fall of communism. It is equivalent to our Statue of Liberty. A hammer and sickle are on the shield. It struck us how many memorials are in this land to the battles of the past. The reason there are more there than in the US is that the battles were fought on their soil. We are fortunate to not have so many.

We saw Mike & Rachel's ministry with young adults up close as they gathered for a special all day party at a church member's home. Mike and Rachel work with training the core group of these young people as leaders. Many others attended on this day including some non-believers. In Ukraine young people are part of this group until married. The youth played games, went to the beach, had a Bible study time and ate. These youth will be the future of Ukraine. We should pray for them as they grow and reach the next generation.

Monday we said goodbye to our children to return home to the US. We were blessed to see, be a part of and support these ministries. We returned Gig Harbor with a greater sense of knowing we have been blessed so much here both materially and spiritually. As Jesus said, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." (Lu. 12:48) As individuals and a church we have a great responsibility and privilege to share with the world the life changing Gospel.

We made it to the dark and cavernous Kiev station to catch our 2 a.m. train coming from Moscow to Moldova. We got on and slept well in our coupe (compartment). It was cooler for a change. The windows were open as the curtains flapped in the breeze. The train was very old and dirty by U.S. standards. No comment on rest rooms.

At a long stop in Moldova the next day we got out. Dozens of vendors plied the platform selling tomatoes, cherries, candy, magazines, pictures, vodka, water, beer, piroshkies (meat in fried bread), sausages, trinkets etc. Several old ladies with shawls on their heads showed us a photo of the local orthodox church in hopes we would buy it. Another on the platform sat in a wheelchair with her hand out. Their plight brought tears to my eyes as I thought of the desperate nature of a society bankrupted by communism's government sanctioned atheism. I was glad the Lord had opened the door for us to bring hope and share the Gospel of Christ in this part of the world.

We were met in Falesti (Northern Moldova) by our native missionaries, the Kaletniks as well as our team members Steve, Kathleen and Greg Hicks along with Jordan Hayes who all arrived earlier from Romania. It was nice to talk to Americans. We had dinner with them before they went out with Nehemiah and others to pass out invitations to one of our services.

Sunday our team did ministry in three locations. In Vasiliy Kaletnik's church in Falesti all went well with the Hicks doing music along with local church music and a couple of guest singers from Belti. I spoke on Christ on the road to Emmaus. The church here in this city of five thousand or more is the center of ministry that reaches out to smaller farm villages.

We went to the village of Sarata after lunch. A small church has been established here for several years. We used a rented cultural hall that was in bad shape and had major electrical problems. The men worked for a half hour to get the lights working. They do have some property which our team worked at clearing last fall. A few dozen folks showed up for the service and all were encouraged.

Without delay we headed to the village of Cholaku. Our team had handed out invitations here where the Gospel has never been preached before. We were late arriving but were amazed at about 130+ people filling the cultural hall. Children sat on benches waiting with adults and teens interspersed. Our musical program took an hour and then I got up to speak with my translator. I was encouraged to keep it very simple for these people knew nothing about the Gospel. So I preached directly from John 3 and Christ's meeting with Nicodemus. Many children were moving about and there was much noise which is common in the culture here. Following the message nearly half the room responded to Vasiliy's invitation to stand. Our workers were overwhelmed as they came forward to pray about repentance and salvation. Bibles and literature were given until we ran out. Vasiliy is organizing follow-up here in a week.

Monday our team returned to Sarata to help with the construction of the new church building which will be a central location for reaching other villages. Last fall one of our teams helped start the project here. Local believers have worked on it since. Unemployment is nearly 90% so men often have to spend most of the year in Moscow to get work to support their families. Steve was helpful with his ability to speak Romanian. We moved rocks, wired together steel reinforcement for the foundation, leveled dirt and made wood forms from lumber saved from an old house.

Funds of about $25,000 are in need to purchase materials to finish this building. When funds come in teams can come to help the Moldovans. Funds can be sent to ABWE for "Vasiliy Kaletnik Sarata building project."

In the evening we planned to rest but believers in the village of Bokani called three times begging us to come and do a service. So we headed there in the afternoon. Here Vasiliy had established a small church early in his ministry. The church met in a room they had purchased in a larger building which also housed the post office and a drug store. The church room was clean and orderly. A bucket of water and a cup on the stove served as the drinking fountain.

Tuesday our teams headed to catch trains back our respective places. Before we left we visited several older people and the sick. It was heart wrenching to see these poor folks. We were able to pray with them and in some case help them buy bread. We caught the train back at midnight.

Caleb took our luggage from the apartment down to the car so we could get to our train on time. But the elevator jammed between floors causing the kids to panic (and me too). Perhaps it was the weight of the bags. He managed to press some buttons by the light of his cell phone and after about fifteen minutes the elevator worked again. We said goodbyes, took pictures with our grand kids here and Nehemiah s new friends and boarded our night train to Cherkassy (see pic). It was hot out but hotter in the train (100 degrees) since rarely does the air conditioning work here. We sweated through the night in our compartment (coopay) but arrived on time at 5 a.m.. Our car attendant spoke some English and was fun to visit with.

Vladimir and Maria Sagadeyev (Our son Caleb's in-laws) met us with a good breakfast and a tour of the town. We were surprised that the large and prominent statue of Lenin in the city square was missing. That is a good sign. Recently city officials pulled it down at night (because some still might oppose it (see pic). We had our picture with Serj taken on the site and in front of the government building.

Their church body has grown and has many parallels to ours. Both are about the same age, both are about the same size and both have purchased used buildings that we have remodeled. Nancy and I spoke to the group that evening and enjoyed the interchange of ideas and renewing of friendships. On Thursday we attended a village small group meeting at the village Doctor's home near the Dnieper River (see pic). Here we sang to guitar, intensely studied I John 2 for almost two hours and had a full dinner afterwards in our honor. One of the men also did a beautiful tenor saxophone worship concert outdoors for us. The whole village could hear. He is known in Ukraine for his music and recently came to Christ.

Part of my purpose here is to encourage the believers in ministry, model expositional preaching and always learn from them. It has been a blessing to learn how Christ has built His church (Mat. 16:18) here in spite of severe persecution, current economic difficulties and little availability of formal theological training. It was inspiring to be in their prayer meetings and to visit with Pastor Vadim who is faithfully leading them to growth and greater maturity. Thanks for praying for us. We travel to Moldova through Kiev next.

What an amazing week we have that was highlighted by two main events. Thursday we went to Tarutino to see the village our Suko ancestors came from before the 1917 Revolution. It was a 125 miles from Odessa on bumpy roads. We found the central market humming, ordered some shashlik at a Bessarabian cafe and then went for a walk while they cooked it over an open fire outside.

A few phone calls later we found where the pastor lived in a humble house with no indoor plumbing. Nicoli and his wife Nadia begged all nine of us to stay for tea, dinner and overnight. We have a lot to learn about hospitality from these people who have very little.

Over tea outside we discussed village and family history. Amazingly, in this village of 7,000, he knew an elderly white haired lady named Zelia (village historian) I had met here fifteen years ago. I thought surely she had died by now. As soon as I mentioned her he darted off to get her. She was alive and well, a member of his church and remembered us. She had become a believer and was full of German history about the village. What an amazing meeting about family history and God's working here over tea and cookies and an ancient map of the village from Stalin's era. It had the locations of half a dozen Suko relatives.

Later he took us on a tour of the village springs and a hidden grave yard where our ancestors are buried. We would have never found it on our own. We felt like Indiana Jones as we crept through the brush to find the ancient head stones. He also took us to the site of the large and beautiful old church my grandparents attended. It had been destroyed by the communists and the bricks used to build a government building. But, Christ is still building His church here (cf. Matt. 16:18). Nicoli also showed us the location of several new churches. Finally, he pointed out several old German houses that are likely the homes where ancestors once lived.

Sunday we attended the services of a new church here in Odessa. Both Caleb and I preached to the congregation of around 100. Most are young people. They are meeting in an old day care that they have fixed up very nicely. Three sermons in just two hours took care of the morning service in which about seven people came forward to openly repent. Then there was tea and cookies followed by a two hour members meeting where church discipline was routinely dealt with and I was asked to give PowerPoint presentation of Discovery's ministries.

Later we went to Pastor's house for dinner. Pastor Peter Rodoslavov and his wife Tamara are old friends from 1994. He has spent a short time in prison during the persecution years under the KGB before the fall. But now there is freedom and his ministry is fruitful. In his early 50's he is a busy man with a large family. He is also the president of a national association of baptists in Ukraine. We had a rich afternoon today discussing ministry, God's grace and the growth of our families and churches while Nehemiah went with a translator and a group of young people to play soccer in another part of the city. We took a nice group picture of our two families in a field near their house with Odessa in the back ground. God is so good. Thanks for praying for us as we travel. -Pastor Mark

MISSION UKRAINE: HORASHA

My son-in-law Mike asked our Nehemiah to listen for the number of time he heard the Russian word "horasha" as Rachel spoke to a neighbor. You are likely to hear it several times a minute. It is one of the first words you learn over here. It means essentially "It is fine." We said "Horasha" as we saw improvements in the road system as traveled. However, this is limited to the main highways. There were also many nice and new gas stations and stores that we never saw fifteen years ago.

"We are fine" after traveling south and meeting our Caleb who took us to Makarovo. We had a "horasha" time with the believers in our sister church there and in Sahanskoi. The fields are green with young wheat and sunflowers. See more pics on my Facebook. The believers were eager to hear how things are going and to share their burdens and blessings. We were able to encourage them them with testimonies and message on opening our eyes to follow Christ. The past fifteen years have lead us to a deep relationship with these people that we really appreciate. We made plans to send monthly letters to encourage the leaders in evangelism and discipleship. I promised to paint a church sign for them while here. Villages in Ukraine are shrinking as people move to the city but a witness is still needed there.

This past week we traveled to Odessa to be with all our adult kids and five grandkids here for family time...horasha. Caleb serves as director of the Church Ministries Institute here. Mike and Rachel came in on the train from Kiev where they work with youth ministries and teaching in seminary. We all met together for a number of meals and family events. We walked in the park (Believer me..it is not like American parks) took the kids to the Black Sea, saw a really fun water show using amazing trained seals and dolphins and had a very nice dinner out.

As a child I feared the threats of the USSR. As an adult I know God has blessed us to allow our family to have such an impact in this very needy place. I never would have imagined we would have the privilege of helping bring the Gospel of Christ here where the reformation is just starting. Horasha! Numbers of opportunities to help, teach, testify etc. have come our way this week. We'll tell you more when we return. Keep us in prayer as we minister this weekend. Horasha! -Pastor Mark