Baptism

Today at around 9am Iryna Ratushna was baptised in the Ros river, Oleksandria park area. Oleg Ratushny (Ira's husband) and Sergey Strilchuk were witnesses of Ira's birth in Christ.

What a joyfull day! Praise the Lord!

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News!

Tonight i had a phonecall from Oleg Ratushny, and he said his wife Ira wants to be baptized. We will go to the Ros river tomorrow at 8am. Oleg studied with her, and this is very much thought about decision.

About myself

Recently I was not feeling well - after the flu i had 6 weeks ago, as it's consequence i discovered i have both otitis and frontitis. Last week i had to spend in the hospital, and, thank God, i am feeling much better now. Don't ask me what they did to me - it wasn't too bad, but not plesant at all! :) I can hear with my left ear now, after 1,5 month of being half-deaf. I am greatfull for your prayers!

Problems and challenges

They are always there. Especially when someone claims they are not there. We do have quite a few.

1. During LST program we once again encountered a group of skinheads, or "football hooligans", as they call themselves. They came for one of LST parties we had for readers, with the obvious purpose to ridicule us. They had done enough to make quite a few readers refuse to come to the following parties. Next time though this group came with the interest, and we were able to meet them and talk to them some. Their behaviour though is a subject of a serious concern, and that was the reason for all the men in our church to come to the last party, in the role of a counterposing power. Also, men are now challenged to adjust their schedules to be able to come to every church event during the week, one reason - for the sake of security. Those are safety precautions, yet we decided to welcome those young people whenever they come, show them proper respect and kindness.

2. This problem originates from the first one. Our porch had become a subject of vandalism, first by the hooligans, and then by the younger kids, that imitate the"cool guys". We still have not come up with the solution for this problem. So far we pray for wisdom in this situation.

3. Winter 2009 is coming, and again arises a heating problem. We are considering a possibility of installing an electric heater into existing heating system, but no estimated figures available yet.

Last winter we had to pay up to 3,000 hryvnya a month, which is 2 times more than we have in contribution monthly. Above that we pay about 200 hrn for electricity and about 250 for other utilities. 450-500$ each month is a challenge.

4. It's traditionally hard (at least in Ukraine - I never attended congregations in other countries :)) to get Church members involved. Attendance is not very stable, people find it normal to come very late even for the Sunday morning worship. The building requires constant care, we desperatelly need people (preferably women) willing to work with children. We need more workers!

Update

We've been having quite a busy summer so far. LST team, as it was expected, came to spend 6 weeks in Bila Tserkva. Evan Bowers and Tyler Fultz are both students at Tennessee Technical University, and are attending the Christian Student Center there. For Evan it was his second trip to Ukraine - he was a member of LST team we had in 2008, so his experience was of a great benefit for both of them and for me as well :)

Since the team was too small to cover a significant number of readers, we decided not to advertise it much, as we did in the past, but rather use personal contacts with people who might be interested in taking free English classes. And - it worked, what's more, we didn't even expect that many to come to the information meeting. And many more came later, willing to sign up. All in all we had more than 45 people to come. In June, as it was expected, quite a few dropped, due to the graduation from high school. From the prior experience we discovered that July and August are two least effecient months to have LST, because many, if not most, go to the Black Sea or other resorts, which made it impossible for the readers to complete the study. May/June proved to be the best time. Of course, even in the other regions of Ukraine the situation may be slightly different.

I was very glad to see most of my Shans students taking LST classes. In September, i plan to continue meeting with them twice a week in the Bible Study (in English).