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Mark 6:34: "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We thank God who blessed our family to spend Christmas together with our precious coworkers in Chicago.  It is the first time for us to spend Christmas here during our 8 years of missionary life in Ukraine.  We thank God for your love, prayers and support for us.  One year ago we started a church plant in Podil which is the center of Kyiv, and we pioneered Kyiv Mohyla Academy (KMA).  It is known as the Princeton of Ukraine and there the classes are taught in Ukrainian and English.  Since students like to study English we have an English Club (EC) at a restaurant and cafe called Pusata Hata on the third floor.  Through EC students learn English and about the Bible also since we discuss life matters from the point of the view of the Bible.  We also pray before and after the lesson.  We began with only 5 members to our worship service but through EC we now have 15 to 17 members.

As mentioned earlier we started with on 5 members: Maria, Sarah, Johnny, M. Gemma from Philippines and myself.  M. Gemma had problems renewing her visa and had to return to the Philippines.  We were a little dismayed but God had mercy on us and sent one Korean missaionry's family with 5 family members as coworkers. So we thank God that his mathematics is wonderful--one went away and five more came.  We also thank God for our daughter Sarah who took a gap year to help start our church.  She practically ran the ministry with praise, arranging the worship service area and being a friend to our Ukrainian Bible students.  Now she is studying at a community college in Chicago.  But again God showed that his mathematics is wonderful.   When one daughter left two other daughters came back.  Maria Joy graduated from her university in Turkey and decided to help us at Podil.  Christy also took a gap year to help our ministry.  They are a tremendous help with the ministry including praise, computer help, EC and message writing.

God also raised up Ukrainians as coworkers for our ministry: Sergay, Natasha, Julia, Lena, Marina and Mark.  God even sent one of them, Tina, as our fist student missionary to Switzerland where she is studying as a Ph.D. student.  Maria Joy, Christy, Natasha and Julia share a sisters common life in Podil.  They rent an apartment but in the future we are praying to have our own Bible house in Podil.  As of now, we are renting an office at Podil for our Sunday service.  We pray for a Bible house so that students can freely come and go and we can have a place for Worship Service.  Thanks again for this Christmas visit and here is our prayer topics:

1.  20 members to SWS
2.  Maria and I to master Ukrainian
3.  For a Bible house in Podil
4.  Sarah, Christy and Johnny to study in Chicago
5.  Ukrainian--a missionary sending nation

In Christ,

John