The Gospel, the Church, and the City of Odesa

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Odesa, Ukraine! I feel like I've had two years of living in my first two months here in Odesa working with Missionary Mark Priem. There have been so many new experiences. Many good experiences (Ukrainian-style shish kabobs) and some not so good (sounds of missiles and bombs). But my focus is not primarily on the Ukrainian food or even the war; instead, my focus is on what God wants to do in His church and in the city of Odesa. And I've already had opportunity to see God work in many ways.

The City of Odesa

What a great blessing to have an apartment ready for me when I came! I've been able to set up my belongings here and make it home. I've already had guests over to the apartments, so I feel it's official. I'm still looking for a car and would appreciate your prayers. Right now, I can get around fine with public transportation, but a car would give me an opportunity to be a greater blessing to the people here.

Of course, Ukraine is still in war, and Odesa is not an exception. There are often multiple air raid alerts each week, and I've heard many of the drones and missiles hit the city. For a while, the Russians were targeting the power supply for Odesa, so I often didn't have electricity (or sometimes running water) in my apartment. Thank God, the electricity has been stable for several weeks now. The worse effects of the missiles and drones are that some in Odesa have been injured or killed. We at the church say that the air raid sirens are a call to pray. Your prayers are also needed.

Speaking of life in Odesa, I will need to receive a visa in order to stay here in Odesa, so please pray that my documentation would come back from the city office soon so that I can go to the Ukrainian embassy and receive my visa. My 90-day visa-free period ends February 7.

The Church

God's design of the local church is so good. I've been enjoying getting to worship, serve, and fellowship in the church here in Odesa. Often, during the services on Sunday, different people will have a song, poem, or testimony to share. And during Friday prayer meetings, there are often questions and discussions about the Bible study as well as an exchange of prayer requests. As I get to know the people, I have come to love the church. Most of the current members have only been attending since the beginning of the war, so there are a lot of young Christians. Please pray for these Christians. Satan wants to pull down young, unstable Christians, but Christ wants us to disciple those who need it and enable them to help others. I already see some mature Christians in the church teaching and helping younger Christians, which is just how the church should operate.

For my own part, I've been working mostly with the teenagers. There's not a lot of them, but I can see that they time together to have fellowship and to ask questions. I lead Sunday School with them and organize activities. I praise God that they have all been appreciative of the fellowship and open to the discipleship lessons. For Christmas, the kids and teens came together to put on a small Christmas play with several songs. We're already making plans for doing something similar for Easter. My goal is that the discipleship lessons, Christian fellowship, and service in the church will help them to grow into stable Christians. Please pray for me that I would know best how to disciple and lead the meetings and for them that the Holy Spirit would work in their hearts.

In addition to church services, the church has a printing and distribution ministry for Bibles, tracts, and Christian literature. Tuesday and Thursday, Pastor Mark and I gather together orders and ship them out to various churches across Ukraine that have evangelistic outreaches or distributions. In addition, a given week at the church also includes...well, actually, there's no telling what a given week at the church might include. But it's almost always full, and I'm grateful for the opportunities to help Pastor Mark and the church.

The Gospel

When I came to Odesa, my stated mission was to share the gospel, disciple Christians, and support the church. Of these three, sharing the gospel to the lost is one of the greatest honors. I praise God that the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is simple enough to be shared by a foreigner in less-than-perfect Russian. Each night of the week, I get to go out with either Pastor Mark or Sasha (a man from the church) for evangelism and food distribution. Each night we have certain stops where we meet to sing, preach, and pass out food to those who need it. About once or twice a week, I am able to preach for these groups. I need prayer that I would communicate the gospel clearly and that God would touch the hearts of these people (many who have now been hearing the gospel message for months and months). I pray that these people would cease to trust their own goodness and instead trust the work of Christ on the cross.

I've also had some opportunities to share the gospel to people individually. As I've talked with people, I've found that many have heard the gospel message and are trying to mix it with the Orthodox church's message of salvation through good works. As I talk with individuals, I want to uplift Christ's substitute sacrifice as the only means of forgiveness of sins and imputation of God's righteousness. Please pray that God would (1) open up opportunities to share the Bible's message of salvation, (2) give me boldness to use those opportunities, and (3) give me clarity and wisdom as I talk with them.