December 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As many of you in the West have just celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus, we will be celebrating Christmas in Ukraine on January 7th. As an American in Ukraine it is not unusual for us to celebrate both. But, as 2013 is coming to a close, I want to share with you some highlights of the last few months of our ministry here in Ternopil. I am so blessed to be serving here as our church continues to be an example of God's love and grace. I hope you will be blessed.

CCBCE TEAM In late October, we hosted a team from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary. Our vision was for them to reach out to the International students. They were able to visit the dorms at the medical university and share the gospel with students from Africa and the Middle East. Praise God, they were welcomed and able to share. We also hosted a game night for the students to come to the church office and spend time with the team. We used this opportunity to establish relationships with the students and provide a night of fun and relaxation for them, as the medical students sometimes just need a break. I was so blessed to see how much the students enjoyed their time with us. Please pray that those who know the Lord will stay strong in their faith. Please pray for those that don't know the Lord and that the conversations the team had with them will be remembered and draw them to Him. Please pray for more opportunities to minister to the students and to study God's Word with them.  

CCBCE Team

 Sawsen, Tabitha, Me, Austin, Kelsey and Loren

DEMONSTRATIONS As many of you are aware, Ukraine has been having political demonstrations against the president and recent decisions regarding Ukraine's trade agreements with the European Union and Russia. There have been acts of violence that only intensified the protests, but in Ternopil, the demonstrations have been very peaceful. Please pray for Ukraine. Jesus Christ is on the only one who can bring true peace on earth and good will toward men. Let's pray that Ukraine will experience revival in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Demonstrators stood in the cold for several 

weeks in the main square of Ternopil. 

Now Sundays are a designated day for protests. 

CHURCH BUILDING

The crew is working hard to get the new building ready for us to begin using within the next two months. We moved out of our church offices on Sunday and will meet in four different Home Fellowships until the new building is ready. As soon as the roof, heating and bathroom are completed, we will be able to move in for Sunday services. It is exciting to think that we will soon be meeting in our own church building! Please pray for the finances to complete the project and that we will be able to move in by February. The whole church wants to come together again as soon as possible. I'm very privileged that my apartment will be one of the home fellowships. We will be watching George's preaching on live stream so that we will all receive the same Sunday teaching. Technology really adds a new flavor to church meetings! 

This will be the main hall for the church

View from the street. The roof is almost completed!

Kicha  The ministry for the pensioners and invalids has been going well over all, but there are some issues with a few of the ladies not getting along. Please pray for God's leading for myself, Tanya and Aleksiy as we serve this special group of people. There have been some heated arguments and many accusations flying around. The issue is mainly over who deserves to receive bread. It is really sad, because we don't make any requirements other than being on our list to receive help. But as is so often the case, some people want to prove their worth and justify themselves as being more deserving. It's such a great example of the grace that God has poured out on us. We don't deserve His gift of salvation, yet He gives to all who come and are willing to receive. I continue to share this example with the people and I pray the message will take root in their hearts. I want so much for peace and joy to prevail over these meetings. I have asked those involved with the conflict to commit to praying for this situation and am seeking to teach them to deal with these issues in a Biblical way. They are from many different churches and have experienced different kinds of leadership and teaching. We are pointing them to the Bible. Please pray for us to have wisdom, grace and patience in order to glorify God. Please also pray for provision to continue to provide bread, grains and pasta for them to take home. Praise God! We were able to give them extra this last week, as we will not be able to meet again until the church building is ready. 

Kicha Fellowship, as the food donations were being handed out.

 The picture isn't clear because the room was cold and my lens fogged up. 

There are 103 people on our list. 40 to 50 people come to the Bible study every week.                                                

Children's Christmas Outreach

On Saturday our church hosted a Christmas outreach for the children of people who are on the Kicha List. These are parents of young children who are struggling with providing for their families while living on a pension fund. What a blessing that the church wanted to reach out to them. Individuals from the church provided gift bags for each of the invited children. The children from our church performed the Christmas story and the church choir sang. I spoke to several of the mothers afterward and they were so thankful and blessed. Please pray for these families, that they will put their faith, hope and trust in the Lord for salvation and provision for their families.

Mary and Joseph

CC Ternopil Choir with some very cute angels

I pray you have a wonderful, joyful New Year in the Name of our Lord Jesus! I want to thank all of you who have so faithfully lifted me and the ministry in Ternopil up in prayer, and for your financial help that has enabled me to live and serve here. Thank you for being a part of Calvary Chapel Ternopil, Ukraine. God bless you and keep you, and may His face shine upon you and give you peace.

In Jesus love,
Marilyn

September 2013

Greetings again from a very cold fall day in Ternopil!

Sewing at home...that's my assistant Sasha on the left

Hallelujah! As of August, I am now a temporary resident of Ukraine. I can stay in the country for an entire year without having to cross the border. In the past I had to leave the country every 3 months in order to stay legal under my old visa. But what is even more exciting for me, is that Calvary Chapel Ternopil is officially registered, as well as our new property and we have an organization, Skela "The Rock" that we are also able to use for Humanitarian Aid work.  So now that we're all registered and legal, please pray for laborers to come into the the fields for harvest. There is work to be done, but the laborers are few. We have leaders being raised up in the church, but we need more, plus servants to minister in the work of discipleship, evangelism, outreach to International students and Ukrainian students, as well as our ongoing church ministries, like hospitality, books, cleaning, child care, worship...........Please pray. 

CCBCE TEAM: We are looking forward to a team from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary. They will be here Oct. 18- 27.  Please pray for the team of six who will be coming to evangelize at the University dorms and reach out to the International students. We realized that most of the students we have been teaching and discipling have already graduated or will be this year. We want to reach the new students, as we are aware that many are afraid to leave their dorms since they are foreigners in Ukraine. Please pray for divine appointments and opportunities to meet with African and Middle Eastern students. We are hoping to have a coffee house or outreach where the students can gather for fun and conversation, so that we can establish relationships with them.

English Ministries: Now that September is here, English Club is meeting again at the YWAM base.  I hope to begin the Intermediate English Class in the Gospel of John in the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday I was asked to be an official judge at a High school English Competition. I didn't realize what a big deal it was until someone told me they saw it on the news. Praise God for the opportunity to meet more students and administrators in the city. My classes at the high school and Technical College will begin in a few weeks. I'm preparing to get really busy. Please pray for opportunities to glorify God and draw people to Him.

New Church Building: The guys have torn apart most of the old building except the bathroom and the kitchen. They have completed one room which will be part of the bottom floor. The room is now functional and we used it last Wednesday for the Bible study for the Pensioners. This is exciting to have our own room for Bible study. 

Current Church Building: Because of the already cold temperatures, we made a decision to stop meeting in the hall we are currently renting. It's like an icebox in there even after we installed heaters. It would reach a high of  7 degrees C (44 F) with the heat on. The new owners of the hall won't let us use our heaters because of construction they are doing, so we're going to move out the furniture in our church office and pack as many chairs as we can in order to meet in the fellowship room. Hopefully, the new church building will be ready before next summer. With some creativity, we will continue have 3 children's ministry areas in our meeting rooms, and a place for hot tea and cookies. I also have a sandwich and coffee ministry after church for those who need a little extra. We'll probably put that out in the hallway. Next week will be our first time meeting like this. Blessed are the flexible!

Kicha/ Bible study Kicha is the name we have given our food center ministry for the elderly who are living on pensions. We discovered that they use this word as a slang for the English word "Kitchen." We liked the sound of it, so now it's the official name. Last Wednesday we started up the Kicha Bible study and food distribution after our summer break. Pastor George taught and Slava from our church sang worship songs. I am so thankful for a team from YWAM on outreach from Scotland who helped with distributing reading glasses that were donated to us. Joanne from YWAM gave us a crash course in reading eye charts. We are so blessed to have these glasses to help the elderly. Many were blessed. I still have a lot of glasses left over, so I'm hoping to distribute them around the neighborhood, as there are a lot of elderly living in my building.   Please pray for funds to help with food for Kicha. We have promised them a loaf of bread each week, but would also like to give pasta and grains for each of them to take home and cook. Please also pray for me, as I will be teaching the weekly Bible study. 

Pastor George teaching the Bible study at Kicha

Reading eye charts and distributing glasses

 Sisters: Friday night Sisters Bible study has started up again. We are going through the Names of God, which I love to teach. This study is life changing for me every time I go through it. I pray that it will be life changing for the girls as we dig deep into the Word and see the Lord's amazing promises of love, grace and faithfulness towards each and every one of us. 

 Sisters good bye party for Pamela, Remi and Kemi who all graduated and returned home this summer

 Saying good by to Pamela at the train station

Temi and Precious- Temi will graduate this year. Precious is a new student. 

 End of summer BBQ with our master chefs Sasha, Aleksiy and Slava

 Worship at the BBQ- George, Tanya (my roommate) and Jonny

God bless you all! I love you so much and am so thankful to you for your prayers, encouragement and support. In Jesus mighty Name,

Marilyn

June 2013 in Ternopil

TESOL

On June 14th I graduated with a certificate from TESOL 

(Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

After several years of participating in English ministries and leading English classes in local schools, I am now official :) The YWAM base in Ternopil sponsored a 3 week intensive TESOL course led by Doug Sadler who teaches TESOL all over the world to equip missionaries. We had the most amazing class, including four students from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary and missionary Vanessa McElroy, a Calvary Chapel missionary from Lviv, Ukraine. Doug has provided us with the foundations of TESOL and invaluable resources. The best part of the course was that it was centered on Jesus. I am looking forward to the next school year, as I know I can help the students even more in their English skills and know that I am encouraging them in the Name of Jesus. Please pray for future English classes that I will use my new skills and knowledge for the glory of God, also knowing that English can not only change people's lives, but also allow me the opportunity to minister in the love of Jesus. 

 The Food Center

 

The Food Center is taking a break until September. The meetings had been at the new property which is now under construction. The garage where the food center meetings were conducted has been torn down as it was unsafe after the heavy snows last winter. Paul and Gayla Hurley, who had led this ministry for 14 years, always took a break in the summer. In the warmer months, the pensioners are able to get around much easier and have food from their gardens. I was so blessed by so many who came to the Bible Study, as it's not required for them to receive bread and any other food we are able to give. This summer we will be preparing for next year, finding the best places to purchase food, grow food and package it for distribution. Aleksiy will be in charge of the food distribution and I will be leading the Bible studies. Please pray for us to be faithful servants to the elderly. Please also pray for finances to support this ministry in order to really help the pensioners, both spiritually and physically.

Summer Months

Foundations Conference in Vajta, Hungary: Next week I will be going to Vajta for the annual Foundations Conference. I love this week, as this is where I see so many of the missionaries and brothers and sisters I've served with in Eastern Europe over the past twenty years. This is always such an encouraging time for me to witness first hand the incredible work God has done and is doing in this area of the world. Please pray for safe travels, provision and a fruitful conference. 

Visa: While I am in Hungary I will be applying for a new visa. This is a big one, as it will give me registration in Ukraine for an entire year. Up to this point, even though I have had a five year, multiple entry visa to Ukraine, I am still required to leave the country every 3 months or I face a fine. This can be inconvenient and pricey, but this is how we have existed. Please pray that the Lord will give me grace, mercy and wisdom in dealing with all of the papers, consulate, local officials and lawyers. Also please pray for provision to pay for all of this. I know that the Lord has called me to Ukraine, so I trust that He will provide a way. 

Worship Conference: July 29- Aug. 2 will be our annual Worship Conference in Ternopil led by Jonathan Markey. We are blessed to have Mike Payne and some of the worship team members from CC Budapest come to teach and conduct seminars. In the past, I have been very involved in the organization of this conference. This year, we are passing a lot of the responsibilities to Ukrainian leaders in the church. Please pray for the details of the conference and that leaders will rise up and take steps of faith to make this an encouraging and fruitful time. 

Church Picnic: On July 7th we will be having a church picnic. This is bittersweet, as the African students who are graduating and leaving Ukraine will be cooking for the picnic. They wanted to offer this as a gift to us as they are heading out to a new chapter in their lives. Pamela, Ralph, Naa, Richard, Lillian, Robert and Victor are all graduating. All but Victor will be leaving the country. After six years of having them as part of our church fellowship, they will be deeply missed. Please pray that they will glorify God as they serve Him as doctors. My prayer is also that the love and teaching that they have received from CC Ternopil will bear everlasting fruit for the Kingdom God!

Summer Outreach: A children's Superbook Club began last Sunday and many kids showed up. Emily and Byron led a baseball Camp last week and are hoping to start a youth ministry with the kids who attended. We are praying for more opportunities to do evangelism and reach out to youth in Ternopil this summer. Please pray for all of these outreaches and for a fresh vision to reach out to the city.

Ternopil Walking Street

Thank you for all of your love, prayers and financial support. You are so special to me.

God bless you all!!!!!

We bought a church building!

Greetings from Ukraine! It's been a very long, cold winter!

"He who gives to the poor will not lack, But he who hides his eyes will have many curses"
 Proverbs 28:27

This is the verse I was meditating on the morning of Dec 27 when my doorbell rang. There was a gypsy with his hand on his stomach. "I'm hungry", he pleaded. I paused, then went to my kitchen and brought him back some fruit. He sat down on the stairs and began eating. So many times when people are begging I ask myself, is he telling the truth? Is he going to sell what I give him? Is he going to buy alcohol? But I don't want to hide my eyes, and I believe this was a test the Lord was giving me that morning. He was hungry and I could share my food with him. I told the man the food was from Jesus and he looked above with thankful eyes.

At our weekly team meeting I shared what the Lord was speaking to me and how I wanted to reach out to the people in the city. Pastor George shared that the Lord had also been speaking to him about this very need. We decided to take a thermos of hot tea to the train station following our prayer meeting Tuesday night, just to see if this would bless them. The temperatures at night are below freezing and a cup of hot tea would warm and comfort them. We discovered about 20 people who sleep in the train station . The tea was a very welcome gift. "Do you have any food?" many of them asked. We had to respond with sorrow, knowing our church didn't have the funds to support a food ministry. The following week, one of the leaders in our church, Aleksiy offered to bring food to the train station for the homeless. He and his wife wanted to help. The Lord says He who gives to the poor will not lack, we were stepping out in faith. This time we took food and hot tea. They were so thankful. We told them of Jesus' love for them and His gift of salvation is the greatest gift we can offer them. The joy we all felt was great, and by faith, we agreed to continue bringing what we could when it was provided.

The following morning I received a phone call from Gayla, a woman in our church. She and her husband are returning to the states after 16 years of ministering in Ternopil. She explained that she had been feeding 75 elderly people every week and they come for a Bible study. Would our church pray about taking this ministry over when they leave? The answer was clear. God was leading us to reach out to the poor. These are the pensioners. Those that grew up during Soviet times and were forgotten in the changes of government and new opportunities for Ukraine. They receive about $100 a month or less to live on. As Ukraine has become more and more expensive just to meet basic needs, that is just not enough money. As missionaries, we have watched our grocery bills double, then triple, in the last few years. Utility bills have gone way up and it's just not cheap to live here anymore. For the elderly, there is nothing they can do but work to survive on the little they receive from the government.

Again by faith, we agreed to take over this ministry. The most exciting part is they come for Bible study before the food is distributed. They don't have to, but about 50 of them do. I went once to  observe how they do all of this in order to prepare for taking over this ministry, and was so blessed. They love the Bible study and are learning the basic truths of God's Word. Most of them were raised in the Catholic Church and Ukrainian traditions. They are receiving God's Word. I was also blessed by the ministry as a whole and the way the food distribution was organized. A bakery delivers 75 loaves of bread and Gayla's co-worker, Nicolai passes out bags of grains and pasta to the elderly. The ministry has reviewed government records in the Ternopil in order to assure that each person there qualifies for help. It is well organized and bursting with God's love.

A few weeks later, after weeks of battling a treacherous cold, I returned to observe the food center ministry. Afterwards, Gayla and I went into the house and she began telling me how the landlord was selling it for $50,000. Say what? This is an unbelievable price! We quickly started talking about the possibility of the church buying it. We have no money, but God was leading. I was there because God led me to this place. We were being obedient to help the poor. Could it be, God would provide for this building that included a remodeled garage that holds a weekly Bible study for 50 people? The kitchen is fully stocked and the appliances are included, the attic is huge, the backyard could easily be used to extend the main room of the house to build a sanctuary. We could move in and use the building right away. This is unheard of. But this is God!

The furniture will stay and we can use this room for moms and babies as well as ministry meetings

 The kitchen will be left fully stocked including appliances. We can prepare meals here right away.

 The bathroom has been remodeled with a large shower. We could host guests here in the future, but we will need more bathroom facilities to accommodate the church




 

So, again by faith, since I do the accounting for our church, I called George. "We had our baby this morning!!!" he was shouting into the phone. George and Sharon had just welcomed their fourth little boy James into this world. "Congratulations George! That's great! But I also have something exciting to tell you!" It's pretty funny now, but time was short. I was also shouting into my cell phone. I'm not sure if it was from the excitement or the noise on the street. I went home and wrote out an email explaining the situation to George. He gathered us for prayer and took some of the team over to look at the house. We truly believed God led us there and this building was for us. Our church would finally have a home. A place for the church, along with our 30 children, a place for the elderly to have Bible studies and a food center, a place to prepare food to feed the homeless and a place for any future ministries God directs us into. Thank you God! It took six days, from the time we first looked at the house, to get the papers signed and the down payment paid. Glory to God!

Now by faith, we will make the complete payment by the end of April. We covet your prayers and if you would like to help financially, there is an account set up at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. You can contact me and I will give you the information. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the meeting room for the Food Center/ Bible study. I will get one soon.

 One half of the attic. It's a huge room.  We are hoping to remodel it for children's ministry or meeting rooms. We need an architect to help us make plans.

 View of the yard. We have plenty of space in the yard to extend the room in order to make the church sanctuary





 

This is an exciting time for us and we look forward to this new venture in faith as the Lord has provided a building for us. May we be faithful to use this building according to His purpose and His glory.

Many blessings to all of you. I thank you so much for your prayers and your financial support so that I may continue to serve in Ukraine. To those of you in the west, may your celebration of Jesus' resurrection bring glory to Him and touch the world around you. Ukraine will be celebrating His resurrection May 5th. God bless you all!!!!


Praise God!

• For leading and providing for our new church building
• For the blessed opportunity to minister to the elderly and homeless in Ternopil
• For my week in Vajta, Hungary where I was able to share with the students in the Missions Training Program
• For the privilege of serving Jesus!

Prayer requests

• Healing for one of the ladies in our church. She needs surgery and it is quite serious.
• For the remaining funds to purchase the new church building
• For finances and workers to help with remodeling the new building
• For healing and strengthening of a tired and weary body. I have some health issues, but it doesn't seem to be too serious, but I need a few more tests.
• For God's provision to continue living and serving in Ukraine
• For wisdom in leading the food center. Aleksiy will help with the food. I will be teaching the Bible studies
• For Ukrainian men and women to be raised up as leaders in the church