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
