28 August 2011

SUMMER'S ABUNDANT BEAUTY FROM MY GARDEN IN UKRAINE







26 August 2011

5 questions Christians should ask themselves before logging on

5 questions Christians should ask themselves before logging on

25 August 2011

AMAZING ISRAEL 2011

In June of this year I was able to accompany Jeff on one of his trips. In 17 years I've rarely gone on any of his trips because we had children at home and for reason of the extra cost. Besides, I like being at home in my art studio and I have an active ministry here. In our 8 days in Israel we were able to tour for a couple days and we got a lot in. This shot is overlooking the city of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea.




A beautiful church. So much great architecture. This is Tel Aviv.




Church steeple and some pretty amazing vegetation in Tel Aviv.


Church of the Nativity looking heavenward. So much beautiful architecture.




Overlooking Israel from our hotel in Bethlehem. Notice the water tanks on the roof below. It was a very desert-like place.




Dynamic Church Planters Internations (DCPI) group shot. A wonderful native meal.


Stained glass window in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.




Colleen (Centeio) and Coleen (Franks) doing the tourist thing in Israel. Colleen came from California. For us it was only 3 hours from Ukraine. Not an expensive flight and no jet-lag. Yay!




Bethlehem in the evening taken from our third floor hotel balcony.




Two steeples, one Islamic in the foreground and one Christian down the road behind. They are located in the Bethlehem not far from where we stayed.


15 August 2011

REPORT FROM BMA MISSIONARY NICK DIKTYARENKO

God bless our brothers in Christ!
Summer 2011
Our summer started with prayers for our missioners’ ministry in Fenevichi village. We were praying that God will bless hearts of our brothers and sister to offer for kids (with parents non-believers) of this village, so they could go to our summer camp. God blessed us this year and we could make a camp at the sea shore of Black Sea (Crimea). It is much more expensive then to just have tent camps, but due to your offerings many teenagers had seen the Sea at first time!!!
Our team ran two weeks of the camp.
The 1st week (about 40 people) mostly consisted of teenagers and youth. The majority of teens were from families of non-believers. People in villages do not have jobs, many of them drink. And their children do not have any opportunity to go to the sea. Plus it’s Chornobyl zone and these children badly need going to the sea (at least once a year).
As you know we have small Bible study group in Fenevichi and Natasha works with local teenagers. Now we pray that God will allow us to rent a house there, where we could feed and take care of those children whose parents drink or cannot take care of them.
Pray with us about that need!
Our youth team ran Bible lessons with tanagers. In the morning we had Bible study, in the noon we ad lessons “Indescribable God – Creator and Savior”, in the evening youth made a program (bible quiz, games, pictures of the day). Christian film was a conclusion of every day.
Also our youth evangelized in personal way. As a result one young man repented and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior! His Name is Denis.
Please, pray that God will keep him, lead and teach in His truth!
One more young man made a decision to get baptized and become a servant among teenagers! Dima started to come to our church because of our teens’ club. During last two years he had been joining us in all our camps and church events. His decision is a blessing for our church.
So, pray for him that he could be true servant of God!
The 2nd week (more than 40 people) was formed out of young families and those who is getting ready to get married. The subject of our Bible lessons was “Christ is our Savior”. Themes for morning, noon and evening lessons were about God’s plan for the family.
Dan and Cindy helped us a lot by making English lessons and Bible lessons in English.
Their ministry was especially useful for those campers who still did not accept Jesus as their Savior, because through their interest to English lessons they’ve got to know about God’s Majesty and his plan of Salvation.
Also there were single mothers among campers who lost their husbands. One of such ladies decided to get baptized and dedicated her life to God. Her name is Oksana and she has lovely daughter Sonia.
Pray for Oksana that she would always feel God’s caring hand on her and her growing in faith!
Besides that during our lessons one couple of young people asked for permission for their engagement. So the blessing of our camp are two baptized children of God and one young family! Praise God! Please, pray that God will lead them in his mighty hand!
Our church is thankful to you all, our brothers and sisters, who prayed and made offerings for our summer camps! Your labor is not in vain before God!!!

14 August 2011

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS - LADIES MINISTRY


One of my great blessings is to do crafts with different age groups. This group is our Sunday school team. They are always doing for others. Just after children's camp we met to do something for them. I usually do crafts at camp, but was out of the country and returned in time to do this with them. Though it is not often real hot in Ukraine, sometimes it is, for short periods, so we made fans. We re-purposed greeting cards and they made some of the prettiest crafts. They all had a verse on them and some were going to be given to friends. You can see by the sweet smiles on these faces how blessed I am to work with this fine group of sisters.



This fan was made by "Galya." She took advantage of some of the alphabet letters I had. Galya is second from right and just got married at the end of July (side note).



Here the girls are showing off their bracelets. This is another aspect of ministry I do. At times lovely ladies in America have sent me their old jewelry. I can use broken, outdated, jewelry and watches, just anything. We use it in various ways. One, as here, is to repurpose it into bracelets. The girls love making bracelets. Our Sunday school director, Lena Bandura is standing on the right. A big thanks to those of you who have sent jewelry. I couldn't do it without you. Lord bless.