Ukraine Revisited

It’s always so encouraging to hear about thriving churches, and even more so when I’ve visited these churches in the past. I recently heard from a couple of pastors in Ukraine, and thought it would be great to pass on their news.

Marganets

In my pre-NLI days, back in 2004/2005, I was involved in a couple of short-term mission teams from my home church, Life Church Burnley. The main focus of the mission was our partner church in Nikopol, Ukraine, but on both trips we visited their mother church in Marganets, about 20 miles from Nikopol. We had some great times with Pastor Oleg Lugovs’kyy and the church community in Marganets and have fond memories of our mission endeavours there.

I was impressed with Oleg’s vision and passion to see the church impact the Marganets community. He was willing to push the boundaries. One year he gave us a chance to appear on local TV!! (I still have the evidence!) What’s more, Oleg also had such a refreshing attitude to women in ministry. He treated his lovely wife as an equal  partner in leading the church. What’s more, Marganets was the first Ukrainian church I preached in!

So, imagine my delight to reconnect with Oleg again on Facebook recently. This is what he had to say about current church life in Marganets.

Marganets church building - a renovated factory

“We’re fine here in Marganets in spite of different difficulties around. The church is growing and praying. Praise God nowadays we pay attention on evangelism. People from the church evangelize personally and it’s the main thing that helps to bring other people to the church.

Celebrating miracles!

Also we make a lot of printed advertisements and newsletters that contain testimonies. We have made our own TV programs on the two regional channels. God has opened this door for us and it’s a great miracle for us. Impossible is possible! PRAISE GOD!!!!! We conduct healing service for unbelievers once a month. That’s all we live with.”

Inside the church building

Great to see what God is doing in Marganets these days.

Poltava

The first NLI church planting project in Ukraine started in 2004. As well as the church in Nikopol, 11 other churches were planted, including one in Poltava, led by a great young couple, Andrey and Natasha Zibrov. In my role as STM coordinator with NLI I spent 4 days on a site visit here in August 2006. Andrey had organised a 5-day camp for local kids. The STM team played a key part in the camp program, as well as engaging in ministry in the church plant itself. You might recall the incredible testimony I shared from this mission, when young Stefan became a Christian, got baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit all in the space of 24 hours. It was certainly a memorable few days for us all.

Just before Christmas I received an email from Andrey. Not all the news was good, but Andrey & Natasha’s faith and passion shines through.

2009 was for us not easy, but fruitful. Hard, because we lost a child. Natasha was pregnant and in August we lost the child. Emotionally it was not simple to endure this event, but the Lord was with us and gave forces (strength). Thanks you for your prayers.

This year there were as many remarkable events. As usual, in the summer, we did children’s – teenagers camp. It was remarkable time both for children and for us. In the evenings there came parents of children and their unbeliever friends – all of them spoke about unusually warm conditions in a camp. It turned out fine!

Poltava youth camp

The water baptizing event followed. 11 persons from church made the decision to follow the Lord. This time we have made it more festive, with a path made from flowers on the water. After the baptisms we had entertainment and memorable gifts: the Lord gave us blessed weather!

Last month we had celebratory service – a Harvest holiday. Our hall was full. We leased a projector and made a presentation of all the events of church in a year. We had very good responses from visitors!

One week in church there was a wedding of two couples. It turned out to be a very beautiful evangelism service because there were many unbelievers, relatives and friends.

A double wedding!

This year we have started to have family video seminars. It is a success. Families enjoy participating and testify to changes and successes. We plan to continue seminars next year and to develop family services.

We pray about our own building for the church. The site we have, near Poltava, is not convenient, as not many people have cars. We pray and search the city as the prices for real estate have fallen, and we trust in a miracle from the Lord for our church. We have started to donate already, believing for the finance on building. Pray please for it together with us. With love in Christ, Andrey, Natasha, Vera, Grisha.

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Looking Beyond 2009

Next Level International (NLI) has been built on a solid foundation of partnership.  In the past eighteen years we have seen over 7000 leaders trained, over 130 churches planted directly and hundreds more indirectly, and thousands of individuals mobilized into frontline evangelism. Europe is an ever-changing landscape, particularly evident in this last decade. We have seen the European Union (EU) continue to stretch its borders, as they include more post communist nations.  The often volatile Balkan region is now being welcomed into the EU family and the first Muslim nation is being considered for candidacy.

For NLI, what this all means is that we need to change and challenge our thinking and actions. In a post-Christian Europe where many countries number the evangelical witness at less than 1% there is much more to be done.  We know that the post-communist hunger that existed for many years is waning, but we continue to see the deep spiritual need for the power of the Gospel. We are called to see the creation of movements. Addition will not get the job done . It will take exponential multiplication.

With this in mind, and a strong desire to build on the past, NLI has developed a regional focus. We are currently training leaders in 5 of the 6 regions of Europe.  As well there are church planting and short term mission initiatives in 4 of the 6 regions. Our aim is to expand our ministry initiatives in every region over the next two years while adapting our training/projects/teams more specifically to each culture. We believe this will enable us to move closer to the goal of a ministry relationship in every nation of Europe by 2020.  The nations currently being targeted for new ministry initiatives include France, Italy, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Hungary and Albania. (Doug Watson: Nov 2009)

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News Update

A pensive moment!

The other prayer request was for a 3rd trainer at the forthcoming ALTC in Crimea. The great news is that we have secured both trainer and sponsorship. The sponsorship has come from one of our awesome partner churches and the trainers are… me and Greg! When we looked at the remaining two subjects for the module, we felt that we could cover them between us. So, Greg will be teaching about ‘balancing ministry and family’ and I will be teaching about ‘problem solving’. This is ideal, because it means I can pilot some of the new DNA curriculum on solutions-oriented leadership.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us over the next few weeks. As you can see from the newsletter, we do have some busy weeks coming up. We’ve also had some recent challenges in Crimea, so our time out there in October is going to be very crucial.

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Never Too Early!

Passion for prayer

I’ve been ‘driving’ the NLI Prayer Teams for 3 years now and have been privileged to be involved with some great missions. Over the last few years we have seen an upsurge in people wanting to be involved in the prayer teams and I believe that this trend will continue if we provide the right opportunities. Now that NLI is operating on a regional basis, I’m able to be more focused and really set some strategic vision for prayer mission within particular nations.

Prayer ministry in Romania

One of my goals has been to raise up new team leaders. Over the last couple of years we have seen Ian and Jan Henley, a fantastic couple from Dudley (UK),  really step up to the plate in terms of leading teams. My passion is to see others like them, mentored by experienced NLI leaders, beginning to fulfil their God-given potential in this area. Of course, more leaders mean more options as NLI begins to press on into unchartered territory. Don’t forget there are 47 nations in Europe and our goal is to have ministry impact in all of these by 2020.

Praying over a new church building!

So, before I give you the dates for 2010, what exactly do prayer teams do? Well, the main purpose is to support church planting initiatives in Europe. Teams spend time with church planters and staff, encouraging and praying for them, as well as engaging in spiritual warfare and intercession for their towns and cities. The teams also spend time prayer-walking in key locations and meet up with other local believers to encourage them. Of course, going on any mission also means you get to explore some beautiful parts of Europe, meet new people and have some great adventures together. Take it from me, you can make some incredible friendships on mission!

Always time for fun on mission!

Opportunities for 2010

Czech Republic - Saturday 15th – Saturday 22nd May 2010

As described above, the team will be ministering within the church planting initiative. The nucleus of the team will be from partner churches already engaged in this project, but application is open to anyone. John and Marty Smith will be leading this team. Approx costs £350 (TBC)

Slovakia - Saturday 10th – Saturday 17th April 2010

The nucleus of this team will be from Nitra’s partner church in Portland, Oregon. The  team will be serving the church in Nitra as well as ministering in local church planting locations. Ian and Jan Henley will be co-leading this team and application is open to anyone. Approx costs £350 (TBC)

I’m too young! I’m too old! I’ve never been on mission before! I’m not experienced in prayer ministry! These are all typical excuses for not going on mission, but none are valid! Anyone can apply to join a prayer team. You just need a willingness to serve people and a passion to see the spiritual climate change in Europe.

Please contact me if you would like further information about either of these mission trips.

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Artem’s Diary

Artem Kurdov is a young man living in Armiansk (Crimea). He’s been involved in coordinating American mission teams in the Odessa area. We’ve invited him to be the NLI missions coordinator in Crimea as we believe he has the skills, experience and personality to fulfil this role effectively. Artem travelled with us to Kerch as our driver, interpreter and guide, but by the end of the weekend he had become our friend! Here’s his story of our time in Kerch.

The port of Kerch

I spent last weekend with three great people from England – Judith, Greg and Mathew. We took 4 hours drive down to Kerch city where we spent 2 days serving the churches and people there.

On Saturday evening we had church meeting and Greg and Judith shared God’s word about faith. It was interesting to see how God gave that word to each of them and it matched together. What touched me is that our faith should be visible. Therefore, people who are watching me can see my faith.

Saturday evening service in Kerch

Sunday morning we went to a church that was planted by the Kerch church in the village of Liebknechtovka. The church of 12-15 people may not be the biggest one, but I can tell for sure these people love God with all their heart and souls! Most of them are elderly people and each of them is facing their own struggles and problems. Still that does not stop them worshiping and praising God, taking care of each other, encouraging each other, praying for each other and helping each other.

Matthew prays for Maria who is virtually blind

After a nice Ukrainian lunch, we went to see two more villages where new churches are planned. They have already started to send teams of leaders to share the Gospel and there is already a small home group meeting. Therefore, we are looking to great changes there for God!

Church plant in Liebknechtovka

In the afternoon, me, Greg and Judith had a great meeting on where we discussed the possibility for me to partner with Next Level International as a Mission Coordinator for the church planting project in Crimea.

So, thank God for new opportunities for the ministry! Please pray God will give wisdom in this new ministry.

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The Expo Trip That Wasn’t: Part II

So, you wanna know what I’m up to with the gun eh? Be patient and all will be revealed. At the end of June,  Greg Swinamer, his 19yr old son Matthew, and myself ventured out to Crimea for 6 days. We used the time for meetings, meetings and more meetings!! We met with project staff to hammer out some of the practicalities of the project and deal with one or two hitches that have arisen in recent weeks. I do find meetings like this quite draining and my concentration waivers considerably, but I have to admit it was time well spent. I’m learning so much much about  the groundwork and relationship-building that needs to be done to establish church planting initiatives effectively.

We also visited some church planting locations on the outskirts of Simferopol. A couple of guys we met (Dima & Sasha above) have ‘hatched’ a business plan to sell quails and their eggs to restaurants. It’s a growing market in Crimea. As you can see from the photo, we laid hands on and prayed over the first batch of eggs! Maybe McDonalds will soon be flogging a McQuail Sandwich!!

We also had an incredible weekend in Kerch. If you look closely at the map, you’ll see that Kerch out to the east of Crimea, a mere stones throw from Russia. Kerch is also going to be another church planting hub for us.

In a separate article Artem Kurdov (our guide/interpreter/driver) is going to tell you about his experiences of the weekend, but I must just tell you about another incredible guy we met. His name is Sergei and he works as a prison dentist. He gets his ‘clients’ in the chair and then tells them about Jesus. From the photo below you can see that God has used him to help many troubled young men come to faith and be baptised.

Sergei has his own incredible testimony. In short, God rescued him from the gates of hell. It took him an hour to tell us his story, and that was the short version! Basically he was on 3 bottles of vodka a day. Unbelievably he was still able to work as a dentist. Not sure I’d have let him anywhere near my mouth! But one night he was quite literally taken to hell in a trance/dream. After many nights enduring this nightmarish experience God rescued him and he was radically saved and set free from his alcoholism. (More info to come soon…)

On Saturday and Sunday evening we ended up at Sergei’s (above right with Greg). He cooked us shashlyk! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashlik) for supper. Whilst we waited for the shashlyk to BBQ we did a bit of shooting with Sergei’s pellet gun. Hard to believe, but even as a cop for 15yrs I’d never fired a gun until a couple of years ago (also in Crimea). I was useless: couldn’t hit a barn door. I blame the gun! So, you’ll understand me not wanting to embarrass myself in front of a load of blokes. But after a few shots, I was cajoled into having a pop. You can imagine my absolute delight when I hit the target first time. You can just see the tin can lid on the photo below. I promptly hit several other (intended) targets and was well chuffed with my display.

As a resuly of our trip we have finalised which church plant locations will be part of the initiative being launched in January 2010. We also believe we’ve found the potential staff we need to manage the project in Crimea, and hope to agree these positions in the next few weeks. So once more it was a very worthwhile trip.

The photo above shows Matthew & I with Vova (far left) and Viktor who are both pastors in Crimea. You might recall on our last trip to Crimea, we preached at a church meeting in a chiropractic business. This is where Vova and his wife Irina have planted a church.

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The Expo Trip That Wasn’t!

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The Happy (usually) Wanderer

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The Graduates

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Looking for DNA in Slovkia

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