Dear Co-laborers and Fellowservants,
My last newsletter was written on the eve of my departure for Ukraine. I have been back in the States a little over a week and have a lot of information to share with you. I will try to do it as succinctly as possible.
Zhmerinka
I spent ten days with Pastor Valera and the folks in Zhmerinka. It was good to be there and renew and deepen our relationship. I took part in the weekly events of the local church ministry. In my mind, the most notable was digging and picking potatoes for a church member who had health problems. Pastor Valera and his wife, a couple of church members, and myself drove out to the village to help this brother (Peter) who has a heart condition. His wife and our little group dug potatoes most of the day. While we were out in the field, I overheard Peter’s wife was asking Pastor Valera questions about the Bible. The simplicity of this struck me in a profound way. My pastor, Jeff Adams, touched on the same subject this morning in church, at the opening of our missions conference. We often flatter ourselves with lofty ideas of ministry and reaching others, while we often overlook the real needs of people with whom we are in contact every day – people who have physical needs and spiritual needs simultaneously. Yeah, its hard, dirty work sometimes. Nothing really glamorous about digging potatoes out of the earth! But the physical need and the willingness to work led to the spiritual, the eternal, and the worthwhile.
While I was in Zhmerinka Vitalic travelled from Belarus to spend a few days. We were able to talk about the sale of our storage items and how we will attempt to retrieve the remainder of our things form Belarus once we are in Ukraine. It was good to see him and spend time with him again. We have a father/son relationship in a spiritual and physical sense.
Also while in Zhmerinka, I received some unexpected news from Al and Dolly King. It seemed that Brother Al was having trouble with his speech the Sunday before he was to meet me in Kiev. A trip to the doctor revealed a mass on his brain. It was surgically removed on the Thursday he was to fly to Kiev. They encouraged me to go ahead and travel to Simferopol, which I did. Later I was told the mass was found to be malignant.
Simferopol
After a five hour train ride back to Kiev, I took an eighteen hour train ride to Simferopol. In the ten days I was there I made contact with other American missionaries and got acquainted with the ministry there. I met and spent time with both Russian Pastors, Andrei and Vladimir, and with the Tatar pastor, Misha. Pastor Andrei is a 23 year old young man who pastors the church in Simferopol. Pastor Misha pastors the Muslim Tatar congregation in Simferopol. There is also a large Malaysian Chinese church service in Simferopol as well as an English speaking international church service. All four of these run at various times on Sunday morning. Pastor Vladimir pastors a church in Alushta, which is a town on the coast of the Black Sea about an hour and a half away from Simferopol. I took a bus there on Saturday and spent the night with them the second weekend I was there, so I got to attend their church which meets in a storefront. God is at work in all of these ministries.
So where do we go from here? We still believe God put us and the Kings together for the sake of His work in Crimea. While we thought we would be working under their direction, it would appear at this point in time we will be filling in for them until they return to the field. So the questions remain: When will they return? How soon will we go? God knows these answers. Our original plan was to go in January when the Kings returned to the field. There is a possibility we could go sooner now. We will be in Elkhart, IN at Northside Baptist Church for a conference October 7-10. After that, we will drive south to Middletown OH to spend a few days with the Kings. We pray this face to face meeting will give us some clarity.
Prayer requests
- Pray for the healing of Brother Al King, and his comfort and peace as well as his wife and two sons and two daughters
- Pray for the Lord’s power to continue His work in Crimea
- Pray for Vitalic as he sells off our furniture and other household stuff – continue to pray for him and the church in Ratomka and Pastor Sergei
- Pray that the Lord will give us clear timing in all of these matters. We will need plane tickets, housing, and a vehicle. Pray that the Lord will supply our need.
- Pray for our spiritual, physical, and emotional health during these seemingly endless difficulties. We are constantly reminded that our lives are not our own, but we often have the tendency to reclaim them. Pray that we die daily and truly live by faith.
We thank God for your faithfulness to pray for us. Please continue as we find ourselves living by faith daily. We look forward to all of the unknowns of what the Lord has in store for us with anxious anticipation.
Pressing toward the mark,
The Nebel Family
Missionaries to Russian speaking people
Posted by: David
Categories:
2007 Newsletters
