David’s Blog

We arrived back in Simferopol on Tuesday.  We had a great time in London.  The day after we arrived in London, we went to the Ukrainian embassy and submitted our paperwork for our visas.  The man looked over the paperwork and said, “impossible”.  I asked what he meant and he said it was impossible for us to receive five year visas - one year was as long as we could get.  But when we went back the following Wednesday to pick our passports up, we noticed we had received 5 year multi-entry visas!  Praise the Lord!

While in London, we were hosted by Pastor Mark Jackson.  He and his wife Sara were so gracious to even give up their own bed to us!  We were humbled by their hospitality.  We thank God for all of our friends at Monnow Road.  We were shown kindness and hospitality by all!  Thanks to our English, Italian, Albanian, Romanian, German, Nigerian, and Malaysian brothers and sisters in Christ! 

We also got to participate in their vacation Bible club for children.  Spring break for all of the school children occured while we were there, so they had this club with a pirate theme.  It was a lot of fun and there was a good turnout.  It was also a good outreach to the local children and their parents.   Here is the youth pastor Pete (aka Captain Hook) leading the festivities. 

Also notable was our time spent with Andrew Ong.  Andrew is from our home church and is in London helping out the ministry of Monnow Road Baptist Church.  We had a great time with him and got to know him better, too.  It is interesting to us that Andrew is Malaysian, because the majority of the international students here in Simferopol are from Malaysia.  Who knew?! 

We also had the privilege of spending time with fellow KCBT missionaries Brian and Mindy Clark.  Brian and Mindy have been ‘chisling’ out a ministry in the Chislehurst region of London.  God is really starting to bless their persistence and faithfulness.  They are good friends and we had a good time of fellowship together.

Take time to check out Monnow Road Baptist Church at www.mrbc.co.uk  Check out Brian and Mindy’s church at http://www.cbc.gb.com/

We got away last weekend for a much needed break from our environment.  We travelled south to the coast of the Black Sea, about a hour away.  The southern coast of Crimea has been referred to in the past as the “Russian Riviera”.  It is a very beautiful place with the mountains in the background and the Black Sea.  Anita and I just sat and listened to the waves crashing on the shore while the girls played.  Here are a few pics:

After spending Saturday in Yalta, we travelled back up the coast about a half an hour to Alushta, where we attended the church pastored by Vladimir.  We had a great time there.

Here we are in Pastor Vladimir’s apartment, having tea with him and his wife Anna.  They are a real sweet couple.

And finally, here is a picture of Anita and I with Al and dolly King the night before they left to go back to America:    Al had a CT or MRI done yesterday and will have a meeting with his doctor next week to find out where he stands.  Please keep them in your prayers!

Where do the years go?!  My little girl turned 18 yesterday.  Lydia ( and all of our children) is such a gift from God!  Yesterday began with the traditional pre-dawn strike of a birthday spanking wake-up, courtesy of non other than  - me!  After that, we treated Lydia to breakfast in bed. 

We had church services, then went to eat at a Chinese restaurant.  It was ok, but it wasn’t Mama China’s!  (Mama China’s is our favorite chinese restaurant in KC)  We came back to the house and had some cake and ice cream with some friends.  What did we give Lydia for her birthday?  An 18 year old’s favorite present - money!  She already bought a watch she wanted and needed and plans to do some more shopping this week for clothes.

Lydia is thinking, “okay, now that I’ve made my wish, how long do I have to wait for it to come true?”  A special thanks to Kim Liles and the girl’s Bible study group who sent Lydia a package for her birthday.   I…uh…I mean we…uh…I mean Lydia really enjoyed the candy and popcorn and stuff you all sent!  Family and friends have also sent packages for Lydia but we haven’t received them yet.  Patience!  Thanks to all of you who pray for Lydia and wished her a Happy Birthday.

After we were in Fastov with the Irelands, we took the train th Zhmerinka to visit for a few days.  Pastor Valera and the church there had never met Lydia and Annabelle.  And their Bible Institute was in operation (the hold the institute from January to March every year).  I got to teach a couple of sessions and preach in the church service on Sunday.  As you can imagine, our girls were quite popular with the students!  They are a great bunch of godly young men with a heart for the ministry.  Most of them are from Moldova.

The Students

The Bible Institute

Pastor Valera, his wife Tanya, Anita and me

A couple of weeks ago we went to Kiev to get the letters of invitation for our visas and for Anita and I to get our new US passports.  After that we met the Irelands (missionaries in Fastov, near Kiev) and got to spend a few days with them.  One of the things we were privileged to participate in was an evangelistic effort in the village of Pyatigori (lit., five hills).  We sang songs at the market and three young men took turns preaching.  We handed out tracts, too.  One dear babushka listened to the preaching with tears streaming down her cheeks.  What a blessing it is to tell the Gospel story!

We had another busy and blessed Sunday.  Of course, it is especially nice to have Al and Dolly here and we have been having a good time together.  We had a great time in the Russian church service this morning with a good turnout - glory to God!

After church we had a gathering of Americans for dinner, with a few new faces we hadn’t met before.  It was a great time of food and fellowship with other believers.

Tomorrow we are on the road again - or at least on the train tracks.  We will return to Kiev to pick up our new passports and work on our visas.  Then we will travel about an hour away to visit with our missionary friends the Irelands.  Mike and Robin and children have been here in Ukraine for 14 years, and we look forward to a couple of days of fellowship with them.  From there we will head (by train) to Zhmerinka and visit Pastor Valera and the church and Bible institute there.   Anita and I made some lasting friendships when we were there last March and we look forward to seeing out dear friends again.  Next Sunday we will get on another train and take it 18 hours or so back to Simferopol, arriving on Monday morning.

Here is a great picture of Brother Al saying hello to the Russian church this morning - truly a miraculous answer to prayer!

Keep praying as we work out the details of ministry as God makes them plain to us.

And finally, here is a picture of us in our most common pose - on the train!  Lydia is taking the picture from the doorway.

We are now living in the presence of Kings - well, Al and Dolly King.  They arrived safely last night and, of course, were a bit tired from the long travel.  But they got a good night of rest and are thrilled to be back home in Simferopol.  Pray for them as they get acclimated to the time and life here.  They will be here for a few weeks and we are praying for the Lord to use them in our lives concerning the ministry here.  Al’s health seems to be great.  Keep him in your prayers, as well as Dolly and the rest of the family.  They are also missing one of their suitcases which has a lot of Al’s medications, so pray it arrives soon, too.

We just got back from our trip to Kiev.  Anita and I got our passport renewal applications to the US Embassy and will receive our new passports in a couple of weeks.  Then we begin the visa application process.  We have a few options to consider so please pray for our wisdom.  The girls enjoyed the long 15 hour train ride there and got to see another world capitol.  Kiev is a beautiful city.  We left there yesterday evening and arrived back in Simferopol this morning.  We talked about how normal train transporation is in this part of the world, as it probably was in the US 50-60 years ago.  It was another fun adventure together.

While we were in Kiev, we got to watch the news in English.  We found out that yesterday was a historic meeting between Ukrainian President Yuschenko and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.  The main issue is a gas pipeline that runs across Ukraine that feeds Western Europe with Russian gas (A similar situation exists in Belarus).  Russia claims Ukraine owes them over a million dollars in back payment of gas they have used.  But this is not the main issue.  The main issue is Ukraine’s interest in joining NATO and the EU.  This has historic implications of epic proportions.  I know most people in the US are enthralled with primary election advertisements and news (yeah, that was sarcasm), but I invite you to pay attention to what is going on in the rest of the world - particularly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  These are crazy times and we are glad to be in the middle of it!

I forgot to say anything about Russian church last Sunday.  We had good attendance - 14 people.  I typed my sermon in English then used some translation software and basically read it.  Sure, I made a few mistakes but it was generally understood.  I can see now that using an interpreter in the past only made me lazy in learning to speak Russian more proficiently.  My goal is to eventually preach from notes, just like I do in English.  It just takes study and work.

Pray for Al and Dolly King.  They are planning to arrive here next week!

Life is continuing, we are acclimating, and the weather is warming.  I will be preaching in the Russian service this week - in Russian.  It will be a sort of new beginning for the church here.  I have asked the members to simply lift up Christ and He promises to draw all men unto himself. 

Every morning, Anita, the girls, and I begin our day by reading Proverbs together and spending time in prayer.  Today we read the 6th chapter and those famous verses about what the Lord hates - a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren.  Lord help us.  We really experienced this in Belarus, in our own lives and in the lives of other Christians and missionaries.  How strange to think that people who have sold all and left all to serve God in a foreign country would have problems with pride and insecurity!  How unfortunate that in the world of ministry and serving Christ, often our greatest enemy is ourselves and other Christians!  We have suffered from this fleshly, devilish, sinful condition.  It is truly the poison of ministry.  We pray that God will protect us from ourselves, and clothe us with His humility, His servant attitude, His love for others whom He loved so much He died for them.  He must increase, I must decrease!

Yesterday I bought train tickets to Kiev.  We will all travel there next week to visit the US embassy so Anita and I can renew our passports.  We will apply for five year visas, and our passports expire next March.  They won’t issue visas for any time past the expiration of your passport, so we must renew them.  We did this in Minsk for the girl’s and Josh’s passport.  So we will leave Monday evening for a 15-16 hour ride to Kiev, arriving there Tuesday morning.  We will spend Tuesday night in Kiev, then get on another train back to Simferopol Wednesday evening, arriving Thursday morning.  It should be fun travelling together.  It seems like a long ride, but this type of travel is quite typical in this part of the world.

The girls and I went to town a few days ago.  Here is a picture of them in the center of town with a statue of comrade Lenin.  It was a beautiful day - almost Springlike!

Who would have thought….  This morning I preached (through an interpreter, of course) to the Chinese congregation.  It was a real blessing to me to be with these Chinese students.  Man, I thought learning Russian was hard.  Looking at their songs on the screen in Chinese and listening to them talk and sing - I didn’t have a clue.