Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Ukraine Newsletter

July 2004 

It is hard to believe that the summer is almost half over. Our summer weather did not arrive until the last week of July, but it made up for lost time in a hurry. Since this had been a cool, wet summer, the fruit has been especially good, with few worms in the cherries and apricots. That makes us very happy. Many of our friends give us fruit, so to keep it from wasting, Lynn has made jam and jelly to share with Ray.

We returned last Friday from a week at camp with our teens. We had the biggest group every this year with 26 campers and 4 adults. The camp is in a beautiful place in the hills about 3 hours from Donetsk, but not the best accommodations and probably the worst food on earth. We thoroughly enjoyed a week of Christian study, fun and fellowship, which is especially critical as our teens get older and face more temptations. Each day we had a couple events in our “summer Olympics” and time to swim in the near by lake. We did have one great dinner. The camp provided marinated chicken, which we cooked over an open fire. Chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers and bread made a great meal. As usual, we were very proud of our kids. Several led in public worship and taught classes, including several girls in the girl’s class. We had a great time, in spite of the bad food, soured clothes, cold showers and mosquitoes. A huge thanks to those who helped sponsor the camp.

After many, many weeks of talking, planning and securing approvals, we were finally able to begin some badly needed remodeling on our building. The first phase is replacing the roof. The existing one leaks badly! Lord willing, we hope to do some work to the exterior walls next year, if sufficient funding can be secured.

Our “Food for the Needy” program continues to be a blessing in the lives of those receiving monthly food packages, as well as, to those who participate in the distribution. Each month, people express their thanks and ask us to pass along their heartfelt thanks to those of you who fund the program. Several of the recipients are pictured at the following web address: www.hiskidstoo.org. click on Donetsk feeding program button

You may recognize this web site as belonging to the benevolent program begun and administrated by Teresa Fillmon. Teresa, Rich and their 5 children visited us in June. Lynn and Christina joined them in Dzherzhinsk for a week campaign, teaching Bible to about 200 school children. It was also good to see some of the parents/grandparents come to evening lectures. The Fillmons spent a night with us and helped with the July food distribution. We had several opportunities to go with Teresa to visit orphanages and hospitals, which are helped with funds from HisKidsToo.

Two of our young men attended the singing school held in Kiev. Sasha has been leading in worship for some time and was able to refine his skills. Sergey has never taken much of a leadership role, but we were delighted that he led the singing most of the time in our teen camp. He did a great job and we hope he will soon have the courage to lead in worship.

Our dear friend Sergei Korkishko went to be with the Lord in May. While visiting Sergei during his illness, Ray and Vanya were able to talk with his brother, Vataly. Since his brother’s death, Vataly has begun attending worship and studying the Bible and we pray that he will continue to search the scriptures for the truth He was greatly impressed with the help and concern shown by members of the church from Donetsk, Kiev, their home town , Kremenchyg, and even from many of you in the USA and England..

In June we lost one of our long-time members, Aleksei Permenov. He had been a fighter pilot in world War II and was a kind and gracious man. Less than a month later, his wife Ludmila also passed away.

We ask for you prayers now for our sister, Tamila. She is fighting cancer which seems to have begun in her lungs and has spread to her brain. She is in good spirits, but there seems to be little hope for any cure.

And, now for the good news. We have had five new souls added to the Lord’s church. Ray and Sasha Mitrofanov studied with a one of our food recipients, Olga, who is blind and has only one leg from diabetes. Her husband, Alexey, helped teach her also by reading the Bible to her and in July Olga was baptized into Christ. We pray that her husband, Aleksei, will follow her example. Ray and Vanya continue to study with another food recipient, Victor, who has cerebral palsy. Victor has an amazing memory and rather that reading the assigned text, he memorizes it.

Also in June two of our teen girls obeyed the gospel. Ola has attended for some time and she brought her friend Natasha. It is such a thrill when we see people bringing their friends and relatives to learn about Jesus. Natasha’s mother, Laurica, began coming with her daughter in the spring and she too was baptized in June. Laurica had attended the ladies class part of the time and was always full of questions. Her younger daughter has begun attending worship and we pray that she will also want to come to Christ. We have talked in the past about our Saturday classes out along the tramline and we have finally seen some fruit from those. Anna, a very poor young lady from a bad home situation, has been delighted to find a peaceful place where people love her. She responded to the gospel in July and was baptized. She is very faithful at all services of the church.

To the Woodland Hills congregation and especially Toy Hicks we send our heart felt sympathy in the loss of Buren, a great soldier for Christ.

We are deeply grateful for your expressions of care and concern for us and the work here. May God bless us all as we seek to do His will.  

 

In Christian love,

Ray and Lynn 

 

New joint email address: woodlandhillsinukraine@yahoo.com

Lynn : allisoninukraine@yahoo.com

Ray : raygrayham@yahoo.com

1. The Good confession. After confessing Christ as the Son of God, Anna was baptized by Ray in Lynn's bathtub.

2. Laurica. Alexander Neyumenko baptized Laurica in the baptistry in our church building.

3. Olga was baptized in the bathtub in her home. She is blind and has only one leg.

4. Natasha on the left and Ola on the right are congratulated by Nadia after their baptism.

5. Camp 2004. We had a great time.