Woodland
Hills Church of Christ
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NEWS FROM PROLETARSKY
Linette's cousin, Kathy, from Columbus, MS, arrived in July with two friends and a large supply of assistance (clothes, medicine, etc.) for the needy here. It was good to see her, but made us miss Linette even more. Kathy, Andrea and Thelma went to several hospitals, children's homes, sanatoriums and churches to give aid when they could and assess needs for help in the future. Thelma stayed with Lynn, so we got to know her, but we saw very little of Kathy and Andrea as they lived in an apartment in the center of Donetsk. Ray, Lynn, and interpreters Nick and Nikka went with Gene and Mary Parker to the cities of Simferopal and Feodocia in the Crimean Peninsula to work with the church there for several days in July. There are six new Christians in a village near Simferopal who learned the truth through the World Bible School correspondence course. They are hungry for the Word of God. We met with them twice and they went around inviting their neighbors and friends in the village to come and study. We also worked with the church in Feodocia. It is a small group, which has been meeting for about three years. They have 13 or 14 teens who have shown a great deal of interest. Several of them were baptized this summer as a result of a campaign conducted by a teen group from North Carolina. Every night the teens would come and listen for two hours to lessons by Gene, Ray, and Nick. They were very attentive to the lessons and full of questions. We hope to return to Feodocia for a couple of weeks in September to study more with these young people. August began with an event.which left us with mixed emotions. Alicia Mostovich, who has been an interpreter, friend and sister, left to study in America. She will be studying at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, MS. Our loss is your gain. Please give Alicia a hug for us when you see her. Ray, Lynn and Nikka went as far as Kiev to see Alicia off, and she was met by several of our friends from Woodland Hills in the Memphis airport. The first Saturday in August our teens started a new activity. They visited a nearby home for children who have been taken from their parents. Once a month, our teens will spend a couple of hours playing with these children, teaching a Bible story, and trying to give them a taste of Christian fellowship. This will also help our teens be more thankful for their nice homes and families. The second week of August was the first annual (hopefully) Proletarsky Church of Christ Youth Camp. We took our teens and those from the Budjonovsky congregation (20 teens and 5 adults in all!) for a week at a camp in Slavyanagorsk. We, with the help of Oleg, Nikka, and Nick, had a crash course in parenting . None of us had ever spent much time at camp, so we were a little apprehensive about the outcome. It was a wonderful week. The kids studied Bible, played games, swam, hiked and grew closer to each other. We closed each day with a devotional and ice cold watermelon. The boys planned and conducted the devotionals and did an excellent job. Ray, Nick, Oleg and Lynn taught classes each day. Five of our teens, who have been in regular attendance at worship and teen activities for the past two years, made the great decision to put their Lord on in baptism. Two of the boys, Koyla and Pavlic, have Christian parents, who were thrilled by the news. The two girls, Nadia and Ira, and the other boy, Pasha, will not have the Christian influence at home. Please pray for these new sisters and brothers. August has been a great month for the Proletarsky church with a total of 10 baptisms. In addition to the ones above five others also made the wonderful decision to become Christians. Ella is a young lady who has been studying with one of our young men. Oleg has attended worship and studying for about six months. Luba,who has been worshipping with us and studying for three or more months, is now one of our sisters. Recently, a young man, Igor, came to find out what we are all about. He studied over the next few days and was baptized on Wednesday. Galina was baptized as the result of studying by mail with another local congregation in Donetsk, but lives in our neighborhood. We rejoice to see these turning their lives over to Christ. On August 18th we had a clean-up, paint-up, fix-up day at our building. While the men painted the outside, the ladies cleaned the inside. We had close to 40 people, including all our teens, come to help make our place of worship more presentable. Our next project for the teens will be to clean the yard around the building. Gene Parker has been working diligently to get the heating system installed, working and approved before he and Mary return to America for the winter. We will be very thankful to have a nice warm place to meet this winter (please remember the heating project in your prayers). Gene and Mary had planned to leave us around the first of September, but have been delayed. They must find a new place to live. They are looking near the building since Gene has problems with his legs and cannot walk very far. Gene had hoped to be in Lubbock, Texas for the Missions Forum to hunt a person to work full time in Feodocia, Crimea and to solicit funds to begin building a second story on our church building. We will miss them when they do leave. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your constant support. We love and miss you. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." The following photos have been attached to this document if you would
like to have a look:
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