Woodland Hills Church of Christ

 

Ukraine Newsletter

Sept./Oct. 2004

 Dear Friends,

Greetings from Donetsk on a cool, foggy autumn morning! Ukraine, like America is embroiled in the final days of a presidential election. Sunday, the 31st, is election day and since the building the Budyonovsky congregation meets in is an official polling place, they are meeting with us for Sunday a.m. services.

Budyonovsky is a congregation not far from us and this summer, Alexander Malioga became the preacher for this congregation. Many of you know his wife, Natasha, who is Administrator/Head Interpreter at Ukrainian Bible Institute. Alexander and Natasha have a lot of energy and we are so thankful for the way the two sister congregations are coming together. Alexander has begun a teen program and in October, we had the first of what we hope will become regular Bible Bowl competitions. The Proletarsky teens were a little overconfident and Budyonovsky prevailed by one point! The most important thing of course is that everyone added to their Bible knowledge and enjoyed the Christian fellowship.

We told you in our last newsletter about our new program for young adults. It is off to a strong start, meeting two times a week with anywhere from 10-20 in attendance each time. Primarily through these classes we have begun meeting with a young couple, Sasha and Luda who have 3 daughters. Both he and she are veterinarians and we pray they will continue to study and learn God’s will.

Our building finally has a new roof and it is beautiful. We are thankful to Gene for his tenacity in making this project happen. Now that we have such a nice new roof, our outside walls look even worse than they did before. We hope to address this problem in 2005, Lord willing!

Our Food for the Needy program is growing. A very generous donation by a Christian brother from St. Paul, MN, enabled us to further expand the program from 50 individuals to 60! Most of these additions are in the neighborhood surrounding our church building and we hope and pray this program will continue to be not only benevolent in nature, but an evangelistic outreach as well. If you are not familiar with the food program, check out the Donetsk Feeding Program link at: www.hiskidstoo.org

. In the past few weeks, we have been richly blessed with visitors to our neck of the woods.

Buddy and Melanie Brannon and their newly adopted daughter, Alina, stayed a two days with Lynn on their way home. We pray God’s richest blessings on them as this new family adjusts to each other!

Teresa Fillmon, Director of HisKidsToo, (a Church of Christ charity) visited and brought lots of clothing and material help for orphanages and hospitals. We are always happy to have Teresa and family with us.

Instead of her family this time, David and Famie Doederlein of St. Paul, MN, were assisting Teresa in her humanitarian relief efforts. We enjoyed getting acquainted and fellowshipping with Dave and Famie.

Finally, we were blessed with a visit from our old friends David Ingram, Ed Sills and Greg Artz, who came to help with distribution of a huge relief effort coordinated by John Kachelman. We love having company and hope more of you will come to visit and encourage the church here!

We are always grateful for your prayers and your many expressions of love and support. We look forward to seeing most of you in just a few weeks-Lord willing, arriving in Memphis on December 15th. May God bless you all. In Christian Love,

Lynn and Ray

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

II Thessalonians 2:16-17

Alena and her parents, the Brannans

 

Teens from Proletarsky and Budyonofsky after the Bible Bowl competition.

 

Our new roof!