July 2010
This will be my last update before we leave for Canada in the 4th week of August. I wanted to share just two highlights of the summer so far.
The first highlight is our visit to Alchevsk, a city on the eastern edge of Ukraine 50 kilometers or so from the Russian border. We didn’t actually go to visit the city, as you might have guessed. The 26-hour train ride to get there kind of took away our travel appetite for the month. No, we went to visit one of our (very courageous) graduates who moved there to start a children’s ministry. Her name is Julia. At first, she was meeting with kids outdoors because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. Now they rent a classroom in a school on Saturdays. She also visits various orphanages and does programs there.
When my wife was involved in Sunday school at Trinity Pentecostal Church, she would often say to people that our most effective evangelism will be aimed at children. When we came to Ukraine, she found herself “preaching” the same ideas to students. Now is seems that Julia has found the same sermon because she quotes George Barna statistics about child evangelism to us! And so, despite being a single woman, away from anyone she’s ever known in a former Soviet factory city with not much to look at but the 12-kilometer-long metal factory, and up against an atheistic society, Julia is following the will of God for her life. We are praying and believing with her that God will multiply the efforts of her hands. We are so proud to be a part of her story.
The second highlight is our summer camp for orphans. This will be the third year that we are involved with this camp. Just to give a little context, the students of the Bible school work with a few orphanages during the school year. But these programs are only a few hours on Saturdays. The summer camp is a way for us to spend a lot of time with some of the children that we have developed relationships with throughout the year. The results have been good. We even have three students at the Bible school that are from these orphanages. Thank you so much to those who helped us make the camp possible this year: the team from my wife’s home-town church in Nysa, Poland was great and they also brought finances and there was also Jessica Tétrault with us from Canada who was not only helpful and cheerful, but who also came with the financial support and blessing of the Carrefour Chrétien de la Capital in Quebec city.
Pray for…
- Julia. That God would encourage her and that she would see the fruit of her sacrifice
- Student enrollment at the Bible college for this coming year.
- A car. Yes, we are looking for a car that we would be able to abuse while we are in the province of Quebec for about 1 1/2 months.
Thanks for reading.
June 2010
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Click here for our June report
March 2010
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Click here for our March report
January 2010
The date at the top of this update reminds me again that time passes so quickly. In a few short months we will have been in Ukraine two years. Do we miss Canada? Yes. Are we in the right place? Yes. And when you’re in the right place, everything else tends to line up as well; happiness, fulfillment, and fruitfulness. We just need to chase away the vultures.
In Genesis 15, God asked Abram to bring a few animals as a sign of the covenant he would make with him. This was one of Abram’s acts of obedience before God. It was a sign of his trust in what God would later do through him. As Abram slaughtered these animals and placed them the way God had asked, the birds of prey began to circle around the carcasses. Abram was naturally annoyed at the disturbance and so proceeded to bat away those that had the audacity to try and pick at his offering.
Isn’t it like that with us? We have it in our hearts to do something great for God and we offer ourselves up as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—a spiritual act of worship. Yet, all these natural feelings, human situations, let’s call them “unholy” vultures come around to try and pick at our act of worship.
Well, vultures will be vultures and our human lives cannot be rid of those pesky feelings. Why would we want to? God created all of who we are and declared it good. The beauty of the scenario is that we have the ability to be obedient to God as an act of worship despite contradicting circumstances and feelings. And that’s when true happiness, fulfillment, and fruitfulness come. So, if you understood any of this, keep chasing away the vultures in your life too!
This month we have a few pictures and videos (http://www.lasantes.com) from some of the activities we were involved in: Christmas programs at orphanages, caroling, choir music at church, and of course lots of teaching. I was reminded recently that we don’t often put in any pictures or videos of us while we are teaching or preaching… an oversight I guess since that’s what we spend most of our time doing.
Please continue to pray for…
- The budget of the college. The winter is cold and expensive. Although we are doing all we can to help thanks to your faithfulness in supporting this ministry, getting through another budget year is always a challenge (speaking of vultures!)
- Our graduates this year. We want to follow a few more of our students and support their ministries until they establish themselves. Pray that God would lead us in this endeavour.
- LTSonline. We are still working on broadcasting our Bible School training on the internet in a unique way. Pray that all the details of getting this project going would line up according to plan.
Thanks again for keeping up the interest in what we are doing. Ministry training is by nature a long term project. And certainly the most fruitful in the end.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you too,
December 2009
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Click here for our December report
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October 2009
NIGHT TRAINS AND H1N1
Dear friends,
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September 2009
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Click here for our September report
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August 2009
These past weeks have been at times quiet and at times hectic. As you may know, we live on the fourth floor of the Seminary building. Since the Seminary’s primary activities have ceased for the summer months and the staff members take their vacations on rotation, things tend to be quiet in this large building. During these times, I have taken the opportunity to redouble my efforts with language learning.
We have also been involved with a few activities: preaching at churches, attending youth conference to publicize the college and a few administrative tasks in preparation for the new school year. A couple of the highlights were a day camp for street kids which our staff and students organized and a bonafide Ukrainian water baptismal service.
Cliquez ici pour notre mise à jour PDF pour septembre
Click here for our September report
We have also been involved with a few activities: preaching at churches, attending youth conference to publicize the college and a few administrative tasks in preparation for the new school year. A couple of the highlights were a day camp for street kids which our staff and students organized and a bonafide Ukrainian water baptismal service.
We also had the opportunity to welcome a team of 14 youth from Eaglemont Christian Church in Edmonton who came all the way to Ukraine to do ministry with a couple of churches AND to help us with our annual orphans summer camp. For eight days they worked hard to show the love of Christ to these orphan children. I believe the kids will be talking about the games, dramas, testimonies, and hugs for many months to come. When it was time to say goodbye, in tears, many of the kids showed their thankfulness and resistance to let this time end and go back to their orphanages. Many dedicated theirs lives to Christ in a very real way. Thank you Eaglemont Christian Church for lending us your very best! And thank you also to those who gave above and beyond so that we could make this happen.
Please pray for the new school year at Lviv Theological Seminary which will begin in a few weeks from now. Their financial situation is far from stable. Also, faith and perseverance are required to continue promoting Bible College training for the young as essential for the future health of the church in Ukraine. Pray for the president of the College, Roman Soloviy, as he works through these many issues. Finally, please pray for a couple of our graduates (Vitaliy and Andriy) that are in the process of planting a new church in a town called Peremyshlane. They met a few closed doors from local government but have received some good press from a local newspaper for cleaning up the town-center. They hope to continue to do good works to reach the hearts of this town.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
Cliquez ici pour notre mise à jour PDF pour aout
Click here for our August report
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June 2009
This is just a short note to let everyone know that we have finished our itineration in Canada and have just left for Ukraine again. Of course we didn’t get to meet everyone…but we had a good go of it! In two months we travelled 10,000 kms (in a borrowed car!) and did services in about 23 churches not counting all the meal meetings. If you missed our presentation, you can watch a simplified version on our website. To all those who extended hospitality to us, although we said “thank you” before, we say it again here publicly…your hospitality was BIG. If you’re interested, you can view a few pictures from our itineration also by clicking the PICTURE ALBUM link on our website. I will be working on another update soon.Pray that in this second year of ministry in Ukraine that… I will achieve the ability to communicate and perhaps even preach in Ukrainian!We will be a positive influence at the Lviv Theological Seminary in relation especially to providing for it’s operating costsThe camp for orphans in August will run smoothly and effectively (we will give you an update about this later)If you have a minute, send us a note to tell us that you’re reading…we appreciate those notes more than anything.God bless…and talk to you soon.
January 2009
We have pictures and video clips from our first Christmas in Ukraine. They are all posted on our website. Enjoy!
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Nous avons des photos et des clips vidéos de notre premier Noël en Ukraine. Toutes mes excuses, je n’est pas eu le temp de mettre à jour la page française de mon site web. SVP…voir le coté anglais. Merci!
www.lasantes.com
S.V.P. appuyez sur le lien ci-dessous pour voir les requêtes de prière pour les Lasantés
Please click on link above for latest news and prayer requests for the Lasantes
Cliquez ici pour notre mise à jour PDF pour aout
Click here for our August report
Cliquez ici pour notre mise à jour PDF pour aout
Click here for our August report
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June 2009
This is just a short note to let everyone know that we have finished our itineration in Canada and have just left for Ukraine again. Of course we didn’t get to meet everyone…but we had a good go of it! In two months we travelled 10,000 kms (in a borrowed car!) and did services in about 23 churches not counting all the meal meetings. If you missed our presentation, you can watch a simplified version on our website. To all those who extended hospitality to us, although we said “thank you” before, we say it again here publicly…your hospitality was BIG. If you’re interested, you can view a few pictures from our itineration also by clicking the PICTURE ALBUM link on our website. I will be working on another update soon.Pray that in this second year of ministry in Ukraine that… I will achieve the ability to communicate and perhaps even preach in Ukrainian!We will be a positive influence at the Lviv Theological Seminary in relation especially to providing for it’s operating costsThe camp for orphans in August will run smoothly and effectively (we will give you an update about this later)If you have a minute, send us a note to tell us that you’re reading…we appreciate those notes more than anything.God bless…and talk to you soon.