Who knew that Dr. Seuss would whet the appetite of the next generation for missions with this famous title, and the seeming randomness of possibilities is surprising even for me as God sovereignly opens new doors. Such is the case for my recent ministry trip with pastor Oleh Savchak to Torrevieja, Spain where we ministered at the anniversary conference of a church started there three years ago. A Slavic church no less!
As an American, I grew up thinking European countries were more or less mono-ethnic, but the European Union is a complex confederation of countries with constantly moving ethnicities, and with the collapse of the Eastern Block in the early 1990’s, those people groups have steadily migrated for new opportunities.
Pastor Roman Deshchakivskuy – the founder of our ministry’s rehab centers in Ukraine – moved to Torrevieja several years ago for work and, while there, started a small group that has become a Russian-speaking church. Members are from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Bulgaria. They already have a new church plant starting in neighboring Murcia, Spain where there are at least 10,000 Ukrainians from the Ternopil region of Ukraine – Roman is from Ternopil – and their sights are set on nearby Alicante, Spain for a future work to reach university students. We will be helping Roman and his team develop outreach strategies especially to reach youth, and there are similar projects throughout Europe where we are nurturing small groups that will become new churches. Next, we went to Lisbon, Portugal for strategic planning with our European leadership team where we laid the organizational foundations that will serve to undergird the combined work of our European teams.
Christmas is around the corner with our daughters, Abigail and Rebecca, coming to visit, and the New Year will usher in our busiest travel period which includes projects in Romania, Albania, and Ukraine.
Thanks to all who stand with us to make this mission possible and we ask others to prayerfully consider an end of year gift that will allow us to start 2018 on a very strong footing.
We wish you all a very blessed Christmas and renewed hope for a new year.
PRAYER REQUESTS
- New financial partners for our expanded ministry, and special gifts to help us purchase a vehicle.
- Safe travels for our family over the holidays.
- Fruitful follow-up for the Lviv outreach.
- Continued growth of new projects in Albania and Romania.
- Peace for Ukraine.
