Can you believe summer is already over? I just dropped our kids off for the second day of school! Yes, summer has flown by and I want to take a couple of minutes just to share with you a few of things that went on this summer.
Parents 50th wedding anniversary
We just returned from a quick two-week trip to the States for my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful time with family but it was also a time when we were able to share with many how my parents marriage is built on their faith in Christ.
We had a big celebration for them with lots of family out, our daughter Naomi even came from South America with her family.
You can watch the anniversary party that was held at our church below.
Baptisms in Odessa
In the meantime things did not slow down here in Ukraine. We got back to Ukraine on Friday and on Sunday we had a baptism.
Praise God for three people who publicly declared their faith in Jesus through baptism! We had two young girls and a
92 year old! She was so glad to get baptized and with tears she said “I have a new life”
Baptism in the Black Sea
There was a fourth person who wanted to get baptized but their family was very very against it and they ended up not getting baptized. We realize that the spiritual battle is very real and ask that you pray about this situation.
New School Year
We are already on our third day of the school year! How thankful we are for Anchor School here in downtown Odessa. This year Mishael is in 12th grade, Noelle is in 9th grade, Anastasia is in 7th grade, and Nickolas is in 5th grade.
This year I have get to teach New Testament Bible class to the ninth and 10th graders. We appreciate your prayers for our kids as they enter another year of school and pray for me as I teach the Bible class.
I also decided to go back to school this year and will be taking a Ukrainian class with Mishael. I speak
Russian and I preach in Russian. Odessa is mainly a Russian speaking city, but more and more there’s a need for Ukrainian here and why I’ve decided this year to study it.
Fall Ministries
Finally, friends I want to ask you to pray for us as we go into the fall and restart some of our ministries. We are planning to start up our Russian Club again and our outreach to foreign students. There’s a lot of opportunity for that here and sometimes just it’s hard to find the time too be able to do as much as we want to in that ministry. Pray for us as we get that ministry up and going again and pray that God will give us the real gospel opportunities with these foreign students.
