IT’S A UKRAINE TIME OF YEAR! 

I leave tonight from Grand Rapids, MI and shuttle-jump to Detroit. I will fly through the night to Amsterdam and arrive in Kiev, Ukraine tomorrow at 4:45 p.m. (Ukraine time). I fly Northwest/KLM.

Maksim and Lena Rakovich will meet me at Borispol airport and I will spend the night with them. On Friday, I will take a marshuka (small bus) trip 6 hours west to the city of Lutsk (not far from the border of Poland). I will team up with my  good friend and fellow-pastor, Sasha Savich, who leads Calvary Church, Lutsk. I will speak at a Youth Service on Saturday and preach somewhere on Sunday (”blessed are the flexible”).

From May 12-16, I will teach two hours each morning at Fimiam Church (Pavlo Myronuk is the pastor) to people in rehab who are new believers and other recent converts. I was asked to do a New Testament Survey fly-over with specific applications to the Christian life. In the evenings, I will teach from 6 to 9 p.m. at another church on the topic “The Kingdom of God and the Shape of Christian Life and Ministry.” This is a leaders/people training course for believers from many churches in the Lutsk area. A good friend and excellent translator, Anya, will help me communicate meaningfully. She has been my translator on several strategic occasions. A short story: about 3 years ago, Anya and her special friend, Yuri, a dentist, took me from Lutsk to L’viv by car. I did pre-marital counseling (seriously) from the backseat. A little over a year ago Yuri and Anya got married (Julie and I saw their wedding pictures last trip).

After the week of intensive training in the two venues, over the weekend I will have ad hoc ministry opportunities with various individual leaders and church staffs, undoubtedly preaching in another church. I will return to Kiev on May 20 and spend two days with Maksim and Lena, visiting the orphanage operated by their church. I fly out of Kiev on May 23 and arrive Grand Rapids, MI, the same day (time zone wonders).

All who visit here, I ask for your prayers for this trip. Also, pray for Julie and Lois, Julie’s mother who lives with us, while I am away. Remember Fellowship Evangelical Covenant, too, in your prayers. The people of Fellowship are so supportive of my mentoring ministry in Ukraine. They helped me purchase a lap-top computer for my friend Sasha Savich. My good brother and pastoral intern, Jeremy Bouma (who just finished his whole first year of Seminary today), will be at the helm for the two weeks.

Thanks so much!

Das Vedanya!

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