Hi folks (c:
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country Proverbs 25:25
The key event of the last 4 months has been the birth of our son Timko, turning our lives upside down as kids are known to do. Its been a most stretching time in terms of trusting God but He is good and faithful to us. You can read the details on
the birthnotice but I'll include here a few highlights (some of which were a little on the low side):
First, to avoid confusion, in Ukraine most names have pre-determined nicknames, and combining three languages means Timothy has quite a range to choose from, ie: Ukrainian Timofi, Timko; Russian Timofyei, Tima; English Timothy, Tim.
Tima was born a month early on June 23, weighing 2 kgs (4 lb 6 oz). There were some complications, including not breathing for a few moments, and Vita lost so much blood that they had to borrow someone else's. The following day they sent him to the Regional Children's Hospital in Boyarka because he was turning blue but Vita wasn't allowed to go with him 'cause they "don't take mothers who are weak".
While deciding what to call our son a guy from Australia wrote to my aunt in NZ and said he'd been praying for us and
felt the Lord giving him the name Timothy. He didn't know, as we hadn't told anyone, that there were three names left on our list and
Timothy was one of them. It was nice to know that God was thinking of us at that time while Timko was in Boyarka and we didn't know what was going to happen next the doctors were telling us to prepare for the worst. But over the last 3 months its been very comforting to be able to look back and remember that God was walking beside us right from the beginning even when the doctors still say everything is bad there is hope. I know this in my head of course, but to have such a concrete demonstration of God's love helps our hearts.
We also found out over the next week that people in Australia and NZ had
felt led to pray for us without knowing what was going on right round the time Vita went into labour. Why did God lead people to pray? I can't say exactly, but it was again very comforting to know that
God is in control.
Vita and Tim spent almost a month in hospital all up, and I can't say that I like the Ukrainian medical system any better as a result. Another way the Lord took care of us was that all the doctors and nurses that 'happened' to be ours 'just happened' to be the ones who don't take bribes.
We don't see the results of our prayers yet the doctors say he still has some water on the brain with some degree of brain damage, perhaps resulting in some mental and physical disabilities... We wait and pray. The most depressing in all this is the attitudes of the doctors and Vita's relatives: everything is bad, bad, bad. Sometimes the relatives apply pressure to take Tim to 'alternative healers' (hypnosis etc) and when we refuse they accuse us of not loving him.
While Vita was in hospital I finally got the base to our bed sorted out (after 6 months of sleeping on the mattress at floor level) so when she came home I was able to present her with a bed at the normal height. Thank you very much to the church in NZ that paid for the materials (its made of a mixture of pine, oak, and beech), Vita is very pleased with it (c:
I mentioned in the June newsletter that we moved to a new apartment and that there was a possibility it would sell well it did. From June 1 to mid-August we moved five times and I began to wonder whether we should buy a house to get some stability. We don't have the cash for that of course (don't think in terms of NZ prices an apartment here sells for $5,000-10,000) so I began praying about it. Over the weekend the place we're in now also sold (c: I'm not sure what God wants for the future so please pray with us. There is an idea that God's trying to tell us its time to move on to another town. Whatever the case, we're currently looking for a place to live and hoping our new landlords can wait till we find something however they also have to get out of the place they're currently in... Its just another of those 'trust God' situations, remembering that He knows our every need before we even need it.
Last year I noticed this ad: for 1 kg of hair at least 35 cm long we'll pay up to 500 grn ($167). So I grew my hair, hoping to cut it off and sell it. After one year (compare with Absalom in 2 Sam 14:26 who cut his hair once a year and got about 2 kgs) I cut it all off and it weighed 100 grams and the length had only reached 14 cm. Today those ads say 1200 grn ($400) for a kg but I don't think I'll bother trying that again, I'm not waiting three years to get over the minimum length...
The computer classes I started in March with one computer really took off over summer with 22 children each spending 3 hours here a week. Complications were rife, including having to rush off to Boyarka right when the lesson was supposed to start, programs 'disappearing', computer parts failing, and power cuts every time it rained (serious rain in Kaharlyk always drops the town into darkness for a couple of hours). I was sprinting to keep ahead of my top student, planning lessons 5 minutes before he needed them. Tanya took a lot of classes for me (and will continue to do so I would rather teach other people how to teach so I can free myself up to move on to other things) so I was able to be with Vita when she most needed it.
Last month we started another round of lessons coinciding with the start of the school year (as well as moving to a different room), this time with my first class of adult students. I have four computers networked, three of which were donated by an American mission focused on children. I use X (on Linux) for most of my lessons (which runs in Ukrainian, a bonus not featured by Windows) but recently bought a copy of Windows XP and have plans to obtain an old Apple to provide as much variety as possible. Its been fun developing relationships with the kids, chasing them in virtual tanks after the lessons (games are a great way to improve mouse skills seriously! as well as an incentive to finish the lesson), and improving my Ukrainian so that I can find my way around in a system I don't even know too well in English. Someone recently noticed that I was speaking soorzhik (a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian) with my students as freely as they do, so Vita decided its time she started speaking Ukrainian to me at home to help me make the transition to clean Ukrainian instead of the rough mixture most village people speak.
During the summer I began to spend time with Kolya in Shubivka (a village 20 mins from here). Kolya works here at the factory during the day (bio-diesel) but every Wednesday evening I go home with him and have dinner with him and his wife Lyuda, then we discuss whatever issues are relevant for him. We're just starting on Ezekiel (his choice). Then others in the village come and join us for home group. Its a great group, keeping me on the edge by asking some pretty hard questions (like what's really wrong with the Prosperity Doctrine), but very much alive.
I'm also still doing the home group on Tuesday nights which is a 35 min walk from home. In contrast its a hard group to run if the grandmothers are present they constantly change the subject ("Listen to the dogs barking!" or "Oh my knees are aching.") and don't really seem to listen to anything I say. Valentine makes it worth my time and I enjoy talking with him and his wife and mother-in-law on a range of topics. I offered to take them through a discipliship course 2 months ago but then the harvest started and they haven't had a free moment since. But the gardens are clean as mud can be and the leaves are falling soon everyone's evenings will be less busy.
I mentioned recently the idea of playing a mixture of sermons (100 hrs) and music (2000 songs) constantly in the corridors of the church, especially where people wait to see the public notary who uses a room in our building. The first trials have been successfully run, the remaining hurdle being how to secure the speakers so they don't walk away (you may have seen speakers doing this) without wrapping them in chains and putting up a sign saying "You probably wanted to steal these but, haha, you can't". As I was working out the finer details of this system a series of thoughts trickled through my mind which I believe came from God: Why not get some outdoor public address type speakers and set them up outside to extend the range of these sermons and songs from 5 to 25 metres we're right in the centre of town with people constantly flowing past. And hey, after that why not hook a transmitter up to the computer and broadcast the play list to the whole town! With a play list of that size we can run 24 hrs a day for 10 days without repeating anything. At the same time as I was first pondering this idea I discovered that at least three other men in other cities had come up with the same idea which for me was no surprise, just a delight in seeing God's hand in my life. It remains to be seen what needs to be done in terms of licensing, and as yet I haven't been able to find a transmitter.
Last Sunday we were short on instrument players so we invited Ben to come from Rzhishev to play for us. Since the only people singing would have been Olya and Ben, we decided it would be better if I sang as well instead of playing the trumpet. It seemed a perfect opportunity for me to play under Ben's leadership so I decided to give it a whirl on my guitar, playing trumpet just on the songs where the chord changes are still too fast for me. I'm already leading worship at home group on my guitar but I always choose songs with easy or few chords on Sunday there was only one easy song but I managed to keep up including some hairy bar chords like alternating F#m7 and Bm which looks scandalous on paper but turns out to be simple to play. Standing there with my guitar hanging round my neck and trumpet in hand the youth group decided we no longer need Superman or Spiderman we have
Orchestraman!
| One of our faithful ladies, Valya, was knocked off her bicycle by a car on our main street. She was diagnosed with only bruising and concussion things certainly could have been much worse. Over the past year, Valyas husband Vitya has been slowly opening his heart to things of the Spirit. He comes and helps Valya clean the church! We were all excited when he asked soon after the accident, How do I repent? Now we have a new brother in Christ! Please pray for Valya and Vitya. They are going through a tough time, and both their teenage children are handicapped. |
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We've almost doubled the number of foreigners on the team with the arrival of Magdala from Waipara, NZ. She'll be teaching English for a year, starting with 11 students at this stage but every day another prospective student shows up. This has been our main way of meeting new people for the last 6 years and is still effective.
The US Peace Corps have also showed up here, giving free English lessons in the schools. These young Americans really stand out as foreigners as they walk around the town I realize how foreign I looked when I first arrived here. |
Three weeks to go before my visa again expires and since I've had two extensions I'm not allowed any more. We were hoping Vita and Tim could come to Austria with me to get a new one but we were a little slow applying for a passport and they tell us it should be ready in January (there is no option of paying extra to speed it up). On top of that its quite a process for Ukrainians to get visas to other countries (which perhaps explains why its such a process to get a visa to come here). This means I'll have to leave them here and go to Austria by myself to get a new visa which, including travel time, will take about two weeks.
News Break!
Andrei, who takes care of my visas, asked at the central office if I could have a special extension due to the situation with Tim and they said if the Minister of Religious Affairs agreed then they would give me a new 6 month visa... He agreed (I think a box of chocolates may have been involved) so I don't have to go anywhere till April! Praise God!
We're already praying about what we'll do in April. I've been offered a job in another city proof-reading new Bible courses (before they get translated to Russian) and other editorial work for a year from April helping a group who prepare Ukrainian missionaries going to Russia. The major advantage of this job is it will help Vita make the transition from her home-town of 27 years before moving to NZ an intermediate stop where at least the language is still familiar.
If we do go to Rivne, all the things I'm currently involved in will have to be re-routed to other people, but that would have had to happen in 2005 anyway and is always a healthy step. The hardest one will be someone to take over the computer classes, but Oles and I are talking about that already perhaps I can teach him enough in the next six months (I'm more concerned with his attitude to work in general than his knowledge of computers). Oles is engaged (to Tanya) but their wedding is on hold till they can get enough cash together to pay for an apartment etc. So I told Oles that my original plan was to turn this computer class into a full business offering services to the community and that if he takes that ball and runs with it he should be able to make enough to support a family. The lessons for children are free and will remain that way so he'll have to work up some initiative to develop a business.
Every week I've had to make changes to this newsletter as situations changed, but today it's going to be sent! God bless you all.
Gareth & Vita
First the whole idea of starting small businesses was to show the corruption-riddled community how Christians should work and live together, and with one non-Christian (Roma - right) on the team we started on the bio-gas and bio-diesel projects. A few months later, on the day we started the Bible School, Roma turned up expecting to join in so Ura took him aside and started asking him questions. Roma said he'd decided a couple of weeks earlier that God's way is the right way so when Ura asked if he'd like to repeat a prayer after him Roma replied that he would rather pray himself and right there and then asked God for forgiveness and salvation.
As a result, the next day the girls in the sewing group gathered up a few friends who've never been to church and invited them to join them in making work gloves and army jackets (they're now taking orders). And so it goes on.
Three people grew mushrooms in one of the basement rooms and the first harvest produced 450 kgs, at least half of which they sold on the roadside to Kyiv. Now they've hired two more people and are expanding to the other basement room.
Recently the first bio-diesel mixture was poured into our tractor (purchased for us by a group of believers in America) and Kolya drove around the factory to everyone's delight, the smell of hot chips and fried chicken drifting after him (the bio-diesel is made from used oil from fast food joints). Now one of the church vans runs on 50% bio-diesel. Unfortunately it goes solid when the temperature drops below about 15 so we're going back to normal diesel till Spring meanwhile where to store the diesel that's constantly being produced?