Monday, 23 April 2007 – We traveled to a different city for the week. It is a small town of about 90,000 people. It is known for its amount of drug addicts. There are 6 Christian churches and only 1%, 900 people, are believers. We were invited to run a two hour seminar for four day with at the request of two churches. Tonight will be our first session on true identity.

Tuesday, 24 April 2007 – Last night there were about 60 people who showed up for the seminar. It was a good time to meet some of the leaders of the two churches. We will offer one on one counseling along with the seminars. There maybe time to visit a school and an orphanage. I will be teaching tonight on functional/dysfunctional families with two other members of out team.

Wednesday, 25 April 2007 – The teaching was very well accepted. I believe that God has started to break the denial in order to accept God’s truth. As guys we don’t have anyone other guys who want to counsel. The other members of the team schedule are full. The girl in training will be teaming up with leaders. They don’t feel like they are ready to counsel others.

Thursday, 26 April 2007 – What a long day! I teamed up with Sergey in counseling. It was good, because half of the people we met with spoke in Ukrainian, which I only started to understand that I can understand it. There was only a few time when I did not know what was going on. Sergey spoke in Russian, which helped me to make sure I was getting in the right direction. We went to a school where I taught about emotions. It is a basic teaching, but has some great practical points to it. After the seminar on the father’s heart of God, we had one more counseling session. We did not get home until after one o’clock in the morning.

Friday, 27 April 2007 – Today is a time to see the city and to meet with some of the leaders. It has been a good trip. We all want to come back during the ABC outreach to work more with addictions and to be able to go deeper in processing. It will all depend on what our leader for the next outreach will say. I hope that she will say yes. Also looking back over this week, I see how God has brought healing to the lives of many people in this town through one on one counseling and through the seminar. It was great to see how people where starving for the help from God. And he provided.

Monday, 16 April 2007 – The counseling ministry held a seminar entitled “The Father’s Heart of God” taught by Sharon. It looks at what are some of the way we get a wrong impress of God as father. It was very moving time for the participants. I could see God working on the hearts of people through their facial expression. It was great that one person I am starting to work with was there. I could see that some doors were opened and some lights turned on. I can’t wait for our time to meet together to see what revelations God gave him during this time.

Tuesday, 17 April 2007 – At the rehab center I started a series on dysfunctional families. The response was varied. Some people where in denial. They were not able to connect their addiction with some unresolved issues of childhood. As I was taught by Jim Isom, when I person says that he has a prefect family and great parents that there such be a red flag going up. No one is prefect. And even in the best of families there where unmet needs that have a negative affect on a person’s life. These are the things that stop a person from fully understanding and accepting God and his plan for his life.

Wednesday, 18 April 2007 – Today I team taught the topic of dysfunctional families with Larissa to social worker at one of the AIDS clinics in the city. It was interesting to see how God was able to work amongst a group of mainly unbelievers to share his love. The type of questions they were asking helped me to see that we were not only teaching him how to better understand their clients, but giving the Holy Spirit an opportunity to use us to work in the lives of the staff there. It was a good time.

Thursday, 19 April 2007 – Wow! What a wonderful time of blessing we had with at the street kids club. Marianna taught on “if and only if,” then we play a counseling game on how to accept and reject personal statements. It was amazing is literally see the hardness wash away as each kid was given a chance to hear positive feedback of what others liked in them. When some of them shared how they felt afterwards they were emotionally overwhelmed. It surprisingly happened more with the boys then with the girls.

Friday, 20 April 2007 – I went with a group from the base to go feed the poor in front of the monastery in town. It is hard to get started, but once I start to talk with the ones who don’t mean sharing, it is a heart retching experience that brings a little light in the life of a person who is an outcast of society. To listening to their stories are sometimes hard to deal with, but to be able to point them to a loving God is encouraging.

Saturday, 21 April 2007 – We went to the kids club. It is fascinating to see the strength of the human soul in kids. No matter how tragedy their situations there are able to enjoy the moment and learn that the way things are for them at him is not the norm. For example, there is one girl who has been coming for several years. She is going to university now and still likes to spend her free time there helping others, because as she has shared that this is only place where people believe in me. And she is trying to caring the same message on to the next generation.

Saturday, 14 April 2007 – We went to a kids’ club. It was fantastic. I know that it was another God thing. There was a new person who showed up. He is 20, so he does not fit into the program. He came in with a guy who went to the club and still comes around now and then. This 20 year old man has two kids and living in his mother-in-law house. His father was from Africa and his mother is Ukrainian. He had a lot of pain, hurt, and anger in him. I spent most of my time with him. It was a challenge for me, because my Russian was not coming to me at the speed I would have liked. He is looking for something. He knows about God. He came up with different excuses why he did not need to make a decision for accepting Christ as Savior. I invited him to come to a teaching on Monday and let him know that we will be back next Saturday. Pray that God will continually speak to him in ways that he can understand.

Friday, 13 April 2007 – Feeding the poor was more difficult this week for the team I was on. We were able to find some people but I only made a connection with one of them. There were to old women who did not wish to talk, but was overly thankful for the meal.

Thursday, 12 April 2007 – Our time at the street kids’ center started in crisis. When we showed up there was only on kid there. We found out that a 15 year kid who comes to that center was found semi-conscious with a bloody nose. He had been sniffing glue and had a bad reaction to it. I was a good time for us to support the staff and the kids who started showing up. It was a good time of sharing our faith with them in the midst of crisis. I taught on feelings: why they are ok. It leads to a great time of sharing. Most of these kids only know the negative side of emotions. My focus was on that emotions are not good or bad. It all depends on how we act on our emotions.

Wednesday, 11 April 2007 – Our whole team went to a government ran AIDS center. We were schedule to teach some of the patients, but there was a miss understanding. We met with the social workers. I believe that this was a God thing. After talking with the workers, we understood that our time would be better spent with them in the future working directly with the staff. We found that they don’t have very strong relational skills for working with clients. With the help of our leaders, we will be training, sharing, and learning with the social workers.

Tuesday, 10 April 2007 – Today Sergey taught on forgiveness at a rehab center. It was a very powerful time. Each person was touched in some way through the teaching about where they are in the process of forgiving those who have hurt them. We had a time a ministry with one of the clients there. The guys who wanted to deal with some things from his past will have time next Tuesday with a one-on-one session with our leader. Eric is hoping to be part of this time to observe. We will see how that part goes.

Friday, 6 April 2007 – Wow! What an eye opening experience. Today we went out to feed the poor and homeless on the streets of Kiev. I could not believe the reality check I received. There were people from all walks of life who through poor choices on their part or from someone close to them ended up on the street. It is true that only by the grace of God, go I.
As we were walking around looking for people who we could talk to, pray with, and give a small meal to, we can across many people who have become an outcast of society. On person that sticks out to me is a man who was not able to walk and had a total of six figures between his two hands, and he was sitting in his own urine. We listened to him, gave him food, and prayed for him. For me it seems like so little, but as he expressed to us. He was sitting thinking how hungry he was and if he was going to be able to eat. He was very thankful for our kindness toward him. My time with him remembers me that it does not take much to make a difference in a person’s life. I believe that if there are enough little differences made in a person’s life then their life would be dramatically chanced. I know that God uses even the smallest efforts to bring enormous chance in a person’s life.

Wednesday, 4 April 2007 – We went to a kid’s club for children from broken families and for street kids. What a great start. It was a powerful time. On of our team members shared his story with them. It was one that everybody at the club could relate to. I felt God moving in the room as I saw on their faces how they wanted more then what they have been given. I believe that God really spoke to their souls on this day.

Monday, 2 April 2007 – Today Eric supported Emily, a counselor on the base, as she taught on Healthy Families. The seminar was for two hours on premarital relations and child rising, but it was not enough time to get everything said. She did an excellent job and even inspired me to evaluate how we are setting down our foundation for our kids in our family.

Tuesday, 3 April 2007 – We (Sergey and Eric) went to a Christian male rehabilitation center on the edge of Kiev. It was our first time there, so we spent time getting to know the people we will be teaching and serving for the next few months. They gave us a warm welcome. We shared our own testimonies and then they had time to share their own. This was a great time, because it “broke the ice” so that what we will share will be better received. It was such a great time, we were schedule for 1 to 1 ½ hours session, but we stayed there talking and listening for 3 hours. When we left both of us commented how fast the time flew. We are excited about going back again.

The Week Continues

Friday – Eric taught on Love Bonds and Fear Bonds. It was a practice run within the group, but God touched one student heart and he was given a revelation about himself from the teaching. It shows that God works on us on his own timing and that there is really on such thing as a practice run.

Saturday – Supported another one of our missionaries by helping with the monthly family club. We did a lot of the background work like setting up chairs and preparing food. Eric was also given ½ hours to share. He shared about the important of good communication in relationships. It went great. There were a mixture of believers and non-believers there. During the time to mingle some people asked different members of our group how they can achieve better communication in their marriage or other important relationships.