Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 9:19 AM
Dear Prayer Partners,
This past month was filled with a variety of activities including
entertaining house guest, helping team mates move, teaching one-on-one,
preaching, Bible Studies and of course making chocolate chip cookies and
meals. One of the most interesting activites for us was singing at our
church. Sunday moring we sang with four Ukrainians in English. This was
their idea. Two of them do not speak English but they were brave enough to
try and sound out the words and sing even though they didn't know the
meaning of the song. We had a lot of fun practicing with them. I think they
will want to do it again.
Praise items:
1. The paper work on our apartment is almost finished and the cost was much
less than we thought it was going to be.
2. A good day yesterday with the boys from the orphanage. We were able to
accompany 22 of them to a national park for the day. They left at 6 a.m. and
rode for over 5 hours. When we reached the park they were given a banana and
a juice box which lasted them until the picnic at about 4. There were no
complaints about being hungry. They were kept in group the whole time but
seemed to be content to walk and look. Many of them found an adult and
walked hand-in-hand with them even though they are in their early teens. One
boy told our pastor that it was the first picnic he had been on. At the
picnic each child was given two boiled potatoes, a hard boiled egg, a
package of cookies, an apple, and a choice of several kinds of sandwiches
including one with a spread made from vegetables and all the fruit juice
they wanted.
3. Some new opportunities for ministry opened up for this fall. Ted will be
teaching at least two new classes: one on preaching and another on marriage
and the home at the institute. He also found out that he will probably be
teaching again in Makorova this fall and have a seminar on preaching in one
of our local church near Odessa.
4. Ted has been mentoring a young man in our church on why we believe the
Bible. The young man is very interested in it and plans to use it with the
youth in our church and possibly for evangelistic purposes.
Prayer requests:
1. Ted has a lot of preparation to do for these new opportunities.
2. Visa situation is still a problem. We thought we would be able to take
care of the problem with a new visa but we are now being told that is not
going to solve the problem. As soon as we think we have some answers we are
given different information. A new law was passed on May 9th limiting the
time we can spend in Ukraine.
3. Natasha, a young lady from our Bible study, is still planning to marry
Andrea who is not a christian.
4. A new church is being started in Lemana not far from Odessa. One of our
pastors is thinking about moving there and taking over the work. They have
found a house for only $15,000 that they plan on buying and using for a
church, a common practice here in Ukraine.
4. Please pray about new ministry oppotunities.
-I, Deb, have been asked to teach at the orphanage but would still need the
help of an interpreter for awhile or I would need to work several more hours
a week with a tutor. I would be able to use the same lessons at church with
the children. Finding interpreters during the week day is a problem.
- There also seems to be a desire on the part of the younger generation to
learn English but we are not sure how effective an English as a second
language course would be as far as outreach. Also there is the problem that
if they learn English then they want to migrate to the States and we lose
them.
-Another need I see is working with the children in their early teens. There
is a lot of work being done after age 16 but up to age 16 there is little if
anything being done. Our church has a service for children during the
regular morning service but there is only one class for ages 3-15. That is
quite an age span to reach at one time.
5, Lena, a young woman who puts many hours into the ministry of our church,
is facing heart surgery, which in Ukraine would be very dangerous.
6. Camping season is coming up. Ukrainians love to camp and often unsaved
people will attend camp.
7. Pray for the new church start in Lemana. They already have around 30
people coming and have had around 100 out for special services.
Depending on your prayers in Ukraine,
Ted and Deb Welch
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