Author: David

Well, we are almost into summer now! The weather is steadily getting warmer (but we still have had cold spells, even last week!). There’s lots going on – projects, camps, teams, etc., but at the same time, we often see a drop in attendance at church here, because a lot of people go on vacation, and lots of students go back home for the summer. We’ve got lots of things to pray for, which is one of the reasons why I’m writing this post. If you’d like just an overview of the prayer requests, there is a bullet list at the end.

From April to now early summer, we’ve had a lot going on as a church. The Festival of Hope with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) was on June 20th, and that was HUGE. There were over 35,000 people at the stadium, and, when the altar call happened, people left their seats in droves to get saved.

Please be praying for the new believers that got saved there. Our church was assigned a few people that came forward, so please pray for those three in particular and the thousands of others that also responded to the altar call.

Please also pray for the Jehovah’s Witnesses here in L’viv. They’ve capitalized on the Festival of Hope as an opportunity to push their own agenda, and some people are starting to confuse the BGEA for the JW’s. It’s really sad, actually. Please pray that we’ll all be able to answer any new questions well and that people will know the difference between that and the real Gospel.

This week, there is a team of Americans putting on an English conference in our city. It’s headed up by Rock Bridge Church from Georgia (USA). They’re actually doing it in the same school where we did an English Conference a few years ago with Calvary Chapel Greer. They’ve partnered with other organizations, but we are the only church represented there, and we’re hoping to really make an impact with the Gospel through that conference.

We are continuing the registration process to make sure that I (David) get all of my papers done so that I can continue to live here legally. Please pray, because there’s a lot to do with that, we are very busy, and there’s not much time left. Pray for Katya in particular – there’s lots of work for her.

Also, you guys may or may not have seen in our last newsletter that Katya’s mom, Tanya, needs both of her hips to be replaced. The doctor said it wasn’t time yet and she might be ready a year or two from now. Pray for us as we continue to take care of her, save up money, and wait for when the doctors give us the go-ahead.

I’m continuing to get the web team organized and strong here. The church move, vacations, and people moving away have really affected our progress, but we are picking up momentum again. The Calvary Chapel Ukraine Worship site was also hacked earlier this spring, and the hack spilled over to some of my personal websites. I’m still cleaning that up. Please pray for that process, and pray especially that it wouldn’t happen again!

On the plus side with the web team, we just ran a Facebook ad as a follow-up for the Festival of Hope. It reached about 11,500 people, and we got 420+ clicks to our website! A few of those went on to the “directions to church” page on the site, so we may get some new people in the coming month or so! Please pray for the web ministry in general – this stuff works, but it takes a lot of hands to get done.

Some stuff that’s coming up soon: a team from Morning Star church in California will be here soon. We are really looking forward to having them. While they are here, there will be a baptism in our church. That is always SO exciting. Here is a follow-up video from our last baptism. It has English subtitles, so it should all make sense:

I’ve also been leading worship more this year, and that looks like it’s going to continue through the summer. I really, really enjoy music / worship ministry, and I’ve been praying to be able to do that more. Please pray for me and the rest of the musicians as we seek to glorify God with our talents and bring others to Christ.

Please also be praying for Katya as she will be serving at a youth camp towards the end of July.

Please pray for:

• The new converts from the Festival of Hope
• The Jehovah’s Witnesses “Congress” and the confusion that can happen from that
• The Rock Bridge English Conference
• David and Katya – getting documents done
• Tanya (Katya’s mom) – as we continue to take care of her and work towards her hip replacements
• The web team as David gets things more and more streamlined and cleans up the hack from earlier this year
• The Morning Star team that’s coming at the end of July and the baptism that’s happening then
• David and the worship ministry
• Katya as she’s at camp this year towards the end of July

Thank you so much for praying for us! We really appreciate it! Thank you for being a part of what God is doing here in L’viv, Ukraine!

Hey, everybody! We just wanted to give you guys an update on how we’ve been doing and what’s new since our last update. We've been doing well since the new year – just very busy. Between David's work at the church with the web ministry, Katya's job at the preschool, joining a gym to get our backs (and bodies in general) healthy, and more ministries and conferences popping up at the church, it's been a busy start of the season. Sometimes it’s been hard to take the time we need as a couple together (please pray for that), but otherwise, we generally like being busy – it keeps life interesting and productive. 😀 😀

Katya has been doing well. She’s been able to get a lot more active in the church recently and is trying to facilitate fellowship between the young women of the church. They just recently had “girl’s night” at our apartment, which was a lot of fun. There was lots of laughing, games, and girly stuff, and David got “pulled in” to bake homemade pizza for them. Please do pray for her and the other women in the church as that ministry grows.

The biggest project for David so far this year was the redesign of our church's website, www.horizonlviv.org – pictured right. It took about a month of hard work with a large team to get the whole thing done. The “programmer” part of the team is actually getting together next week to celebrate the completion of the project. Please feel free to check it out and then tell us what you think! (The link above will take you to the English section, so you'll be able to understand everything there… you can also click here.)

We can't give the full details of the next project he's currently working on, but we can say that it's something like a Christian web-magazine. It will be in English and in Ukrainian. If you have connections with people in that field (publications, writers, bloggers, etc.) or if you can help in some way, please contact us asap.

About a week ago, we sent out an urgent prayer email asking for prayer for three soldiers that were in Debaltseve, which was under attack by the Russian army. We haven’t been able to get any information about those three guys in particular, but we do know that Russia took that town from Ukraine. There have been conflicting reports as to what actually happened, but they all say that this was some of the fiercest fighting that Ukraine has seen this year. It’s also a complete violation of the “cease fire” that Russia promised in Minsk.

Please keep praying for Ukraine. Debaltseve was a key town to lose, because it was a railway hub on the road from Russia into terrorist-controlled territory. From what we hear, there is fighting now going on further down the line towards the Luhansk / Donetsk area.

Below is a video that we saw on YouTube that might touch your heart and give you a sense of what we go through as our friends get ready to be shipped east. Ukraine just wants freedom from bully countries (particularly Russia right now) and corruption. It’s what they’ve been fighting for since the Maidan started.