Kremenchuk, Ukraine Newsletter

Doug Berry, Missionary    Volume No. 5    Issue No. 1    Date October 1, 2006

Hello From Central Ukraine!

I want to begin this newsletter with you!  Because of your continued faithful support through prayers and financial support, we have entered our 5^th year of work in Kremenchuk and central Ukraine on September 13^th.  Thank you for so abundantly sustaining us in our outreach and doing the Lord’s work here in Kremenchuk.  God continues to do great works through you and us as we allow ourselves to be His instruments of service.  I am planning on being here for a long time to come!

 Needed Vacation

     After 3 non-stop months of May through July, I was pretty worn out.  So I decided to take a vacation to Turkey for 10 days!  It was really hot there while I was there from August 6^th - 16^th, but it did me a world of good.  I came back refreshed and ready to go again! Obviously this summer I didn’t go back to the States, mainly because I had gone to the USA for my daughter Jenise’s wedding on April 27^th. 

An Exciting Development

     There is a new law in Ukraine that allows the Bible to be taught, at least on an ethical level in schools!  I believe that the Lord is using this law to open many new doors for us.  Please pray that we will successfully follow through with this great opportunity!

August is Always a Transition Month

     So many things of the busy earlier summer came to an end.  Then we had the continued work of trying to follow-up with the campaigns that Sasha, Valerie and Valerie are working diligently on.  We had a time of vacation for our AIM workers and me.  We had a time of comfortable relaxation with our young people. Finally we have the planning and preparations for our fall work schedule.  Both of the cities where we had the campaigns had visitors for the campaigns in August and promised returns.  Surprising Komsomolsk had more even though they had fewer visitors during our lectureships.  It turned out that a lot of the visitors we had for the Svetlovolsk lectureships were people that had come from Pentecostal churches that came to argue with us.  The 4 young people that work with me each took from a week to 2 weeks off for some needed rest.  James Vaughn took a little more to go back to England to be with his mother, who has incurable cancer.  Please pray for him and his family.

     I have many of our plans and other activities to share with you, which will be just a little bit later in this newsletter.

     One of the best parts of August was Lyuba’s baptism into Christ on August 3^rd. Lyuba and I have been studying since last November and she has been coming to classes for about a year and a half.  She is 19 and a wonderful young woman is who is working full time and going to the University part time.  We are so thankful to have her in our family.  She is our 28^th new Christian and our 8^th of this year. 

Welcome to the family of God, Lyuba!

 Making Plans and Carrying Them Out

     We began to review our last year and summer teaching programs to decide how to best proceed for the future. Of course in any work that we do, it is not just a matter to try to continue on an even pace, but to improve and to grow.  There are things like our Bible Clubs that have been a continued success that we want to keep from becoming static and to continue to benefit those that come to them.  As you read in my last newsletter our summer classes really did not go well this summer, so we are trying to look at new ways to make them better or to try something new all together.  Our Bible Camp continues to be one of the most successful things that we do.  Therefore we want to expand on it and do more Bible Camps.  Our Campaigns seemed to be successful on the surface for we were able to tell a lot of people about the Gospel message and we had several visitors to both lectureships in both cities, but only a very few continued to be interested afterwards.  So, is there a better way to do that and better ways of following up?

     In September, we began to visit schools that we hope to teach in this fall.  A new school, #1, was very receptive and helpful in getting us to all the classes we asked for and giving us a place to teach.  They even assigned a teacher to us to help us to speak to classes.  Another school that we wanted to enter, that we thought we could, the director changed her mind and said we couldn’t come.  But at school #9, where we have been minimally involved in for 3 years really surprised us!  The Director, a man, received us with open arms and asked to try to teach Bible and English to all of his classes in the whole school!  Right now we are teaching a class for the 8^th-11^th form of about 10 kids with better English skills and in the weeks to follow, we plan to at least begin to also teach a class for the 5^th and 6^th grades and one for the 7^th and 8^th. Also this Director has said that there are 3 other schools that he will ask their directors to let us come and teach at their schools like we are at his!  We were surprised by the invitation to visit and then to teach at a school where the children live in during the week because of poor parent relationships at home.  This is a school for the 1^st – 9^th grades.  We are now teaching 4 classes on Wednesday evening to maybe 50 or 60 kids!  We are of course still teaching at Schools #11 and #10 that have been our main stay for years.  Now the Director at the Bugkivka village school has told us that he is letting only us into teach the Bible to his kids even though the Baptist and Orthodox have asked to come in because he trusts us!  We are making 2 trips out to this village, 37 miles away, each week to carry out this opportunity to teach the Bible to them!

Pupils getting ready for the 1^st Bell at School #11.

     All of this teaching at schools is on top of what we are doing away from the schools like our Devotional on Tuesday nights, our Bible Studies on Thursday nights, our Fun Night on Fridays, our 4 Bible Clubs on Saturday and worship, orphan homes and evening worships on Sundays.  I now have 4 personal Bible studies going on, and Lord willing many more will develop soon!

 An Invitation We Accepted

     In July it became clear that we were not going to be able to use rooms in the new Bible College that had been built here. In early August, the men of the Church at the Central Church where we worship came to us and told us that we could use the Church building when the Bible College moved out.  The Elders in TN wanted us to make sure that all this was good with everyone involved and we were assured the men of the church that is was as long as all the work that we were doing was considered a work of the Church, which of course is what we want it to be.  So, Lord willing we will be moving several of our activities to the church building in the next few weeks so that we will have more room.  We hope to involve more members of the Church in what we are doing and to also make a place that might be more acceptable for new people to come to. Please pray for the success of this new opportunity and that we will do everything to God’s glory!

 Wish List and Shipping Information

     I have been asked again for what I would like to have from the USA.  I thought that rather than sending this many times, I would just include it in my newsletter.  If you want to send things to get here before the holiday season, you should send it soon!  These are not just for me, because I try to share the things that you send to me with our group!  1. Chocolate chips.  2. Hershey nuggets and/or mini bars.  3. Mild Pacante Sauce. 4. Spaghetti seasoning packets.  5. Hot Chocolate. 6. Mini-Marshmallows. 7. Tortias in sealed bags. 8. Microwave popcorn. 9. Christian theme stickers. 10. Pocket Size NIV New Testament. 11. Maybe 2 card games called: Rat*a*Tat*Cat – probably get it at Wal Mart. 12. Vitamins: Echinacea Golden Seal; 13. Pau d’ Arco. These can be bought at Wal Mart or GNC in the malls. 14. Maybe a good digestive aid!  

     The shipping company that seems to work best to get things here is:  (Please do not use the postal service!!!)

MEEST-KARPTY

2236 West Chicago Ave.

Chicago, IL  60622

Tape the package well.  Don’t send electronics.  Put the normal label from you to MEEST.  In an envelope put the label to Ukraine taped on the outside of the box with my address in the envelope, including my cell phone and home phone number in the envelope as well.  On the outside of the envelope write, UKRAINE ADDRESS. 

The cost is $12.00 per box and $.79 a pound. (price may have changed.) It might be a good idea to call Meest first just to make sure this is what they need.  MEEST PHONE NUMBERS are:  773-489-9225; fax-773-278-7353; toll free: 800-PARCEL-1. 

My address here is:  And thank you ahead of time!!!

Douglas Berry

Puskina 20, Apt. 37

Kremenchuk

Poltava Oblast

Ukraine  39600