Kremenchuk, Ukraine Newsletter

Doug Berry, Missionary    Volume No. 5    Issue No. 2    Date December 7, 2006

Greetings from Kremenchuk

     Can you believe it?  The holidays are upon us already! How the time has flown by.  Does it never stop?  Only when Jesus comes again! 

     I know that there were some problems in your receiving our last couple of newsletters.  For sure, they were emailed out when they were supposed to be, but for some unknown reason, many never received them the first time and so I sent them out a 2^nd time!  Lord willing, you will get this one on time.  If you have a minute after you receive this, would you drop me a line and let me know that you did get this newsletter?  Thank you! Sorry this is late. I had internet problems.

Big Changes Coming For Us

            The mother of James Vaughan (one of our AIM workers) passed away on October 19^th of cancer. We extended our deepest sympathy to James and family.  James left early the next morning to be with his family and will probably return to us the middle of January.

     Jared Kendall and Frankie Villegas will leave Ukraine on December 12 to move back to the USA.  They have completed their AIM work with us, which was to be from 14 to 22 months.  They have served the mission work well here the last 19 months and we all will find it very difficult to see them leave.  They are loved and appreciated for all that they have done to strengthen the saved and reach the lost.  We praise God for them!

     For right now, this will leave Kelli Himebaugh and me working here teaching 20+ classes at 6 different schools.  Kelli is doing a very good job of teaching the younger children’s classes and working with our young women.  James will return in January to help us with this load.  Lord willing, in May, we will receive another AIM team to come and work under my supervision.

Jared, me, Frankie and Kelli with Orphan’s home family

Orphan Home Family

    In the picture below is a wonderful family that we all love. We are so happy to be studying the Bible with them on a weekly basis. The whole family, except the grandmother, is so open to the Word of God! This family decided over a year ago that they wanted to take on the challenge of setting up their own home as an Orphanage. (It is Ukraine’s plan that all orphanages will be home orphanages in 10 years.)  This met with the approval of their  3 children and the grandmother who lives with them.  But they needed help and so they came to us, since their two twin boys had been coming to our Bible classes and to our Bible Camp.  We have helped in several different ways. Jared and James  helped them in some financial ways, like buying them two bunk beds.  Also, “His Kids Two” orphan assistance program that is run by members of the Church of Christ, has been a big blessing and assistance to us as well.  The family’s twin boys Alex and Andrey (14 years old) and daughter Liza (15) went to camp again with us this summer and the boys were baptized into Christ.

     The parents in the back row are Inna and Victor.  Then Andrey, Elona, 6 (oldest sister of the three orphans; they are true brother and sisters!), Liza, Inna, Victor, Artem 2, in Victor’s lap, Alex, and Katya, 4.  The children were brought to the home from 3 different orphanages with the youngest, Artem, coming first.  Then Katya joined the family and finally Elona about the 1^st of September.  There are 3 older boys who are true brothers to Elona, Katya and Artem.  The desire of the family is to eventually bring these boys into the home as well.  There are many financial obstacles for the family to overcome, but God will provide the way!

     The family is going to be gone for a month, but after the first of the year, we will begin to study the plan of salvation with them!  Please keep this wonderful family in your prayers and hearts as we strive to love them, serve them, and bring them to Christ!

 October was a month of Settling In

     Our classes became pretty well set for the semester.  We knew who was going to teach what and where.  We had 23 classes at 6 schools pretty well divided up. We had our translators pretty well scheduled, too.  Then James had to leave and then there were 4 of us to teach.  We are teaching in the 4 schools that we were last year and 2 new ones where things are going pretty good! 

     The middle of October, we moved our Sunday night worship service to the church building at 6:15pm.  This was a big change for all of us, both in our group and for the Church.  Our attendance has run from 16 to our high this last Sunday of 23!  We still want to involve a lot more people of the church with this as most of the attendance is still our youth group.  We believe that time will bring more and more of us together in this worship time.

     Also, in early October, I began to write a weekly newsletter for our group.  In the US, you might call this a “church bulletin.” We do have a lot of information about happenings and coming events.  However the main purpose of the newsletter that we call “Living for Jesus” is to teach and encourage.  I felt a very pressing need to have a way to teach on subjects that we just didn’t have time to teach in our other classes.  Overall, the newsletter has been very well accepted.  We are also sharing this newsletter with the churches in our area and with the boys in the prison.

 November Starts the Holiday Season

     I guess I kind of mark the holiday season starting with my birthday!  We had 30 here for our Bible class on Thursday night and my birthday on the 16^th!  People gave me many beautiful gifts, including some new dishes that I was really needing!  Then for Thanksgiving we had 37 people come and share this holiday with us!

Our evening dinner we had 2 turkeys, many salads, fruit juices, olives, crescent rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, 4 pies and many other cookies and deserts!

 The next evening at our Fun Night, about 15 people came and ate again and we still had left-overs!  Of course, the greatest part is the people.  Last year we had 27 for this feast and we thought we were over-flowing then!  God has blessed us so much and with such great growth!

 Let Us Talk About Growth

     Comparing 51 months (4 years and 3 months!) ago when we started this to today is truly like black and white. 1 Church then compared to working with 4 Churches now. Our Church attendance has grown from maybe 60 to around 85.  I alone then and now working  with 3 native preachers and 4 AIM workers (reduced by 2 soon, but will probably get another team in May of 2007). Started working in 1 school with 2 classes a week compared to today working in 6 schools and 23 classes a week.  Started with nothing in my home and now we have 9 classes every week in my home and in the church building.  Then very few youth in the church and now we have had 28 baptisms, 24 of which are still active and faithful (86%).  We are studying with several others right now. 

     Many of our young people are, of course, growing up.  We have 7 that are in other cities going to universities.  We have 12 of our young people (not all Christians yet) that are going to universities, institutes and technical schools here in Kremenchuk.  We also now have 4 Christian couples (all are Christians!) that are dating and 1 couple that has just announced their engagement to be married!

     Yet with all that are away from us in other cities, we continue to grow.  We had 24 for singing last Tuesday night and have averaged around 20 all fall.  Now, we do definitely have our ups and downs.  Some classes are stronger than others.  We have things that we have to work on all the time.  That is a part of growth!  But God is truly working among us.  Thank you for being a part of this work.  With you, we can continue to grow!

 Things for You to Know

Ø      I am planning on continuing this work after my 5 years are up!  This is the best work that I have ever been involved with in my life and I want to continue here for a long time!

Ø      My website: www.ukrainemission.com is going through some changes and soon, you should be able to find it a lot easier to use it with frequent updated materials and pictures.

Ø      My email is: doug_berry2001@yahoo.com.

Ø      I have started a web log called a Blog that is to assist you. I update it at least weekly, about the work here as well as containing encouraging articles. Please read and leave comments on it. It is:  www.kremenchuk.blogspot.com.