Lighthouse Baptist Church Anniversary & More

Posted by admin on May 29, 2011 in Church, Missions | 0 comments

Sunday began with a trip to the church to load up everything we would need to hold services in the park…evidently, it takes pretty much everything in the church…lol.  We had to load it up, transport it, then it was all carried into the park from a neighboring street…it was quite the undertaking.  Mark and I went to one of the local markets to pick up the “fruit cakes” with chocolate on top, then headed back to the park.

After some singing, specials, and poems, I preached the first service.  There were people that walked up and joined us, and many curious onlookers that observed from afar.  After the preaching, we enjoyed some lunch and fellowship, took some group pictures by the fountain, and then gathered again for some more preaching.
For the afternoon service, we had some more singing and specials, with nine preachers who preached 10 minute messages.  I sat with people who were taking turns interpreting for me.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was such a blessing.  We carried “everything”…hehe…back out to the street, loaded up, and hauled it back to the church.  It was a long, hot, but very rewarding day.  I will remember it always.

Friday Youth Activity and Saturday’s Conference

Posted by admin on May 28, 2011 in Church, Missions | 0 comments

Friday was a day where we spent the morning shopping for groceries, etc. as we continued preparations for Saturday’s youth conference.  We got to spend some time with the Christian Family over lunch as well.  They had recently moved to a new, third floor apartment and we were invited over for some pasta salad and strawberry shortcake.  This was a great time of fellowship…they will be heading back to the States in a couple of weeks to celebrate their sending church’s 50th anniversary.  Please pray for them as they travel.

That evening, we took a group of kids over to a local park to play wiffle ball.  The appearance of gloves, bats, and balls, brought about 20 new kids over to play with us.  Mark does a great job  teaching the kids how to play and he had some commit to come to the church for services.  After a playing with them for a bit, I walked over to the basketball court and got into a game of pick up basketball.  These guys were seriously good, and I had a lot of fun, but they were pretty tough on me.  Some of them apparently played professional ball in Europe, and in clubs here in the Ukraine, so I was a little out of my league.  I was even guarded by a 6ft3 girl who plays professionally.  I had a difficult time guarding her since I couldn’t touch her…hehe, and she was hitting me pretty hard.  After a while, she asked me in English, “Where are you from?”, I replied, “Seattle, WA”.  She then said…”Cool!”, then kind of backed off a little bit.  I was grateful for this, because my self-esteem was lowering minute by minute…

Lighthouse Baptist Church in Odessa

Posted by admin on May 26, 2011 in Church | 0 comments

It was my privilege to preach at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Odessa for Bible Study last night.  As I will be every time, I preached with the help of an interpreter, named Victor.  It is very difficult for me to preach this way, having to stop every few words and to not know if what I am saying is being communicated with the same meaning.  I also realized how much I depend upon humor and interaction with the congregation in my messages and this making things difficult too.  Oh, well…I will do my best.  It seems as though people are receiving the messages well and participating in the services too.

At Lighthouse Baptist Church, we have three missionary families that are working in this ministry.  Mark and Lydia Priem, who have been in Ukraine now for 17 years, John and Dawn Spillman for 10 years, and Jeff and Helen Christian for 2 years after 2 years spent in Belarus.  It has been great to see everyone and look forward to more time spent in fellowship, in fact we will be heading over to the Christian’s for lunch in a few hours.

We are preparing today for a youth activity that we will be having tonight with the young people.  We will be playing wiffle ball and basketball in the park, and then passing out literature for the church and soul-winning with those who join with us in the activities.  This has been an effective way to get the Gospel into the hands of people here.  Please pray that I don’t overdo it on the court tonight, as I have another week here and I would like to spend it injury free.  I will let you know how that turns out…