June 21, 2014

 

Dear partners,

 

What do you do when you cannot get a visa to be with your staff and ministry? You bring your staff to you! And you further equip them for ministry.

 

 

My staff has just returned to Crimea today after a regrouping and planning retreat in Kiev. After Wednesday lunch at a very good KFC next to the train station, we went to a wooded town outside Kiev where several Christian organizations have houses for retreats and seminars. We spent the rest of the day, all day Thursday until late in the evening, and some of Friday morning in meetings. The retreat was productive in all ways that I hoped that they would be. We are re-forging our team and community, clarifying our strategy in light of our mission and vision, and refining roles with our smaller team.  We selected a new team leader, the first one since Katherine (Katya) went on maternity leave (and now lives in Western Ukraine): Olga (Olya) Viktorova. Do pray for her leadership.

 

 

Friday afternoon they toured “Maidan” and did some shopping – mostly window shopping. Friday evening I saw them off at the train station (see photo above of the tired group in their cabin).  (Unfortunately, Shannon could not come due to the risk of having border problems.)

 

Now I am back at the Kiev apartment where Sergei and Olga Golovin are renting while establishing the Kiev center for the Christian Center for Science and Apologetics (additional to the Crimean center).  For some days we have worked on opening new bank accounts [yes, it is a long process] that would allow us to transfer money to Kiev and from there ‘find its way’ to Simferopol to our ministries. We just completed the process today. It required three accounts! [Don’t ask. Let’s just say that everything is more complicated than it was a year ago.]

 

While in Kiev, I have met various people who are eager for my cooperation in ministry. One ministry even suggested that I move the entire team to Kiev and use their facilities and connections. There is a new openness between the government and the private sector – – including Christian organizations. Allegedly it would allow me to teach some of my courses in some of the universities of Kiev. I can expect that the enthusiasm of some eager recruiters may overstate the facts, but it does mean that there could be a Plan B for our Simferopol ministry, but we really want to try to keep it in Crimea (even if without my physical presence) as the need is greater than before the events that led to some ministries leaving Crimea. I will consider teaching some modular Bible and apologetics courses in Kiev, but for now I am not making any commitments. First things first!

 

Tomorrow, I will preach at the church Sergei and Olga attend. Monday Sergei and I will travel by car to Western Ukraine, visiting displaced friends and staff. We plan to return a week from tomorrow. “The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” I will fly to Orlando July 2. July 5 LaVerne and I will leave for a week’s vacation.

 

LaVerne still has several more weekly sessions of physical therapy on her shoulder, but it is doing well.  Once we know if and when we can get a visa to at least pack and ship the stuff we want to keep from our apartment, she can set a date for the ankle fusion.  We wonder if Medicare will require a long break before authorizing the next surgery. LaVerne could use the break, but her ankle consistently cries out for pain relief.

 

As I write, some of the MKs from PBT-PNG are at Tiffany’s for a reunion. I am sure that they are having a great time ‘catching up’ with each other and just being together.

Pray for Ukraine – innocent people suffer and long for peace and stability – and a reason to hope again.
Pray for our CIU/TMI staff.  
Thank God for those of our CIU graduates who are contributing to the upgrading of our TOEFL computers – required when MS no longer supported XP.
Thank God for our staff which is committed to doing its best to serve the Lord though our CIU Center in Simferopol.

Pray for our supporters and thank God for them. 
Pray for safe travels for Sergei and I.
Pray for Dr Keith Keeran who has serious and painful problems with his sciatic nerve.
Pray for Andrei Taran’s mother – she has cancer and is to be re-evaluated Monday for radiation treatment.
Pray for Andrei – he has been accepted at Milligan College but there are a number of factors that may make it wise for him to postpone enrollment.

Pray for Anton who has had a bout of something with his lungs while visiting grandparents in Crimea.

 

Thank you,

God Bless you,

Georges (and LaVerne)