God Can Open Doors (Literally)

English Club last night: Edna, Oksana, Yana, Nastya, Tanya, Inna, and Serhiy

In December of last year, we began praying that God would open doors for us at the university here in Bila Tserkva so that we might reach out to people through our English Club. (Currently we are using the TV series LOST as a way to introduce Biblical truths and English language discussions.) We were also praying that at least one guy who spoke English would start coming to our English Club. It had so far been all girls and we had jokingly called it "Girls Club". It had also been in our prayers to have a permanent translator at church since Maria, who usually translates, has to come from Kyiv on Sundays and can't always be here. God has been faithful in answering all these prayers beyond what we could imagine.

First, I'll start with Tanya. She moved to Bila Tserkva with her husband Kolya so that they could both teach at the university here. Tanya has been coming to our church for a few months now and we are blessed to have her. She has offered to act as a translator whenever we need her to. Definitely an answer to prayer. Tanya is also very active in our English club and has introduced us to several English speakers from the university. One of those people is a guy named Serhiy who also teaches at the university.

Through Tanya and Serhiy, we have learned that there is a satellite campus for the university that is even bigger than the main campus and includes student and faculty housing. Last Friday, we met for English Club at the Rosava Palace of Culture (where we always meet and also have church on Sundays). We had the largest group of people show up so far. Unfortunately, there happened to be an event going on that was taking up all the rooms in the building. Undaunted, Serhiy suggested that we use one of the classrooms at the university. A few of the girls couldn't make the trip across town, but the rest of us piled into a marshrutka (shuttle van) and headed for the university.

After we walked through the front doors of one of the campus buildings and Serhiy used his keys to open the classroom door, it hit me. We had prayed for open doors at the university and God had sent someone to physically open them for us. He sent someone who also happens to speak perfect English. God is Faithful.

Our English Club, which we have moved to Fridays instead of Saturdays, is slowing growing in size, one person at a time. It is also evolving into a more fluid and more tightly knit group. Our goal is to build relationships that will allow us to share the Gospel with people on an individual basis. We have struggled with ways to make this outreach successful, but it has only been through God's leading and His provisions that we have begun to see fruit. Sadly, we have heard that some students who wanted to attend our English Club, were told by their parents that they aren't allowed to attend simply because we are Christians, but God is in control.

Sometimes it's easy to try and plan things from the world's perspective. "Things work a certain way. There are formulas and rules to be applied for success. There is a pattern and plan that must be followed in order to get results." The simple truth is that the best marketing strategy in the world can't deliver the results that God can through our earnest petitions in prayer. God is sovereign.

English Club at the university last week
Front row, left to right: Yana, Tanya, Nastya, Anya, Edna
Back row: Me, Kolya, Serhiy

See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. - Revelation 3:8

Dominic's Island Adventure

On Sunday, Dominic traveled to Kaharlyk where he met up with Micah Claycamp. On Monday they drove to a neighboring city where they then traveled by boat to a small island on the Dnipro River. Dominic will be spending 5 days on the island at a Christian camp called Camp 120.

This is the flyer for Camp 120

You can read about the details by clicking on this link to Micah Claycamp's post "Off to the island".

Dominic has been calling us each day to keep us updated. Unfortunately I didn't let him take our camera so hopefully Micah will take lots of pictures. This is a great opportunity for Dominic to fellowship with other Christians, make some new friends, and seek a little adventure.

Dominic told us the boat ride to the island took an hour and a half. I couldn't help but think how round trip, that adds up to a three hour tour. Interesting.



This is totally unrelated to this post, but has anyone else ever noticed that Tom from LOST, a.k.a. Mr. Friendly, bears a striking resemblance to the Skipper?

LOST Reaching the Lost

We've started using the TV series LOST in our Saturday night English Club to share the Gospel with English speakers in our community. So far, it is turning out way better than we had thought it would. We show an episode of LOST which turns out to be about 45 minutes and then spend another 45 minutes discussing it. We play the episode in English with English subtitles to help everyone through some of the more difficult dialog and then we work some life application and biblical questions in. The girls seem to love it (That's right. No guys have shown up yet, but we do have two guys who have said they would go this Saturday).

Some of the girls from English Club

We tossed around different ideas of what we could use. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) was our first thought since season one of 24 has a biblical truths study guide to go with it called, "Jack Bauer's Having a Bad Day: An Unauthorized Investigation of Faith in 24, Season One". We decided against 24 because of the amount of violence and fast pace that would make it hard for Ukrainian speakers to follow closely. We decided against Gilmore Girls because of how fast they talk and all the obscure American culture references, although Gilmore Girls is on TV here translated into Ukrainian. Walker Texas Ranger was even briefly considered but we decided Chuck Norris wasn't worthy enough to replace Jack Bauer. Sorry Chuck. Oprah is a familiar sight on Ukrainian television so we even gave her a thought, just kidding (Ukrainians have had enough of Oprah's New Age, self-improvement, do-it-without-Jesus, psycho-babble without us subjecting them to more).

In the end, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) won out. We were also pleased to find that LOST has a study guide for Christian discussion called "What Can Be Found In LOST?: Insights on GOD & the Meaning of Life from the Popular TV Series". LOST is popular on Ukrainian television under the title "Загублені".

Each meeting we have seems to go better and better. What started out kind of shaky and a bit awkward has become a lot of fun for us. About half of those who come are believers so we are blessed with fellowship each time. Please keep us in prayer as we seek to reach out to those who don't yet know Christ.