Moving to Kyiv!

We are already packing up to move from our beloved Odessa on the Black Sea. We pray that we will come to love Kyiv as much. Kyiv (known formerly as Kiev) is also a beautiful city, though 4 times as big as Odessa! It has the population of Atlanta in a city 7 times smaller! Located on 7 hills, it is an ancient city that overlooks the Dnieper River -- where both Russia and Ukraine had their foundation in ancient "Kievan Rus'".    As the capital of the largest country in Europe (Ukraine), it always seems to be bustling, and this is where our seminary owns offices and a library. Visit my photo page to enjoy its special character!

New Life for Pierced Lips

Wow! I just got a call from Pastor Valera in Odessa, in the middle of my leadership meetings in L'viv, western Ukraine. He said our new Pakistani friend prayed to receive Jesus today!! Hallelujah! Jesus continues to build his church! I rejoice as Paul did, that one plants, another waters, but God gives the increase! Pray as I will continue to disciple Mr. "Pierced Lips" in his walk with the Living God! He gets more than a changed religion -- he gets eternal life from above!

Pierced lips from Pakistan

On my way into church in Odessa Ukraine yesterday, I encountered an unusual sight -- a dark-skinned young man with rings in his pierced lips was brought to me, asking in heavily-accented English, "What do I need to do to change my religion? I am Pakistani, and I want to be a Christian. Do I need to change my name?" 

Church was about to start, so I shared quickly about having a personal relationship with the Living God, and I asked him to stay for the service, which was starting, to see how we worship the God of the Universe. To my joy, he stayed, and afterwards we had another chance to talk, where I explained the "Bridge illustration" to him from Romans 6:23. 

He asked about the difference between Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelical Christians. I told him that we all profess the one creed, which beautifully presents the Gospel! The Son of God died for our sins, rose again, and sent the Spirit to us! This we must believe! In invited him NOT to "seek a new religion", but to seek the Living God, who said, "You shall seek me and you shall find me, if you seek for me with all your heart."

I had to leave on a train that very afternoon, so I couldn't follow up right away. I gave him my email, and he actually wrote me, so I'm able to continue the conversation! Please pray for this young man in his 20's, whose name I will not share (and you couldn't pronounce it, anyway)! What a joy to my own faith to hear the testimony of faith coming from my OWN lips! What a privilege to share Jesus with others, and to know that it is GOD who seeks US and will follow after this young man and continue this work while I am away!  

A Busy Holy Week

After enjoying a wonderful Easter here in Ukraine, it’s back to business. I’m still unpacking from last week’s trip to Kyiv with its strategic planning and Staff meetings and tutorials with students. I got back to Odessa to jump into preparations for Easter. But I still managed to work with the publisher on the final corrections to my book: “Retooling the Church: A Spiritual Gifts Toolbox,” soon to be available on Amazon!

I leave again on Tuesday for 3 days of Presbytery work in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. That just leaves Monday to catch up on the huge pile of papers on my desk! But even Monday is already half-full. It is “Easter Monday” in Ukraine, and the church’s ministries will also fill half the day and the evening. Whew! Work is sometimes like that, but how exciting to see God at work in people’s lives – in answer to the prayers of his people, and allowing us to take a part in it – even if that means the work is sometimes exhausting! 

Submitted!


My newest book on Spiritual Gifts is finally submitted to the publisher’s layout department. I took the theme of tools, but the theme is intertwined with the topic of gifts – reflecting that the “spiritual gifts” of the Apostle Paul are nothing to fight about, but are tools with a purpose.

I think it is a much better work than the one I published in Russian last year, and will be easier to read. Add a comment to let me know what you think! I hope it will be available in the next month or two!

Stay tuned…

The Almost-Autobiography of a 90-year-old Man

As you can see from my post a year ago, I made Dad a photo-biography for his 90th Birthday. He greatly enjoyed it, and we all enjoyed the trip down memory lane, recounting his life in many of his own photos. He enjoyed photography so much! But Dad passed away just a year after that, right after his 91st birthday.

What Dad left us was a gift, and also a burden – his autobiography. For 10 years he had been working on this book! But since he had Parkinson’s disease, he just couldn’t pull things together to finish it. Besides that, he had another affliction: he was a Bookkeeper! So he was distracted by the details and just barely made it to 1948. Since my older sister was born the year after that, we kept urging him along: Get Susan born! Sadly, she also passed away 6 months before my dad, so she never saw the light of day. We were so mad at him! So why didn't he finish it? It wasn't that he didn't have enough time! He lived to 91! Now we realize it was not only his distractions, but probably also his Parkinson’s.

None of us had read any drafts, so we were anxious to know what it contained. After all this work, we couldn’t let it just disappear with his hard drive! I ended by not only reading it, but taking on the burden of editing it, adding photos, and making it into a book: A Heap o' Livin' of a Family Man. Sorry, it is not for sale, since Mom is still living, and it's principally their amazing love story and their desire to create a family, tracing their separation just one month after marriage through his travels in WWII... not the sort of stuff readers would enjoy. :)

So, why am I telling you this? Just to let my readers know I am not idle, and that my dad’s persistence in writing eventually paid off, even posthumously. I would not say the book was that well written, but he did love to tell stories, and it contained some interesting ones which our family can now share. I gave copies to family members for Christmas.

The point is this: what legacy do we ALL leave, each in our own way? We are not all writers, but we all leave something of ourselves behind. Is it a legacy to be proud of? Is it one our family will cherish, or resent? Is it just "A Heap o' Livin'", or does it really lead somewhere? As we are all so busy, let’s remember that our works will live on, even if we don’t finish what we start! As we’ve heard it said, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord… their good works do follow them.” (Revelation 14:13)

My Russian Book

I published a book last year in Russian (although I wrote it in English and had it translated). TULIP publishers in Odessa is the publisher, and they re-titled it. The reverse translation is Tools of the Spirit.

I am now working on it again, preparing it to launch in English. It is a fresh look at Spiritual Gifts. Yes, MUCH has been written on this topic, but I've taken a fresh approach that I hope will be helpful to a broad range of churches. My approach is Reformed, but with a twist -- of the application of 30 years' service in the churches in the USA, Portugal, and Ukraine.