Sparks Ministry

Summer is winding down and we have a few weeks left before our regular fall activities come into full swing.  Thank you for your prayers for the summer teams.  Both of the teams who came to work with our church had positive experiences.  Thanks also for your prayers for me and my move.  I’m now feeling pretty settled in my new apartment. 

Although we had fewer people at our family conference than we had hoped, the visiting team did a great job of connecting with the families who were there.  They have continued to keep in touch by email with these families so they can encourage them and help them to understand the implications of the gospel in marriage and parenting.  In my last letter I emphasized the struggles for unmarried folks in our churches, but there are also many struggles that Christian families face.  One thing our American team brought to the conference was experience in marriage and parenting.  The young couples who attended benefited both from the seminars which put forth Biblical principles for marriage and family and from getting to hear some of the experiences that the Americans had faced in their lives and marriages.  I’ve recently been re-reading a book that emphasizes how important it is for one generation to tell the next about God’s grace and goodness.  Many times here the younger generation doesn’t have an older relative or friend who can testify to God’s care and provision throughout the years, so it is helpful when they can meet someone a little farther along in the journey and hear their stories. 

Our fourth annual Summer Institute also went well.  We had about 55 students who came for a week out to a camp on the outskirts of Kiev.  Including staff and the American team, we had a total of about 90 people.  This was the first year that we held the camp outside of the city where people spent the night on-site.  There is something about going out to stay at a camp that really intensifies the whole experience for people.  At this camp, the visiting team taught English in the mornings.  There were different afternoon activities, and then each night there was a talk about different aspects of Christianity (Creation, Sin, Redemption, and Salvation).  I heard many positive comments from the students who participated.  Many of the students visited our church on the Sunday following the camp in order to see their American friends one last time.  Now they know where we meet and how to get there!

Now we at SPRC (Salominsky Presbyterian Reformed Church) have the task of following up with these people.  At the end of August/beginning of September, we will have a camp reunion where we will show a video of the camp.  This will kick off the four small groups (from the four teams that made up the camp) which will meet through the fall.  The idea is to build on the concepts discussed during the camp and continue to foster the community that developed in the small groups with the goal of integrating them into our church.

I will now be teaching our weekly women’s Bible study.  I think we’ll begin in September, but I haven’t quite decided what we will study.  I hope that some of the students from the Institute might be able to attend along with women from our church.

Some items you can pray for during the next month are:

• Follow up for the Summer Institute – especially for the small group leaders as they begin meeting with their groups
• Follow up for the Family Conference – especially for Anya and Vitya as they consider attending our church and for the Family Center director as he plans for the fall.
• Women’s Ministry – for wisdom as I consider what to teach during our weekly Bible study; also for completion of translation and subtitling the DVDs from the women’s conference I attended last September.  I plan to give a set of DVDs to each of our churches in Ukraine so they can benefit from the great teaching that we had at the conference.

As always, I appreciate your prayers for me and your financial support.  You are an integral part of the work God is doing in Kiev!