Sparks Ministry

I am in the process of getting this set up. Check back for more information about our travels. Hopefully with some skill and a little guidance through technology we will be posting while on the road as we visit churches.

Happy Independence Day Eve!  I realized today that I’ve spent this holiday in Ukraine for the past four years.  In some ways, I think you appreciate the United States more when you live in another country and it makes July 4^th a more special holiday.  However, it is also odd to celebrate a holiday when nobody else is celebrating.  Our team celebrations were usually low key, but a nice time to get together and be as “American” as we wanted to be! 

The past few months have been quite a whirlwind!  Our wedding on April 26 was beautiful and a lot of fun.  Since then, we’ve been getting settled in and adjusting to married life.  I have also been adjusting to doing portions of my Ukraine admin job long distance.  It took a little while, but I am starting to get into a routine.  It can be a challenge for me to keep my mind in Ukraine while I’m living in the U.S.  In addition to that, I’m scheduling visits to my supporting churches over the next few months and attending a recruitment event in St. Louis for Mission to the World.  I was able to attend the Presbyterian Church in America’s General Assembly in June and help out at the Mission to the World booth there. 

On the other side of the ocean, the churches in Kiev are gearing up to host visiting summer short-term teams.  It seems strange not to be involved in that this year, but I’m sure those who are working with the teams will do a great job!  Salomensky Presbyterian Reformed Church (SPRC) is also still working on their building project.  You can read their latest update at www.jesus.kiev.ua/news/.  The church will host a family conference as well as the usual Summer Institute for college students in July.  You can keep both of those events in your prayers as well – both for the visiting U.S. teams and for the Ukrainians who will participate in the events. 

Please pray this month for the following things:

• Pray for me and for the Kiev team in our continued adjustment.  Continue to pray that they would find someone to take over my job as the team administrator.  Pray for me as I do some of my tasks from the U.S.
• Pray for my husband, Steve, and I as we seek God’s direction for our future.  Please pray that we would be united in our sense of where God is leading us.
• Pray for the families of our Ukrainian pastors.  Being a pastor is hard work and can be very difficult for their wives and children.  Many of these young families lack role models for healthy family life.  Pray that God would preserve the families and give wisdom to the pastors as they manage their time and energy.  Pray also for the wives to see their calling along with their husbands.
• Pray for the young believers in our churches who are unmarried.  Recently there have been some discipline issues in SPRC related to this.  It is so hard to act Biblically in this area when most of their families do not support it.  Pray for purity and pray for trust for God’s provision of a Christian spouse (or for contentment when He doesn’t provide it!). 

Thanks, as always, for your continued faithful support.  I look forward to seeing many of you in person over the next few months!  You can see some pictures of my recent activities at http://gallery.me.com/ds2008.