Oct 19 2008

Westminster Pres – Roanoke

Category: On The Road — Dawn @ 2:13 pm

I’m writing this from Roanoke, Virginia, where I am participating in the missions conference of Westminster Presbyterian Church.  Last night I enjoyed dinner with the missions committee and other conference participants and then this morning we had the first session.

I gave my presentation this morning and got a lot of good feedback.  

There were also a couple of sessions with Art Scott, the main speaker, and a presentation from a Ukrainian member of the presbyterian church in Izmail, Ukraine.  Snezhana is the director of the Life Care Center, a center that helps women with crisis pregnancies and is also doing some parenting training with moms and abstinence education in schools. They have a new website here where you can see more about their ministry.

We ended with lunch at the church where different members of the missions committee prepared some Ukrainian dishes – borsch, solyanka (another kind of soup), and golubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls).  They also had some lasagna on hand for the less adventurous eaters!  The committee did a great job and everything was delicious.

This final photo is of me with Pam Swallow, one of the committee members who has worked hard to organize the details for this weekend.  Thanks, Pam!

Oct 18 2008

Covenant Theological Seminary

Category: General,Ministry News — Steve @ 3:04 pm

While Dawn and I consider our calling to serve in the Lords kingdom, it has been a desire of mine to spend time studying God’s word. This is also a time to consider how the twenty years of work in Information System can be used as a tool for ministry. Certainly aspects of the business culture, and work culture are applicable, however I feel as if I need a better foundation.

So while Dawn and I were in St. Louis for the Missions Emphasis Weekend at Covenant Theological Seminary, we took the opportunity to schedule a campus visit. Actually, it was more a matter of not having a choice! However much how much I forgot to send a reply email to my campus contact and no matter how “Simple” we wanted to keep the visit, the visit was a day of attending classes, worship service, more classes and speaking for more than an hour with the Director of Admissions.

We both really enjoyed the classes and really enjoyed the material. When I returned home, it was less than a week before I filled out the online application and began to write the admissions essay.  Several drafts of the personal essay, Dawn’s required essay, a couple of pastoral references, some personal references, and lots of Emails to Jeremy (the previously mentioned Director of Admissions). I received a phone call from the Admissions Team and I have been admitted into Covenant Theological Seminary. 

Admission to Covenant is a huge step in helping us work on our future plans. Right now it means I am going to take one class starting next semester. It has been 20 years since I have attended school, and considering these classes would be used towards Masters Degree or Graduate Certificate, I need to start slow. During the next year I hope to finish 5 to 8 credit hours of work and then start to consider where I want to take my next step with this opportunity. 

Since I am taking distance courses, we will not be moving to St. Louis. I might visit depending on some class requirements or a need to be at the school for something special. 

Oct 18 2008

New Braunfels, TX

Category: On The Road — Dawn @ 1:47 pm

On Sunday, October 12, Steve and I went to visit Christ Presbyterian Church in New Braunfels, Texas.

My sister Holly attended this church while she was in Physical Therapy school and she introduced me to them.  I think this church has been supporting me since 2002!  Although they’ve grown a lot since then and added many new members, there are still people who remember me from those first years and who ask about Holly when I visit.

The missions committee has changed a bit, so it was nice to meet the new members and get a chance to talk with them face to face about what I do in Ukraine and how God has been working in Kiev over the past few years.  The other nice thing about this trip is that it was just an hour’s drive from Austin, so Steve and I were able to just go down there Sunday morning and return by Sunday evening.

Oct 08 2008

October E-Update

Category: E-Updates — Dawn @ 9:54 am

Dear Friends and Supporters,

It is pleasant to have some cooler weather here in Austin and I can’t help but think of the crisper Fall air that probably exists in Kiev right about now.  This is the time of year when it is really nice to have your windows open, and not be all closed in with air conditioning!

I want to begin this update by calling your attention again to the blog Steve and I set up to detail our ministry activities and show pictures of some of the things we’re doing.  If you haven’t looked at it yet, please check out www.sparksministry.org.  (This newsletter will be posted there, and there are other interesting things there as well.)

Normally, I don’t write much about my main administrative and financial work for the Ukraine team.  That is primarily because I think that most people are more interested in stories of people in our church and things like that.  However, this month I want to give you an “inside track” on what the budget process involves for our mission team.  With all the economic issues now, many of us are reviewing our personal budgets and finances and making changes and adjustments.  I thought it might be interesting to see how we do that on more of a macro level, so you can pray for us as we work through this budgeting process.

One of the key values for our team in Ukraine is to help start churches that will eventually be self-supporting.  That end goal affects many of the decisions that are made early in the life of a church plant.  Each missionary to Ukraine has funds (from the donations of many of you!) specifically designated as “ministry funds”.  These are all pooled and then disbursed to our different church plants and other ministry activities.  Our challenge this year is that costs everywhere have gone up and the dollar has decreased in value, yet the funds available for the Ukrainian churches from our ministry funds have stayed about the same.  Also, we have some areas where new churches are beginning and we want to be able to support those efforts financially.  We have been on a plan to decrease support of our more mature churches (see that key value above), but we also live with these pastors and church leaders.  We see eggs, milk, bread, and rent increasing and we feel the pain of what the budget cuts will mean.  At the same time, we know that God often works in these kinds of extreme situations to show His power and to meet the needs of His people.  We want our funds to help the churches, not to insulate them from depending on God.

This week the team leaders in Ukraine are developing their budgets for 2009.  I’ll get their information and put it into a format for our Country Director and then he and I will look at the numbers and see if more cuts are needed.  This is a very personal process and I hope you now have a better understanding of at least one of the issues involved.  Please pray for the team leaders and the Ukrainian church leaders throughout this process.  Pray for wisdom and understanding and pray that God will use this to strengthen the faith of all of us involved in this process.

Please pray this month for the following things:

  • Pray for the budgeting process and all involved in it.
  • Pray for my personal support account.  It has gone into the negative and I am working with MTW to get it back into a healthy range.  If you are a current supporter, I’d ask that you continue to give.
  • Pray for me as I continue to do work for the Ukraine team while traveling to supporting churches.  It can be difficult to keep my mind “in the game”.
  • Please continue to pray for Steve and me as we seek to follow where God is leading us.  We are beginning to see some glimmers of direction :) , so please continue your prayers for those glimmers to become more clear!

I continue to be thankful for your faithfulness in supporting me.  My schedule is listed on www.sparksministry.org, so please come see me if I’m in your area.

In Christ,

Dawn

Oct 07 2008

Ukrainian Borsch – A “How-to” Guide

Category: General — Dawn @ 9:52 am

Last week, when Max and Alexei were visiting from Ukraine, I made Ukrainian Borsch.  As the weather gets cooler, we may all be more in the mood for soup and I thought some of you might be interested to try your hand at some borsch.  I want to encourage you to try it and not just dismiss it because you don’t like beets.  I really don’t taste the beets too much and you might not either.

Note:  I couldn’t get my pictures to look exactly right and stay where I wanted them in the text.  I apologize if it ends up being confusing.

So, here are the ingredients you need to assemble first:

2-3 beets, cut into sticks (I used fresh, but you can use canned.  For fresh ones, peel first and then slice.  I used gloves to keep my hands from getting stained, but I read that you can rub vegetable oil on your hands first to keep from staining them.  I haven’t tried that, so can’t vouch for it.)

1-2 onions, cubed

2-3 carrots, peeled and cubed

1-2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

Mine looked like this:

Then you warm butter or oil with some minced garlic in a frying pan.  When it is hot, add the cut vegetables and saute them together for about 10 minutes or so, until they are somewhat softened, but not completely cooked.  The goal is for the flavors to blend.  The beets will color everything and it will look something like this:

While that is cooking (you can cover it and let it cook, you don’t need to constantly stir), put 4 liters/quarts of chicken broth in a large soup pan and bring to a boil.  As that heats, chop cabbage (I used about 1/2 head) into strips like so:

Put the cabbage into the broth as it continues to come to a boil.

When it is boiling or close to boiling, add the vegetables from the frying pan.  Add two small cans of tomato paste (or one large).  Cook for 30-45 minutes until all vegetables are soft and flavors are mixed.  I covered it for most of that time.  It will look something like this when it is finished:
I didn’t add any other flavorings, but you could add more spices if you wanted to while it was boiling.  The other thing to know is that borsch is generally better the second day and that’s a good thing because this makes a LOT!

To serve it Ukrainian-style, ladle it into a bowl and top with sour cream and some fresh dill.  The more Ukrainian you want to be, the more dill you should pile on.

Voila!

Priatnova Appetita!

Oct 02 2008

Visitors From Kyiv

Category: Ministry News — Dawn @ 7:51 pm

Last week my pastor from Ukraine and the director of the Family Center at our church (Salomensky Presbyterian Reformed Church – SPRC) were in Austin.  They are in the U.S. primarily to raise funds for the building project, but also to connect back with some of the people who have been to Kyiv in past years.  I was very excited to see them and my rusty Russian came back to me fairly quickly. :)

Max celebrated his birthday during that week, so a group of us took him to Texas Roadhouse for that special occasion.  Here he is celebrating like a true Texan:

I also made them some true Ukrainian borsch.  I think I’ll save the details of that for a separate post!  Suffice it to say that I worked hard to make it good enough to give them a little taste of home and I was successful.

The last night they were in Austin, we invited some people from church over for a cookout.  We had over 30 people and it was great!  Our church here, CrossPointe, has a very close relationship with SPRC and it has been wonderful to see it develop over the past 5 years.  We are very thankful for our deck, our nice backyard, and cooler weather so we could all enjoy the evening.

Oct 02 2008

Sherwood Shores Chapel

Category: On The Road — Dawn @ 7:49 pm

There is a small church near Lake Texoma that has been supporting me since I first went to Ukraine.  The people there always seem interested in me and in what is going on in Ukraine.  This church is called Sherwood Shores Chapel and I enjoyed time there last Sunday (Sept. 28).

I used their whole Sunday School hour to show some pictures and talk about some of the highlights of the past four years of ministry in Kiev.  Then I was able to have a few minutes in the worship service to give them a little more detail about Salomensky Presbyterian Reformed Church.

I really do have great supporters!

Oct 02 2008

Missions Weekend at Covenant Seminary

Category: On The Road — Dawn @ 5:45 pm

Steve and I traveled to St. Louis September 11-14 to participate in Covenant Seminary’s Missions Weekend.  My former roommate in Ukraine, Debbie McCormick, organized the weekend and it was great to spend time with her and her husband James as well.

My main job for the weekend was on Saturday afternoon.  Debbie did a great job preparing everything and got some fun cookies with a “global” emphasis.

I was part of a panel talking about different opportunities with Mission to the World (MTW) and different aspects of MTW missionary life.  Since I’ve only recently crossed into “married” status :) , I was asked to speak about what it is like to be an unmarried missionary.  My opinion is that each of us needs to follow where we sense God leading us and trust Him to care for us and provide for us wherever that is.  I told them about some instances where I struggled with this and how God was faithful throughout.  I encouraged people to follow where God seems to be leading and not wait until they were married to be obedient.  I got some good feedback on my presentation, so I was encouraged.

Steve and I also took some time to sit in on a couple of classes while we were there and talk with the Admissions office about possibilities.  We were impressed with everything and are continuing to process and pray about God’s leading for our future.