Sparks Ministry

Early Easter greetings from Austin, Texas!  While Spring isn’t quite as drastic a change here as it is in Ukraine, it is still a welcome sight to see new things blooming and feel the warmer temperatures.

 One of the challenges in any church planting situation is that of training.  At the beginning, the pastor can do most of the work, but it doesn’t take long for the needs of the people to become more than any one person can meet.  From the start, the church planting team is thinking about training and equipping people to be leaders in the church.  This is challenging, but it takes time and energy and results often come slowly.  In Salomensky Presbyterian Reformed Church (SPRC), we have seen some wonderful results in one specific training area.

 As I’ve written before, one of the main ways that we have “planted seeds” with SPRC is the Summer Institutes.  These are a little different each time, but basically it is a weeklong English camp with other activities that help us meet new students each year.  We have had teams from different churches in the U.S. participate over the past few years.  Our first Summer Institute was in 2004.  That summer, we hadn’t even had our first church service yet so all of the activities were planned and executed by the church planting team with the help of visiting teams from the U.S.  In 2005, things were very similar, although there were a couple of students from 2004 who helped with translation and some other things.  In 2006, our pastor, Max, led the planning and was helped by a core of students (he called the group “Active X”) from 2005.  In 2007, many of those same “alumni” as well as a few new alumni from 2006 planned most of the Summer Institute with Max in more of a consulting role.  This past summer, the Active X group planned the Summer Institute on their own led by Denis and Andrei, a couple of guys who have been involved for a few summers and are active members of SPRC.

 This is wonderful growth and progress!  There are a lot of reasons why this kind of leadership transition doesn’t always happen so it has been very encouraging – especially to us missionaries – to see the growth God has worked in this area of ministry.  Thank you for your gifts and prayers that have made this possible!

 Steve and I are approaching our first anniversary.  It’s hard to believe almost a year has passed since the wedding!  In January, Steve started taking a class from Covenant Seminary’s distance learning program.  He has greatly enjoyed it and the past few months have increased his sense that this preparatory step is exactly what God wants him to do.  I am still working with the Ukraine team from Austin. 

 Thank you for your prayers and for your giving to my support account.  It looks like the deficit I had at the end of last year has been eliminated and the giving is covering my reduced expenses.  Please continue to pray for God’s provision in this area and for me to be faithful in my responsibility to my donors.

I’d like to close with a prayer request for SPRC.  The economic crisis in the U.S. has affected giving to the church.  In addition, Ukraine is experiencing a pretty serious crisis of its own.  Please pray for Max and the other leaders of SPRC as they plan for this year and make adjustments to their original plans and hopes for 2009 and beyond.  Pray that the church would be able to care for its members and serve its community with the love of Christ during this difficult time.

Here is a long overdue recap of the wonderful weekend we had at First Reformed PCA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at their missions conference at the end of March.  Steve and I were very encouraged by the other missionaries at the conference, as well as by the members of the church.  It is always so humbling and encouraging when you meet people who have been faithfully praying for you!

At this conference, I had the opportunity to talk to the children’s class.  I taught them some Russian words and they seemed to enjoy it .  One of the favorite phrases they learned was “Do Svidanya”.  It was the favorite because of the way I showed them to remember it – “dog spit on ya”.  I don’t normally go that route when teaching Russian phrases, but I knew it would be a crowd pleaser .

We would like to especially thank the Turners and others on the missions committee for their hard work both during the weekend and throughout the year as they help spread interest in and passion for foreign missions to their congregation.

As we left the airport in Pittsburgh, we couldn’t resist posing with this guy:

Go Steelers!