1. English Ministry
2. Mercy Ministry
3. Evangelism ministry
ENGLISH MINISTRY
We have several aspects of English ministry for Almaz: English Clubs, private English lessons for the staff, and kids English ministry.
English clubs have been going pretty steadily since the fall 2012, but with final exams here and summer approaching, we're not sure what will happen with our students in the next few months. May, because of many holidays, caused us to cancel a few English clubs because there were no students around. June is almost here now and we've started a new topic: Miracles Jesus performed during his ministry. Our first week was last Friday, and we're very excited to see how it keeps going after a good first English club on this topic. Please pray for the hearts of the students to see Christ and how glorious He is!
Private lessons continue to go well since the fall 2012, and I'll be adding another staff member to my teaching schedule soon. It's a difficult ministry, because I speak so little Russian, but God makes all things possible! Please pray that the staff will learn quickly and not become discouraged because of difficulties in the English language.
Kids English lessons after the church service is a new ministry my husband and I have been doing for the last 1.5 months. It's going really well so far in many ways:
1. The kids are learning English
2. The kids enjoy our lessons and we have more kids now than ever
3. The parents and pastors support the ministry and believe it is useful
Please pray that we will have more servants from the church for this ministry in the future when I am unable to lead the lessons because of our new-born baby. Also, pray that more non-believing families will be attracted to God and the church because of these free English lessons for their kids.
MERCY MINISTRY
This ministry now is especially focused on people in the city clinics (alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless, mentally ill, poor, elderly etc). However, the ministry team also makes trips to elderly nursing homes and orphanages about once a month in order to carry out the biblical mission of James 1:27.
The ministry is small, but growing quickly, and many people in the church are becoming more involved with this ministry than ever before.
Primarily functions of this ministry are to bring gifts of food, clothing, medicine, etc and to share the gospel, talk with the people about God and encourage them. Please pray for more servants in this ministry, since we must often step out of our comfort zone in order to help people in need.
EVANGELISM MINISTRY
This ministry is new and growing. Currently my husband and a staff member are working together to build the team of street evangelists, and make the plan for how to carry out sharing the gospel publicly in Kiev. It's not an easy task and many people in the church are not willing to share the gospel publicly.
Please pray that we'll gather a team of evangelists soon and get started on the many plans we have for sharing the gospel with the public in Kiev.
Also, there will be a team of 5 Americans coming in June to join us in street evangelism, and I'll be the 6th American on this team (although I'm a Kiev dweller now :). This project will last 1-2 weeks, so please pray for it to prosper and enhance God's kingdom!
That's the majority of what I can say quickly about ministries we're involved in here in Ukraine. Pray for us that God will lead us and give us strength and courage in all our ministries, and that we will glorify Him with all we do and say.
Thank you and God bless!!
Here's some pictures from our most recent kids English lesson. Picture thanks to one of our friends :)
