Kremenchuk, Ukraine Newsletter

Doug Berry, Missionary    Volume No. 4 (year 4)    Issue No. 3    Date February 1, 2006

“We give thanks to God…

and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints…” Col.1:3,4.  This newsletter is going to be a lot about faith and love.  I am thankful for your faith and love that you have for me and for all of us here in Kremenchuk and the cities surrounding us.  Our ministry to Christ, the saved, and the lost is all about faith and love.

Taking the Gospel to all of the World

     Have you ever begun to wonder how we will carry out the great commission to carry the gospel to the entire world and do it in our life time?  Have you thought about how we can do it to even the neighborhood or apartment building that we live in?  In Acts 19:10, from Corinth and the lecture hall of Tyrannus, the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ went out, and in a span of 2 years everyone in Asia heard the Word of the Lord!  Amazing and wonderful!  God is working through us in so many wonderful ways!  Oh, we have come a very long way from when I came here by myself almost 3 ½ years ago!  There are now 4 native preachers working with us (either fully or partially supported) on basically the same amount of money that we first raised for this work 4 years ago; a work that you are a part of.  We are working with and through 5 churches in 4 cities and villages from 800, 30,000, 100,000 and Kremenchuk 250,000+ people including a boy’s prison, a couple of orphans homes, a retirement home, three schools in Kremenchuk and two Universities.  We also have working with us 2 American brothers and one English brother full time who will be with us for at least the next 7 to 14 months.  We will have 2 Christian sisters joining us in May to live here and work with our youth in the schools and Church for the next 2 years.  We have so many fine young Christian women and these young women will be such a blessing in serving them. We could have as many as 15 to 20 Americans to come and work with us in our summer programs and campaigns this summer (right now we know about 10, for sure).

     However, we have so far to go.  We have touched maybe 2 technical schools of 7, and 8 public schools of 33. Only a handful of people in our cities have even a small idea of who and what the Church of Christ is.  We have students in both of our Universities, but even with this, so few really know or care about Christ and have no real idea about His Church. There are so many barriers to break through and break down.  But, BUT with faith in Jesus Christ we believe that we can take the Gospel to all of our cities and all of our country.  We know that not everyone will listen or believe.  That is not our mission or our call.  Our mission for Christ is to live and to tell so that the lost can have the opportunity to decide.  We are called upon to continue to love the people even when they ridicule us or reject the message of Christ.  Our call of God is to live and to tell with faith and love.  Lord willing, we will continue to do this with all of our heart, soul, and strength.  Thank you for walking hand in hand with us in this ministry of Christ!

Student Spotlight – Nastya

Nastya is 16 and is in the 11^th grade this year. She will graduate from school this summer.  Nastya first came to us about 28 months ago and has been a Christian the last 1 ½ years. She reads and studies her Bible a great deal, and her Bible is full of color and underlines from her study.  She is a very good pupil at school and is now taking extra University courses in Math and Ukrainian language and loves her studies.  She is such a gentle and kind soul who always wants to please and serve others.  She is in a school where there are no other Christians, but she continues to shine the light of Christ in a very bright way.  Next fall she is planning on leaving Kremenchuk to go to the University in Hartakov, about 4 hours away.  This is the same University where our brother Anton is a 2^nd year student. They will strengthen each other and worship together at the Church in Hartakov.  As Nastya has opportunity, she translates for us in a number of different ways and classes.  As is the case for all of our young Christian family, we are so very thankful that the Lord has brought Nastya to us!

Ukrainian Weather Report

Winter has come harder than usual upon us about the middle of January, with temperatures dropping as cold as -18F, with wind chills around -40.  As of yesterday’s news, 220 had died because of this cold, most of those being people who live on the streets. The schools have also shut down, and it is very cold right now in the school buildings.  Also, the boys in the boys’ prison are  suffering from the extreme cold. The temperature is supposed to warm up into the single digits and teens by the time you get this newsletter.  We have had 6 to 8 inches of snow that is all packed ice on most sidewalks and streets.  Winter is here, but thankfully this too will pass!

Contact Information

Home Phone: 011-380-536-791-737

New Cell Phone: 011-380-96-564-4311

Email:  doug_berry2001@yahoo.com

Web page: www.ukrainemission.com

Daily Pictures of Kremenchuk: www.kremenchuk.org

West Fayetteville Church of Christ

P.O. Box 456

Fayetteville, TN  37334

Mission Contact Person: Steve Jefferson, 931-433-0189

Ukraine Campaigns Summer 2006

Are you planning on coming in working with us in our campaigns this summer?  Please contact Steve Jefferson in Fayetteville, TN at 931-433-0189 if you have interest in coming.

Date to arrive: Saturday, July 15 (leave States on 14^th)

Date of 1^st campaign in Komsomolsk: July 17-22

Date of 2^nd campaign in Svetlovosk: July 18-30

Date of departure: Monday, July 31 or Aug. 1^st

The total high estimate costs on these campaigns are $2,150 for one person.  For more information on the campaigns see last month’s newsletter or check my website. If you think that you are interested in this at all, start planning now! 

A Review of December and January

    Gregory and 3 new sisters in Christ

 Valerie has been instrumental in leading 3 adults to be baptized into Christ at the Church building in the central Church recently.  One of these is one of our young girls, Sasha’s mother!  Sasha (young girl who is 13) was baptized into Christ at camp this summer and remains faithful and now, of course, it is really exciting to her to have her mother a faithful active Christian as well!  The other two are a man and woman in their early 50’s and are really nice people!  Gregory has also baptized 3 ladies into Christ and a boy at the boys’ prison.

    Our outreach is continuing on a growing and blessed pattern as our classes blossom both at the schools and at my home.  We also have several personal Bible studies on-going. As you know these studies can take a long time with people.  For example, Sasha’s mother studied for a year and a half before she became a Christian.

     We had a wonderful holiday season this year!  First was our American Christmas party.  We had 33 celebrate this time with us.  Then came New Year’s – not like you know it, but we celebrate all night long here!  First, I went to Alina’s home at 9pm and celebrated the evening and wonderful dinner with her family.  At 1am, 19 of us gathered at my place for the rest of the evening.  Because it was Sunday, we had an early morning worship service, then a lot of food and good times together.  About 10 stayed all day and at 3pm, we worshipped with the whole Church and had a fellowship time afterwards that was great!  On January 7, we quietly celebrated Ukrainian Christmas with 14 at my house again – kind of impromptu.  Again on January 14^th – Ukrainian “Old New Year” I was invited to celebrate at Alina’s home with another feast.

     Schools started again on January 10th and as the case is each year, it is hard getting everybody coming to classes again with different schedules.  But we are doing okay.

     On Monday evening of January 16^th, we got the terrible news that Jared Kendall’s brother, Dustin was killed in Iraq. On Tuesday afternoon, we had a special devotional with Jared and then I took him to the airport where he left for the US early on Wednesday morning.  Please remember Jared’s family in your prayers.

    This is about when our cold hit hard and schools have been open and closed since then.  It is very hard to get out and do anything with such extreme cold weather.  However, God continues to warm the hearts and lives of people as the Gospel of Christ is preached and lived.

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:2-6