Making a Stand for Truth

Week 11, 2010 Ukraine trip

2010-09-16T21:48:00.000-05:00

Tuesday - The team and I went to the Beal's house and helped Jessie work on his house. Nick and I painted the rails on the balcony with this black paint that was very difficult to get off once dried. Daniel and Mr. Beal painted the upstairs bathroom and removed the shower stall doors from the downstairs bathroom. As always, Mrs. Beal took good care for us by providing an excellent dinner and a place to hit the hay. At 7:00 PM, we had our weekly English Club at the ministry center and had a great turnout with about eight people. The topic for the night was "Pets" and one person had a pet chinchilla. I was amazed because I had never heard of a "pet" chinchilla.

Monday night we had a very bad hail storm.

On the way to the Beals house

Mrs. Beal grading lessons from correspondence course students.

Wednesday - We woke up and ate a great breakfast at the Beal's and then got right to work. Nick and I finished painting the rails and then Mr. Beal asked us to paint the outside stairs, using the same black paint. Daniel and Mr. Beal finished working on the bathrooms. Nick and I also mowed the front and back lawn and then Nick, Daniel, and I moved sheet rock to Mr. Beal's attic and began to nail it over the insulation. We ate dinner then Mr. Beal gave us a drive back to our apartment.

This picture was not edited at all! You see it as it was taken.

Thursday - We passed out tracts. Ice cream was a beautiful thing as it was very, very, very hot outside.

Friday was very interesting. Why? It seemed like it was going to be a normal tracting day, but it wasn't. Daniel and Nick were a team and Joshua and I were a team. Around 11:30 AM, I got a call from Josh saying to finish my area and then stay put. I said, "Okay" and did as he said. About 25 minutes went by and I started getting a little nervous, so I called Daniel and he said that Nick got into a fight with some guy. It turned out that this guy accused Nick of stealing some very important documents of his. Nick said he didn't and the guy started to get aggressive. He pushed Nick around a little and then punched him in the face. Nick regained balance and then punched the guy hard on the cheek. After the guy fell, about four or five other guys barged out of black Mercedes and BMWs. Nick booked it away from that area and found a taxi. He told the taxi driver to put the pedal to the medal. The men ran back to their cars and chased after them. Once the taxi driver saw this, he went so fast and knew the city so well that he eventually lost them.

Saturday - We went to a village called Sloboda Bolekhivska and passed out film showing invites for next week. Afterward, we went to our camping site and it was amazing. The river was so deep, you could actually dive off a rock into it. It was so cool! The only down side was that we had company who built a fire about 10 meters away from us and decided to blast their music really loud. Finally, Joshua went and asked them to turn it down a couple times and finally they turned it off at around midnight and left.

Joshua shooting video of Chris which became part of the Tale of Three Villages movie.

Here Josh is telling a very funny joke

Sunday morning dawned cool and crisp.

By the time I got out the camera, the sun was sending forth it's warm and brilliant rays. We went to another village called Luzhky and showed the film at 3:00 PM. We had a great turnout with the average attendance around 35 people. It was great! After the film showing, we went home and hit the hay.

Setting up Sunday afternoon for the showing

Cris and I preparing the literature that will be distributed at the end of the showing.

Chris and Nick waiting for the crowd to appear

What is this?

On the way back to L'viv we passed an accident on the road.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The incident with Nick and the irate Ukrainian seems to be resolved. We've sought legal counsel to be sure of our position, and thus far things are quiet. The man who falsely accused and assaulted Nick has not made any more advances, and since there is no proof of anything on either side, we have been advised to "leave well enough alone." As a precaution, we are conducting our outreaches in other regions of L'viv. We appreciate your prayers for the safety of our team.

Week 10

2010-08-30T14:25:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was a full day of passing out tracts in an older part of L'viv. Some of the buildings are three and four hundred years old and are built in the style of Austrian architecture. When you walk inside of them, you can tell they where once very beautiful buildings. From the wide staircases to the arched door and windows on the inside and out, I really enjoyed walking into each building and seeing the different way each one was designed. We had a great day serving the Lord.

Wednesday we passed out literature in a village, placing tracts on gates. Everything was going great up until lunch time. From there, it went down hill fast. Well, let me back up. Just before we stopped for lunch, I re-injured my hurt foot on a rock. Then, as we where sitting eating lunch, a bee landed on Chris so he jumped up and tried to kill it by swinging at it with a mostly empty can of energy drink. It just happened to be in my direction! Needless to say, I was now the bee's target because I had this sticky stuff all over me! Then, it happened. A bee nailed me on my right bicep. Then, I was looking for plantain to put on the bite.

With that business taken care of, Nick and I headed out to continue tracting in our sectors. Everything was going fine and then I heard it-the thing that all CMOers come to dread. It is a four letter word that cannot be spoken without causing the hearers of it to tremble! RAIN. It can turn a beautiful day into total misery in a matter of minutes! When it started to sprinkle, we stopped to don our "armor" in preparation for the coming battle! The bad thing was, when it started, we where out in the middle of nowhere, which means there is no place to hide. Plus, I had not brought all of my r--n gear. The only thing I had was my jacket and I couldn't even zip it up, because I was attempting to keep myself and my backpack dry! In about two minutes, I went from being completely dry to being completely miserable! So, I waited about twenty-five minutes to see if to would stop, but it continued to pour. I called Nathan to see what the plan was. I asked how wet he and Chris were. Without answering my question, he asked what condition we where in. When I told him, he started laughing! Again, I asked Nathan how wet they were. In between his laughs, he made the statement "We're as dry as a bone." At this point, I was looking for a five gallon bucket, a big puddle, and Nathan. Nathan was not going to have the opportunity of returning home to Katelin bone dry! Here I was soaked to the bone, and to make it worse, it was 65 degrees and still raining. It's probably a good thing that Nathan was on the opposite end of town or he would of have paid for his laughter! Because of the r--n, we decided to return home early. However, this was not the end of my day. As Nick and I were walking back to the bus stop for the ride back to L'viv, we came to a part of the road that was totally under water. Water was almost covering the sidewalk (about 4" deep.) I didn't like the look of things. If a vehicle were to come though, it would have a good chance of soaking us for the second time. We didn't have much of a choice. We had to take the chance. No sooner did we make some progress, then this car came flying through, sending a sheet of water flying! Whatever had been dry was dripping wet. Then, we had an hour bus ride home. I had a good laugh after a hot shower and dry clothing. So concluded my day. Just another day in Ukraine! (For the record the car was being piloted by a woman!)

Thursday morning was free for the simple fact that Wednesday we had passed out all of the tracts that we had. We were waiting on our next shipment from the printer. At 1:00 PM the printer stopped by and delivered a full box of 10,000 tracts. Once they were collated, we each grabbed five packs and headed out into L'viv. In all, we where able to pass out about 2,000 tracks in two and half hours.

Friday morning, we passed out tracts in L'viv. In all, about 3,500 tracks where distributed for the day. Also, it was the first time in two weeks that Benjamin went tracting with us. It was good to have him back on the team! That afternoon was team church. It was a great time of singing, encouragement, and the preaching of the word.

Saturday, at 11:30 AM, our taxi arrived for the ride to the train station. This was the first taxi driver I've found that understands the term expedite. We arrived in record time at the train station. I thought I riding in a racecar at the Indy 500! We got on the train and rode it all the way to Striy. From there, a van drove us to the village where we passed out film invites. About midway though passing out, it started to r--n and continued for an hour or so. By that time, we where done and headed for our campsite. Then, it really cut lose. There is nothing more exciting then hiking in the rain! We decided to take a shortcut, which entailed crossing a stream. Nathan and I made it across just fine. Nick and Chris were a different story. Nick knew he wasn't going to make over dry, so he waded across shoes and all. Chris, on the other hand, took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pant legs. He took his first step in the water and lost his balance. He tried to catch himself but reached down with the hand that was holding his shoes and drenched them! When he realized what was happening, he tried to shift his weight and almost fell in hiking pack and all! We all had a good laugh at Chris' expense.

Sunday, during the night it rained some, but the morning dawned bright and sunny. After eating breakfast, we started the fire and enjoyed a beautiful morning. At 12:00 noon, Jessie, Cassia, Alexandria, Josh, and Benjamin arrived. We drove to the showing and set up. Everything went well. Only a few people showed up, due to the fact that there was a wedding taking place in the village at the same time. We packed up and headed for home.

What did you get?

Benjamin and Nick fighting over POs

Nick and Chris racing to the pedest

Waiting for our ride to the mountains.

Go tell it on the mountain!!

Nick handing out film invites.

Hiking in the pouring rain!!

Chris examining his wet shoes and clothing after his unsuccessful crossing.

Chris falling into the River!!

Benjamin and Nick in the process of putting up the projector screen

Chris zipping up the projector screen

Nathan packing up the equipment after the showing.

Authority at CMO

2010-08-17T11:42:00.000-05:00

CMO Goes East

2010-08-17T08:51:00.000-05:00

A Tale of Three Villages

2010-08-17T08:50:00.000-05:00

Week 9

2010-08-17T07:26:00.000-05:00

Short and Sweet and To the Point

August 5, 2010 | ETO eReport | Written by Christopher Sayre

Tuesday
Benjamin, Seth, Nick and I went out tracting in L'viv. Nick and Benjamin teamed up and Seth and I teamed up and we parted ways. At around lunch, time we stopped at a cafe to eat. Then it began to rain. But the rain didn't stop us from tracking. I didn't wear my rain jacket and I got drenched. The team and I distributed around 7,000 tracts.

Wednesday
Benjamin fell ill and wasn't able to come with the team tracting. Daniel wasn't able to come either, as he had injured his foot days before. So Nathan, Seth, Nick, and I tracted. We distributed around 9,000 tracts in L'viv.

Thursday
Daniel finally got better so he was able to come with us. Benjamin, on the other hand, was still sick. We had run out of "Genesis Invites" and "Good and Evil invites," so we used the "What Is Your Verdict?" tracts. There were not many "Verdict" tracks so we were only able to distribute for half a day. The rest of the day we had team church. We chose songs to sing and Nathan preached an awesome message. [Editor's note: We had already placed an order for 100,000 new Genesis invites, but it arrived later than anticipated.]

Friday was a Tourist Day. Since Benjamin was still sick, Daniel, Nathan, Josh, Nick and I went to the highest point in L'viv, which is an old castle. When at the top, you are able to see most of the city. After that, we went to an armory museum in L'viv where there were all sorts of guns, swords, daggers, pikes, cannons, crossbows, armor; and medals of great warriors.

Saturday we headed for the mountains. We got on the train at around 12:30 PM. We needed to pass out Fireproof invites for next weekend's film showing but we had to schedule with a village head first. We tried to meet with one village head, but he was at a wedding. So we set up our tents outside of the village of Lypa, where we would show Fireproof the next day.

Sunday morning we went to a different village to try and schedule a film showing for next weekend. It seemed like there wasn't going to be any success ,until finally we scheduled one for August 8th. After that, we showed the film in the village of Lypa and it was very successful! We had around 25 people show up.

Inside the church

Outside back picture

Climbing on what's left of the castle wall

On top of the wall

On top of Fizilkezmow the old castle

Inside the Armory

The Opera house

The back door on the van flew open as we were going down the

road and all of the hiking packs fell all over the road!!

Stamping up film invites

Chris passing out film invites in a village

Finished passing out invites, heading back to where the rest of the team is.

Showing in Lypa.

Waiting for the crowd.

Everyone who attended the showing gets copies

of the Gospel of John, CBC Starter packets, etc.

Week 3, Missions Training Conference

2010-08-07T02:58:00.000-05:00

Wonderful Week, Wet Weekend

July 29, 2010 | ETO eReport | Written by Daniel Courter

Monday was a much needed day off to catch up on loads and loads of laundry from the Dnipropetrovsk trip, as well as the many things that had fallen by the way side while away. That afternoon, I (Daniel) moved into the Ministry Center with Bryan so I could learn the ropes, since Bryan was leaving on July 26th.

Tuesday the guys headed out to pass out tracts in L'viv (apartments). They were able to pass out about 10,000 tracks for the day. Bryan, Katelin and l worked at the Ministry Center on CBC. Bryan and Katelin entered the students, addressed envelopes, etc. I worked on wrapping Good and Evil books, checking off CBC students as their lessons were ready to be mailed, and whatever else needed to be done.

Wednesday was a half work day so the team could have everything ready to head out early Thursday morning to the Beal's. We spent the morning at the Ministry Center (admin. day) collating tracts, packing starter packets, organizing literature, etc.

Thursday and Friday were spent out at the Beal's for our Missions Training Conference. It was a very refreshing look at what true missions is and is not. Here is a list of topics:

- Effective Evangelism - Session 1 "The Essence of the Gospel" (Joshua).

- Language Learning (Nathan)

- Team Missions (Jessie)

- Online Tools (Bryan)

- Running a Correspondence Course (Nathan)

- Effective Evangelism-Session 2 "Common Errors in Presenting the Gospel -- Not taking the time to plan ahead or not teaching the pure Gospel" (Joshua)

- Family and Missions (Jessie)

- Missionary Finances (Nathan)

- Effective Evangelism - Session 3 "A Comprehensive Strategy for Advancing the Gospel" (Joshua)

- Effective Evangelism - Session 4 "Choosing Effective Evangelism Venues" (Joshua)

It was a great time of teaching and encouragement. It is always encouraging to have men stand up and proclaim and the Word of God.

Saturday afternoon the team grabbed a train for a rainy trip to the mountains. Once we arrived at Striy, Nathan found a bus to take us up to the next city. There we hired a van to dive us the rest of the way. When we arrived, we unloaded, paid the driver, and began to do reconnaissance. Since the person we needed to talk to was not there and we couldn't pass out invites, we decided to find a place to pitch camp (it was looking like rain). Searching for thirty minutes, a nice spot was found next to a river. After setting up camp, the guys went swimming and Josh went searching for cell phone signal, while I stayed back at camp to build a fire and keep an eye on things.

Sunday morning we woke up to the sound of rain hitting the tent. We waited around hoping it would quit. With no end in sight, off we went around 11 AM, in the pouring rain, to pass out invites. At 2 PM, Jesse pulled up and took two of the guys to hang posters. It stopped raining just long enough to pack up all of the soaking wet gear and load up. We arrived half an hour before the showing and set up everything. The showing was a great success with the final tally of 50, the largest showing for this year's CMO project.

Kaitlin addressing CBC letters

Collating tracks into packs of 100

The guys just love me taking pictures of them!!!

Seth and Benjamin stuffing starter packets

Lessons ready to be mailed!!!

Missions Training Conference

Here's the CMO 2010 Team. (from left to right) back-row Nick Morrissey, Seth Watson, Jesse Beal, Joshua Steel, Chis Shaer, (Font row) Daniel Courter, Nathan Day, Benjamin Anna, Bryan Shufelt.

On the train headed for the mountains

Our fearless leader

Josh and Abigail in the mountains

Lightning strike in the mountains, looking for replacements to bring the team back up to full strength.

Passing out in the rain, always fun

Ukraine, frist two weeks, Dnipropetrovsk Trip

2010-08-02T10:26:00.000-05:00

CMO Goes East
July 21, 2010 | ETO eReport
Written by Seth Watson

The sixth week of CMO started off with us celebrating the 4th of July. We had been in a village trying to show Fireproof on the fourth, which was a Sunday. Fortunately, Monday was a free day for us. The Beals invited us to their house for lunch. However, we weren't their only guests. They had also invited a family that they had met in America. The mother of this family had been the Beal's doctor's assistant. They had found out that she was from Ukraine and had become friends. This Ukrainian family (who now lives in America) was visiting relatives in other village/city a few hours away and drove to the Beals for lunch. They also brought along their friends. We all had a great dinner and enjoyed listening to the musical talent from both families. Afterward, we wore ourselves out playing ultimate frisbee and then some of the guys got hair cuts.

The next day, we had to get ready for our long trip to Dnipropetrovsk. We were going to Eastern Ukraine for 10 days. It would start off with an 18-hour train ride. We boarded the train around 5 PM, had a good time discussing religion and politics, and had a good night's sleep.

On Wednesday, we got into Dnipropetrovsk around noon. Dnipropetrovsk is the second largest city in Ukraine, having a population of about one million people. The first thing we had to do when we got there was search for a hotel. We were fortunate to have some contacts in Dnipropetrovsk. Waiting for us at the train station were Slavic and Volodya with a big van. They helped us find a good hotel and gave us some information about the city. We still had a few more hours of day light so we decided to explore the city a little and get some tracts out. We were appalled to find that the entire city had been "domophoned". [Editor’s note: A domophone is an external locking system for apartment entrances here in Ukraine. They employ powerful electro-magnets and are much harder to get through than conventional code locks.] When buildings have domophones installed, it makes distributing tracts a much longer and harder process. Despite our disappointment, we started tracting. As we went from building to building, we started adapting to overcome our barriers. We would call up random apartments on the domophones and ask them to open the door, saying that we were passing out invitations to a correspondence course. Most of the time this worked and they let us in. The domophone barrier had been broken!

Thursday was spent tracting for most of the day. That was all the time we would spend in Dnipropetrovsk.

The next morning we headed off to our next city. Volodya was kind enough to drive us the three hour trip. We got situated in our hotel, then headed over to the cafe that we got to know quite well. The cafe was called "The Seventh Heaven." It was probably the only place in the city with Wi-Fi, not to mention the air conditioning. We liked our first meal there and decided to make it our exclusive supplier of breakfast and dinner for the next six days. We always had a great meal waiting for us with great service. The city that we were in was called Zelenodolsk. It could hardly be called a city with a population of only 16,000. It's housing consisted mostly of apartment buildings and had a nice lake nearby. The first day we were there we tracted Zelenodolsk, finishing in the evening. The rest of our time there we passed out literature in different cities surrounding Zelenodolsk. We just had to take buses to wherever we were going to pass out tracts.

On Saturday, we took a 15 minute bus ride to a nearby city called Apostolove. We spent a very hot day tracting there and didn't have hardly any negative responses.

The next day we headed back to Apostolove to attend a church and tell them about our ministry. Unfortunately, we could not go as a complete group, due to the fact that Bryan's hotel door broke, locking him inside the room, until the lock smith could there. Josh was invited to give a short presentation to the congregation about our ministry. Afterward, he talked with the pastor who was very interested and who might start using some of our material.

Monday was our day off. We let our feet rest, read, had fun in the lake, and played cards. The next two days were similar in that both days we split into two groups, going to different cities. The days were hot and we walked a lot. We had mostly houses, so passing out was slow. We have started getting responses already and even had a women sign up for the correspondence course on the spot!

On Thursday morning, we all got back into Volodya's van and headed back to Dnipropetrovsk. We got on our train heading back to L'viv at noon. We had some complications with rooming arrangements, due to the disorganization of the train personnel, but overall we had a pleasant ride.

We got in to L’viv Friday morning at 8 AM. We headed back to our apartments to get rested before our trip the next day where we would travel to a village for a film showing. We spent the day doing laundry and getting organized.

Saturday morning we started bright and early at 7:20 AM, heading down to the train station. We rode for about 2 hours by train, then had to hire a van to take us the rest of the way. While we were in the first village, we hung up posters and handed out invitations to next week's Fireproof showing. (This was the same village, that two weeks before, we had canceled the showing because of a funeral and a soccer game.) We then headed to our campsite. It's in a prime location right next to a nice part of the river. We had a great time swimming Sunday morning. Then, around 2 PM, headed off with Jessie in his van to go show Fireproof in a nearby village. We had been anxious about this village because we thought that maybe other villages had spread rumors to it of us being Jehovah Witnesses. Thankfully, the head of the cultural center welcomed us warmly. Almost our whole audience was children. They enjoyed the movie and Josh talked to them for a little while afterward. The head of the cultural center stood up and thanked us for coming and for our mission. We also gave each person literature.

The past two weeks have been tiring, but productive. We have seen God's hand working in what we've been doing. Please pray that many more people will start the Bible correspondence course and that it will transform their lives.

Pic. from the trip

On our way to Dnipropetrovsk

It was a 18hrs train ride!

Assigning sectors to be tracked

Bryan checking his map before he leads his team out.

Benjamin and Joshua

Joshua checking on the other Teams

Nick and Wide slot POs!!!!!!!

Team metting

Joshua at a Domophone

Waiting for a bus back to our Hotel

I the region we where in there where fields and felids of Sun Flowers

Checking on Bus Schedules

Handing out satellite maps of a Village we'er about to track. I don't know what we would do with out google Maps!

That is a look of a man that has riding on a bus packed to the giles with people and no open windows!! He was dry as a bone when he got on ten minuets ago, But now is wet as a sponge.

Waiting for the rain to stop

As I was tracking in a city I found this WW2 Monument

Unloading at the train station, for the trip back to L'viv

Nathan and Kaelin

Handing out train tickets for the train ride up to Stree

Whiting for the bus up to the next city

Nathan preparing the stamp for a showing

Bryan posting a fireproof poster

Benjamin passing out film invites

About to start the Film

Working on the Van.

“Martin Luther” of the Carpathians

2009-06-23T14:01:00.000-05:00

Here is an incredible story of how God works! This is a must read!

I Met the “Martin Luther” of the Carpathians

During our first CMO project in 2006, we showed The Light of the World in a very small village called Khashchovanya. By the time of that showing, we had already experienced a fair amount of resistance from Catholic priests in other villages. Thus I was quite surprised when we saw the priest from Khashchovanya present at our showing along with his children! He viewed the entire film, and listened without objection to my Gospel presentation at the end.

Showing The Light of the World in Khashchovanya, 2006

That day, as we packed our gear and prepared to leave, he came over to chat with me. He introduced himself as Father Stepan, and said, “You guys are protestants, right?” I gave him some type of diplomatic answer, the result of previous experience speaking with other priests, and then explained that we simply believe the Bible and preach salvation by grace through faith. He then surprised me further by saying, “That is the message I have been preaching to these people every Sunday.” I was shocked. Far from rejecting the Gospel of grace, here was a priest who actually seemed to be telling me that he was in agreement with it!

Our conversation that day was brief, and after we left I related what had happened to the rest of the team. We didn’t have any further contact with Father Stepan after that, but we wondered if perhaps he might know the Lord. His words certainly seemed to confirm that.

The CMO team approaches the village of Khashchovanya, 2006

Last month, a full three years after our first visit to Khashchovanya, we again rolled into the village in Jessie’s yellow van. This year, we planned to show a new film in Khashchovanya: Fireproof. We asked around and soon found Father Stepan. I introduced myself again, and asked if he remembered me. “How could I forget a name like Joshua?” he asked warmly. (There is no equivalent for the name “Joshua” in Ukrainian.) We explained our desire to show Fireproof, and again were pleased to see that he was very open to the idea. We told him that we would be back in a couple of weeks to hang some posters. Then we wrote down his cell number, and headed to the next village on our list.

Once I again I found myself wondering if this man might be saved. I’ve always known that there are born-again Christians in the Catholic Church – maybe even priests – but I couldn’t say for certain that I had ever met one. Furthermore, I have seen over and over again how the Catholic system blinds people to the Gospel. Most of my interaction with Catholic priests in the Carpathians reminds me of Jesus’ sobering rebuke to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:13: “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” And yet, Father Stepan seemed to be cut from a different cloth. Still, I was hesitant to hope for too much since we had only chatted briefly on a couple of occasions.

Soon the time came for our team to return to Khashchovanya and advertise the film. Jessie happened to be in Poland that day, so the rest of us went to the mountains by train. When we reached a city called Striy, only 30 minutes from the mountains, we got on a bus which would take us the rest of the way to Khashchovanya. To my surprise, after only a few stops, Father Stepan got on the bus also! He immediately recognized us, and took a seat next to me. At first I was a bit nervous, knowing that we still had at least two hours of travel time ahead of us. A lot can happen during a two-hour conversation. Little did I know that this conversation would turn out to be one of the most exciting I have ever had in the mountains of Western Ukraine.

We started off with simple questions. He asked about our work, how we are supported, what kinds of things we do in L’viv, etc. I asked about his family, and how long he had served in Khashchovanya. He showed me some family pictures on his cell phone, and I showed him pictures of Kelsie and the kids on my iPod. So far so good. Cautiously, I dropped a comment about how our ministry respects the Bible as God’s Word and the final authority in every area of life. To my delight, he picked up on this, and began recounting his own studies. “Of course the Bible must be our final authority,” he told me. “I studied in Catholic Seminary for five years, and I didn’t learn that. I started reading the Bible on my own, and they almost kicked me out.” I picked my jaw up off the floor and tried to organize my thoughts. Here was a priest who was telling me that he was nearly expelled from seminary because he studied the Bible! I was not shocked that the seminary would do such a thing, but rather that I was actually talking to a person from within the Catholic system who understood and openly acknowledged the foundational nature of Scripture!

It gets better. “You know,” he continued, “the problem with people is that they all want to trust in their own works for salvation. But a man can only be justified by faith. I’ve been screaming that to my people for eight years now. Only the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ can save.” That did it. My initial skepticism vanished, and the two of us started swapping favorite Scripture verses like old pals from Bible college. Until that day, I had NEVER talked to a priest who told me about man’s need for imputed righteousness. “You know, Father Stepan, I think you have a very unique position.” I said. “There are people who will listen to you that would never pay any attention to me. It’s like Paul said in that verse about trying to be all things to all men… ummm…” I couldn’t think of how it went in Ukrainian. Father Stepan finished the verse for me from memory: “And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;”

Then we came to the subject of witnessing techniques. Father Stepan has a favorite approach. “The best way to witness to someone is to start out with a simple question,” he explained. “When you die, are you going to heaven or hell? There are only two options.” He went on to recount how most people think/hope they’re going to heaven, but that they base this on their own good works instead of on the finished work of Christ. By now I was starting to suspect that Father Stepan had been listening to Ray Comfort! “The Catholic Church doesn’t teach this message,” he said sadly. “It’s present in their doctrines, but they don’t believe it. You think I learned these things in seminary? No. I learned them from protestant brothers and from reading the Bible.” I would later learn that Father Stepan has been listening to radio broadcasts from preachers like Dr. J. Vernon McGee since the early 90’s.

I wish I had a recording of our fellowship on that bus. I have given the highlights as best I remember them, but much more was said. In four years of ministering the Gospel in Carpathian mountain villages, I have never met anyone who knew the Gospel message like Father Stepan. A week later, our team returned to Khashchovanya. We showed the film, and afterward I preached a short Gospel message. Once again, Father Stepan was there for the whole thing, and afterward, he invited us to his house. At one point during our conversation, he asked a favor of me: “Do you have access to the internet?” I acknowledged that I do. “If you could somehow get me recordings of J. Vernon McGee’s sermons in Russian, that would be a great help to me.” He then proceeded to show me a shelf in his living room, about three feet wide, which was crammed from one end to the other with small paperback notebooks. He opened one of these and I saw that it was completely filled with handwritten notes. “You see all these? These are my studies of the Bible and notes I have taken from listening to preachers on the radio.”

Looking at pictures with Father Stepan at his home in Khashchovanya

Before we left Father Stepan’s home that day, our whole team gathered with him and prayed for the village of Khashchovanya. We prayed for God’s blessing on him and his ministry, and that God would open the hearts of the people to the message of Christ. I would like to ask you to pray for Father Stepan as well. I am as certain of his salvation in Christ as I have ever been about anyone. There are times on the mission field when one begins to experience the Elijah syndrome: “I’m alone and no one else is following Christ.” But that day on our bus ride to the Carpathian mountains, God showed me one of His own: a shining light in a remote village, a man of God, faithfully proclaiming salvation through Jesus Christ alone. And you can be certain that his job is not an easy one. At least our team has the means to travel to many villages, to print large amounts of literature, and to maintain direct contact with believers whom we know and love. Father Stepan is holding the line in a very dark place. For eight years he has preached the Gospel to the people of that village, and he is preaching still. Please pray for him. Men like that are few and far between.

The CMO team stands with Father Stepan

Father Stepan's church in Khashchovanya

In closing, I want to say that my story above is not intended as a call to ecumenicism. This is not a story of an Evangelical and a Catholic who decided to shelve their doctrine so they could have a praise service in the same room. This is the story of a modern-day Martin Luther: a man to whom God has revealed Himself through the Scriptures. Yes, I’m sure that if I sat down with Father Stepan and compared doctrinal statements there would be differences – maybe big ones. But when I think of Father Stepan and his little church in the mountains, I am reminded of Jesus’ dialogue with His disciples in Mark 9:38-40: “And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.”

I rejoice that I have an ally in the Carpathians: a man who knows my Lord and preaches His Gospel. And I ask you again: when you pray for missionaries in Ukraine, remember to add one more to your list: pray for Brother Stepan.

"For he that is not against us is on our part." (Mark 9:40)

Quick Update

2009-06-02T03:44:00.000-05:00

Here Bryan is going though corresponds corse lessons that students have send in to be graded, once it has been graded we send them the next lesson in the course. Two days ago Bryan entered the 700th person into the data base of students. Praise the Lord!

On Thursday we went to the place were they store there extra materials that have been printed and three pallets of material. After that we went to Metro to do some grocery shopping to get a bit to eat.
It was a Ukraine restaurant set up in a buffet style, you basically point to what you want and they put it all on a plate, and you can keep adding to it as much as you want, as you go down the line until you have the portion that you want. At the end of the line you pay for the amount of food that's on the plate. The meal was Great! I got Salmon and rice as my main dish, for a side Borsch. The entire meal was about $3 in all. Food here is fairly cheap.

This is the Borsch that I was talking about - it's made out of Beets. It's extremely good!

Reading a book to Abigail. Abigail is the highlight of a visit to the Steels - she is always at the door to greet you with a smile and "How are you Mr. Daniel". She is my anti-dote for home sickness.

Out at the Beal's

2009-05-29T15:34:00.000-05:00

Sunday we went to a church in L'viv and after the service we headed out to the Beal's for the afternoon. We had a great time of fellowship!

Here (left to right),Denise Cassia and Alexandria, are playing toss up while Mr. and Mrs. Beal fix lunch. It was fantastic - Steak, potato patties and an awesome salad with ranch!

Mr. Beal fixing lunch

After lunch we had a church service. We sang about eight or ten hymns, accompanied by Kelsie on the piano and Mrs. Beal on the violin, then Joshua preached a great message on Gods will - that it is not some allusive thing out there, but that if you will just follow Gods leading in your life, you will find his will for your life.

Then on to Catan!

The ladies had their own game of Catan going on. Left to right, Denise, Mrs. Beal (Teresa) and Kelsie.

It was a Great day with the Team!

Scouting trip in the mountains

2009-05-27T01:58:00.005-05:00

Here we are at the first village, after about 3 hours of driving. The first hour or so was on a stretch of road that had just been redone, which made it one of the best roads in Ukraine! The rest of the time we where dodging pot holes, land mines, and craters left by artillery shells! Well, maybe not the land mines... But if you hit some of those holes just right it would do the about same amount of damage as a Claymore would if you ever happed to run over one.

While we were at the first village, Joshua and his dauhter Abigail went to talk to the village head (the person who is in-charge of that village) while the rest of us stretched our legs a bit and ate lunch.
I shot this picture. for the van as we drove by. I'm so glad that this picture turned out. I love the different colors of the bee hives and the beautiful white blossoms on the trees.

Abigail

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God and the Earth showeth His Handy Work!

The scenery in the Mountains is absolutely breathtaking! A camera is not capable of fully capturing it in a still frame. It reminds me a lot of the scenery from The Sound of Music and you expect at any moment to see Julie Andrews step out and start singing The Hills Are Alive :)

At about seven we found a beautiful place by a river to set up camp for the night.

Here Bryan is fixing a delicious supper of carrots, onion, garlic and noodles. It beats ramen noodles any day of the week!

While all of us guys were setting up camp, Abigail was picking dandelions, she figured out that if you blow on it, the seeds will fly all over the place. She absolutely loved it! and it kept her busy while we set up camp and cooked supper. She was a real trooper and did fabulous for the whole trip.

Once back home we set our tents up to dry.

My First week in Ukraine

2009-05-23T07:48:00.000-05:00

Almost there! Boarding the plane for the last leg of the journey, from Warsaw Poland, to L'viv Ukraine.

Everything went great for the entire trip. I left Madrid Spain, at 6:35am and landed at 6:01pm in L'viv. I was the last person through immigration, and to get my bags, but it was perfect timing because Joshua Steele had just got there. He called a taxi and off we went to his apartment, where I had diner and some great fellowship.
About 8:30pm Brian Shufelt came and picked me up in a taxi and took me to the Ministry Center/apartment, which will be my temporary home until CMO starts.

This is a very nice cobblestone road in L'viv.
Most of the streets in town are very rough cobblestone

Every Tuesday night is English club, but due to the rain only one person showed up. Basically for one hour we read, discuss what has be read, then Joshua preaches for about an hour after which we have some kind of sweet and a cup of hot tea (Neat fact: Ukraines hate cold tea!!)

Sunday after church we were invited to the Steeles for lunch where I was introduced to a new game, called Catan (Which is similar to Risk).

This is at Joshua apartment in his living room.
On the left is Brian Shufelt, in the center is Rebekah Steele, and on the right is Abigail Steel.

Solar Show: Madrid Spain

2009-05-19T07:42:00.000-05:00

This is our booth.

A friend of Brian Lowry's acted as our interpreter for the entire show. I am so thankful that we had him! There were several times when he saved the day, seeing neither I nor Brain could speak Spanish. :)

the booth below has a glass conference room (to the right)

Show's over! Headed back to the hotel for some sleep!