Once a year, our church here has a baptism service at a small lake here in Brovary. We start a baptism class a couple of months before the service for those who want to follow the Lord Jesus in obedience to receive water baptism. It is a very special day for the church and for those who are baptized.

This year we had the honor of baptizing SIXTEEN! Two of those who were baptized are moms from the ministry for families who are affected by disability. What a joy it was for me to be part of this very special moment!

I was able to be part of their salvation story and part of their baptism because of the Lord’s plan for us and because of the many faithful supporters of our ministry here. Thank you! The two dear ladies are very active in the ministry. Even though we have reduced our ministry activity during the pandemic, they are still actively attending worship services and they are active in the Viber groups where they encourage other moms and dads. Lena (on the left) has a miraculous salvation story (of course all of our salvation stories are miraculous) because God delivered her from some significant issues when she accepted Jesus as her Savior. I won’t explain that here because I don’t have her permission. However, if you have received email newsletters over the years, I have told her story.

Below is the highlight video from the baptism service. Thank you for praying for Vera and Lena and their families. Being a believer here is not easy for them.

Baptism – Saturday, August 1, 2020

Every year we look forward to the Voronkov camp. Both of the years we were back in the States, Mary travelled back here to participate. We have been looking forward to it since we returned in January. Planning for it began several months ago and so much went into it. The Voronkov camp is always an opportunity to meet new moms (and this year, dads) and their children. The focus of the Voronkov camp is non-believers. This year we had almost all non-believers both weeks of camp. This year, there was a total of 41 families!

We would say that these types of camps are the hardest emotionally and spiritually. However, they are SO IMPORTANT.

The first week, we had some very closed campers. We began the week unsure of how or if we would be able to reach them. However, as the week went on, even the most closed became more open. I can’t give detailed information here because I don’t want to undermine any progress we have made in people’s spiritual journey. But, I can tell you that by the end of the week, we had a couple of the most resistant to the Gospel and the reality of God tell us that they saw in us (the leadership team) that we obviously really believed all this stuff we had talked about. Several have said that they plan to at least try the Friday night Bible study when it starts again. We are also exploring with Tonya the possibility of starting a second Friday night group that would be for those who are farther away from a relationship with the Lord. We are praying and thinking and talking. Join us in praying about that.

Our them both weeks was “The Way with the Lord.” The fun part of the theme was that we were on a train trip throughout Ukraine. We “visited” Brovary, Kyiv, Odessa, L’vov, Ternopyl, and Poltava. Each day we focused on one of Jesus’ “I Am” statements. (I Am the Bread of Life, I am the Light of the World, I am the Door, I am the Good Shepherd, I and the Way, the Truth and the Life, and I am the Resurrection and the Life.) We got up close with the Savior and how He can and wants to relate to us in our daily lives. The theme left many of the participants with lots of questions that we got to talk about during free times.

One of the Americans (Carol) who comes each year with Bill Heaton’s group from Berean Baptist Church taught a deeper study of each days theme. The moms are not required to attend, of course. They are adults and can decide for themselves. However, with very few exceptions, all the moms were in each study. They enjoyed digging deeper into God’s Word and received it. Carol used very interesting personal experiences to illustrate her classes and really encouraged the ladies to make God’s Word part of their lives.

Both weeks we were able to give out Bibles to the moms and “The Jesus Storybook Bible” in Russian and Ukrainian. This is a beautifully illustrated book with easy to understand versions of several dozen Bible stories. One mom came up to me and said that her son has never wanted to read the Bible at all and that for the first time he wanted to read it. He also wanted to try reading the story in the Bible and not just in the storybook Bible. Many of the parents also told us that they were reading the stories and were understanding for the first time. God’s Word is so important and we are glad to be able to provide it. It’s God’s Word that has the power to change people.

Both weeks, we had many children with varying levels of Autism. I won’t comment on any of the children or any specific behaviors, but most of these kids have never been with someone besides their parent so it makes it hard on everyone. By the end of both weeks, everyone settled in, though.

During the week, there was a memory verse each day on the theme. Each verse they memorized gave them more “money” to spend at the carnival and sale on Saturday. This is a highlight of the week and the ability to buy more gave them incentive to memorize. And they DID memorize. Most of the parents and many of the kids memorized six “I Am” verses. This is of major importance. Maybe they mostly did it to get something on Saturday, but God’s Word never returns void!

The second of week of camp was programmatically exactly like the first week. However, one major difference from any of the past six years was that there were three dads who came and stayed. We had the first ever dad’s class while the moms had their class. I honestly expected them to be closed and to not even come. How wrong I was. I don’t feel like I can give details here, but let me ask you to pray for them. And pray for me (Chris). I have opportunity to meet with them and continue to speak truth. I’m excited about it, but also nervous. While we are able to communicate in Russian, talking about Spiritual things is much harder because of the very different vocabulary and sentence structures. We are still in the infant stages of learning those things. I won’t say anymore about the dads except that it was thrilling to see how the Lord is working in their hearts and I am so excited at the future with them.

On each of the Saturdays, we brought our whole family with us. Many of the moms both weeks told Tonya what a heart changing moment it was to see us all together and to see that the things we had said in our testimonies were visible to them when we were all together. They told Tonya that it is so important that we are here. Here me correctly, here. There isn’t really anything about us that is special – it’s the Lord working through us and the makeup of our family that is impactful. We often feel so useless here and that we are not accomplishing anything. However, these weeks at camps, we heard from the very people that we want to minister to that it matters that we are here. It was a real boost to our faith and we want to thank those of you who make it possible for us to live here – both financially and through your prayers. It matters. Your support matters. You are part of this! Thank you.

We were excited to have two guests with us from First Moore participate in the Voronkov camps. Alex Robison decided several months ago to come and us he Music Therapist skills at the camp. And just a few weeks before the trip, Mary Hanson found it possible to come and participate, as well. She agreed to be a volunteer at camp for Micah and Eliana so they could come to camp and participate. That was a huge blessing for us because we haven’t been able to have our kids participate in camp because if they did, we would spend all our time with them and would not be available to connect with the parents. Having them at camp was very special.

Watching Alex with even the hardest kids was magical. Again, I won’t comment on specific kids or their issues, but some of the kids that were basically unreachable were reached by Alex’s interaction with them. It was just wonderful. Thank you to those who supported her work here.

There is no way I could write all that happened during these two weeks of camp. I think I have hit most of the highlights here. However, the final thing I want to relate is that one of the dear moms who came to the camp a couple of years ago accepted Christ during the second week of camp this year. We were so excited. She even came in front of the church on Sunday to make her decision public. We look forward to working with her in the coming weeks. Please pray for “S.”

Enjoy these videos. There were two videos for each week. Please do not share these videos further than this post of the email newsletter.

Voronkov Camp Video #1 (Week 1)

Voronkov Camp Video #2 (Week 1)

Voronkov Camp Video #1 (Week 2)

Voronkov Camp Video #2 (Week 2)

We returned from the Azov camp on the 21st and the following week another camp started in Zhytomyr. We decided that Bethany and Seth would go with Mary, Micah, and Eliana and that I (Chris) would stay home with the other kids. Bethany and Seth had been with the kids the time we were gone to the Azov and we wanted to get them out of the house and  experience the camp ministry firsthand. Although, as we have told them many times, they are a huge part of the ministry by helping us with the kids. But it’s good for them to be hands-on.

We have done various ministry in Zhytomyr over the years. Last year, many of you supported the Family Retreat. This camp wasn’t the same people (except a few repeats) but it took place at the same place and about the same time as last year. This camp was designed for adults with some sort of disability – either physical or mental or both.

“V” is on the left.

One of the repeats was a dear mom, I’ll call “V.” She is the one who accepted Christ last year at the family retreat. She was a little disappointed that I wasn’t there, but she sought Mary out to be sure she knew that she was the one who accepted Christ and told her that her life is so different now. Since last year, she has been baptized and has become very involved in the church and other ministries of the church. It was such a great encouragement to us that she is becoming a disciple and is beginning to make disciples. What a blessing! You can see the joy of the Lord in her eyes and on her face. The difference from last year is remarkable. This is a direct result of the financial and prayer support of MANY OF YOU! Thank you!

Two of the participants, Igor (in his 50’s) and Andre (in his 40’s), have lived in an orphanage setting since boyhood and have no family that visits them. They spoke a great deal about how they have found joy in their relationships with God despite their very poor circumstances. They make every opportunity to use their abilities to their fullest to reach others for Christ. It was an amazing testimony! They were also an encouragement to the other participants in the camp that regardless of limited ability, there is hope and there is joy in the Lord.

Mary and the crew spend two nights there and headed back home.

This is an area in Ukraine that we hope to expand to in the coming months.

Photo Gallery from Zhytomyr Special Needs Camp 2017

*These pictures are the property of Ukraine Ministries of Oklahoma, Inc. and may not be re-used without written permission. Click on the image to see the full image in high resolution.  Or you can view the gallery on Flickr by clicking here.

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On Tuesday, June 13, we headed the Azov Sea to a Christian campground.  The Azov Lighthouse camp is 760 kilometers from our home. Obviously, it was a full day of driving! Chris, Mary, Micah, Eliana, June, and some guests who came for the camp (James and Trudi) punched in the coordinates on the GPS and hit the road. We prayed a lot and depended on the Lord. A van full of Americans on a ten-hour trip.  Our original plan was to travel with Yuri and Sveta (our friends and neighbors – Yuri was pulling a trailer with all of our supplies for the camp), but they had an issue with their car that put them about six hours behind us. While we were still over 200 kilometers from the war zone, we were a lot closer to it than we are at home – so we were a little nervous about it. We didn’t think we would be in danger, but if we were stopped, communicating in Russian can be challenging in moments like that.

About halfway there, we began to hear a noise coming from the front, driver’s wheel. We stopped and inspected it but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. However, after another block, it was obvious that we couldn’t continue and out in the middle of nowhere, we looked up and there was a tire repair shop. We prayed that God would give us someone to help us that would not try to take advantage of us. We got the van up on the lift and as soon as the wheels left the ground, that wheel nearly fell off the an. It was being held by only one lug nut. The repairman looked up at me and said, “This is a miracle. God has been protecting you.” He was correct! When I saw the wheel and realized what would have happened had it come off, my heart was flooded with gratitude to God. (Just before the noise started to get bad, I had breathed a prayer asking God to protect us and to protect the van. I literally said, “Amen,” and the noise started to get so much worse and we stopped. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I said another prayer at the moment and said, “I just asked You to protect us and the van, and this is Your answer?”) We had had some work done on the front tires a few weeks prior and he said they may not have tightened them completely and after hitting a couple of pretty significant potholes along the road, they had worked themselves loose. When the mechanic started to get in the van to back it out of the bay for me, he popped his head out and said, “A van full of Americans?” And we all had a big laugh. I bet he had plenty to talk about at the dinner table that night! As we exited back out onto the road he and his helper came out to the road to wave goodbye. We immediately prayed and thanked God for his protection and His provision. And yes, I did a little repenting for my sour attitude with my Father. After all, He had immediately answered my prayer of protection. It was just not answered in the way I was asking. Sometimes He answers in ways that we don’t expect and if we aren’t careful, we miss the answer and we think He either hasn’t heard, hasn’t answered, or answered incorrectly. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived about 10:30 that night. Yuri and Sveta arrived around 2:00 a.m.

We spent all of Wednesday setting up and getting things organized in preparation for welcoming the campers on Thursday morning. Trudi is a clown. No, I don’t mean that she’s very funny (although she has a fabulous sense of humor). She brought her clown gear and the kids (and parents) were really happy to be welcomed by someone so happy. It was really fun to be there to welcome the from their overnight trip on the train. There were around 160 people who came from Brovary. This was 45-50 families. The group was made up of special needs families and other families from Grace Church in Brovary. Many of these families have been part of the Special Needs Camp at Voronkov that we have participated in for years. Families can only attend that camp three times, though, and then they can attend the all-church family camp. About half of the attenders are not yet believers.

Our theme for the week-long camp was “Purpose Driven Life.” Rick Warren’s book has been translated into many languages and we have used the Russian version extensively here in our ministry and in the ministry at Grace Church. The main theme question was, “Why am I here?” And then each day we answered that question. (We were created for God’s pleasure. We were created to be part of God’s family. We were created to become like Christ Jesus. We were created to serve. We were created to be on mission.) Each day we had a morning devotion time where we prayed together and had a brief devotion to introduce the theme for the day. Then, before lunch we had a “service” with music and a longer message that spoke to the them for the day and left some questions unanswered that we talked about in our afternoon small groups. Also, each day, we had a verse that each person was encouraged to memorize. At the end of the week, those who had memorized all the verses got a chocolate bar. Our original plan was to give them a copy of the Purpose Driven Life book, but we decided that we really wanted everyone to get that. So we made the prize a chocolate bar and gave each person a book at the end of the week. MANY memorized all the verses.

It was a very fruitful week, in that their awareness of God’s Word was enlarged and many questions were asked. As we began to work on the memory verses, we heard many times that it was very hard to memorize something when you had no idea what it meant. We were asked repeatedly to explain what the verses meant. This is HUGE! Their appetite for truth was whetted and we had the opportunity to not only explain those verses, but to use other parts of God’s Word to explain them. What a tremendous opportunity.

We had several people who were completely closed off at the beginning of our days together. In fact, we wondered why some of them had even come to the camp knowing that it was a Christian camp and that we would be talking about God the whole time. But God has HIS plans and we saw the hardness began to soften and even melt away in several cases. We were told by more than one that they had no interest in these topics when they came but that they now want to know more. We have a lot of follow-up that we are doing from the camp at the sea.

I (Chris) celebrated my 47th birthday at the sea. Mary and my friends made me feel very special and threw  small party for me on my birthday afternoon. Also, the following day, James and Trudi, along with Pastor Boris, his wife, Sveta, June, and Mary had another small celebration and this was also a great opportunity for James and Trudi to get to know Boris and Sveta. Both events were great times. As we sat around the table with Yuri, Sveta, June, Alona, and Mary and ate fruit, ice cream, and cake and drank knock-off coca-cola, I was so thankful that we are here and that we have such close relationships so far away from our “home.” We laughed a lot. We told stories from our childhoods and even told a few jokes. All of this is happening in Russian and I was so thankful to God that He has allowed us to communicate and to understand. It’s a priceless treasure and we are very grateful to our Father for it.

We hope to be part of the family camp next year, as well. If God wills it. Enjoy the pictures below from the Azov Sea Family Camp.

Photo Gallery from Azov Family Camp 2017

*These pictures are the property of Ukraine Ministries of Oklahoma, Inc. and may not be re-used without written permission. Click on the image to see the full image in high resolution.  Or you can view the gallery on Flickr by clicking here.

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I am sure you have heard that the Malone family will be moving back to Ukraine on January 15, 2017. We, their friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and fellow church members can go on mission with them. God calls each of us to something. Some are to go. Some are to give financial support. And ALL are to pray. It takes around $6,000 a month for living and ministry expenses. Wartha and I have committed $500 a month to help support the Malones (this is above my tithe – which goes to the church). Is God calling you to give financially? How much will you commit? We only need about 4 more to give $500 a month, or about 9 to give $250, or about 23 to give $100 a month.

There are several ways to give.

• Online through First Baptist Church of Moore — Choose “Ukraine Ministries” as the fund. Click here to give online through FBC Moore
• If you attend First Baptist Church, you can give through your normal offering (above tithe – your tithe belongs at the church). Designate your offering “Ukraine”.
• You can mail a gift to First Baptist Church and designate it “Ukraine”. First Baptist Church, 301 NE 27th Street, Moore, Oklahoma 73160.
• Online, here on UkraineMinistriesOfOklahoma.org — Click here to give online now.

There are a lot of options and it may seem confusing, but it is simple and easy!

How many of you will join me in a monthly gift to support the Malones on mission in Ukraine? Pray about it. Ask God to show you how much you are to give (He did me) and then respond with a gift each month. Let us support our brother, sister, and their children with our prayers and our financial gifts.

Next Sunday, Wartha and I begin giving our support. I challenge each of you to ask God and then obey Him.

Let’s Do It!

Gus Dowing,
Founder, Ukraine Ministries of Oklahoma
and Director Emeritus 

It’s #GivingTuesday!

On this day when so many are looking for ways to use their resources in a way that multiplies them for good, please consider the Lord’s work in Ukraine.

Ukraine Ministries of Oklahoma has been working in Ukraine since the early 1990’s and the Lord has consistently met the financial needs for the work He has called us to do.

Jesus came up against an insurmountable need when He was teaching the 5,000 men (plus the wives and children) and needed to feed them. The need was great. The resources seemed so limited. Two fish and five small loaves of bread. This was all that was available to feed THOUSANDS.  Yet, the Lord Jesus took this offering from a boys lunch, blessed it, and began to distribute it among the great crowd.

Not only was there enough that they ate until they were full, but there were 12 baskets-full left over!

Perhaps  the Lord is leading you to sow your resources into His work in Ukraine. Maybe you think what you have to give is not much when compared to the great need. But remember, He brings the increase. He takes our resources and does something miraculous with them!

Thank you for your generosity!

When we left Ukraine in February 2015, we assumed it would be forever – or at least for many years. However, during the summer, it because obvious that God was leading us back to our home outside of Kyiv, Ukraine. We are making preparations now to make the transition from the USA in mid-January.

This has not been an easy decision for lots of reasons. It will be hard to leave our church in Moore. We have such deep friendships here – more like family. It will be hard to leave the easy-access healthcare for our kids. We don’t have that in Ukraine. And let’s be real here – regardless of how crazy things can seem in the USA, it’s still the greatest country on earth and it’s hard to leave the comforts and easier living.

The first question that many as is why would want to go back there? In our spirits, that question is easy to answer.  However, it’s pretty difficult to put it into words. God has done something deep within our hearts that draws us there. We have a unique ministry opportunity there and God has blessed that opportunity many times over and we see fruit from that ministry. We are nothing special – we are just willing. That is to say that it’s not US who make the difference there, it’s Him working through us.

We will be returning to ministering to families who has children with special needs. There is a great deal of hopelessness attached to disability there and we have seen God fill that great void and bring hope and emotional healing. We will continue that work in our town of Brovary and will begin working with a new group in Zhytomyr (another state in Ukraine).  We are also excited about some brand new ministry opportunities that we are still working on.

There is a real threat that Russia is about to launch a full-scale invasion into Ukraine. Some are throwing around words like “imminent.” However, God knows exactly what will happen and what the outcome will be.

Psalm 20:7
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Please pray.

Here are some news articles from today, August 18, 2016:

http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-ukraine-war-update-putin-full-scale-invasion-possible-poroshenko-says-2403592
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/59345-is-russia-about-to-invade-ukraine
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-builds-up-army-near-ukraine-border-1471537008

Trusting in the Name of the Lord our God!  He is EVER faithful!