Amsterdam

We had a great last day in Kiev on Monday. It was a beautiful sunny morning & we went for walks and then had a great time of worship with our IPOD's in a grove of Apricot trees in the park across from the church - sweet smells, beautiful flowers and a sweet time with the Lord. We packed, took showers and had tea with Larysa & then ice cream with our translator Yulia and said our good -byes. We arrived in Amsterdam on time and took the train to our little canal house...smile. Tuesday had our first full day of training at the home of a dear dutch couple who have a great heart for pro-life ministry. There were 6 people present and we had a great day together...some teaching, practical ministry ideas, fellowship, prayer & lots of good food! We felt like God knit our hearts together. Today (Wednesday) we had a few hours to take a walk and explore the parks and canals in Amsterdam - it was a glorious sunny day! This afternoon Dawn took us to meet with the director of a pregnancy center. We had a great meeting with him and he is very excited about what God is raising up at Crossroads. We are at Crossroads Ministry Center tonight and will continue our training tonight & then finish up tomorrow night. Pray for God to clearly lead each person as to what He wants for them individually as well as for this church. Tomorrow Teresa and I plan to take the train to Haarlem ( a city about 20 km south) to have a little adventure...it is a quaint town with some cute shops, outdoor cafes and some beautiful churches to explore. We are praying for a warm sunny day. There are some daffodils still blooming and some tulips beginning. Friday morning Teresa will head to the airport and Barb will enjoy a spiritual retreat day biking around the parks of Amsterdam. Barb flies home Saturday morning. Pray for safe travel & for our transition back home. God has been so Faithful & Good and we are doing well.... a few little tinges of getting anxious to be home, but thankful for the ministry opportunities! Blessing to You! Serving Him, Barb & Teresa

Sunday in Kiev

We have had a good day today. Teresa and I took the subway by ourselves and even changed subway lines to get to church this morning. We attended Transformation Church and heard some great music & worship and had a chance to share about HH briefly. We had one gal pick up a copy of the study for her sister. We went out to lunch with our friends the Marchenkos and are now at Andrew & Oksana's apartment and had a few minutes to get online. Our conference yesterday went very well. We had about 50 women there for the day. The ladies that organized the event did a great job putting it together - very sweet spirits that understand this ministry. The put a lot of work into the details and it was very nice - great worship music, a few special singers, great slides & a wonderful lunch. Every woman took home a bible study and we are praying for abundant fruit from this event. We felt a good sense of relief last night after completing our last ministry event in Ukraine - ahhh...it felt good to relax and rest in all that God has done! Tomorrow we will pack and prepare to switch gears for Amsterdam. We leave for the airport at 3:00 and arrive in Amsterdam at 7:30. Pray for us to get a good night of sleep Monday and for our training on Tuesday. Pray for the transition as we need to get used to not using a translator - we need to remember to talk in full sentences again...smile. Pray for them to be teachable and receptive and for us to have a very relational training. Will try to update this at least once from Amsterdam. Thanks for your prayer support. love, Barb & Teresa

Back in Kiev

We arrived back in Kiev this morning at 7:00 and our train ride went well.....we got some sleep off and on. Barb had a little encounter in the hall with a drunk man swinging his empty bottle around....and we decided to lock the door to our coupe while we slept - God is our protector! We had a great meeting with Rhonda & Lueben at their home yesterday afternoon and they took some copies of our bible study, so we will pray for God to open some doors for her to minister to post-abortive women and to find someone that has a heart for this ministry in their Baptist church. We were glad to get to our little room and take showers, use a nice bathroom and catch a little rest. We had a brave adventure today. We gave Julia our translator the day off and we ventured downtown alone for the first time. We took the subway, exchanged money, bought phone cards for our cell phones, went out for lunch, bought ice cream cones, took a walk down Kryshatuck street and took the subway home!!! It was a lovely sunny day close to 70 and we enjoyed a little freedom around Kiev. We just met with 6 women all involved in pro-life in Ukraine - it was good to learn more about what they are doing and some interesting facts & statistics about abortion. We gave them each a copy of our HH study and will pray for God to bring some fruit. Pray for our conference on Saturday and our opportunity to have lunch with the Marchenko's on Sunday - We want to talk to them a bit about establishing a ministry at Transformation Church - pray for us to be bold and to understand them and their church better. Thanks for your support & we will update when we can. love, Barb & Teresa

Wednesday Leaving Odessa

A quick update before we head back to Kiev. We had a tea last night with about 15 ladies from the Baptist Church. We both shared our testimony's and about HH and each women went home with a copy of the bible study. The woman who organized the event was very touched & the pastor's wife was also present. So, again pray for God to raise up 2 women from that church to give leadership. We slept well last night & are getting packed today. This morning we had an amazing meeting with the regional pastor and a few other men. Pastor Bronyslav is very open to our ministry and wants to partner with us to help move this ministry forward in Ukraine. He recognizes the need and wants to help us educate pastors, print studies and work through the challenges of growing this ministry across Ukraine.....so Praise God for His favor in connecting us with people that can help us. We also discovered that Lydia, the women's ministry leader of Odessa region is in the US and we have never gotten the chance to meet her....we found out she has a house in Seattle and will be there until May!! So, Teresa is planning to contact her and meet with her. Pray for that connection. We also had another amazing contact this morning. A missionary from Lansing Michigan is ministering with the Baptist Union here in Odessa. They moved here after 5 years in Russia and his wife Rhonda has a heart for doing post-abortion ministry here in Ukraine!! We are going to their place for tea at 2:00 and then he will drive us to the train station. He was so excited to meet us and they want to find out more about HH. Pray for that meeting and connection - we know God put that together.
Teresa and I have to get this laundry finished & pack....we were laughing as we were lugging baskets of wet laundry through the seminary to find a dryer (making sure our undies weren't hanging out, smile)....but we are very thankful for a washer and dryer...it is the only ones we have ever used in Ukraine! We are happy & blessed...it is awesome how God energizes us for ministry through His Spirit. We may not have very easy access to a computer this next week, but will update when we can. Thanks for your support...we love you. Barb & Teresa

Tueday in Odessa

We got up at 6:00 this morning and took the bus into town - we were waiting in a long line and God brought a van that picked us off and whisked us off to the downtown. We spoke from 9:00 until 10:30 and it went great. We had about 80 students and they were very receptive and good listeners. They asked questions and the director of the business department invited us back for next year. We are very blessed with the connection with Mark Huffman - the American missionary and professor at the University. He teaches business and theology. We went downtown to the market and had lunch at an outdoor cafe in the warm sun - it was delightful! We are preparing for our tea tonight at the church at 7:00. Tomorrow moring we have our meeting with the regional pastor at 10:00 and then do laundry, pack and have a 12 hour night train ride back to Kiev. It has been a fruitful time in Odessa & God has blessed! Today when we were walking Teresa and I said our legs and arms felt really heavy or else gravity is much stronger here!!! Pray for sleep on the train and for physical strength. God has been so Faithful!! Thanks for your prayers. love, Barb & Teresa

Odessa

Good Morning! We are glad to have access to a computer so we could give you an update. We are at the Odessa Seminary and happy to have a quiet day after a busy weekend. Last Friday we took the train down to Odessa. It was kind of a gray & rainy day, but the train ride gave us a chance to rest and take catch a nap after hitting the groud running on Thursday. We had a great weekend of ministry & God was so Faithful! Saturday we held a women's conference with about 50 women from the various churches in the Odessa region. We held our conference in a beautiful chapel here on the campus - the sun was shining and a very pleasant day. We were blessed to have the regional pastor, Bronyslav share & pray for us at the beginning of the conference - God has given us favor with the Baptist Union. The women were warm & friendly and the content was well received - each went home with one bible study. We are praying that some of these women will be healed as they go through the study, that some will go through the study with someone else and also that God would raise up some of these women to partner with us and grow this ministry in this region. Yulia our translator did a great job & we are blessed again to have her traveling with us. We so enjoy your willing heart & joyful spirit! We had Kim, one of our Odessa missionary friends here for the conference. We rode the bus back together into the city for dinner. We met Kurt & Rochelle zurBerg with their 3 girls and also Mark & Kim Huffman for a delightful dinner and sweet time of fellowship. The zurBerg's are missionary's from Michigan and the Huffman's from Minnesota. (Kathy they send their greetings.) Sunday we decided to take the bus into town to attend Holy Trinity Church with the Huffmans. we wanted to meet their pastor as he was very interested in Healing Hearts. We had a great time of worship in with a small congregation of about 35 people. The pastor is a Japanese man who preaches in English - he and his wife and 7 year old son have lived in Ukraine for 9 years and began the church 6 years ago. He preaches from the Word and is a very dynamic Spirit-filled pastor. We had the opportunity to share for about 10-15 minutes in the service about HH. After church we had 20 minutes to talk with the pastor - great connection! After church Mark & Kim blessed us with a picnic at the sea.....we have wanted to see the beach and it was a sunny day about 60 degrees and the Black Sea was lovely. We enjoyed a picnic with them and their 3 boys and then spent a few hours hanging out at the beach. Yulia and I took off our shoes and got our feet wet as we walked along the seashore - smile! We took the bus back into the city and went out for tea & "bleannies" which are Barb's favorite food in Ukraine. ( they are little crepes filled with a sweet cheese and served with sour cream & jam.....yum!!) We were tired by the time we took the bus and did our walk back, but good to be back to our comfortable rooms. We may be attending a special service at a church tonight, but haven't heard yet. We need to spend some time today preparing & planning for our time at the Christian University Tuesday morning. Most of these students are not believers so it is a great opportunity to share our testimonies, share truth about life & abortion and share the gospel. Pray for open hearts and minds - pray for salvation & for God to water the seeds of truth. We will also have some time for questions & answers. Pray for any girls that are post-abortive that they would be open to go through the study. Tuesday evening we have a tea with a small group of ladies from Second Baptist Church here by the seminary. Pray for a few of these ladies to catch the vision. Wednesday morning we have a meeting set up with Pastor Bronyslav before heading to the train station in the late afternoon. This meeting will be a good opportunity to not only share our vision for Ukraine, but also seek his counsel on how we can partner with the Baptist Union. (someone told us he is second in command). Thanks so much for your prayers. Please pray for health & strength. Barb is feeling a bit weary today & longing for a little nap this afternoon. Pray for our families at home that God would bring protection & comfort and special strength & grace for our husbands. Remember you can send us a post - smile. love, Barb & Teresa

We are in Ukraine!!!!

Thanks for your prayers - all of our flights went well. We both had delays on our last leg of our trips, but we landed in Kiev and settled in Wednesday evening to our rooms at Christ Cathedral Church. We slept well & were out the door at 8:00 this morning. We had our conference with the ministry leaders at the Baptist Union & it went well. We had 93 women there from all of the regions of Ukraine....they were very open and eager to learn. They each went home with 2 copies of the HH bible study & a challenge to go through the bible study themselves and to ask God for one other woman to take through the study. We also shared the vision for all of Ukraine & cast the vision for each of them to go back to the leaders in the churches of their regions and share this information with them. So...pray for God to bring fruit and leaders with a heart for this ministry in all of Ukraine. We had a Seattle kind of day today & Teresa felt right at home with her umbrella walking in the pouring rain!!! We are off on a train tomorrow morning at 9:00 for Odessa - we arrive at 7:30 tomorrow night & have someone from the seminary picking us up. We will hold a conference on Saturday for the Baptist union women's minstry leaders from that region - we are planning for 80 women. Pray for safe travel & effective ministry. We will leave a post again from Odessa. We are good and excited to be back!!