Monday Report by Rusty

What a great day we have had in Rivne Ukraine.  We started the day off by going to a rehab center for addicted women.  We met three ladies that have been addicted to drugs and alcohol.  This rehab center is a one year commitment.  It is humbling to see these ladies leave everything in there lives to get their lives straight by surrendering to Christ.  This ministry that the House of the Gospel sponsors is an amazing ministry.  We also visited the men's rehab house as well.  Their were around 10 men living in the home.  We were able to hear their story and how they became addicted.  It should encourage all of us to see men like this that are really struggling with alcohol and drug abuse to ask for help and seek Christ.  So many times in our lives we are trying so hard to hold on with all our might when God just wants us to let go so he can catch us.  These men were examples to us that God doesn't care if we are rich or poor, dirty or clean, nor does he want a portion of us.  God wants all of us and he wants us to surrender to him and not the things this world has to offer.  Polina's son is the director over these ministries and really does an incredible job.

Camp Canaan

We left the mens ministry and took five men with us to a camp that is in another village just outside Rivne.  It is called Camp Canaan and it is where they hold their kids camps.  The men we took were going there to work.  House of the Gospel bought this property some time ago and has put a lot of work in it to make it a nice place for children to come and learn about the saving grace of our great God.  The neat thing for me was to see the place that so many of our church members gave money for children to be able to attend this summer.  I would like for the church to know that it was well worth the money that was given to the children.  Just down the road from this camp was a camp that House of the Gospel sponsors that is just to handicap people.  This is another huge ministry that House of the Gospel sponsors as well.

It was lunch time and Tolli took us to a pizza parlor for some much needed comfort food.  The pizza was very good and reminded us of home.  Thank you Tolli.

"Comfort Food" at the local pizzeria

Ozero Vision Meeting

We ended our tour at the House of the Gospel by touring the church and seeing the facilities.  When the House of the Gospel purchased this building, it was burned and abandoned.  It is amazing to see how much work they have done on this building.  Their new worship room is very nice and well done.

Pictured is a meeting that took place with Tolli and his wife Irena, Victor the pastor, Polina, Polina's son Alexander and the Paducah team.  This meeting was very important.  We have learned through Polina that there is opposition in Ozero because of what God is doing.  It is important to note that the orthodox church and a woman in the church that is a wealthy widow started circulating a letter in the village to try and stop the baptist church from being built.  The good news is that there were not a lot of signatures on the letter.  The local government has showed that they are not in opposition of the church.  This is good news but something that needs lots of prayer.  God is doing a good work in Ozero and where God is working there will always be opposition.  This was a topic of discussion in our meeting as well as the need for a full time minister in Ozero.  We believe that there is a lot of work to be done in Ozero and we need to be in prayer for the man that God has planned to lead and Shepard the people of Ozero.  Slava "Bow-Goo" (praise God)!  Our night finished with Tolli and Irena joining us for dinner at our hotel.  We will leave in the morning for Kiev for our last full day.  Thank you so much for all your prayers, we are so blessed to be able to share the love of our God this past week with some amazing people here in Ukraine.

~Rusty