The Whites
Have you ever thought that Jesus' mission to the earth can be summed up by BEING THERE? "Emmanuel, God is with us," is accomplished by the Jesus the Word taking on flesh. It's not only his "Great Commission," but also the mission of God in the world to BE THERE. Every day, we experience the truth and good of being there. One Sunday, a brother announced that his son was having problems with alcohol and asked me to pray for him because he felt unable to. If we had not been here, I could not have knelt beside this brother in prayer, put my hand on his shoulder, and cried with him. Who are you being there for?
Luke 10 talks about methods Jesus gave his disciples for entering into a new ministry in a new town. We consider the Sumy church our "man of peace" as they have extended their hospitality to us. We have also waited on the Lord for an apartment and we finally moved out of the church apartment and into the flat in late March.
A picture of our flat before me moved in
Visiting friends on our trip to Kyiv,Ollie and Cristy Horne, Alicia, Isabella, and Brett White
We have been so lonely. We felt discouraged. During our first few months in Sumy it was difficult for us to connect with people via phone or internet. We missed our Ukrainian friends and the missionary community in Kyiv. We are grateful that when one of us was down, the other was up, and able to encourage. We have been through valleys that help us enjoy the mountaintops.
Brett preached completely in Russian for the first time on February 1. This is a milestone. This is a picture of Vova who conducts the services every Sunday. He is a hard working man, at the factory during the week and in service to the church.
We've started weekly Russian lessons with a tutor, which is helping us continue to learn.
Alicia took a taxi from a friends' house and had a chance to talk to the driver on the way back home about God.
Brett visited an children's transitional center where they are taken from their homes or from the street before being placed in orphanages.
Please keep interested in the news items related to Ukraine. There are so many things that affect our country: The Gas War with Russia; economic crisis; unstable government. A tip: I use the google reader (rss feature) to search daily for "Ukraine" and send them to my reader. This keeps me up on the news.
Have you ever heard of PUSH? Pray until something happens. I started praying concerning a specific work here in Ukraine. One of the sisters came over and had lunch with us. She mentioned the exact thing that I had been praying for, only that she knew some of the people who would be able to open the doors for a ministry there!
When you pray,Pray that we find some Ukrainian workers to help us with our mission here. Pray for opportunities through the school. Pray that the Lord helps us to speak the word of God more boldly. Pray that Vova can help us get registered on time. Keep Alla in your prayers for her eye care consultation
enjoying a tea after Sunday services. Brett, Alla, Margarita, and Sveta
We visited a Christian Camp here in Sumy. It is formerly a Pioneer camp. Camps are a huge deal in Ukraine, a big part of the youth culture. This one was purchased by the Blagodat church and has been under renovation AND operation for several years now. It's a wonderful place here in our region. Our friends Andrew and Jenny Kelly are building
the only Church of Christ affiliated camp in Ukraine.
a tap on a birch tree, how they get the juice out
Serge, Brett, and Meesha trying Beroza juice, that is, sap from a Birch tree 
a footbridge at the camp
Nena holding Isabella
Orthodoxy is the prevailing religious group in Ukraine. There are many holiday related traditions they participate in. During palm Sunday, instead of cutting the branches of palms, they have substituted pussywillows-- because Ukraine doesn't have palms! Easter has many traditions as well, but that will be included in our next post.
people standing outside an Orthodox church on Palm Sunday
