February 4 - TV Tube Factory Church

We have been working with Pastor Misha from New Life Church. Pastor Misha has started and maintained a number of ministries to the down and out in L'viv. One of his ministries is to prisoners and many of the members of his church are former prisoners. He has services in the prisons four times a week and 500-600 prisoners come to the services.
Misha visits each new prisoner to find out what brought them there and if they have any family connections. 85% of the young people who go to prison have no one on the outside who cares about them or helps them in any way. New Life Church supports over 50 boys in prison who have no parents.

Once a prisoner is released, they are offered help from New Life Church. There are sewing classes, cooking classes and other opportunities to learn trades as well as ministry to street kids and folks who are still in prison. The church has even provided housing, food and clothing for many of the released prisoners.

Six years ago, New Life Church bought part of a TV tube factory and have slowly been changing it into a usable church. They began meeting in the building without heat and worshiped there for five years without heat!!! How many of us would continue to go to church in an unheated building? Misha said they didn't lose any members from the lack of heat! What dedication these saints have to the Lord. The majority of the work done on the church is being accomplished by former prisoners who volunteer their time and give their own money to buy the materials. These people have jobs but they are so grateful to have normal lives, they give 90% of their income to the church and live off 10%! Hmmmm I think we could learn a lot from them!

Sunday morning our team went to worship at New Life Church. The place was packed after our team of 30+ walked in the doors. Thankfully, the worship area is heated now and they even had an overhead projector with the words to the songs in Ukrainian and English! The Ukrainian alphabet is slightly different than the Russian alphabet so it was very difficult to read the words in Ukrainian. I sang in English with the rest of the team. During the worship time, I was deeply moved by the fact that we were all worshiping together, singing the same songs, just different words. It occurred to me God heard our voices as one Praise offered up to Him. Worshiping with brothers and sisters in Christ in a foreign culture is one of the sweetest experiences one can have. There is perfect unity, joy and fellowship around the Lord, no language needed! The Spirit of Christ was overflowing in that place.

A man named Volodia got up and told about his former life as a drug addict, alcoholic and criminal. He met Pastor Misha when he was in prison and turned his life over to Jesus Christ. He spent many years in prison but is now free from all addictions, is married and has four children. Volodia is also a Gideon!! Two members of our team gave testimonies about their lives and how they met Jesus then our team sang some songs in English for the congregation. The last song we sang was one they all knew so they joined us in singing the chorus (in Ukrainian of course). My wonderful friend and former room mate, Dr Jean Thur, gave the gospel presentation and her husband, John, prayed.

Then Aaron, a new member of our team gave a sermon. Aaron is 32 years old, a dairy farmer from Pennsylvania and father of six children! Six months ago, his wife died of breast cancer. Aaron is a soft spoken man with an incredible grasp of reality and who he is in Christ. I am amazed at his spiritual maturity, understanding of scripture and his outlook on life. He does not see himslef as a victim at all but is strong in his faith and is moving forward with his life in spite of the horrible tragedy of losing his precious wife.

At the end of the service a sweet young girl came up and played the Bandura and sang. The Bandura is a stringed instrument kind of like a harp but it sits on the lap. It has many strings but also has a wooden back like an auto harp without the fret boards. Like an 60 string guitar!! www.bandura.org/bandura.htm

After church we were assigned to a family to go to their home for lunch.
The family my group was assigned to just happened to be the family of the 13 year old girl who sang and played the Bandura. We took taxi's to their flat and were ushered into a wonderful smell and warm hospitality. The table was all set and we sat down to a fabulous feast of two kinds of salads, borsh, mounds of mashed potatoes (yum!) and chicken. There were other goodies on the table such as home made pickles, pickled peppers and sausage and cheese plate. We stuffed ourselves and then they brought out the strawberry ice cream!! The best part was the fellowship with Nadiya and Uri the parents of Katya who played the Bandura at church. We talked about everything under the sun and Uri did his best to speak as much English as possible. Actually he did quite well.

One of my favorite things to talk about is how people who grew up under Communism come to faith in Jesus Christ. Nadiya started going to church because their oldest son had been invited and was going several times a week. She went to church to see what her son was involved in and just kept going, that was 10 years ago! Uri said he hasn't "repented" yet because he didn't think he could give up his occasional smoking and drinking! We reassured him that God doesn't expect someone to "clean themselves up" before they come to Him. I relayed the story of the young man who came to live with us at age 19 who was suicidal and in a lot of trouble. I showed him the pictures of Dave before Jesus and after! He was very touched by the testimony.

The hours flew by and before we knew it the church van was there to pick us up and take us back to the hotel. It was a wonderful day!

That's all for this evening. I stayed in tonight although most everyone else went out for dinner. We went way out in the countryside again today and I must have eaten something that wasn't happy staying in my body for long! Enough said! We did get our daily manna today but only for a short time (snow that is).

Tomorrow we have two more visits to orphanages and then an adult prison on Thursday. Friday we must say goodbye to L'viv and the lovely people of Ukraine until next time.

Many blessings to you. Please continue to pray for good health for our team. Several are still struggling with illness and one has a strained back.
Do-po-bachen-ya (good bye in Ukrainian)
Love,
Dasha