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Odessa Mission

January 2007 Newsletter

S Novum Shastium
(New Year's greeting meaning: New Happiness)

So much is happening in the world of politics these days. While the American presidential candidates are battling it out in the early caucuses, Vladimir Putin is preparing to hand over his throne. One key difference here is that one country actually holds fair elections while the other does not. Can you guess which one doesn't? It may surprise you that all throughout Russia's Communist days the Soviet Union did actually hold "elections" and even encouraged folks to get out there and vote. The only problem was that there was rarely ever more than one candidate running. In Putin's case, he has already hand-picked Dmitry Medvedov to be the next Russian president. Hence, as far a Russia goes, despite what Time Magazine may say, I guess you could argue that not too much has changed.

What about politics in Ukraine these days? Well, although the parliament is deadlocked on lots of issues, progress is still being made. For one, there's a brand new Prime Minister who, unlike her predecessor, seems to favor the west. In fact, Yulia Tymoshenko, who barely got into office thanks to the opposition parties, has a new slot on national television where she shares her views with the Ukrainian people. Recently, she promised to make a concerted effort to explain both NATO's goals and why Ukraine should probably begin moving in that direction. Ukrainian support for NATO has waned in the past few years because of false and inadequate information. So this is a very positive development that will hopefully have a great impact on the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine, which are scheduled for next winter.

Since the birth of our church on May 23rd, 2004, we've shared a great deal about Oxonna, who recently devoted her life to full-time Christian service. We've also mentioned her Mom, Nadezhda, to you on a number of occasions. Naturally, Oxonna's mother was rather negative about our church for the longest time. She'd frequently even try to hinder Oxonna's involvement at KRCC. But after much prayer and patience, especially on Oxonna's part, Nadezhda was finally baptized into Christ on December 16th, 2008. We greatly rejoice in that victory and covet your prayers both for her spiritual development as well as for open hearts among their many relatives.

On December 29th, KRCC had its annual New Year's program and, as usual, we had a good crowd on hand. Since we're currently helping a struggling family by storing their belongings at our office while they find work and a decent apartment to live in, our space is very limited at the moment. Moreover, we recently moved into a new office, which is a tad smaller than the previous one. So, needless to say, that place was packed!

The program was very evangelistic and yet seemed to be well received. We deliberately chose to focus all of our efforts on inviting people from the immediate area around our office, which worked much better than we expected. One key here was asking an eight-year old extrovert named Polina, who has been faithfully participating in our children's ministry, to invite all of her neighbors. Evidently, SHE DID!

The program was scheduled to begin at 11 AM, but we delayed it since there was only one new person present then. At 11:15 AM, a few more trickled in. And, by the time we started, at about 11:30 AM, we were glad we had waited. We even had people showing up as late as 12 PM. Anyway, please pray that the Holy Spirit would lead us in such a way that we'll be able to follow-up effectively.

Three reasons why we moved out of our previous office are: 1) the landlord constantly belittled Oxonna for no reason whatsoever, 2) he didn't fix the things he promised to fix, and 3) the city found out that he had rigged the electric in order to pay less. Now, since the city turned off the heat and electric in that office, the landlord probably won't have much luck renting it out any time soon. Let's just say that we got out of there just in time!

Fortunately, with a new office comes a new landlord. Our current one, Oleg Anatolovich, seems to be meeting us half-way on most things right now. However, Oleg is a staunch Ukrainian Communist, which means that he's convinced that America's trying to take over Ukraine and make it the 51st state. Consequently, he's a bit intolerant of Jews and even tried to refute my claim that Jesus was Jewish. (Due to widespread anti-Semitism within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, many allege that Jesus actually had Ukrainian roots.) Oleg even followed that up by saying that the Old Testament's God of Israel is really the Devil in disguise. Although I implied that his views were absurd and that he should repent for saying such a thing, he still sent me an SMS at 12:15 AM on January 1st, wishing me a Happy New Year. In any case, please pray that God would soften Oleg's heart and give us the wisdom needed for fostering a healthy relationship with him so that our new office would be a blessing instead of a burden.

In the process of preparing for the New Year's gig, some of our ladies were obviously forced to collaborate extensively, which turned out to be invaluable for our church for reasons unexpected. The fact is that there has been some tension within that particular group for quite a while now. And, while most have felt it, nobody really made the effort to address it properly. Thankfully, just before beginning a new year together, they were all able to clear the air and express their feelings to one another. My hat especially goes off to both Ira and Oxonna for their overall willingness to take the bull by the horns and lovingly say what needed to be said. Honorable mention goes to Tatyana for admitting her faults and asking for prayers and patience.

What were the results? First of all, unity seems to have been restored at KRCC. Second, the tools for maintaining that unity seem to have been put in place for now, especially since some were able to admit their errors and say: "Yeah, I really need your prayers as I try to tackle this part of my personality." And, finally, by consensus we all decided that I should go ahead and develop a more demanding system of individual accountability for the group, which is what I proposed to them. I'm certainly excited about that aspect since that's what I was wanting for the group, but what surprised me was how quickly and enthusiastically they jumped at my proposal. As we move into a new year, I definitely take that as a good sign!


Happy New Year, John, Ira, and Stefan
The Odessa Mission, Ukraine