Odessa Mission
March 2005 Newsletter
Snova Na Meste! (Back in the Saddle Again!)
As you know, in February Ira and I were stateside and fortunate enough to have
had the chance to visit several of our supporting churches. We initially flew
into Newark, NJ, subsequently speaking at Community Christian Church in Lanoka
Harbor, NJ.
Steve Dunham, the minister there, approached me after the service and said,
"You know John, your mission to Ukraine has been such a blessing to our church!
Thank you so much!"
"Steve," I replied, "one of our primary objectives in all of this is to
minister to our supporters as much as we minister to the people of Ukraine."
"Well John," he answered, "let me just encourage you brother because at
Community Christian that is definitely happening!"
One of the greeters also expressed his feelings afterwards when he indicated
how much he appreciated the work we were doing. He observed that it seems
like everywhere you look these days you see glamorous Hollywood figures.
While many of them do have extraordinary talents, personalities, and some
have even overcome adversity to get to where they are today, working for
God makes Christians the real celebrities in this world. What is happening
in Hollywood ultimately means nothing. What is happening in Odessa and in
other towns and countries around the world, however, means everything.
Slava Gospodu! (Praise the Lord!) Ironically, while most Hollywood stars
may be living the "American dream", we are a lot more interested in living
the heavenly one. In 1 Timothy 6, Paul lays it out perfectly for us: 1)
no American dream can compare to the joy that "godliness with contentment"
brings (v. 6); 2) striving after wealth usually just leads to grief and
ruin anyway (v. 9); and 3) trusting in God, not money, is the only way
to "...take hold of the life that is truly life." (v. 19). "Well, you
know what?" I asked the greeter, "If we are celebrities then so are you
because the Odessa Mission would not exist were it not for your help."
Ira and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the churches that
invited us to speak while we were home: Community Christian Church (Lanoka Harbor, NJ),
Olivet Christian Church (Newport News, VA), Gethsemane Church of Christ (Mechanicsville, VA),
Williamsburg Christian Church (Williamsburg, VA), and Northampton Church of Christ
(Hampton, VA). A special thanks goes to our sending church, Northampton, for all
of your prayers and support throughout 2003-04. We just would not have made it
without all that you have done and are doing. Thanks a bunch! Weird: I'm almost
starting to feel like a real celebrity who is accepting a Grammy or something.
Okay, maybe it's high time for a new paragraph.
Several months ago, the Lord started rekindling my passion for reaching the Muslim
world for Christ. Since there are so few Muslims in Odessa, our opportunities here
are rather limited. So I began thinking about how to get Answers In The Book
(an evangelistic work I specifically wrote for Muslims back in 1997) into the
hands of missionaries working in Muslim countries. The first country that came
to mind was Uzbekistan because most of my Muslim friends, now living in Ukraine,
had grown up there. I eventually found one American missionary working there
as an English teacher, and sent him an English copy of my book as an attached
email file. Hopefully he is finding it helpful. However, I still wanted to
do more; I just didn't know what or how. While we were in Virginia, I received
an email from a Ukrainian man named Nikolai Balonenko. I had never heard of
him before and he offered me the chance to go to Uzbekistan [a country about
1100 miles east of Odessa that borders on the north of Afghanistan] and teach
Uzbek Christians how to evangelize Muslims. It is a small Restoration Movement
college with about forty students studying to be evangelists and church planters.
I would teach twenty credit hours on methods of personal evangelism and
another twenty hours specifically about reaching Muslims. The courses
would be conducted in an intensive two week study. Also, they intend to
translate all of my teaching material, including Answers In The Book, into
the Uzbek language. Now don't panic, I am NOT leaving KRCC except for
those two weeks. The tentative plan is to teach during the next academic
year so I'm presently seeking God's will in the matter. Please join me
in praying about this opportunity, which is an answer to prayer and a
way to help train individuals to evangelize Muslims in their home country.
Galya, an 11-year old girl from our church, was visiting at our apartment
the other day and before she left I told her to faithfully pray the Prayer of
Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10) for herself and our church every day until the end
of March. I promised her that there would be visible results if she followed
through. On February 27, the day before Galya's visit, I preached about that
particular prayer and challenged all the adults to do that very same thing.
I also hope that you will join us too. KRCC desperately needs a quality
facility and, in spite of the minimum $1,500 to $2000 per month price tags
on most options, we believe that God can and will "bless us indeed" and
"enlarge our territory" for a much lower cost.
Serving the King, John and Ira Murphy, Kind Road Christian Church