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Odessa Mission

March 2008 Newsletter

As you know, relations between Russia and the west have been rather frigid lately and Kosovo clearly hasn't helped to improve things. Because Serbia (the little country that sparked off World War One) is an Orthodox country with Slavic roots, the Russians feel very strong ties with them. Furthermore, Kosovo's independence is basically an indictment of Russia's dealings with Chechnya. Hence, Russia's reaction was to be expected. Adding to all of this is yet another pertinent issue, which is the pipeline taking Russia's natural gas directly to Europe through Kosovo. Now, with the existence of a new country, their contract with Serbia may be at risk.

Of course, since Russia's Ace of Spades is its ability to supply Europe with oil and natural gas, their dominant influence in this part of the world has temporarily been suspended. Due to the fact that Putin supposedly owns 90% of Gasprom's (Russia's natural gas provider) stock, helping to make him perhaps one of Europe's wealthiest men, this whole ordeal has been a rather unpleasant distraction.

So tensions are high and they're not promising to let up anytime soon. Russia even reacted to America's recent decision to shoot down its own satellite, boldly claiming that the US was only testing a new weapon. (Just wait until Russia gets a peak at our military's new ray gun; that'll really solicit a response.) Another bad sign for east-west relations is St. Petersburg's new law forbidding the use of any foreign words, which will surely spread throughout the country. Any firm that uses English words in its adverting efforts, which has been a common practice, will apparently be fined a whopping $40,000.

What about Ukraine's relationship with Russia? Well, that's also deteriorating before our very eyes. Russia just announced that they'll be cutting back its natural gas provisions to Ukraine by 25% due to outstanding debts. And Ukraine recently decided to have all foreign films shown in exclusively in Ukrainian even though more than half of Ukraine speaks Russian. Furthermore, Victor Yushenko (Ukraine's president) is pushing to have all of the Russian Orthodox churches replaced by Ukrainian Orthodox churches. At this point, it's difficult to say exactly what impact that'll have on Protestant churches, so please be praying about that one. On the one hand, Kiev's mayor attends a Protestant church, which is very encouraging. On the other, however, he is repeatedly called a "cultist" on national television. Last week, a Ukrainian news broadcast even did a whole segment on that church, and similar ones, to demonize them.


In 1993 I wrote a 50-page paper called "Evolution: A History of Primitive Life or a History of Primitive Thought?" And in 1996 it was translated into Russian and published in Ukraine in booklet form. What I basically did was compare and contrast the brain structures of man and ape in order to show the vast differences in our development and potential, which obviously presents quite a number of challenges to the theory of evolution. As you could imagine, I was pleased to hear that my paper was posted on a Russian site last month and is still being used for the Kingdom of God. The site is: www.scienceandapologetics.org. Please feel free to download it and use it for your own purposes, but you might want to brush up on your Russian first :)


You haven't heard much about Nastya (14-year old) and her brother Oleg ( 12-year old) lately because they were forced out of our congregation by their unbelieving father last year. However, their Dad had a change of heart and allowed them to return to us. So they did so this past month. Please do keep them in prayer because their situation at home often tends to be volatile and unpredictable.


- Nadezhda was baptized in December of 2007 and is continuing to attend faithfully. But she still struggles with some old habits, one of which is her interest in horoscopes. Nadezhda recently had an episode where she began hearing voices, which seems to be a recurring thing for her. She consequently admitted herself into the psych ward for about ten days. I gave her John Ankerburg's booklet on astrology and warned her about the possible link there. So please do pray that God will rescue her from this obsession.

- Ella was baptized in March of 2007. Unfortunately, her folks, who live in a rural area three hours from Odessa, frequently come to the city to sell their vegetables at the market and demand that Ella assist them on Sundays. Moreover, they insist that she come home during the summers to work on the farm. Naturally, thanks to sporadic church attendance and her life in a secular university's dormitory, growing spiritually is a real challenge for her as a new convert. Despite our warnings, she decided to begin dating an unbeliever a few months ago and it appears as though they're getting serious. Please pray for her.

- Andre and his sister Zhana are two new kids in our children's program who still need to come to Christ. Please pray about that. Please also pray that their mother would begin attending with them and that God would heal her of her cancer as she draws near to Him.

- Please pray for our congregation as we prepare for another Easter outreach at KRCC.

- Lyuba and her kids are attending KRCC fairly regularly now and it seems as though her heart is open. Sadly, she's guilty of cohabitation and she needs your prayers in order to break free and commit to changing that lifestyle. She also needs to stop meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses and reading their literature. Finally, she needs your prayers for the purpose of obtaining legal resident status in Ukraine. She's resided in Ukraine for eight years now but still cannot seem to get the documents she needs for her and her family, which adversely affects their lives and future.

Grace and Peace, John, Ira, and Stefan
The Odessa Mission, Odessa, Ukraine