MISSION TRIP TO UKRAINE—a word from Gary

Peter with a "Jesus Smile"!                                            Michael - a true worshipper!                                          City of Kremenents, Ukraine

         Pat and I were invited to minister and teach at a bible school in Kremenets, Ukraine in March/April. We saw the Lord accomplish so much during this trip and wanted to give an overview and some highlights of this trip. We were the “third team” from Oregon that traveled to Ukraine to teach in this school to bless, minister, and encourage these students.

         Our trip began with a flight from Portland to New York that was uneventful, arriving on time but we only had forty minutes before our plane departed from JFK to Kiev. After a nine-hour plane ride, we arrived in Kiev on Tuesday morning and were met by our translator, Liya, and Michael, a missionary who had suffered some religious persecution in Russia and wanted a place to heal and regain his vision. After a six-hour bus ride from Kiev, Pat and I arrived in the beautiful city of Kremenets, an old city of about 25,000 people in western Ukraine which formerly belonged to Poland.

         The next morning, we took a bus to the bible school which is located about twenty minutes from the downtown area in a quiet, rural setting. We met the students and staff who spoke very little English as Russian was their predominate language. Most of the students were from Moscow because it’s easier to conduct a bible school in Ukraine, due to less government intervention. Our ministry times each day were from 10:30 to 2:00 daily with a couple of breaks in-between the teaching sessions. We then had lunch with the students and staff which consisted of dark brown bread, great soups including Russian borsch, tea, and some cookies. Luba, our cook was a very gregarious woman from Russia who was always praying in the Spirit and full of the joy of the Lord.

         Although we used a translator during all the teaching times, the students were hungry to hear God’s Word, desirous to put it into practice in their lives, and hungry for us to lay hands on them, pray for them, encourage them and speak truth into their lives. This was a missing factor we found out right away; they wanted and needed prayer! The students were quite shy and reserved in their demeanor (their Russian influence) but they were audible and expressive in worship as we sang their Russian worship songs with passion and intensity before each of the teaching sessions! A man who had spent fifteen years in prison helped to lead worship each morning with his guitar along with Peter, a young student from Russia who is an excellent keyboardist who added an extra dimension with his gifting's. Although we didn’t understand the words to the music, Holy Spirit quickened our hearts to their worship music which was extremely anointed.

         Pat did several expressive interpretive dances during our visit as several of the young ladies wanted to learn how to dance before the Lord. We found out during the midst of the dance practices that Luda, the widow of the founder of this school, had been activity praying for someone to come and teach the students to dance for the Lord! Thank you for your answered prayer. Pat saw this genuine hunger and desire, so she taught them several different patterns that they practiced all week and danced together during the worship time our last day of teaching in Kremenets.

         We were blessed to celebrate Easter Sunday; again! Ukrainians celebrate the Easter season during the same time period every year so they asked us to minister and be a part of their worship and communion service. After the service, the ladies prepared a delicious Ukrainian dinner feast which we enjoyed to the maximum. Thank you Lord for this great opportunity!

        As Pat and I ponder the deep work the Lord accomplished in the lives of these students, we believe that the Lord imparted a new hunger for His presence, a deep desire to walk in the Spirit, a desire to worship the Lord with abandonment and to take responsibility for all their actions. We do want to return to Kremenets in the future to help build the work that the Lord has begun here. John Carney and Lenard Nance, the pastor and elder at Church at Meadows Ridge in Keizer, Oregon are planning a trip to Kremenets in August to minister and explore how we can be an influential partner in helping this bible school train and disciple their students.

         After our time of teaching, Pat and I traveled to Zhytomyr, which is about a four-hour drive from Kremenets to be with Pat’s sister Dee and her husband Bill, missionaries to Ukraine who have started several bible schools and churches in Zhytomyr. We spent several days visiting their work and attending their Ukrainian worship service on Sunday morning. This summer, Bill and Dee will be working in two neighboring villages where there is “no church presence” to evangelize these areas through children’s camps and tent meetings.

         Our flight back to New York was uneventful but a little lengthy; about ten hours. Pat and I had a five-hour layover at JFK and had a short but good visit with my brother Ted, who has lived in the New York area most of his life. We arrived safe and sound in Oregon late Tuesday evening, tired but satisfied that the Lord protected us and kept us healthy during our entire trip. To Him be all the praise and glory and honor! Again, thank you for your prayers that allowed Pat and I to impart fresh oil to these young “God chasers”.

ALASKA MINISTRY TRIP

         As the picture certainly demonstrates that this evangelist is holding two halibut that he caught seventeen miles out in the ocean from Anchor Point during our ministry trip to Alaska in May! This was quite a thrill for me as I had never been deep sea fishing before but this time was special! Special thanks to Shell Bloch who generously directed my paths and Bill and Kathy Coe whose boat and generosity were greatly appreciated as well.

         Pat and I had great ministry time in Alaska beginning in the Kenai Peninsula at three different churches. We then traveled to the mainland where we ministered in Big Lake, Houston, and Talkeetna, Alaska. We stayed in Peter’s Creek for several days and had a “holy time” with Terry and Michelle Foreman, our dear friends from Oregon who live here. We connected with them again last week as their oldest daughter Erica, was married in Canyonville, Oregon. We met three new pastors during our ministry trip; Ed and Shelly Blocker, Pastors of the Open Bible Church in Big Lake, Pastor Milt Michener, Pastor of Anchor Point Lighthouse, and Dana and Debbie Goodwater, Pastors of Seward Assembly of God. Thanks you Lord for Your faithfulness!

Pastor Ed and Shelly Blocker	Gary with first halibut!	Matanuska Glacier

THE LORDS PRAYER—A ROAD MAP TO VICTORY
—a word from Pat

         When I was recently reading Matthew 6:9-13 traditionally called The Lord’s Prayer; my eyes were opened to the VICTORY that can be ours if we actively engaged our wills with the words of this life-changing prayer. There will be empty, vain repetition, words without meaning or transformation in our lives if we just utter these words with our lips without realizing their supernatural significance. If we merely prayed this prayer without participating in it, no changes would be effected in our lives, but powerful victory can be ours by walking in the steps He laid out before us!

         The first step to victory is found in the words, Our Father in heaven, “hallowed” be Your name. We will walk in greater personal victory if we “hallowed” (reverenced, honor as sacred) the name of the Lord in everything we do. This phrase in the Lord’s Prayer expresses the worshipper’s respect for God and his commitment to demonstrate this respect by living a holy life.

         The second step to victory is found in the words “Your will be done”. Victory is to be had, not by just saying the words, “Your will be done”; but in the daily moment-by-moment choices to surrender our will to the Lord’s will. David was a man after God’s own heart because he did all the Lord asked him— “Who will do all of my will” – Acts 13:22.

         The third step to living a victorious life is found in the words; give us “this day” our daily bread. We can live in victory by learning to live in “today”. I believe that the greatest loss that we have is the loss of “today”. We can lose our “today” by either living in the past or always looking to some futuristic event, losing the joys and opportunities of today. Remember, no one is promised tomorrow.

         Step four to a victorious life is found in the words forgive us our debts “as we forgive our debtors”. A victorious life is found in living a life characterized by being a forgiving person, forgiving everyone all the wrongs, hurts, and slights against us. 1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV says, “Love keeps no record of wrongs”. We must keep no records in the same manner that God keeps no record of wrongs against us! In the same context of the Lord’s Prayer is Matthew 6:14-15 indicating that if we do not forgive, neither are we forgiven. I believe one reason that believers are not living in victory is their sins are not forgiven because they have not forgiven! They are not walking in victory because their minds are being tormented with thoughts of unforgiveness towards others. The Lord spoke to my heart one day and said, “The Church thinks that she is in trouble for her sins; she is in much more trouble because of unforgiveness”. We are the Lord’s ambassadors and as His representatives on this earth we must demonstrate daily forgiveness. Forgiveness is the very essence of the Lord and the central message of the cross as Jesus cried, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” - Luke 23:34.

         The fifth step to victory is found in “lead us not into temptation”, but deliver us from evil. We are meant to live victoriously over temptation and the \schemes of the devil. We do not have to succumb to temptation or the devil. James 1:14 tells us that “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” When we find ourselves being drawn into temptations we should look for the “quick way of escape” that the Lord provides. Victory over the enemy is not found in how loud we scream at him but victory over the enemy is found in submitting to God and resisting the devil. Speaking and living the truth is actively submitting yourself to God and actively resisting the devil.

         The sixth step to victory is found in verse thirteen, “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory”. As long as we are trying to build our own kingdom we will never walk in victory. As long as we think it is our power or try to take HIS glory, we will never walk in victory. Victory will be ours when we actively engage our wills in praying this victorious prayer, not just vainly repeating these words, but by making them “words of transformation”. Amen!