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HOPE4KYIV #011 ---- 8/28/03
#1 · August 28, 2003, 3:27 pm
Posted by: btolliver <btolliver@...>
HOPE 4 KYIV
NUMBER 011
August 28, 2003
The In-Pact Prayer Newsletter of
Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver
Missionaries to Kiev, Ukraine
Dear Friends, Family, and "In-Pact" Partners:
Greetings from beautiful Kiev, Ukraine, on an incredible sunny but mild August day. We have so much to tell you; August has been an absolutely unbelievable month. First and foremost, it is with great pride that we announce the birth of . . . .
Our New Ministry Website! Check it out at http://www.peopleteams.org/kiev/team/tollivers.htm and tell us how you like it. It is far from complete, but at least it's a start. We are deeply grateful for those who have worked so diligently. We're also in the beginning stages of another website that will cover more aspects of our ministry, and this current one will also be improved with more features and some "house keeping" work as soon as possible. You can also access our entire Kiev church planting team website by going to http://www.peopleteams.org/kiev. Then, of course, you can check out the numerous websites listed below for additional information.
Urgent and very important! Effective immediately, please do NOT use our IMB e-mail addresses any longer. The IMB system will be completely shut down for our region by the end of September. It is imperative that you ALWAYS use our Pobox.com addresses from now on ---- For Bob, it is lifeunlimited@pobox.com; for Jo Ann, it is grandma11@pobox.com. These addresses will automatically forward everything to our new host ISP. Even if you get a letter from us showing the imb.org address, please respond ONLY to our Pobox.com accounts. If you have one of our prayer cards, please take time to scratch out our IMB addresses and add these new ones. This is extremely important. Make your changes right now . . . before you forget.
Events: August has been unbelievable. After we returned on July 2nd from "Dad" Tolliver's funeral, Bob began to feel that there were some basic roadblocks (preoccupation, uncertainty, apathy, etc.) that church leaders were feeling. So, just about the time we wrote our last letter, he decided to propose a month of prayer and fasting for the church. The Leadership Council unanimously agreed, so, beginning August 3rd, everything in the church either shut down or was modified to concentrate on seeking the face of God for the church's future ministry.
It has been an amazing journey. Each week we focused on a particular prayer theme, moving through Praise and Worship, Confession and Repentance, Reconciliation and Restoration, Intercession for the Church, and Intercession for our city. All groups that were still meeting discussed a Bible study related to each theme and followed it up with a time of prayer. Bob preached on a related subject, and the Sunday bulletin carried daily scripture and prayer thoughts for individual use during the week. We will enter our final week of emphasis on Sunday, August 31st.
The change is obvious. The attitude and spirit of the people has become one of expectancy, anticipation, and initiative. God has confirmed His blessing on this time in many ways, and He is also showing us a bit of His future plan for us as well. So, this letter is basically a capsule report on some of those things. For example . . . .
1. Losses ---- A number of our church family members have left our region because of job changes, visa grants, etc. It is always difficult, and International churches experience this frequently. Often these moves leave big gaps in ministry leadership. At IBC, however, we try as often as possible to treat these experiences as "sending" moments rather than "leaving". So, we have sent people to Canada, China, and America this month. One such couple is Ricky and Marina, for whom you have been praying. Marina got her visa a few weeks ago, and they left August 20th for Colorado Springs to pick up furniture and then go to Houston today. They will minister there while waiting for the IMB process to continue. Please make this a big prayer matter because the IMB finances are very tight right now and it would have to be an act of the Father for them to return to us through IMB this next Spring. We need them here desperately.
2. Baptizing ---- We had the thrill of baptizing seven adults on August 10th. We sure wish churches in America got as excited about baptizing and celebrated the way they did here. Since we have no building of our own, we must look elsewhere for such events. The church where we meet has a "baptizing pool", but they use it only during the winters. So, after two or three weeks of exploring several unsatisfactory options along the Dnipro River, we opted for an hour bus ride to a small village where an evangelical church had its own small lake.
There is just something special about an outdoor baptizing. After some local boys were chased out of the water, more than 60 believers and unbelievers gathered round as Bob shared the meaning of salvation and the significance of baptism. Then, one after another, people from four countries were baptized. Loud hand clapping, cheers, and shouts followed each individual's baptism. Afterwards, the gracious host church invited us for Koffe', Chi, (coffee and tea), and cookies. Our own church hostess had also prepared things, so we had a wonderful feast of cold meat, cold roasted ears of corn, fresh veggies, cakes, cookies, and all kinds of stuff. You can see pictures of the event on our new website.
3. New Faces ---- Even during August when most vacations are taken, we've had new people in almost every service. It is not uncommon to have people from eight or ten countries or more in a service. Recently we've had believers from Cuba attending. Young singles moving to Kiev for work or education have been showing up. Americans coming for ministry, job, or education have been visiting as well. It has been such a thrill to welcome people like Maxim who was baptized, and Vlada, and Marta, and Kristy, and John, and so many others. Add to that the volunteer teams who visit us, and the new faces always keep us excited.
We've also welcomed some new missionary faces to our organization. Charles and Bonnie Hailey are now on the scene; he will become Business and Office Manager soon. Also Randy and Helen Greer and sons have arrived for language school. While here they'll be part of our Kiev Church Planting Team and go to language school. Eventually they'll move to Crimea region down on the Black Sea where he will be Strategy Coordinator. In a week or two we will welcome Joe Ragan who will be coming to do church planting in towns and villages in the Kiev Oblast.
4. Youth ministry ---- This was an area of concern without an apparent solution. Ricky and Marina had gone, and we needed someone to assume leadership by September 1st when our prayer and fasting emphasis concluded. On an impulse last Sunday Bob invited a few of the youth and a couple of adults to join us after services for pizza and to discuss the future of our youth ministry. He had three things to discuss ---- someone to teach youth Bible study each Sunday, someone to give general leadership to the overall youth ministry, and the possibility of developing a youth council or committee.
All he had to do was throw out the ideas, and they took off with them. In a matter of minutes, the "youth council" was formed, Galena was selected to give general leadership, and she will both teach the Bible study and give coordination for youth involvement in teaching as well. Because several of the youth work with our children or sing in our choir, they decided to meet following services on Sundays in order to do both. So, we are very excited about this ministry, especially since so many new faces have shown up.
5. Student ministry ---- God continues drawing leaders together for our student ministry. Even though we are much farther behind in preparation than we would like, we know that God's timing is in place. At the moment there are between eight and twelve people who have indicated a willingness to work with university students on some of the various campuses. Even though classes begin September 1st, we will not be ready for any type of outreach activity. However, our team will begin meeting next week for prayer, team building, training, and brain storming. Relationship building will be the first step in getting this ministry off and running. By the time Keri and Jason arrive in January, we should have a good base. This ministry has phenomenal potential.
6. Leadership development ---- Jo Ann already has a half dozen or more women who want to be involved in her home Bible study on spiritual leadership using Henry Blackaby's "Experiencing God" and "Spiritual Leadership" materials. This will begin September 10th. Bob's leadership training group for men is not having much success. Only one man has indicated an interest. This characterizes the condition of most churches, no matter what country they're in. Men still seem to think that spiritual matters are a sign of weakness and don't want to take leadership. Others want to, of course, but feel they don't have the time. This is a matter of grave concern for us at IBC, because somewhere in the future, the church will no longer have American missionaries and others to do all the leading. The men are going to eventually have to step up to the plate and become leaders.
7. English Classes ---- Always an ongoing challenge, the ESL program resumes with a full schedule on September 2nd with five groups meeting. Each week we find new hurdles and obstacles to having a good program. We're currently faced with the need to make some adjustments and also fill a gap that exists between Jo Ann's class and the next one above. In addition, we're looking at the possibility of adding a class for children, although we're not certain we will do that. Somewhere this Fall we will also begin offering "Professional English" in subjects such as business, medical, etc.
One special blessing has been the recent arrival of Kristy Calloway. She has come to Kiev to teach English in a Christian university, and has volunteered to help us in our program as well. She has a Master's degree in Cross Cultural Communication from Wheaton College, so we know she'll do a wonderful job with us as well. We're still working on where she'll teach, but think she'll probably take the Advanced Class because of her expertise in the technical aspects of grammar, the use of idioms, colloquialism, and so forth.
Personal:
1. We're both doing quite well, although we generally live with inadequate sleep most of the time. Between night time noises, long work hours, late night internet usage, and the early morning sun and parking lot sounds, we seldom sleep as long as we should. Jo Ann often ends up with three to five hours of really good sleep, and Bob maybe with four to six. Last night it was 1:30 when Bob went to sleep, and woke up around 7:00.
2. Bob has been asked to teach a night class, "The History of Christianity" at Wisconsin International University in October. The Dean of Students, a believer, has said, "as long as you get the basic idea across, you can teach anything about Jesus that you want." Well, . . . . so much for praying for a wide open door!
3. Free time to relax and just do something together comes in spurts. We just can't set a particular day of the week to do that, so we usually try to fit something in. Often we'd just like to sit and watch a movie or music video, but, before you know it, it's 9:30 or after, and we're just then getting a chance to shut down. By then it's too late. However, like yesterday, we took a nice walk from the IMB office through Shevchenko Park and past the Opera House to "Repriese", one of our favorite restaurants. So, that was a nice three-hour break; it's also why we worked so late last night.
Last week we took a "test run" boat ride on the Dnipro in preparation for one of our most enjoyable experiences yet ---- being "Grandma and Grandpa" to eight MK's. Then that Thursday we picked them all up at the IMB office at 10:00, and headed to the boat again for a two-hour ride past Kiev's beautiful monuments, buildings, and beaches. Then it was to McDonald's! for lunch before heading to our apartment for popcorn and the movie, "Ice Age" shown on the wall with our brand new video projector. After we took them back to the office at 5:00, we kept a few and took them out for supper with their favorite "nanny", Luda, a secretary who works at IMB office. It was a great day. This Saturday we're meeting up with IMB families for a four-hour trip UP the Dnipro for an afternoon of relaxation and fellowship.
Looking Ahead:
1. We have a busy schedule meeting with the various leadership and potential leadership groups with the church. Our Church Leadership Council meets Sunday the 31st to begin considering major changes in keeping with what God is showing us. We'll also be meeting next week with the university ministry team, our IMB supervisor, and others. We really do believe that August has been a pivotal time in the church's life, and that we have some exciting developments on the horizon.
2. Next week we meet with some of the field administrative team to discuss the future of IMB personnel and International Baptist Churches. Since that includes our ministry, we will be interested to learn what the future holds. We'll let you know later what we learn.
3. We will begin developing our strategic prayer ministry within the next few weeks, trying first to build a foundational ministry of ongoing faith-based praying, then begin praying strategically regarding neighborhoods, conditions, and needs, and finally trying to network with other believers and ministries to create a comprehensive prayer strategy that eventually blankets the entire city.
4. October and November will find us traveling for five meetings outside Ukraine. We will have three meetings with the European Baptist Convention in Frankfurt, Germany in October, a Kiev Church Planting Team prayer retreat the end of the month, and then a New Missionaries' Orientation meeting in November in Prague.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray that God will enlarge our "In-Pact" prayer team. We currently have at least seven churches and over 600 family units who are praying for us regularly. Because we are progressively encroaching into enemy territory, we anticipate the battle getting more intense. We need thousands of intercessors.
2. Pray that the church's prayer ministry will launch with explosive growth. If we are asking you to pray, our church must be willing to pray with equal fervor. Pray that God will raise up one person to lead it, and that many members will become faithful and mighty prayer warriors.
3. Pray for our youth and university ministries, that they will both have a good solid start in September. Pray that leaders will rise up and relationships will develop. Pray that our ministry teams will have courage and freedom to express the love of Christ to those who do not know Him.
4. Pray that more and more people will be drawn to IBC because of the love they see there. Pray that the number of new faces will multiply each week. Pray that our people will be prepared with open arms to welcome them and minister to them.
5. Pray for Michael from Angola, whose little girl died three weeks ago from Malaria. Pray for our Angola brothers who are struggling in many areas; in many ways they are people without a country. Pray for our sister from Cuba who is such a vibrant lady who has come from great struggles in her homeland.
6. Pray for Keri and Jason who are trying to return to work in our student ministry and ESL program. Jason just had his interviews this week-end. Pray that they are approved to arrive in January. Pray for Ricky and Marina that they will be able to return to help us as soon as possible.
7. Pray for IMB and all our missionaries. Demands for missionaries, a flood of volunteers, and a previously unstable economy have generated a situation never seen before. Many needs will go unmet; many volunteers will not be appointed. Many souls will go into a Christless eternity. Pray that God provides a way for the called to be sent and the sent to be effective, and for the senders to pray and give more.
Finally: This letter has not come close to reporting all we wanted to share. What God is doing is beyond explanation or comprehension. But perhaps you get a glimpse of the blessings, opportunities, and hurdles we face each day. If we could do something else we would. Since we can't because we weren't called to anything else, we want to plant our lives here as long as He directs and be as effective as the Holy Spirit will enable us to be. We love you all, and thank God every day for the network of hundreds of prayer warriors. We've said it before, and we say it again ---- without you, our work would be in vain. Thank you for standing in the gap with us.
In His Bond and For His Kingdom,
Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver
IBC - Hope4Kyiv
Bob: lifeunlimited@pobox.com
Bob: lifeunlimited@pobox.com
For weekly spiritual encouragement and current updates on our work here, ask us to subscribe you to "Shoulder To Shoulder" letter (e-mail only).
Secular News on Kiev and Ukraine will give you interesting views at . . .
Some More Good Sites:
http://www.uazone.net for general info on Ukraine and Kiev.
http://www.hope4cee.org for IMB work in central and eastern Europe. Links to 24 countries by clicking on the flags.
http://www.hope4cee.org/ceeprayer/kyivvwalk for another virtual prayer walk in our beloved city of Kiev.
http://www.peopleteams.org/ukrainians for good general and missionary information about Ukraine in general and the IMB people teams.
http://www.reachukraine.org for information about IMB work in east Central Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, etc.) including another related virtual prayer walk.