Quote from Forum Archives on November 26, 2008, 5:11 am

Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>

   Hope 4 Kyiv

            Monthly Praise and Prayer Letter Of

              Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver

             Missionaries to Kiev, Ukraine

 

                          Number #073

                     November 26, 2008

 

Dear Friends, Family, and In-Pact Partners:

 

First and foremost, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  That's one of the holidays we miss most over here.  We usually spend it alone because most other Americans have their own plans, and it is just another ordinary Thursday workday in Ukraine to non-Americans.

 

It's hard to believe another month has passed since our last letter.  Time indeed marches on.  We pray that this letter finds you doing well, rejoicing in God's goodness, and resting in His sufficiency.  No doubt some of you are doing so by raw, naked faith in light of recent events.  We are certainly living in extraordinary times, both in Kyiv and in the U.S.  Two of Ukraine's major banks have failed, and her government is still in a three-year stalemate with little being done that truly benefits the average citizens.

 

We sometimes wonder if people fully understand the significance of these days.  If you pay attention to what is happening and to what is being said, every single day is filled with something indicating that we are at a time in history that is unprecedented.  When attitudes toward the Gospel are becoming more antagonistic, natural disasters are increasing, "left wing" parties are gaining control in many countries, nations are choosing sides toward each other, Israel is more and more becoming the focal point of the world, the global economy is in a quandary, and people are calling for global control over monetary issues, it doesn't take much intelligence to realize that we are surely in the winding down stages leading up to the return of Christ.

 

The handwriting is clearly on the wall; Christ almost certainly will return soon.  And, that tells us that whatever you intend to do in serving the Lord and in sharing the Gospel with people, you'd better do it quickly.

 

And, that leads us to our big announcement . . .

 

We Are Returning To the U.S. To Live!

 

Yes, you got it right . . . . the "Transition" year of 2008 is closing with surprising major changes both for the two of us, and also for KIBC.  When God showed Bob in the Summer of 2007 that the year 2008 would be one of transition, we thought it related primarily to KIBC, and that we would Help with the transition in anticipation of a probable 2010 personal departure.  We didn't realize we would actually Be part of the transition.  We have watched many of our members relocate for job reasons, others have finished university studies and have returned to their homelands or gone to the U.S. for graduate studies, and still others have been called by God through various means to serve Him as missionaries, both vocational and bi-vocational.  Currently, KIBC has members and former members not only in several cities in Ukraine, but also in numerous other countries such as Thailand, Sweden, Norway, China, the United States, Afghanistan, and others.  God has chosen not only for KIBC to be an equipping and sending church, but also a going church.

 

And, very soon, . . . we ourselves are Going!  In just over two short weeks, the evening of December 12th to be exact, the two of us will land at Springfield/Branson Regional Airport and make our way back to our "little cabin in the woods" two miles north of Collins where we will again set up housekeeping after some six years absence.  We really did not expect this move to take place quite so soon, and actually anticipated remaining in Kyiv at least until the middle of 2009 and perhaps even later.  Some of the "logical" dates we thought likely were February, 2010 when our passports and visas expire, or near the end of 2009 when the advance rent on our apartment is used up. 

 

But, as developments continued, we also thought we might return as early as May or June of 2009, since our children had made us promise that we'd be in the States in July of 2009 to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary after our oldest daughter, Cindy, and her family return the States on furlough from the mission field in Colombia.  (Our anniversary is actually this coming January.)  However, shortly before our recent trip to Israel, we realized that God was already in the process of "disconnecting" us, and we suspicioned that it was possible we might come home as early as Christmas this year and simply finish our work at KIBC by then. 

 

After talking and praying about the matter and evaluating the practicality of returning to Kyiv for only three or four months, it didn't seem logical to us or to the Pastoral Leadership Team that we should go to that trouble and expense and then stay such a short time.  So, we all agreed, with some mutual reluctance, to end our ties with KIBC two weeks from next Sunday, December 7th, and fly to the States on December 11th.  We've almost finished the transfer of all of our responsibilities, and are in the process of disposing lots of "stuff" accumulated over the past six years.  We've actually been selling unwanted things for over a month, but last Friday we had our first official "apartment sale" day, as you can see in the pictures below.  We were truly "swamped" at times with six or seven people needing our help at the same time.

 

                         

 

We praise the Lord that we sold almost all of our "high dollar" items such as our Yamaha keyboard, data projector, DVD players, bread maker, slow cooker, etc.  However, we still need to dispose of our television, several modems, surround sound speakers, and gobs of books, DVD's, and video tapes.  God has been very good to us in that almost everyone has paid the asking price.  People tell us our prices are unbelievably reasonable for the most part.  We've told them we were selling them to dispose of things and not just to make lots of money.  Our biggest challenges now will be trying to pack in a few suitcases and foot lockers, and come to some type of agreement over the more than a year's worth of unused rent.

 

Our return to the States does NOT, however, mean we have retired "again" or that our ministry is drawing to a close.  The door through which we are walking is Not an "Exit" door, but instead an "Entrance" door as God has opened up new and amazing opportunities of ministry.  Instead of our ministry slowing down or closing, it is actually expanding globally.  Instead of having "the nations at our doorstep" as we've seen here in Kyiv, we will now find ourselves "going to the nations". . . including numerous other countries as well as the U.S.  We'll explain that in a bit.

 

+  A Timeline:

 

Hindsight is always more revealing than foresight, and as we look back, we see many "signposts" that give testimony to God's amazing purpose for us.  Little did either of us realize how He would open our hearts for the nations and open the doors of nations for us to enter.  Both of us grew up in the homes of "pioneering pastors", always exposed to the Great Commission and the deep truths of God's Word, and often introduced to missionaries passing through our lives . . . all the while not realizing that even those earliest childhood days were part of God's preparation for where we are now. 

 

Both of us have had the opportunity to know some of America's great missionaries and evangelists, something for which we are eternally grateful.  As the result of relationships we established during seminary days as we sat in classes with missionaries far older than we were, we still remember the day in 1963 when we felt God drawing us to the chapel service alter to offer ourselves to the Lord as missionaries.  Following several months of paper work and continued steps of faith, we were surprisingly shocked when we felt the Lord telling us that we were to stay in America.  Five years later, though, God led Bob to take a short trip with a team to the Caribbean nation of Trinidad to help in a series of evangelistic crusades.  It was there that God called him to the preaching ministry.  But, it was not until some twenty years later that God began to seriously put us in the pathway of international missions.  Here's a little timeline that highlights the more important things:

 

1969 -- Bob's trip to Trinidad, at which time God called him to preach.  Six months later he was licensed to preach, had been called to pastor a church in Mtn. Grove, MO, and had been ordained to preach.

1980 -- Life Unlimited Ministries was born in October while walking on Waikiki Beach at 3:00 a.m.

1981 -- Bob began doing itinerant ministry while still pastoring a small church in Iowa.

1983 -- God gave a prophetic word in Upper Peninsula of Michigan through a pastor who told Bob that our ministry would have international applications.  (We thought that was fulfilled when three of our girls did short-term and long-term missionary work.)

1984 -- God called us to Reedsburg, Wisconsin, to pastor and continue traveling, during which time we were exposed to short-term mission teams.

1990 -- We were invited by SBU professor Dr. Bernard Holmes to be part of a mission team to New Zealand, lasting seven weeks.

1994 -- We learned of a Bible college in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a refugee Ministry Center in Croatia who had great needs and enormous opportunities.  Their stories broke our hearts.

1995 -- We made our first trip in January, first to St. James Bible College in Kyiv, and then to the Life Center in Croatia, for a month of teaching, preaching, serving, and ministering.  It changed our lives forever.

1996 -- We made our second trip to the Life Center in Croatia, this time with our first volunteer team of university students from SBU in Bolivar, MO.  We made a third trip alone that Fall.

1997 -- This was the beginning of many short-term trips to Croatia and Bosnia, most with volunteer teams, totaling 16 trips in nine years.

2001 -- After six years, we returned to Kyiv, this time with a volunteer team from SBU, to teach again at St. James, and do village ministry in several villages.  That Summer we again went to Bosnia.

2002 -- Returning to Kyiv again with another team, the local IMB leadership approached us about coming to Kyiv to pastor an international church.  After much prayer, we agreed, were approved by IMB, and took our training in Richmond, VA during September and October following our last mission trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia.

2003 -- We moved to Kyiv on January 1st, and pastored Living Vine International Baptist Church for three years after a one-year extension of our assignment.

2005 -- While finishing our assignment with IMB, God made it clear He was not finished with us, even though we could not continue the assignment with IMB.  After much prayer and discussion with other believers, family, and local missionaries, we formed a group of about 40 people and planted Kiev International Bible Church on the other side of the city, where we have served to this day.

 

+  How God has blessed:

 

When we planted KIBC, it was for a special vision and for a specific purpose . . . to reach internationals living in the city.  With "the nations at our doorstep", we wanted to do something that no other church in the city was doing, and that was to reach many of the international groups in the area, share the Gospel and lead some to Christ, train them, and help them plant churches within their national groups in Kyiv, and also be able to do the same thing upon their return to their homelands.  The strategy was simple and uncomplicated, focusing on basic issues with little organizational and traditional "baggage".

 

Since that beginning, God has given us a wonderful facility in which to meet, provided an amazing apartment in the same building, allowed us to develop ministries to seven different language groups (English, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Spanish, Persian, and Arabic), and allowed us to see between 150 and 200 young men and women come to faith in Christ.  Many of them are now in America or back in their home countries serving the Lord and sharing the Gospel, while others remain in Ukraine serving the Lord in other places and through other churches. A number of them have become strong Christian leaders.

 

But now, . . .

 

+  A New Ministry: 

 

While a strong nucleus group remains, KIBC continues looking to the future and the doors of ministry the Lord has in store for them in the future.  At the present time, it looks as if He may be opening the door for a ministry to the Jewish community (over 150,000 live here in Kyiv), and also the Lord may be leading the church to begin partnering with other international English language churches to create a formidable network of evangelism and missions.  However, that will take place with new leadership in place at KIBC while we move on to the next chapter God has prepared for us.

 

What, then, is this new ministry to which God is calling us?  It has three major areas of focus ---- the churches in America, training churches and leaders in other nations for the proclamation of the Gospel and the soon return of Christ, and aggressive writing projects.  We are convinced that, based on recent global events, the return of Christ is very near, and we are being called to help churches see that reality and prepare themselves to share the Gospel and reach nations as rapidly as possible.

 

+  In the United States, we believe God has given us a three-fold message that we must share as often as we can.  First, is to understand the latest developments in Bible prophecy and the strategic role of Israel.  Few people understand that the success of the Church in proclaiming the Gospel is directly linked to the Church's attitude toward and support of Israel.  Second, is to preach a message of repentance, revival, and global evangelism to the Church.  And, finally, we believe that the financing of such endeavors depends on Christians individually and the Church corporately returning to a life of righteousness, biblical stewardship, and extravagant generosity in ministering to people and supporting missions.  We pray that God will give opportunities for us to share some of these teachings in our home church and the nearby university.  We still love those students . . . even at our age!

 

+  Regarding ministering in other countries, we believe God wants us to spend time in other countries working in short-term ministries (generally one to two months) with the churches there primarily in two areas.  First, in helping churches develop strategies to reach the internationals living in their cities . . . much like we have done in Kyiv the past three years.  Second, in helping churches develop strategies of proclaiming the Gospel and sending out missionaries.  In the past four months God has amazed us by creating connections with people in several countries including India, Thailand, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Colombia, Cuba, Israel, and others, as seen below.  Most of these are in various stages of development for ministry there.  In addition, we will be working with the International Baptist Convention headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, to provide interim pastoral help as God might arrange.  We've already been informed that there is a church possibly wanting our help in the future.  The "x marks the spot" map gives you an idea of some potential areas that we already know of.

 

 

+  A third vital area of ministry consists of Bob being able to complete a number of manuscripts for publication, and also for translation so they can be transmitted to countries hostile to the Gospel.  We have the sources  for this material to be translated into at least six languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Farsi, Spanish, German, and Spanish), and perhaps more.  Some of our people in Kyiv have found ways to send such material into Muslim countries by way of the internet.  So, Bob has a special passion to have the time available to refine and complete these "books", teaching syllabi, and short articles so they are ready for translation.  The time we have spent in Kyiv has allowed us to prepare a number of studies both for evangelization and for leadership development. 

 

+  Support Base:

 

One question we're sure some of you will ask is whether or not we still need your prayer and financial support.  The answer in both cases is a resounding "Yes!"  Our financial needs will not reduce at all for at least several months, and will then reduce only a little after that.  Our travel costs will, in fact, increase significantly.  No matter where we live, insurance, utilities, and food are ongoing matters.  So are ministry related expenses.  Continued support remains even more important in light of a steady decrease in support over the past eight months.  We aren't returning to the States to retire, but to enter the next chapter of ministry.  And, we still minister through the encouragement, gifts, and prayers of God's people.  So, if you're one of our financial supporters, we ask you to continue in that role.  And, of course, we desperately cling to the prayer support so many provide us, and hope that will actually increase as we face this new chapter in our lives.  We will say more about all of that after we return to the States.

 

+  Israel Trip:

 

Needless to say, our trip to Israel was wonderful, even though there were many, many places we didn't get to see.  Beginning in Tel Aviv, we visited the port in Jaffa from where Jonah fled God's command to go to Nineveh, Caesarea where Paul was imprisoned, then turned northeastward to the Galilee region where we stayed in Tiberius (the only city in the region to have been continually inhabited since the days of Jesus), visited Capernaum, Bethsaida (hometown of Peter, James, Phillip, and Andrew) where we walked on the First Century street of Jesus' day (see picture #1 below), Mount of Beatitudes, Golan Heights (where we stood on Yom Kippur War military emplacements and saw the hills of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan in the near distance), then traveled south down the Jordan River Valley past Jericho, Bethshean (see picture #2 below), En Gedi where David hid from Saul (see picture #3 below), to the Dead Sea.

 

            

 

Following two days in a fancy hotel on the Dead Sea, we traveled back north past Qumran and the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered (see picture #1 below of caves 4 a & b), and then turned westward up the mountain passes to Jerusalem where we spent our remaining five days seeing many sights such as the Temple Mount, Mount of Olives (see picture #2 below), Gordon's Golgotha and Garden Tomb, First Century steps leading to the temple, the hometown of John the Baptist, Bethlehem, Gethsemane (see picture #3 below), and lots of other places.  Obviously space won't allow us to show you pictures and give our thoughts the way we would wish.  We'll just have to come and see you.

 

           

 

Our group of 35 people was actually an international group within itself with people from Ireland, the U.S., Switzerland, the Cameroon's, Rwanda, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.  We could not have asked for a more wonderful group of people.  "How just like God to give us an international group!" we thought.  It soon became obvious that this was not coincidental, and even our future ministry is being shaped by the people we met.  Several of them work with the United Nations and European Union in Geneva, Switzerland, including the UN Representative to Rwanda, a wonderful Christian lady who is full of Jesus to the very top.

 

If there were certain things that really stood out in our minds, it was probably how small Israel is from one end/side to the other, how clearly three types of terraine are defined (plains along the sea, the hill/mountain country, and the Jordan River Valley), how absolutely rugged the mountains are, and how desolate the Negev (southern desert region) really is.  It makes one wonder how in the world the characters in the Bible were able to travel about as much as they did, especially the Lord as He traversed the country ministering to the people. Almost all travel would have been hard and long.  It put an entirely new understanding to many biblical events.  It wearied us just to think of it.

 

+  Prayer Requests:

 

As you can imagine, we have big-time prayer requests, so we will really appreciate you holding us before the Lord as we complete the transition.  It's hard to believe we'll be back in Collins in just a little more than two weeks.

 

+  Pray that we can dispose of everything we need to, and will be able to fit our "keeper" things into the limited number of luggage allowable.  Thank the Lord for John and his team who already took three bags back for us, for Pete who will take one back in January, and for Joel and Iryna who will take two in March.  At $200 per extra bag, we can't afford to bring everything home.

 

+  Pray that our health will remain good and that we have the strength and energy to conclude this part of the race.  Pray especially for Jo Ann that she will be able to sleep well at night; she tends to not get much sleep when things are on her mind; yesterday she finally went to sleep at 6:30 am and got up at 8:00 am.

 

+  Pray for the Pastoral Leadership Team as they face major decisions concerning leading the church.  Pray especially for them in that they have one brand new member and another of the original members concludes his ministry at KIBC the end of next month.  This will be a pressured time for them as they try to regroup and provide leadership to the church.  Pray especially that their zeal to create more structure and organization to the church will not destroy the spirit of spontenaety, freedom, and "family" spirit that KIBC has been known for.  This is really a fragile time both for them and the church.

 

+  Pray for KIBC as a whole, that the people will understand that the church is not about the two of us, and that the vision God gave is still intact, and that the church's future requires their active faithfulness and endurance.  Pray that the people will remain strong, faithful, and zealous for reaching others.  Pray that God will bring more strong and mature believers into the fellowship to help fill the void created by others who have been transferred or have gone on to other ministries.

 

+  Pray for Max in Bangkok, Thailand as he serves the Lord there.  Pray that his teaching work will open up for him, that his health will improve, and that much needed financial support will come in for him.

 

+  Pray for KIBC's various language ministries, especially the Farsi, Arabic, and Ukrainian groups, that they will grow and will produce the fruit of new believers and eager disciples.  Pray for "M", "F", "H", and "V" as they lead the Farsi group, for Mark as he leads the Arabic, and for Vitaliy as he leads the Ukrainian.  Pray that God will give direction regarding the possible ministry to the Jewish community in Ukraine.  hundreds of thousands live here.

 

+  Finally:

 

Well, we know you're probably surprised by the news, but we also pray that you're excited about it.  We certainly are!  After a couple of months of rest and "re-acclimatizing", we'll be ready to go.  We're already in the process of scheduling some conferences and seminars in several churches for the Spring.  So, if you think you might need us, please drop us a note.

 

And, again we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your faithfulness, friendship, intercession, and support.  We pray that God prospers you in everything you do because of the way you have stood with us in the amazing ministries God has given us.  We still stand with our mouths open with big "Wow!"s.  We hope you are equally amazed at how God has honored His Word and has used two very ordinary "old" people in His kingdom work.  As Miss Bertha Smith used to say, "God strikes some awfully straight licks with some awfully crooked sticks!"  Amen to that!

 

In His Bond, By His Grace, and For His Kingdom in These Last Days,

 

Bob and Jo Ann

Missionaries to Kyiv, Ukraine

 

The Tollivers
Bob:  lifeunlimited@pobox.com
Jo Ann:  grandma12@pobox.com

 

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