HOPE4KYIV #15 ---- 12/24/03

#1 · December 24, 2003, 3:11 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on December 24, 2003, 3:11 pm
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
  HOPE 4 KYIV

                       NUMBER FIFTEEN

                      December 24, 2003

            The In-Pact Prayer Newsletter of

                 Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver

               Missionaries to Kiev, Ukraine

Dear Friends and Family:

We are sending this letter with fear and trepidations because we've tried to include a couple of pictures. You may or may not get them. One test we sent to ourselves included the pictures, the second test didn't. So, if you got them, maybe put them in a museum or some other place for safe keeping.

You can imagine what mixed emotions we have at this time of year. Though we have traveled to many countries (more than 25 if we counted correctly), and although we've celebrated holidays in several of them, this is our first Christmas and New Year to be living in a country outside the U.S. Yet, it is with joy that we wish you and your family a very special Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please go to http://www.americangreetings.com/view.pd?i=347419657&m=6788&source=ag999 to see our very special Christmas card to you.
As we celebrate the coming of Christ with Ukrainian believers, fellow missionaries, and Cindy, Kevin, and Christopher who came to see us this season, we are keenly aware that December 25th is just another ordinary winter day to most Ukrainians. If they celebrate the birth of Christ at all, it will be on January 7th. However, even with the Orthodox Church, the birth of Christ is relatively insignificant. Easter is much more important to them. New Year's Day is much more important to the average Ukrainian.

Instead of a "Christmas tree", they have a "New Year's Tree". Bright lights fill their eyes in amazement but eternal life is foreign to their minds and absent from their hearts. Sometimes we forget that more than 70 years of Communism officially outlawed any reference to religion, and you have nearly four consecutive generations with no awareness of God's love. All they know of God is the distorted picture the Orthodox Church gives.

There are no special Christmas traditions and memories for most of the people here. Not long ago Jo Ann was in a conversation with a Ukrainian friend who wanted to know about some of our American traditions for celebrating Christmas. When Jo Ann asked her about her own traditions, she said that she didnt have any. She grew up in a non-Christian home under Communism when all such celebrations were outlawed. She had nothing she could look back on as a favorite memory or tradition of celebrating the birth of Christ.

Just think about that. No Christmas story, no understanding of Who Christ is and Why He came. No special memories and family traditions that bring back warm thoughts. Just a huge blank. We should keep that in mind this year as we celebrate the moment in history when God took on human form and chose to enter our world so that, through that act, we could enter his world of eternity. In case you forget, there are people in your town who are exactly the same. You may think everyone knows the story, but many don't.

Prayer Requests:

+ Joy Wootton is deteriorating with the paralysis continuing to spread. We received an e-mail from her father, Jim, Tuesday indicating that unless the Lord intervenes, she cannot live without life support.

+ Our many friends from our Bible study groups and ESL classes who are open to the message of the Gospel. Many will come to our special Christmas party on the 27th and our special Christmas service on the 28th. We showed the Jesus video in both Russian and English to many of them Tuesday evening during our ESL classes.

+ The SBU team arrives January 2nd and will work with us in the village of Brusilov until the 8th, with us at IBC until the 13th, and then with Brad Atkins until the 22nd. Pray that all their funds will be raised and that their journey will be safe.

+ Jason Myers and Keri Albrecht arrive January 3rd to join us in ministry. Pray for them as they try to settle in, take Russian classes, and merge into the flow of our student ministry and ESL program at church.

+ Future ministries at the church, as leadership development, ESL program, student ministry, and other projects get into high gear after the holidays. Especially pray for the rapid growth of our prayer ministry as we seek to establish it as the foundational ministry upon which everything else rests.

+ Teachers for our ESL program. Our teacher for Beginner English has had surgery for malignant cancer and will be out for at least five or six months. Our teacher for Advanced English may possibly not return for our session which begins January 13th. In addition we need to expand our program in February. This is a critical need.

+ Dalese Stockwell, one of our missionaries and wife of our area director has apparently had an occurrence of Bell's Palsy yesterday. Pray for a quick recovery.

+ Lottie Moon Offering! There has never been a more critical time in the history of IMB when we need an extravagant and liberal outpouring of giving from people. While the financial picture is on the rebound, the needs, mission volunteers, and opportunities far outstrip the resources at hand. Whatever you had planned to give, please consider increasing it by at least 35% this one time.

In closing, we share a couple pictures (we hope!) for you to enjoy. These were taken Christmas Eve in our apartment.
<img style="WIDTH: 303px; HEIGHT: 221px" height=221 alt="" hspace=0 src="mhtml:mid://00000118/!cid:002f01c3ca51$1b75e9e0$06a9b7c2@LUM" width=307 align=top border=0><img style="WIDTH: 176px; HEIGHT: 223px" height=489 alt="" hspace=0 src="mhtml:mid://00000118/!cid:002e01c3ca51$1b746340$06a9b7c2@LUM" width=219 align=baseline border=0>
                                                            In the very near future we hope to set up an on-line photo album by which we can show

                                                            you more pictures of Kiev, us, our friends, and our ministry. As soon as we're able to do

                                                            that, we'll let you know.

Have a wonderful Christmas. We love you and miss you.

We would love to hear from you! (Hint, hint!)

All our love,

Bob and Jo Ann

The Tollivers

IMB missionaries to Kiev

IBC - Hope4Kyiv
Bob: lifeunlimited@pobox.com

Jo Ann: grandma11@pobox.com

Note Our "In Progress" Website at www.peopleteams.org/kiev/team/tollivers.htm

And www.peopleteams.org/kiev for the general work in Kiev.

For weekly spiritual encouragement and current stories of our work here,

subscribe to "Shoulder To Shoulder", a letter to "lift up hands that

hang down", at shoulders-subscribe@welovegod.org.

For Back Issues of . . .

"Shoulder To Shoulder" go to www.welovegod.org/groups/shoulders .

"Hope4Kyiv", go to www.welovegod.org/groups/hope4kyiv.

For Other Ministries in Ukraine:

   www.hope4cee.org for IMB work in central and eastern Europe. Links to 24 countries by clicking on the flags.

   www.hope4cee.org/ukraine/ukrainewalks.htm for virtual prayer walks in Ukraine.

   www.hope4cee.org/ceeprayer/kyivvwalk for another virtual prayer walk in our beloved city of Kiev.

   www.peopleteams.org/ukrainians for good general and missionary information about Ukraine in general and the IMB people teams.

   www.reachukraine.org for information about IMB work in east Central Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, etc.) including another related virtual prayer walk.

Secular News on Kiev and Ukraine will give you interesting views at . . .

   www.kyivweekly.com

   www.kievpost.com

   www.kyivpost.com

   www.ukrainenews.com

Some More Good Sites:

   www.cnsnews.com for daily world news without a liberal, godless bias.

   www.uazone.net for general info on Ukraine and Kiev.

   www.ukraineinfo.us for general current info.on Ukraine.

   http://travel.state.gov/ukraine.html Consular division of U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>

  HOPE 4 KYIV

                       NUMBER FIFTEEN

                      December 24, 2003

            The In-Pact Prayer Newsletter of

                 Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver

               Missionaries to Kiev, Ukraine

Dear Friends and Family:

We are sending this letter with fear and trepidations because we've tried to include a couple of pictures. You may or may not get them. One test we sent to ourselves included the pictures, the second test didn't. So, if you got them, maybe put them in a museum or some other place for safe keeping.

You can imagine what mixed emotions we have at this time of year. Though we have traveled to many countries (more than 25 if we counted correctly), and although we've celebrated holidays in several of them, this is our first Christmas and New Year to be living in a country outside the U.S. Yet, it is with joy that we wish you and your family a very special Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please go to http://www.americangreetings.com/view.pd?i=347419657&m=6788&source=ag999 to see our very special Christmas card to you.
As we celebrate the coming of Christ with Ukrainian believers, fellow missionaries, and Cindy, Kevin, and Christopher who came to see us this season, we are keenly aware that December 25th is just another ordinary winter day to most Ukrainians. If they celebrate the birth of Christ at all, it will be on January 7th. However, even with the Orthodox Church, the birth of Christ is relatively insignificant. Easter is much more important to them. New Year's Day is much more important to the average Ukrainian.

Instead of a "Christmas tree", they have a "New Year's Tree". Bright lights fill their eyes in amazement but eternal life is foreign to their minds and absent from their hearts. Sometimes we forget that more than 70 years of Communism officially outlawed any reference to religion, and you have nearly four consecutive generations with no awareness of God's love. All they know of God is the distorted picture the Orthodox Church gives.

There are no special Christmas traditions and memories for most of the people here. Not long ago Jo Ann was in a conversation with a Ukrainian friend who wanted to know about some of our American traditions for celebrating Christmas. When Jo Ann asked her about her own traditions, she said that she didnt have any. She grew up in a non-Christian home under Communism when all such celebrations were outlawed. She had nothing she could look back on as a favorite memory or tradition of celebrating the birth of Christ.

Just think about that. No Christmas story, no understanding of Who Christ is and Why He came. No special memories and family traditions that bring back warm thoughts. Just a huge blank. We should keep that in mind this year as we celebrate the moment in history when God took on human form and chose to enter our world so that, through that act, we could enter his world of eternity. In case you forget, there are people in your town who are exactly the same. You may think everyone knows the story, but many don't.

Prayer Requests:

+ Joy Wootton is deteriorating with the paralysis continuing to spread. We received an e-mail from her father, Jim, Tuesday indicating that unless the Lord intervenes, she cannot live without life support.

+ Our many friends from our Bible study groups and ESL classes who are open to the message of the Gospel. Many will come to our special Christmas party on the 27th and our special Christmas service on the 28th. We showed the Jesus video in both Russian and English to many of them Tuesday evening during our ESL classes.

+ The SBU team arrives January 2nd and will work with us in the village of Brusilov until the 8th, with us at IBC until the 13th, and then with Brad Atkins until the 22nd. Pray that all their funds will be raised and that their journey will be safe.

+ Jason Myers and Keri Albrecht arrive January 3rd to join us in ministry. Pray for them as they try to settle in, take Russian classes, and merge into the flow of our student ministry and ESL program at church.

+ Future ministries at the church, as leadership development, ESL program, student ministry, and other projects get into high gear after the holidays. Especially pray for the rapid growth of our prayer ministry as we seek to establish it as the foundational ministry upon which everything else rests.

+ Teachers for our ESL program. Our teacher for Beginner English has had surgery for malignant cancer and will be out for at least five or six months. Our teacher for Advanced English may possibly not return for our session which begins January 13th. In addition we need to expand our program in February. This is a critical need.

+ Dalese Stockwell, one of our missionaries and wife of our area director has apparently had an occurrence of Bell's Palsy yesterday. Pray for a quick recovery.

+ Lottie Moon Offering! There has never been a more critical time in the history of IMB when we need an extravagant and liberal outpouring of giving from people. While the financial picture is on the rebound, the needs, mission volunteers, and opportunities far outstrip the resources at hand. Whatever you had planned to give, please consider increasing it by at least 35% this one time.

In closing, we share a couple pictures (we hope!) for you to enjoy. These were taken Christmas Eve in our apartment.
<img style="WIDTH: 303px; HEIGHT: 221px" height=221 alt="" hspace=0 src="mhtml:mid://00000118/!cid:002f01c3ca51$1b75e9e0$06a9b7c2@LUM" width=307 align=top border=0><img style="WIDTH: 176px; HEIGHT: 223px" height=489 alt="" hspace=0 src="mhtml:mid://00000118/!cid:002e01c3ca51$1b746340$06a9b7c2@LUM" width=219 align=baseline border=0>

In the very near future we hope to set up an on-line photo album by which we can show

you more pictures of Kiev, us, our friends, and our ministry. As soon as we're able to do

that, we'll let you know.

Have a wonderful Christmas. We love you and miss you.

We would love to hear from you! (Hint, hint!)

All our love,

Bob and Jo Ann

The Tollivers

IMB missionaries to Kiev

IBC - Hope4Kyiv
Bob: lifeunlimited@pobox.com

Jo Ann: grandma11@pobox.com

Note Our "In Progress" Website at http://www.peopleteams.org/kiev/team/tollivers.htm

And http://www.peopleteams.org/kiev for the general work in Kiev.

For weekly spiritual encouragement and current stories of our work here,

subscribe to "Shoulder To Shoulder", a letter to "lift up hands that

hang down", at shoulders-subscribe@welovegod.org.

For Back Issues of . . .

"Shoulder To Shoulder" go to http://www.welovegod.org/groups/shoulders .

"Hope4Kyiv", go to http://www.welovegod.org/groups/hope4kyiv.

For Other Ministries in Ukraine:

   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/ukraine/ukrainewalks.htm for virtual prayer walks in Ukraine.

   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.

Secular News on Kiev and Ukraine will give you interesting views at . . .

   http://www.kyivweekly.com

   http://www.kievpost.com

   http://www.kyivpost.com

   http://www.ukrainenews.com

Some More Good Sites:

   http://www.cnsnews.com for daily world news without a liberal, godless bias.

   http://www.uazone.net for general info on Ukraine and Kiev.

   http://www.ukraineinfo.us for general current info.on Ukraine.

   http://travel.state.gov/ukraine.html Consular division of U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.