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Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>

              (formerly "Hope4Kyiv")

 

        Monthly Praise and Prayer Letter Of

          Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver

              Life Unlimited Ministries

        "Touching Nations Here and Abroad"

 

                     Number 080

                  June 28th, 2009

Dear LUM Friends, Family, and "InPact" Supporters:

 

Greetings today from a motel room in Springfield, IL.  We are taking a brief schedule reprieve and are momentarily enroute to a family gathering of Jo Ann's relatives on her mother's side, and will be arriving later today to spend a few hours with them before traveling on southward to visit briefly with one of Bob's cousins and ministry supporters before returning to Collins and another very busy week ahead.

 

Because of our travel schedule, we're making this shorter than usual, and we're not including any pictures.  It's a real rush job, but we feel we want to update you.

 

What's Happening:

 

+  Our recent upper Midwest trip went smoothly, we made every stop on time, enjoyed each one of them (especially the graduation dinner cruise and commencement service for Sergey's class).  It was such a special treat to see many of our friends in Wisconsin.  Ken Kenworthy had just celebrated his 93rd birthday, and Doc Shafer is now 96.  He and Mrs. Schafer remain amazing encouragers that spur us on and motivate us to keep serving the Lord faithfully as they have done for so many years. 

 

+  The garden shed is completed and ready for completion of the interior (when Bob gets some time on his hands), the deck on the back of the house is gone, and the room addition is in progress with foundation and basement poured, walls up, and rafters being placed. 

 

+  Bob's "garden" has yielded its first harvest . . . a green bell pepper and a single cucumber.  However, the tomato plants are laden with fruit (some just about ready to pick), and the Zucchini and cucumbers have lots of little ones coming on.  He has moved the rack to the side of the house where they won't get so much scorching afternoon sun (it's been in the high 90's lately), and he's added a drip watering system so daily watering won't be so difficult.  Small containers require daily tending.

 

+  A reminder again about our new mailing address ---- Post Office Box 228, Collins, MO 64738.  It's still the same house, but no mailbox out by the road.

 

+  We returned recently to Open Arms Church to fill in while the pastor was out of town.  Jo Ann selected the music and played the piano while Bob led singing and preached.  It was like the days before we moved to Ukraine whenever we'd do a meeting in a smaller church.  It was a good warm up for us as we continue getting back in the stateside groove.

 

+  Jo Ann's sister, Dot, and husband, Bill, visited briefly with us as they traveled from Arizona.  We probably had the best visiting and fellowship experience we've ever had with them as we talked family and ministry.  They began doing volunteer ministry many years ago, and just completed thirteen years of pastoral ministry in the Summer mountain resort area of Greer, AZ.  They're now waiting on the Lord for the next chapter, as we are.

 

+  Our daughter, Cindy, and her family, Kevin and Christopher, have returned from their missionary work in Medellin, Colombia for a year of itineration, reporting, and support raising.  They stopped by Thursday and Friday enroute to their denomination's annual School of Missions.  We look forward to seeing them again next week-end for a day or two.

 

+  God has blessed us amazingly with another step to our future ministry.  Last week we were able to secure a "like new" used travel trailer that will enable us to spend extended times of ministry serving and encouraging pastors and smaller churches across the U.S.  We will pick it up next week and bring it to the house.

 

+  Our health has been improving, with a few minor setbacks.  Jo Ann had a recent bout with TMJ, but it seems to have corrected itself.  Bob has had severa shoulder and back pain the last couple of days.  Otherwise, our endurance levels are increasing, and we're still working hard at getting our weight down.  Generally speaking, we feel great.  Jo Ann still has occasional trouble getting to sleep or waking up too early.  Bob has been waking up earlier than usual, and has been getting up earlier.  He's always been a night person like his Mother, so this is a bit strange.  Of course, the workers coming very early in the morning before the heat forces them to stop probably hasn't helped.

 

A Special Report From The Farsi Ministry:

 

As we've said before, even though we've been gone from our missionary work in Ukraine, it is still a vital part of our lives, ministry & financial support.  While we don't hear much from most of the various ministries, we do hear from "M" and Ira pretty regularly.  With everything happening in Iran right now, we want you to read the most recent Praise Report from "M" which he sent a little over a week ago.  So, here it is.  Rejoice with us as you read.

 

---------------------------

 

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I would like to inform you about what the Lord has been doing in [our city] and especially among Iranians.

 

"F" Safely got through the airport and is now with his parents.  Thank you for your continuous prayer support.  I called "F" and he told me that his trip went very smooth without any problems.  He's now in home with his parents.  We consider him a missionary sent by Farsi ministry and we miss him very much when he's gone.  It's extremely difficult to contact him due to the recent riots in Iran.  The government has slowed down [now almost completely blocked] the Internet, cut off [text messaging] services, and disrupted the LAN line.  I have to keep dialing for quite a long time in order to contact him. 

 

Preacher coming to help us do more Evangelism.  In less than 8 days, a very famous Iranian preacher/teacher/musician is coming from America to [our city] to help “Father’s House” to reach out to more Iranians. He is a wonderful Christian and one of the key leaders that has helped establishing “Love Satellite T.V” that broadcasts good Christian programs 24 hours a day to Iran. We are thrailled to meet with him and invite him to teach in our Bible study and preach for Iranians.

 

Mother "T" is coming from Germany to help us do more Evangelism.  You may remember Mother "T" and her great help to us in doing Evangelism from my last praise letter. She’s the one that brought 500 Persian Bibles with her from Germany and helped us give them out to people in 2 cities. She’s coming back again to help us do even more Evangelism. She’ll arrive in Ukraine at the end of August and she’s planning to stay in Ukraine for about 2 months. One of her main goal is to use Ukraine as a platform and send Persian Bibles to Iran and other countries where Iranian students live.

 

Mission trip to [city #4].  We’re also praying and thinking about a mission trip to [city #4]. It’s been a long time that we wanted to do that. Lord has miraculously opened doors for us to minister [there]. Few months ago, a person had called “V” and asked him few questions regarding the Bible. He then told "V" that a person passing by [city #4] had told him that there are believers in {our city] and he had asked that passenger the Telephone number of us.  “V” has had a “Telephone Bible study” with him since then and lately he has told us that he’s got 10 more people that are interested in hearing the gospel. So when Mother "T" gets here, we are seriously considering to go to [city #4] and share the gospel there.

 

Mission Trip of a very Famous Preacher to Ukraine.  One of the most famous Iranian preachers in all the world has become very interested in what we are doing in Ukraine and God has put on his heart to come to Ukraine and teach believers the word of God. He is a seminary professor and off and on Preaches in “Love Satellite T.V” in America. We are very excited to have him come and teach us the word of God. Due to the very high security, he doen’t mention when he comes. But he has told us that one day we’ll wake up and see him standing next to our apartment calling us to come and pick his luggage. We assume he’ll come later August. I have talked to “Father’s House” about a possibility of taking him to [cities #2, 3, and 4] and have him preach the gospel for Iranians there. We are now in prayer stage.

 

Recent Witnessing.  Before “F” leaves to Iran, he and I got a chance to witness to “A”. He’s an Iranian that studies in our school. When we sat down to have a cup of tea in the canteen, I got to talk to him about the Lord.  "F" had previously built a good relationship with him. He resisted a bit, but in general his attitude was positive. Also few days before “F”’s departure, one Iranians in "F"’s dorm had found out that "F" can solve physics problem very well through an acquainted of “F”. He had come to "F" late in the evening and asked "F" to help him solve some physics problems. He had to give them to the teacher by the next day otherwise he would have been in a big trouble.  "F" explains to him and help him solve the problems.  He was so amazed at what "F" did for him.  "F" built a good relationship with him and after he comes back from Iran, we may witness to him.

 

Ira's Ministry.  Ira has now 2 disciples to whom teaches the Bible 3 times per week. Both of them are not-grown-believers. By this term I mean that Even though both of them claims that they have accepted the Lord into the hearts, but they haven’t really grown in their faith.

 

How Ira found them is quite interesting. She has a student to who she teaches English. Few weeks ago, Ira offered her that after an hour of the session, she is willing to teach her Bible in English for another hour for free. Her student agreed and she’s been teaching her Bible since then.  She hopes to find more students to teach English and Bible.  In summer time, she has only 2 students and her business is not doing very well, but she’s really glad that she has an opportunity to disciple people.

 

She still continues teaching "V"’s 10-years-old son Bible every Sunday.  "V" says that his son has started studying better and behaves better in the school.  Ira also continues studying Jehovah witness’s altered Bible and compare it with the Greek, Russian, Ukrainian and English Bible translation!  She then types up her discoveries and go on the street and explains the truth to the Jehova’s witnesses.  Few days ago, she was praying in the morning for God to send Jehovah Witnesses to her so that she could witness to them.  In the afternoon, someone knocked at our door.  As I opened the door, I saw 2 Jehova’s witnesses standing at the door.  Yes, Lord had answered her prayer.  Out of 256 flats in our building, they have ended up in our flat.  So we witnessed to them for about 3 hours and the less mature one got so interested in Ira’s proofs that wrote her number to come back again and talk about the Lord.

 

Farsi Website.  Finally, we could get our Farsi website going. An American missionary came to Ukraine to help us build it. You can take a look at it at www.khanepedar.com. This translates to “Father’s House” in Farsi which is the name of out Farsi church. We hope to develop it more to reach out to the people who are in Iran.

 

My International Church.  I’m going to be teaching a 6-weeks course on Evangelism in my International church. It will be every Tuesday from 7 to 9 P.M. We have on our hearts to study how to do Evangelism and then practically put it into practice by doing it every week and then come back to the Bible study and talk about our experience. We also are going to add fellowship (food and drinks) to our sessions to make it more pleasant in the summer time.

 

Situation in Iran.  As you might have already read or heard in the News, the situation in Iran is not very good. It’s a long story to explain the background, but to tell you in a nutshell, government has committed fraud in the election and people are fed up with that. People are striking and government is harshly resisting them. No one knows what future holds but it’s absolutely terrible to see my countrymen begin beaten or killed by the governmental army. So far, more that 150 people have been killed. (As usual, the reality is far higher than what the government reports.)

 

Prayer Requests.  Please pray for:

    >  "F"’s safety as he will be in Iran for the next 40 days.

    >  Evangelism project that we are going to be involved in “Father’s House”.

    >  Bible study beginning in my International church every Tuesday for 6 weeks. Please pray that people will be able to attend and practically share their faith with others.

    >  Please pray for the situation in Iran. I don’t know where to start and ask you what to pray for. But as my heart is filled with sorrows, please pray for the people there to be strong. Please pray that Lord’s will be done for my country.

    >  Please pray for my university. I finished the 3rd course and I’ve got one more year to go. Since I received Ukrainian resident permit, I was very glad that my tuition fee for the 4th course will cut off 60 percent because I would be considered Ukrainian.  But when I went to school to inquire about it, they told me that I’m able to pay 60 percent less only if I would change my group where I’m studying now (I’m now studying with foreign students in Russian language) and join a Ukrainian group where study in Ukrainian language.  It’s technically impossible for me to do that because I don’t know Ukrainian that well.  I’ve been studying for 3 years in Russian and have learned all the terminology in Russian.  University can allow me to stay with foreigners and pay less, but they don’t like the idea of me paying less.  That’s why I have no choice but to pay the full cost which is around 2800$.  That has become a real problem financially since Ira and I have lost our capital in bank and the chances are very slim that bank will give us back our money any time soon. The payment should be make in about 2 months.

 

Your prayers are deeply appreciated for this situation because we are not in a situation now to cover the tuition fee. We have seen our Lord working miracles in the past and we trust that He never leaves nor forsakes His children.

 

At the end, thank again for your love, care and support. We are so blessed beyond words to have families like you all around the world that care and pray for us. Please make it a daily thing to pray for us and I have to honestly tell to that we have seen that the Lord is answering your prayers and doing miracles at this part of the world and expands His Kingdom.

 

May he fill your hearts with Peace and Joy,

Your co-worker in Kingdom,

"M"

 

---------------------------------

 

+  Well, you can tell that we are extremely proud of "M", Ira, and the others who are part of the work God led us to start nearly four years ago.  We had our first "discussion" meeting of fourteen people four years ago last week, and KIBC's first official service was held the following September 5th with over 65 people from thirteen countries present.  Since that beginning, we saw God do amazing things as He led us step by step to develop ministries in seven languages . . . English (our platform language, of course), Russian, Ukrainian, Farsi, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic.  Even though not one single person who was part of that original June discussion is a part of KIBC any longer, yet the work continues.  We miss the work terribly, but are still confident that the Lord brought us back to the U.S. at the right time, and for very strategic reasons.

 

As we have seen so often, God sometimes kicks His foot through the "campfire" and scatters embers to other places.  For example, John and Betsy have been back in the States several years serving the Lord out of Virginia Beach.  Vitaliy is now involved in other ministry in Kiev.  Cuban Tania is serving the Lord in Sweden.  Senthil from India is in an international church in Norway.  Ukrainian Maxim is a missionary teaching English in Bangkok, Thailand.  Debbie Ash is "somewhere" with the government preparing to go "somewhere".  Leonid is working with a new church plant for students in Kiev.  Igor and Keri (from the Spanish church) are in southwest Missouri preparing to return to the mission field as soon as possible.  Joel and Ira are in Kiev ministering throughout the country training leaders and helping them plant churches.  The list goes on and on.

 

In the meantime, people like "M" and others continue doing amazing things as God opens doors, empowers them, and provides for their needs.  Incidentally, if you'd like to financially support "M" and Ira, you can do that through our ministry.  Just contact us and we'll tell you what to do; it's very simple.

 

Our Prayer Requests:

 

+  Pray for "M" and the special needs he mentioned above.  Give special attention to them.

 

+  Pray for us as we conclude this trip and return to big projects at home.

 

+  Continue praying for our friend, Don Vogel, as he continues treatment for cancer of his Esophagus.

 

+  Pray for our ministry financial needs.

 

+  Pray that Bob can spend more time working on the syllabi he's trying to complete.  Pray that he can assemble some of the teaching and preaching topics we feel so strongly about at this time of history.

 

+  Pray for our Fall and winter schedule.  We have some things developing, but will delay details until later.  Pray especially about possible developments in Missouri, Arizona, and the Northern Plains and Northwest.

 

+  Pray that we make good decisions concerning several countries we have opportunities to go to.  Pray especially about Cuba, Sweden, Thailand, India, and Croatia.

 

Finally:

 

Thanks so much for standing with us, especially during this transition time.  We are thoroughly enjoying this "interim", but are anxious to get back on the road when the Lord is ready to send us.  Please let us hear from you.

 

In His Bond, By His Grace, and For His Kingdom,

 

Bob and Jo Ann

The Tollivers, global missionaries/evangelists

 

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Bob Tolliver
Life Unlimited Ministries
Note My New E-Mail Address.
lifeunlimited@centurytel.net

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