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Hope 4 Kyiv

The Monthly Praise and Prayer Letter Of

         Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver

      Missionaries to Kyiv, Ukraine

 

                   Number 059

            September 27, 2007

 

Dear Friends, Family, and In-Pact Partners:

 

Here we are nearing the end of another month, and it's time to send you an update of what has been happening here in Kiev.  We trust this note finds you doing well, rejoicing in God's abundant goodness, and faithfully sharing the Good News with others whom He has placed in your pathways.

 

Update:

 

+  We've now been without hot water since last May.  The modifications required by some unknown new laws were completed three weeks ago, the inspector finally came a little over a week ago, and now we're just waiting for a final "inspector" to sign the approval. 

 

Pastor Phillip is more exasperated than we've ever seen him because he knows they are just jerking his chain trying to wait him out for a little extra "service fee" to come their way.  He currently has a missionary team from the States staying here, "Helping Hearts", and they have no hot water for showers either.  We've about given up and are just about ready to go out and buy an electric hot water heater to provide non-stop, year-round hot water.  Pastor Phillip has agreed to do that, but we'll have to come up with several hundred dollars to get it done.

 

We have had our humor out of this, though.  Jo Ann bragged recently that she was able to get in and out of the shower in just 91 seconds.  Bob, on the other hand, said that he was shivering so hard that he couldn't say the numbers, so knew he took much longer.

 

+  Jo Ann's ear continues to show some redness periodically, but we think it's probably from continued deep healing and possible short-term irritation from when she sleeps on that side too long.  It's a matter for continued prayer.

 

+  Pastor Feng and his wife still have not returned from China, and we don't know if they will.  In the meantime, Louis is leading the group.  He is becoming a key leader in our fellowship, and we're really impressed.  He speaks fluent English and Chinese, along with adequate Russian.  He currently leads a Thursday night Bible study in Chinese, will resume Sunday services soon, and is preparing to begin a Bible study in English for Russian speakers wanting to learn English.

 

+  "M" and his wife have had a couple of new developments that will help in his legal document situation.  If they were to have a child, or if they were to become legal guardians for an older person who had no living family members, he would immediately be granted permanent residency and could receive a national passport.  They are exploring both possibilities.

 

+  Our "T" was, amazingly, approved for immigration by the UNHCR department that reviewed and developed her case.  Her name was presented both to Netherlands and Norway, but they both rejected the application because their quota for the year was filled.  It's our understanding that her application has subsequently been presented to Canada, but they take forever to respond.  In the meantime, she's going to enter the "Immigration Lottery" to America for the year 2009 (they operate two years in advance).  You can continue praying for her.

 

+  Work on our three new websites is progressing, though slowly.  We're now in the process of registering the domain names, and are beginning to gather basic page layout ideas.  We're also in the process of totally renovating the current "PrayKIEV" site, making it much easier to use and to keep up to date with current information.

 

What's Been Happening:

 

+  Our Pastoral Leadership Team has expanded to six guys, and we're very excited about that.  This is in keeping with our strategy to put in place a reliable and capable team of leaders who can give direction to the church no matter whether we're here, in the States, or somewhere else.  Bob would also like to consider one other guy for the team.  If that were to happen, we'd have people from four separate language groups.

 

+  Our Esther Fellowship and Timothy Fellowship groups are finishing up a special DVD study, "From Dream To Destiny" by Robert Morris and based on the life of Joseph.  We will conclude that on October 10th.  Following that, the two groups will require serious commitments by those who plan to be part of this special leadership development strategy.  As we continue anticipating a time when we'll no longer be here year round, we see how important it is to have both a deep base and also a broad base of strong leaders, with more younger ones coming along.

 

+  We will be making a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark on October 15th to attend the IBC's annual meeting.  We'll take three or four extra days for some vacation time and tour some sites in Denmark and Sweden (and possibly Norway).  We'd love to take a sail in one of the many fjord's in the area, and learn more of the ancient lands that gave birth to the Kyvian-Rus culture in Ukraine.  As you may recall, Kiev was apparently founded in 486 A.D. by a Viking prince, Kyi, his two brothers Scheck and Khoriv, and their sister Lybid.

 

+  Sunday lunches are now back in full swing.  Both of us thoroughly enjoy the time with these incredible young men and women.  It's nothing unusual for us to have 20 or more from as many as seven countries eating lunch with us.  Jo Ann thrives on serving them, and Bob likes to bask in the presence of their smiling faces and multi-lingual chatter as he winds down from the morning services.  Here are a couple pictures of one of those meals earlier in the year.  In them you can see people from America, Cuba, China, India, Iran, Canada, and Sri Lanka.  You c an, of course, by clicking on each picture and then dragging the lower right corner down and to the right, enlarge the pictures.

 

   

 

+  Our Persian ministry has experienced some hurdles, although things in general have gone wonderfully.  They continue reaching new faces.  However, some of their Fall plans have fallen through as a result of the Iranian government placing harsh new restrictions on students traveling to other countries for education.  As a result, more than 400 new students expected this Fall simply didn't show up.  Their plans for math and English tutoring classes for new students therefore have no participants.  But, other ministry is still reaching new people.  These guys just don't give up.

 

The Main Focus:

 

+  The Big news for this letter is the coming national parliamentary elections taking place this next Sunday, September 30th.  So, we want to devote the rest of our letter to this issue.  Rather than take lots of time and space in this letter, we want to urge you to visit these links to read articles from the September 19th issue of the Kyiv Post English language newspaper. 

 

Voter fraud and complications are discussed at http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/27396/.  Another saddening article about how bribery is so prominent from the very top to the bottom of society in Ukraine can be found at http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/27395/.  These articles will help you see why we feel Sunday's elections are so important.  When you have a contemporary lifestyle that was born out of more than 70 years of Communism, you have a culture that sees lying, stealing, and bribery as a natural and acceptable way of life, . . . even an expectation of life. 

 

Even Christians often think little of condoning and practicing such things.  Tragically, many Ukrainian pastors, because of their own need to survive or gain places of influence with the government, would overlook such conduct, even practice it themselves, and excuse it all by helping people feel there were different types of sins, some of which were both acceptable and expected.  An American pastor friend told Bob earlier this week of a situation where he has been asked to pay ten thousand dollars for the "head man" in a government agency to give final approval for use of a building.  If he refuses to pay, the building will not be approved for use.  If the pastor reports it to higher authorities, they will search through long and complicated rules, taking perhaps months, looking for more rules to usa as reasons to refuse authorization . . . probably because the "head man" pays them as well.  We have a strong suspicion this is also the case with the gas situation in our building; if that one person doesn't sign, we'll have neither hot water nor heat in the building.

 

It takes many years for mindsets to change.  It will be the same here.  It has been estimated that over 50% of the economy is a black market economy being paid in the way of bribes and favors.  Some people have told us that even the government's budget is padded in most departments so that there are extra funds available to "expedite" things with those "special fees".  Ukraine's democracy is only fifteen years old, and it is still saturated at every level with such conduct, and with the expectations that it will continue.  So, even the most ardent supporters of true and mature democracy become discouraged, assuming that if they do vote, it won't matter, . . . or it may not even be included in the tally.  Most agree that changes must be made, but most don't think things will actually change much.  We do our best to encourage them to be involved, and we remind them that American democracy had nearly a Century of turmoil before it finally matured and leveled out with laws that would progressively root out most corruption and evil.

 

If you'd like to keep up with events in Ukraine, try these websites:  http://www.kievpost.com/, http://www.brama.com/, and http://www.ukraine-eu.mfa.gov.ua/eu/en/news/top.htm.  If you truly are concerned both for the future of Ukraine, the future of our ministry here, and ultimately the future of Eastern Europe, you should take time to check these sites regularly.

 

+  At the same time, God is clearly doing some amazing things in Ukraine.  Just over a year ago, Lee Grady with Charisma Magazine wrote an article about Ukraine being the number one Harvest Force in Europe.  Written clearly with a focus on both the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in the country, it still portrayed a vivid picture of what God has been doing.  What a thrill it was for us in January, 1995, when we stood before classes of Ukrainian young men and women and taught them at St. James Bible College, meeting in the old Cultural Center where less than five years earlier Communistic propaganda had been taught. 

 

Six years later when we visited Kiev in 2001, we learned that there were only about ten evangelical churches in the city.  Today there are over 1,000.  Most are either small or are house-type churches, but some run well over 1,000 in weekly attendance.  Eighty percent of missionaries to Russian speaking countries come from Ukraine.  Ninety percent of evangelical pastors in Russia are Ukrainian. 

 

Today there are some 700,000 protestants in Ukraine, about one percent of the total population. Nearly all traditional denominations are now represented here.  The largest Baptist union in Europe is in Ukraine with some 140,000 members, three seminaries, two universities, and fifteen Bible colleges.  Baptists have been in Ukraine since the Sixteenth Century when Anabaptists came here.  The first known Baptist baptism (an adult "baptism by faith") took place in 1864. 

 

There are about 90,000 Pentecostals, with over twenty Bible seminaries, institutes, and schools.  One of the strongest seminaries is the Assemblies of God's  Evangelical Theological Seminary where our good friend David Nelson in president.  The largest Charismatic church in Europe is in Kiev, and has planted some 450 other churches throughout Europe. 

 

From the time we came here in January, 2003, we have known God had His hand on this nation.  And, this may be one reason why it has been so difficult to root out corruption, demonic darkness, crime, and old Soviet connections.  God is doing many things here, but resistance is intense and increasing, both in human opposition and demonic oppression and suppression.

 

So, because of the strategic importance of Sunday's elections, we urge you to pray daily for Ukraine, and especially the coming elections.  Here are requests that we posted earlier in "PrayKIEV" and Global Harvest Ministries Prayer Update, and want to pass on to you, along with a few others.

 

Prayer Requests:

 

Earlier today we were out shopping, and Bob felt a foreboding sense of confusion, dirtiness, unseen hostility, anger, and general evil.  We have felt such things often before, but the past several months had been relatively free from this oppressive atmosphere.  It was not a human thing, but was very similar to what we felt most of the time when we first arrived here five years ago.  Earlier in the day he had also felt a sense of spiritual attack against him as if the enemy was trying to smother the vision God has given us.  Both were more concentrated and antagonistic than the usual spiritual oppression we feel here most of the time.

 

We realize that this intensification is most likely connected to two things . . . first, the direction God wants the church to go in the next year to two years and, second, the coming elections this Sunday, September 30th.  So, we ask you to pray earnestly and boldly about the following:

 

+  Pray that Christians will be courageous and vote what God wants them to vote, even if it means voting for someone other than what they originally planned.

 

+  Pray that all the eligible voters of Ukraine will stand for what is right, what is true, what is just, and what is honorable, and that they will vote accordingly.

 

+  Pray that dishonesty and corruption will be kept away from the voting process.  Pray that every attempt to bribe or illegally persuade people to vote a certain way will be blocked.

 

+  Pray that righteousness, integrity, and honesty will be what people look for in those running for office, and that such people will be elected.

 

+  Pray that there will be no violence, injury, or deaths during the remaining campaigning and during the election.

 

+  Pray that the Central Election Commission will be honest and fair in counting the ballots, and that they will be truthful in declaring the outcome.

 

+  Pray that, following the election, all parties will work together to provide honest and just government for all the citizens of Ukraine.

 

+  Pray that those who are elected will place the welfare and interests of the people in their hearts instead of personal agendas and personal gain.

 

In addition, please pray for . . .

 

+  "M" and his wife as they pursue options for his permanent residency and national passport.

 

+  "T" as she continues trying to immigrate to another country.

 

+  All of our internationals, especially those with dark skins, that they will be kept safe, that they will have all their needs met, and that they will find peace and joy in the midst of adversity.

 

+  Several of our young adult students can find adequate housing at reasonable prices.

 

+  For the rapid development of the four websites.  Pray that Bob can come up with the basic ideas and concepts, and that our stateside friends (Lewis and others) can use their creative skills to get the work done quickly.

 

+  Our personal needs to be met, and that our support base will increase.

 

+  The hot water situation (as well as heat for our apartment) to be resolved as Fall and Winter temperatures begin dropping.  Pray that the funds will come in for an independent electric water heater.

 

+  Pastor Phillip and his family.  They are an extraordinary family with a passion for the people of Ukraine.  His responsibilities to pastor the church, oversee continued construction on the building, deal with corrupt officials, and coordinate many groups using the church are enormous.  Put him on your daily prayer list.

 

+  Especially for us as we continue seeking and relying on God's strength to serve Him here.  The battle is 24/7.  Our sleep is often affected, weariness often hits us for no reason, we battle confusion and frustration, we find ourselves often angered at how some of our people are treated, we grieve over not being able to help more, we want to go back to America one minute and the next spend the rest of our lives here.  We've never had experiences in our entire ministry like we have here with regular occurance.  We desperately need your intercession.

 

Finally:

 

We genuinely hope that our letters encourage you and lift you up as you see how we try to be faithful extensions of your hands to the Ukrainians and internationals in Kiev.  You are such a blessing to us, and we thank God regularly for you and your participation in the Gospel as it is being presented here.  Please drop us a note periodically and let us know how things are with you.

 

In His Kingdom Work,

 

Bob and Jo Ann

    The Tolliver's
    Bob's e-mail lifeunlimited@pobox.com

    Jo Ann's e-mail:  grandma12@pobox.com
    KIBC Photo Album:  http://community.webshots.com/user/KievIBC?vhost=community
    PrayKiev Website:  www.praykiev.org

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