HOPE4KYIV # 063 ---- 1/30/08
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
Monthly Praise and Prayer Letter Of
Bob and Jo Ann Tolliver
Missionaries to Kiev, Ukraine
Number 063
January 30, 2008
Dear Friends, Family, and In-Pact Partners:
Thirteen years ago yesterday (January 29th) we found ourselves for the first time in Kyiv, Ukraine, celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary by leading a week-end prayer retreat for a group of missionary families in Russian language school. The following Tuesday we headed to Vienna, Austria and then to Budapest, Hungary to more "officially" celebrate before going on then the following week to Crikvenica, Croatia, to minister to a group of refugees from the Bosnia/Croatia wars. Yesterday, to our amazement, we celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary in that same city of Kyiv. Thirteen years ago we ate pizza in Kyiv and an amazing rump steak in Vienna. Yesterday we enjoyed food from two of Kyiv's greatest cooks . . . Jo Ann and our cleaning lady, Valya.
For lunch we ate Jo Ann's famous potato soup with Diet Coke and a piece of candy. For supper we enjoyed Valya's famous Ukrainian red borsch and Jo Ann's amazing Carrot Cake with a cup of MacCoffee each. Believe it or not, this coming Tuesday we again fly to Vienna, Austria where we'll spend the night before catching the same train to . . . you guessed it, . . . Croatia and the same Life Center we first visited thirteen years earlier. We didn't plan it that way, but Jo Ann (who is brilliant at remembering names, dates, and events) reminded Bob yesterday of those coincidences. Between those two events there lie fourteen trips, eleven volunteer mission teams, and five years living in eastern Europe. To quote my mother, "Who would have thunk it?!"
Updates:
+ Hospital construction behind us has continued, though it has moved to the other side of the lot from where our apartment is located. It was a fascinating sight to watch the workers erect the tall crane to the right, section by section. Someday there will probably be another one just like it right outside our windows when they start building in the hole you see in the second picture. Today there is a giant backhoe out there again
+ Tania is enjoying her new home in Skelleftea and has found some wonderful Christians in the city. She's in her new apartment and just began taking Swedish language classes this past week. She will attend several hours a day, five days a week. She must gain a solid use of the Swedish language in order to get a decent job and also to continue receiving financial support until she does master the language. We talk with her at least twice a month and e-mail each other almost weekly. She has sent us numerous pictures such as these with a church family and a view of her Swedish kitchen.
+ The Persian work continues growing. A couple more young men have come to Christ, and we now have guys from Afghanistan attending, one of whom is a believer with a passion to share the Gospel. In addition, our guys have connected with the group in another city in Ukraine where some 2,000 Farsi speakers live (mostly university students). A group has formed there and the Ukrainian pastor of an international church meets weekly to train a young man to lead the group of 10 to 20 people. Our guys will continue going down every month or so to provide assistance. In addition, they now have a website up and running, and are conducting tutoring classes in math, English, and computers as a "front porch evangelism" means of establishing relationships.
+ The Chinese work is having difficulty getting back on its feet, but it is going well with a couple of Bible studies held each week, led by one of our Chinese guys, Louis, who speaks fluent English and has lived here about four years. He teaches English to employees of some of the businesses and corporations in the city.
+ The problem we had with one of the Ukrainian men attending the church intensified until we had to take drastic action banning him from attending services and from entering the building. However, he has insisted on defying our orders, and will probably make other attempts. As the result of the confrontation we mentioned in last letter, he filed a formal complaint against a couple of our men, and we had to go through the tedious process with the police of compiling a detailed report of his harassments in defense of our men. The charges were dropped, but it has had a heavy toll on the church, and especially on Bob. The entire episode has hit him harder than just about anything in all our years of ministry. He's been emotionally and physically weary for more than a month, and still has occasional "down" days.
A Note of Explanation:
To help you understand the above situation . . . last August a Ukrainian man began attending services although he speaks almost no English. Space won't allow detailed explanation, but the truth of the matter was that he wanted two things from us . . . financial help, and an American wife so he could emigrate to the U.S. He never made any physical threats or attacks against any of our American single ladies, but was a constant bother to most of them, watching them, trying to be with them, trying to get phone numbers and addresses from them, giving them gifts, etc. even asking one of our men if he could marry his seventeen year old daughter. The humorous part was that he wasn't even that girl's father.
Following the pattern of Matthew 18, the Pastoral Leadership Team tried to work with him, but the more strongly they pressed the issue the more belligerent he became. The end result is that the men have had to tell him he is not welcome in the church services and will not be allowed to attend. He was removed from the room last Sunday when he arrived for services.
Unfortunately, this entire episode has been like a siphon sucking out the spiritual and emotional vitality of the services. It has caused significant damage to the spirit of the services, to the welfare of several of our single ladies, and to the general spirit of unity and love that so characterizes the church body. It hit Bob especially hard and has grieved him deeply. He feels as if this ungodly action has been a defilement to the ladies and a very deep bruise to the body as a whole. While we've had some touching and meaningful times of healing and restoration, there is still more needed.
What's Happening:
+ Our plans to take baby steps backwards over the next year or two have begun. We're currently re-evaluating our Esther Fellowship and Timothy Fellowship leadership mentoring groups, opening them both back up to others to attend, and we're exploring ways to possibly significantly modify them placing more responsibility on the members and not on the two of us. We're also adjusting our time with the Spanish leadership in order for us to have a little time with just married couples in that group.
+ Jo Ann has done lots of cooking and feeding during this season of the year, making home made bread, cakes, cookies, and other goodies along with continuing to prepare Sunday lunch for our singles and young marrieds and serving as hostess during our post-service fellowship time. Unfortunately, with Bob having to spend so much time in the office preparing for five writing/teaching/preaching assignments a week, she's had more time on her hands that she's wanted. The good thing, though, is that she's been able to do lots of reading.
+ Bob is still writing his "Shoulder to Shoulder" letter every Monday, now into his eleventh straight year, preaches most Sundays, and is currently teaching a Sunday afternoon Bible study on spiritual warfare. We also think this is one reason the past month or two have been so stressful. As he teaches it, he is also writing a new syllabus. There has been great enthusiasm expressed by those who attend.
+ We have concluded the special leadership study, "Transferable Concepts" with both the Esther Fellowship, Timothy Fellowship, and Spanish leadership groups, so much of the writing and prep time we've been doing is over. While we'll continue meeting, as noted above, we won't have so much writing and printing to do. Because the material was not locally available to us in printed form for either Spanish or English, we had to download, reformat, and print every week, often taking ten to fifteen hours a week to do.
+ Attendance has been steady in Sunday services in spite of holidays, exams, and sickness. We've also had some who have moved to other places. But, God continues sending us new faces, and we praise Him for that. We continue understanding more clearly what someone once told us about international churches . . . they are always fluid and often hard to define. It's a lot like trying to make a snowball out of dry sand; it's hard to get it to stick. Yet, what a joy to look into the faces of people from places like Ukraine, Moldova, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, America, China, South Africa, Iran, Nigeria, Germany, and others, and then to realize that the Spanish church has people from Cuba, Ukraine, Spain, Dominican Republic, Peru, and other Latin American nations.
+ Our focus the past several weeks has been on helping the members of the body see how God wants to use them in specific pro-active ministries rather than letting them simply be spectators and observers. Many are taking hard looks at how God may want to use them. We've even had some who have left KIBC in order to do ministry in other settings. One young man recently left to work in a new Ukrainian church plant because, "I was getting too comfortable". The Lord has reminded us that pruning is always essential for healthy fruitfulness and sometimes the pruning involves losing good branches.
+ We're taking a few days off next week to rest and relax in Croatia visiting some of our longtime friends from years gone by. We'll leave Tuesday and fly to Vienna where we'll spend the night. The next morning we'll board a train for a 9.5 hour leisurely ride to Rijeka, Croatia where we'll spend four days before going to Karlovac for a day, Sirac for a couple days, then to Zagreb for our flight back to Kyiv on Valentine's Day. We're looking forward for this opportunity to totally disconnect from responsibilities here and let quiet, the sea breezes, and visiting old sites renew us.
Moments of Praise:
Along with these struggles and challenges, there have been wonderful blessings that have helped carry us through. Here are some little special things the Lord has used to encourage us, refresh us, and strengthen our hope and confidence in Him.
+ Christmas and New Year's celebrations continued well into mid January. Watching more than a dozen Christmas movies with friends was a special delight. There are definitely advantages to celebrating two Christmas's and two New Year's Days.
+ Our friends at KIBC have been more than we could ever ask in loving us, praying for us, and encouraging us. We are two of the most blessed people in the world to have friends like these. Our young adults and university students have been a continuing encouragement to us as they treat us so lovingly.
+ The two of us have managed to carve out two or three evenings a week just for ourselves. We often will throw on a movie or a TV series for the evening and simply unwind. The only problem is that we don't have double recliners where we could sit together and hold hands. Sometimes we just need a good laugh from the Cosby Show, some absurdity from the Dukes of Hazard, some old west nostalgia from Lonesome Dove, some great values reminders from The Walton's, or a silly romantic comedy to help us decompress.
+ We also praise the Lord for the six Christian television networks we get through the satellite dish on top of the church building. While some of it is really "off the wall" and sounds more like a circus or a raucous spectacle, we are blessed weekly to sit and listen to our favorite pastors, David Jeremiah, T.D. Jakes, and James Merritt. There are others like D. James Kennedy, Charles Stanley, Greg Laurie, and others, but we try to never miss those first three.
Prayer Requests:
+ Pray for both of us that we'll get caught up on sleep while on this trip (we both wake up often during the nights), have some special time together without ministry obligations, enjoy our visits with Croatian friends, and be spiritually rejuvenated to resume our ministry in Kyiv with greater effectiveness and enjoyment.
+ Pray that God will make provisions concerning several trips we have coming up to Germany in March, Sweden in April, and back to the States sometime during the Summer. Unfortunately we have been unable to use our air miles toward free tickets (we have enough for two sets and almost enough for a third set) because of black outs, unavailability, required stateside reservations, and fine print. Already we've found that no seats are available from Northwest/KLM from early May through July. We really need God's intervention, especially with Summer tickets running $1300 and more apiece.
+ Pray for the Pastoral Leadership Team as they continue leading the church, planning for the future, and implementing the slow but steady transition toward the time when our work will be done here. We anticipate perhaps a year to a year and a half. But, who knows . . . it could be less, it could be more. It's all in the Lord's hands. Pray especially as one of our guys begins taking us through a series of studies that will better equip us for church planting. Pray that the guys will maintain the commitment to never make a decision or follow a course of direction except as God's affirmation comes out of prayer.
+ Pray for our personal financial support. Attrition seems to accompany missionary support, and we're no different. Pray that God will call others to provide the needed support. We still spend several thousand dollars a year of our own funds out of Dad's estate, using "car" money set aside for when we return to the States to stay.
+ Pray for "M", "F", Louis, Mark, and others who lead our various language ministries. Pray that the Chinese ministry will grow. Pray that the Arabic ministry can move from language classes using the Bible into some serious Bible study. Pray for Mark as he leads it.
+ Pray for our people, many of whom are taking serious looks at possible ministries to which God may be calling them. Pray that existing ministries will appeal to some, and that others will find the heart of God for specific ministries to which He's calling them. A number of our people are discovering exciting things about ministry.
+ Pray that the time of transitioning ahead will be smooth and effective and that during the long process none of us will lose sight of the vision God gave for the church.
+ Pray that we will soon be able to implement a home group movement that will reach new people.
+ Pray that God will open the door and show us what to do regarding a potential ministry to Jews. We've felt for many months that this was something God wants here, but nothing has happened yet.
Finally:
Thanks again for being who you are, and for being part of our lives. We miss seeing you terribly. Please drop us a note.
In His Bond, By His Grace, and For His Kingdom,
Bob and Jo Ann
The Tollivers
Bob:
lifeunlimited@pobox.comJo Ann: grandma12@pobox.com
http://community.webshots.com/user/KievIBC?vhost=community
http://www.praykiev.org
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