May 2011
Christ is Risen Indeed!
“The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Luke 24:34
Spring is finally here and the weather has been beautiful here in Kiev. It’s not Arkansas but it sure is nice after a cold winter.
The last two weeks, I have been teaching in Belgium at Evangelical Theological Faculty in Leuven. I’ve been teaching there since 1998 and I always look forward to returning. ETF is currently the only evangelical school in Europe offering a PH.D. program that is accredited by the EU. I taught a class on Issues in Contemporary Theology that is very important for pastors and theological students. Everything went extremely well. The students were excellent but now I have a lot of papers to grade! Katya finally received her visa from Belgium so she was able to go with me! Thanks for all your prayers!
Also, I am finishing up teaching a World History class at KTS and I have only 2 exams and 1 paper to grade! Just two days after returning from Belgium (Monday), I will be teaching Research and Critical Thinking 1. Then I have two weeks to prepare for teaching Research and Critical Thinking 2. That class will end June 10th.
Sometime after that we are hoping to head to the US for about 1 ½ months in the summer. Some of our time there, we will be raising additional support. After nearly a year here, I can see that my estimates for living in Kiev were way too conservative. We have managed but our budget is too low and we will need to increase our monthly support.
Additionally, the seminary has been having financial struggles this year due to increasing costs and inflation here and reduced donations from the United States. As a result, the school has been trying to cut costs in a variety of ways in an effort to keep the school open. This past year, the seminary asked professors to pay most of the translator’s salaries because the school could not afford to pay them. In the past, the school has covered these costs; in the fall, we began covering part of the costs. Now, they are asking us to cover all of the costs. This means that we will be paying $250-300 more for each class we teach so the seminary will not have to pay them.
Also, the seminary decided to lay off at least 14 people (Ukrainians) from the seminary staff to keep the school running. Katya and I decided that we could help by her donating her monthly salary (about $400/month US) back to the school instead of taking a salary. This will affect us a lot financially, but it will help to save at least one person’s job at the seminary. So be praying for the school. And also be praying for us as we raise more support. Right now, each month, I receive around $2500.00 of the $3000.00 that I originally estimated last year. Due to the increased translator costs, our donating Katya’s salary back to the school, and revised living expenses, we anticipate that we need to increase support to about $4000.00/month. Those who support us right now have been very generous, but we need to add new people to our support team for this next academic year. If you know anyone who might be interested in supporting us, let me know so that I can contact them over the summer. Most of all, be praying for us all that our ministry here can continue without interruption.
Things at our church continue to be a blessing to us! We were able to teach in our church retreat in April and we are currently helping on Sunday mornings with ESL Club Bible Studies. We have a wonderful home group and we had a great celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday and a great Easter service. It is a blessing to be part of such a wonderful church here in Kiev!
Finally, we had our first visitor from the US (actually from Graz, Austria where he is studying this semester) – David Myers from Cabot. We had a great time with him and I got to be the “tour guide” for many sites that I never had time to see in Kiev over the last 15 years that I have been here! Most of all, it was great fun just having him with us!
Thank you so much for your prayers! We look forward to being back in the US in a couple of months but I have a lot to do before then! May the joy of His resurrection empower you to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth! Happy Easter!!! He is Risen!
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