Knocked Down but Still Going! (November 2015 Update)
In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, The Apostle Paul speaks about the many difficulties he was facing: “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.” October has been a difficult month for me physically but very rewarding in ministry. Certainly my difficulties are nothing compared to those that Paul was facing on every side. But the physical difficulties I’m having this month have made this verse very relevant to me! We are certainly “perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit.” The ministry is too important to those we serve here in Ukraine. More about the health problems later in this update …
Teaching Ministry in Lviv …
The Worship and Prayer class I taught in Lviv at Ukrainian Baptist Seminary went especially well. I really enjoyed being part of this new school. Every morning, they begin with a chapel worship time. It is good to begin each day with worship! Then we have 8 hours of class (with a lunch break, of course). Every evening, I had papers to grade and class to prepare for. I was so busy that I did not have time to leave the seminary building during the week. But the class was great! The students had very good, practical and theological questions and we covered many important topics for their local churches.
There were a couple of students there from Eastern Ukraine also. One was from Donetsk and one from Lugansk. Both had to re-settle to the Lviv area due to the violence and direct threats against them. Their churches were burned by “separatists” in Eastern Ukraine and their families threatened even though they did not take sides in the war. Evangelical Christians in Eastern Ukraine are persecuted simply because they are not Russian Orthodox. We saw similar kinds of persecution in Crimea when Russia took over. But they wanted to continue their ministries and their education, even in the midst of great difficulties — “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.”
This seminary is making a great impact in Western Ukraine. They had 150 new students this past year and are working on solutions to find more space for next year. It was exciting to see the students and their vision for ministry in Ukraine! I will be teaching there again (this time Christology and Soteriology) the first week in February. I’m looking forward to it!
Medical Issues …
At the beginning of October, I had surgery to repair an umbilical hernia. Everything went well during the surgery but I developed a major infection inside the incision about 1 week after the surgery. My stomach became so sore that I could not touch the area or even sit up straight because of the pain. I returned to the doctor and he re-opened the incision in 3 spots and proceeded to drain the pus and clean the wound. The first two times, he had to give me a local anesthesia because the pain for cleaning was too much. Every day, I met him at the hospital before his surgery time and had the wounds emptied of pus and cleaned. We did this for 2 weeks. When I had to leave for Lviv, he showed me what to do, gave me the medicine and said to come and see him when I returned. When I came back, he said, Yankee Go Home, you are healed” (he said this every day after cleaning). So everything seems to be fine with the operation now.
However, when we submitted our medical bills to Samaritan Ministries, they reminded us that new members have to wait 90 days before health needs are shared. So the entire bill of nearly $1500 is something that we will have to cover ourselves. But we think we are really going to like Samaritan Ministries. They prayed with us and they will share our prayer need for finances and healing with the rest of the Samaritan Ministries team. We are grateful to be part of a ministry that does not just pay for medical bill but prays with us!
One morning, I went to the hospital for cleaning the incision. Afterwards, I went to the mall to get some things and ran into a plate glass door that did not open. Lots of blood, a mild concussion and a twisted nose (I twisted it back in place). I ended up with one black eye. It is funny now but it really hurt! I asked the guy at the store if I was the first person to ever do this. He said no: a number of children and a few adults have done it before! That made me feel a little better but not much. For the next week, I had some trouble concentrating and with headaches but otherwise not too bad. However, I discovered I had some deeper problems while I was in Lviv …
While in Lviv, I developed another, far more serious, problem. On the evening before my last day of classes in Lviv, I noticed I was seeing spots in my right eye and then I began to have flashes of light in my peripheral vision. I knew this could be a retinal detachment and needed to get treatment soon. I got up and made of list of everything to be covered that day to give to the Academic Dean, Sasha Savich (KTS graduate from the first class I ever taught in Kiev). When morning came, I called our friend and fellow missionary Shannon Ford to go with me to get whatever treatment I might need (He and Katie had just moved from Kiev to Lviv). The Seminary president, Slavic Pyzh, personally took me to the eye clinic of a friend from their Bible Study.
After the examination, the doctor sad, that the situation was serious. She said, “I’m not saying you have hours but you don’t have days” to get this fixed or lose all vision in the eye. Slavic had his friends call others and we went to a more advanced clinic where they did a more detailed exam and then sent me to see a professor of ophthalmology. We had to wait for 2 hours while she was in surgery to see her. She was able to spot the tear but her state hospital did not have the laser equipment to do the surgery, so she sent me back to the advanced clinic, with instructions for the treatment. There they did the laser surgery to stop the retinal bleeding. All of this took the whole day. We were back to the seminary by dinner. Then, the students had decided to take the final exam after dinner so I could rest more, so we spent until 9:00 taking and grading the exam. I got to rest most of Friday before taking the train back to Kiev.
I’m still having complications from either the glass door incident or the surgery (I have another appointment on Saturday). All of the doctors said that the retinal hemorrhage was probably caused by a severe trauma to the head. They each asked if I had had any head trauma recently. So, I had to tell my whole embarrassing story a number of times!
So … “We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit…. God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.”
Church History in Kiev …
In early November, I am scheduled to teach Church History at Kiev Baptist Seminary. Be praying for me as I prepare for and teach this class. Right now I am having many physical issues affecting my ability to concentrate and prepare for class. So be praying for my health to improve so I can be ready to teach this class. We have another professor ready to step in in case I can’t but I’m really hoping these things will clear up so I can teach.
Family and Church Ministries …
Our small group is going well as we work on a Precept study on Discipleship. We have been very fortunate to have someone from Katya’s family coming each Thursday night to help us with the kids so we can host this group.
The girls continue to grow quickly and they really amaze us, especially Kristina. She is now putting words together and making short sentences. She also seems to understand Russian, English and some Ukrainian equally well. It is fun to see which words she chooses, often mixing the languages together. For example, she says, “Big” and “маленький” (small in Russian). She usually says “Thank you” in Ukrainian (Дякую). It seems like she just chooses the easiest form to say, but sometimes she chooses the harder word.
Nadia is growing and giggling a lot now. She is sleeping through the night and really seems to enjoy being with us all. She’s always watching her sister too – maybe she’s thinking about what she can do soon!
Heading home for Christmas …
As we mentioned in an earlier letter, we are blessed to be able to spend Christmas this year in the USA. We were able to find some really low prices on a newly opened route by Lufthansa and so we decided to come home for a visit. We will be in Florida with Joel and Alyssa first, then up to Connecticut the weekend of December 6, then to Ohio for a couple of days to see my father, and finally to Arkansas by December 13th. There we will spend most of our time with Sean and Meredith in Fayetteville but we plan to come to Little Rock most weekends. We head back mid-January.
The Situation in Ukraine …
Things in Ukraine seem to be much calmer now, though still a few Ukrainian servicemen are still dying. Russia seems to have shifted its efforts to supporting the Assad regime in Syria now and some of the pressure on Ukraine seems to be lessening.
Keep praying for our students in Ukraine who are ministering throughout the country. I am grateful for the open door that has been set before since 1991. We never know how long we can continue this ministry here, so we want to train as many as possible while the Lord gives us time.
Thanks for your prayers and support. We are needing to add 3-4 more people to our support team too when we return. We have a few supporters who will not be able to continue due to job changes. So be praying for us as we seek some additional support team members. If you are interested in joining our support team, let us know! As always, we are eternally grateful for your prayers and support! Most of those supporting us have been part of our support team since the beginning of this ministry! We cannot begin to express how grateful we are for your faithfulness every month to enable us to do this ministry! So, like Paul, we continue to serve, knowing that “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.”
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina and Nadia
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