Teaching Resources International

As we move into 2018, we are ready for what the Lord will do through our ministry here in Ukraine this new year!  Each new year provides new opportunities and blessings beyond what we can even imagine.  In my class on prayer, students have a number of verses to memorize. My favorite is Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” This is our confidence as we move into another year of serving the Lord in this ministry.  Here are a few praises from 2017 and some prayer requests for 2018.

Praises from 2017 …

As we enter into 2018, we have many things to be thankful for.  Here are just a few (there is not space to list them all).

1. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord in Ukraine, training students to be ministers and servants for the Church of our Lord for many years to come. This has only been possible because you have faithfully prayed for us and supported us for over 22 years! It continues to amaze me to think that God has opened up such a door in a previously Communist country, not only for the gospel but also for training a new generation of leaders for the church of Ukraine. We are grateful for this amazing opportunity to serve here in this time!
2. We are grateful for the opportunities to teach in Ukraine. Here is a brief list of the teaching God allowed for me this past year:

1. February – Theology: The Doctrine of Man, Sin and Christ (Lviv – Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary)
2. March – English Clubs and Campus ministry at Shevchenko National University (evangelistic outreach)
3. March – Prayer Class at KS for Church Planters and Pastoral Ministries students (KTS)
4. May – Research and Critical Thinking class (KTS)
5. July – church English Camp (evangelistic outreach)
6. September – Theology: The Doctrine of Salvation (KTS)
7. September – English Clubs and Campus ministry at Shevchenko National University (evangelistic outreach)
8. October – Theology of Prayer and Worship (Lviv – Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary)
9. October – Teaching on Luther and the Word of God; Seminar on John Calvin as a Pastor (500 Year Anniversary of the Reformation)
10. November – Church History 1 – Early Church to the Reformation (KTS)

It was a busy year but a real joy to be able to teach so many classes and work with students from Ukraine and from all over the former Soviet Union!

3. We continue to be thankful for Campus Ministry here in Ukraine. For the past 5 years, we have been involved in helping with evangelistic outreach on the largest campus in Ukraine.  This gives us a chance to step outside the academic world do evangelism. At our English Clubs (2 per year), we have nearly 400 students sign up.  Most of the students are non-believers so it is especially exciting to spend time teaching English and the Bible to so many students who will be the future leaders of Ukraine!
4. In April 2017, we moved into our house! While the house was not finished yet, it was enough that we could move in and live here.  We are almost finished with all the construction – we will be putting the façade and paint on the house this spring once the weather is warm enough to do so.
5. Our house has been an unbelievable blessing for us. First, unlike our apartment, it gives us a place where the children can play outdoors without any difficulties. Second, we have been greatly blessed by the fruit from our trees (even though this year’s fruit was greatly reduced by a frost in late May!).  Third, we were able to have a really great garden this summer.  We have learned ways to conserve the fruits from our garden and we were even able to have fresh tomatoes until the first week of December – even though we had our first frost in September.  We also have a pantry full of jars of vegetables and tomatoes and fruits from our summer harvest.
6. We are already saving money on utilities. This was an unexpected blessing. We anticipated that our electric and gas costs would be more than double what we paid in our little apartment.  But, because we paid attention to insulating well and providing passive heat and radiant floors, our average energy costs have been about half of what we paid earlier! This year, we will be working on paying off the remaining expenses from purchasing appliances and some building materials. The monthly costs are just a little bit more than we were spending on rent.  In a year to a year and a half, we should have all this paid off and be able to save our money from rent for other needs, including the expenses of returning to the state to visit.
7. We are grateful for you – for your prayers and support through the years! None of this would have been possible without you!  I continually stand amazed at your faithfulness and generosity. This past month, it appears that we have added the 3 new families that we have been asking you to pray about.  We also received a couple of year-end gifts that will certainly help us to catch up from last year!  We are so thankful for your prayers and support in this past year!

Looking Forward …

As we enter into a new year, there are a number of things we are looking forward to in 2018.

1. I will be teaching a number of courses in the first 6 months. In January, I will be teaching Christology in Lviv at Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary.  March will be incredibly busy! After 2 weeks of English Clubs at the University, I will be teaching Research and Writing for Biblical Counseling (Master’s Program) and I will be teaching pastoral ministries students and church planting students the Theology and Practice of Prayer.  Then in May, I will be teaching Research and Critical Thinking 1 for our new students and Research and Critical Thinking 2 with our 4^th year students. Be praying for me as I prepare and teach these classes.
2. Pray for me as I try to re-focus on Russian lessons this year. The last two years, I have had to put my Russian studies on hold while I worked on the house.  My conversation skills have improved but my grammar is really weak.  But now, I hope find time to work on Russian again so that I can better communicate with my students.
3. We will be spending the summer in Ukraine then teaching again in the fall. But we plan to come to the states this year (2018) for Christmas.  (Our normal schedule will probably be to come back to the states every 1 ½ to 2 years.)
4. Continue to pray for the situation in Ukraine. Things are stable now but that could change anytime.  Russia continues support and strengthen the rebels in Eastern Ukraine for some reason while continuing to deny any Russian activity or support. We have no idea what Russia is planning and we wonder if the conflict there will ever end. Many now believe that Putin’s goal is not to conquer Ukraine but to keep it is a state of turmoil so that Ukraine cannot succeed as a Western nation.  Continue to pray for our students and chaplains who minister to refugees from the East and to the soldiers defending our nation.

Thanks again for your support and prayers for us.   We are hopeful that 2018 will be a year with many new open doors – for the people of Ukraine and especially for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Christmas and Family …

Here are a few pictures from last month.  First, we had a really White Christmas!  The snowfall was really beautiful and the girls had a great time in the snow. The only negative was shoveling the snow.  But it was worth it!!!

We also had our annual Christmas Dinner at the seminary.  We had a great time with everyone together.  The Americans (and their children) even had a chance to come and sing some English Christmas songs for everyone.

For our family Christmas time, we were able to see the Nutcracker Ballet with the girls.  They love the Nutcracker and they thoroughly enjoying going to the ballet!  I also included some “food art” from each of the girls.  We are not sure why they started doing this, but some of their creations are pretty good!  Nadia dressed up a slice of her pizza and Kristina made a wreath out of some rice and salad.

Our Christmas was simple but wonderful just being together (along with Katya’s mom and grandmother).  We had our Christmas Wassil (an Ehrhard tradition), two roasted chickens (whole turkeys are hard to find in Ukraine), cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn pudding and some pumpkin pie. The girls had a great time opening gifts and giving gifts.  Their favorite seemed to be the stockings with lots of little things hidden inside, including nuts and candies and fruits!

We were also able to “share Christmas morning” with my family in Arkansas by Skype.  I have really been blessed by the way my children (and grandkids) spend time together.  They get together every Christmas (this year at Joy’s) as well as a number of times during the year for cookouts and even vacations!  It is a real joy to a father’s heart to see them all together.  We just wish we could join them every year!

Thankful for you …

Thank you for your prayers and for your support!  God continues to amaze us by giving us “exceeding, abundantly, above all that we could ask or think.” Thank you for being part of this blessing from God!

By His Grace,

Jim and Katya

Kristina and Nadia