While We Were Praying … (July 2019 Update)
The providence of God is amazing. He sees ahead and makes provision for His children. The word “providence” is a compound word in Latin – “pro” meaning before, and “video” meaning to see. Providence means that God sees ahead, or sees before anything happens. This is a great comfort to believers. We do not see the future, but God not only knows and sees everything that will happen before it happens, but He also makes provision for His children in every circumstance. What a comfort “providence” is to the child of God.
We see this often in the Scriptures. We see it in Genesis 22:14 when God stops Abraham from sacrificing his son. Abraham looks and a ram is caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham takes the ram and sacrifices it instead of Isaac and calls the place, “Jehovah-Jireh,” meaning the place where it was seen. Abraham understood that God knew ahead, saw ahead and provided for the sacrifice even before he and Isaac set in the morning. God saw, God knew and God provided.
There are many other examples of God’s provisions (seeing ahead and providing) in the Bible, but I have often seen this worked out in prayer. God knows what we need even before we ask (Matthew 6:8), God sees ahead and makes His perfect provision even while we are praying! Isaiah 65:24 captures this: “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (NASB).
I have seen this in our lives a number of times – we have prayed for something and God sent the answer even before we prayed. I first understood this many years ago while reading L’Abri by Edith Schaeffer. She gives many examples of times when they were praying for something and then they received a letter the next day from someone in the United States with the answer to what they had started praying for. The letter was sent weeks before the Schaeffers started praying (“It will also come to pass that before they call”). The answer to their prayers came while they were still praying (“and while they are still speaking, I will hear”). This is God’s providence – He sees ahead, He knows, He makes provision.
We saw this vividly last month. In our last update, we asked you to pray as we were hoping to install an electric heating system in case Russia cuts off our gas supplies as Putin has said he would do. After sending the update with this prayer request, I received an update on gifts given last month and saw that we had already received an extra gift that would cover this need! This means that before we started praying, God answered. This is God’s providence – He sees ahead, He knows, He makes provision.
But that is not the best part! Over the last 20+ years of serving in this ministry, I have seen not only God’s providence, but also the unbelievable generosity of God’s people! Shortly after our last update was sent out, I received a couple of emails and some FB instant messages from a few of our supporters. They saw the need and immediately sent a message saying they would send an extra gift to cover our need! I quickly wrote them back and told them that God had provided even before we wrote the update. But we didn’t know it until we received the giving report. What a double joy – to be able to see the love and generosity of God’s people and the joy of being able to say that God has already provided! This is God’s providence – He sees ahead, He knows, He makes provision. And all of this – while we were praying!
Pray for our Teaching Ministry …
In July, we will be traveling to Western Ukraine to help teach at an English Camp outreach in Svalyava near the border of Romania and Slovenia. Normally this church has a number of helpers coming from the UK to help with their camp. This year, they only have two English-speaking helpers so Katya and I are excited to be able to come and help with this outreach. I will be teaching English lessons and Bible lessons every day. Katya will be helping with English but also she will be planning recreation activities for the afternoon. So we both have a lot to do before we leave for Svalyva. Be praying for us as we travel there to help teach English and the gospel at this camp.
Most of this summer has been spent revising and posting classes for the fall. I am still in the process of writing the class on Evangelism that I will teach at the end of September. I need to get all the handouts and Powerpoints and notes finished this month so the translator can work on them in August and have them ready for September. Pray for my time – something always seems to come up (including days of weakness from my health concerns) that interferes with my work. I need to finish before we head to English camp in a couple of weeks.
In September, I will be teaching Prayer and Worship (KTS) and then Evangelism (KTS). In October, I travel to L’viv to teach the Prayer and Worship class at Ukrainian Baptist Seminary there. In November, I will be teaching Church History at Kiev Seminary. Thank you for praying for our teaching ministry here!
Praying for Our Family …
School is over for our girls for this year but we are continuing to teach them every day. One thing we decided to do was a “Book Club.” Since there are no book (English) clubs here, we decided to create our own. Every time they read a book and make a picture about the book, they get a scoop of ice cream on their ice cream cone chart. After they have read 4 books, they get to go out for a special “Ice cream date.” (They can only get one per week!).
They love books! We ordered some books from the states for them and when the books arrived, the girls stopped swimming and opened every book to look through them. We hope they continue to enjoy reading all their lives!
But we could use your help. We received our Home School curriculum also last month and we noticed that this year, we need go to the library to find books for each unit of study. While that may be easy in the states, it is almost impossible to find English books in Ukraine. So we created a FaceBook Group page with a listing of some of the books we need for this year. We are assuming that many of you have books that are no longer being used by your older children. If you would be willing to donate these to us, it would be a great help!!!
If you want to help, send us a message (email or FaceBook) and we will add you to the group. If you have some of these books (or similar), you can IM us on FB and we will send you shipping instructions. You will only need to ship to our shipper in NJ and we will gather the books and ship them internationally. This would be a great help to us!
The weather here has been strange this summer. We have often been wearing long sleeve and occasionally even light jackets because of the cooler weather. Still we have been able to do some camping, picnicking and having fun near the river. But it would be nice to have some warm summer weather again 😊.
We are looking forward to tomatoes and other vegetables ripening this month (maybe in a couple of weeks). The timing could not be better. We are down to our last jar of tomatoes from last year! We have been picking berries and cherries and making jams and fruit drinks and just enjoying being able to pick and eat fresh fruits. We are especially glad that the girls enjoy working in the harvest too!
Finally, summer for us also means getting ready for winter. Winter means getting our wood stocked up so it can dry before we need it in the winter. It is a lot of work but one of the things I enjoy the most. From my first house in Kentucky to Connecticut and now here, I have loved cutting, splitting and burning wood. Katya and the girls not only enjoy the heat it gives us, but they like the smell of freshly cut wood and working together to stack it. We have our wood – we are almost ready for winter. But not too soon – hopefully it is more than a few months away!
Praying for Health and Strength …
Thank you for your prayers for my health. People always ask about my health and I’m not sure how to answer. Some days I feel pretty normal. Other days I am really tired and can’t accomplish much. Fortunately my health issues have not hindered most of our ministry here. So, in general, I’m doing okay but I always appreciate your prayers for my health and strength while we serve in Ukraine.
Praying for Ukraine …
The war in Ukraine continues and Russia is still sending more weapons and ammunitions into Ukraine. They have also stepped up their attacks and we are now seeing an average of 1 Ukrainian soldier killed each day. It is not all-out war but the war is tiring for the country. Be praying for our students and friends serving as chaplains and providing encouragement to the soldiers and comfort for families and friends who have lost loved ones in this war. But the death toll is probably not the worst aspect. The destruction of property resulting in many refugees continues to be a major concern. Pray for churches that are helping refugees escaping from the war in the East.
Also pray for parliamentary elections this month (July 21). In an attempt to give his party some control in the Rada (Ukrainian parliament), the new president dismissed the entire parliament and called for new elections. We are praying that those elected will serve the interests of the country rather than their own. Also, there appears to be a resurgence of pro-Russian candidates, many of them even meeting regularly with Putin. We don’t know what will happen to Ukraine if they are elected. Please pray for Ukraine!
Thank you so much for praying for us and for supporting us. I can’t begin to tell you how many times your gifts were a direct answer to our prayers – many times before we even ask! It is a joy to be able to serve Christ in a foreign land but that would be impossible for us without your prayers and your support. Thank you for being an answer to prayer even many times without knowing it! Remember God’s promise is not only for us, but for you too: “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (NASB). He sees ahead, He knows, He makes provision – What a great comfort to be in the providence of God!
By His Grace,
Jim and Katya
Kristina and Nadia
Teaching Resources International 