Ukraine has certainly experienced a lot of darkness this last month. Every week, Russia has unleashed a barrage of 80-100 missiles, drones and bombs targeting civilian targets and especially targeting essential infrastructure. The result has been no electricity, no water, no heat and no light. Most of Ukraine has been plunged into darkness. But the people of Ukraine have not been deterred. They are even using candles to warm up their food. They are heating, as much as possible, with wood. And the government has set up tents with heat and generators where people can come, get warm, have some hot tea and recharge their devices. They are finding ways to manage, even as Russia continues to try, in the words of one Kremlin official, to “send Ukraine back to the Middle Ages.”
But “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it (NLT).” Actually, that is also the message of Christmas! In John 1, John begins his gospel telling us WHO Jesus is – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” He makes it clear that this one who has come is the “light of all mankind.” And then in verse 5 he tells us, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
Certainly, the Christmas story begins with the revelation that Satan will do anything he can to extinguish “the light of all mankind.” He incites Herod to try to find and kill the baby who is “born King of the Jews.” And the gospels reveal the many attempts of the Prince of Darkness trying various ways to silence the ministry and the message of Jesus the Messiah. Eventually, Jesus is crucified on a cross and buried. But on the third day, He rose from the grave. You see: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it!”
That’s the message of Christmas. This one, the Word, “became flesh and dwelt among us.” His light shined so bright that the Pharisees and other could not stop it. And this has continued throughout human history. The powers of darkness have tried to stop the message of the gospel of Jesus in so many ways. But they have all failed. Because “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it!”
The people of Ukraine have shown amazing courage and resiliency. We continue to pray for them even as Russia tries to force their surrender by cutting off their light and heat. But the Christmas message is an even greater, more powerful message – it is that Jesus is the light of the world and no matter how dark times become, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
As you celebrate Christmas this year, may you remember the Savior who came so that we might have life. In John 1:11-12, John reminds us, that “He came unto his own but his own received him not. But to as many as received him, he gave to them the power to become the children of God, even to those who believed on his name.” That’s the real message of Christmas!
Teaching in November …
This month, I taught 4 different classes at two different seminaries. At Kyiv Theological Seminary, I taught a Church History class. At Ukrainian Baptist Seminary (L’viv), I taught Prayer and Worship to 3 different classes. It was quite an experience because the classes were even occasionally interrupted by missiles and blackouts. During one class, I noticed one student was in his car using his telephone to listen to the class. He said he had to use the car to use his phone because there was no electricity in the house! But he didn’t want to miss class! Another student was outside when the air raid sirens went off. I told him he needed to go to the shelter. He said that he would be fine – if he went to the shelter, he would lose the mobile connection.
Frequently students online were in the dark because they had no electricity in their house, and they were using a mobile connection on their phones. But they continued to listen to the class. During the week of teaching a class in L’viv, the students had to meet in the basement of the seminary because missile attacks were happening while we taught. And one day, they even cancelled the last class session so that students could drive home before dark.
I was so humbled by these students and their desire to learn. Things are incredibly difficult for them, but they continue to study, and meet, and serve in their churches and other ministries. Please continue to pray for them.
I have a lot of papers to grade in the coming weeks (almost until Christmas). One class alone had over 50 students! And I am beginning to work on my classes for the Spring. Right now, I have a little lighter class load. But I still have a lot to do to prepare for upcoming classes.
In addition to teaching classes, Katya and I have continued to have opportunities to share about the ministry in Ukraine. Usually one Sunday every month, we have been sharing somewhere about Ukraine. We usually share some about Ukraine in general and then we talk about some of our friends in Ukraine who are still ministering there. Please pray for us as we share but also pray for those ministering in Ukraine.
House Plans…
As we mentioned last month, we purchased 2 acres of land here in the Fayetteville area and are planning to build something in the coming year. Our goal is to do as much self-building as possible to save money. But things are moving more slowly than we planned. We were hoping to have the shell in the dry by now, but we haven’t even been able to excavate or get the footings in. Because of the delays, we realize that we are going to need to pay more to get the shell up. If we do it ourselves, we will never get into the dry before bad weather sets in. So, we are planning to contract out getting the house into the dry. It will cost us more, but it will also help us to get into the dry before bad weather sets in.
Our plan is still to do most of the interior work ourselves. We are even in the process of buying used materials from others who remodeled their homes so that we can save money. For example, we were given a price for exterior doors of $7000-8000. But we have been able to find all our doors for less than $800! We also found tile for all our bathrooms for less than $0.50/ sq. ft. By doing little things like this, we are saving a lot of money. Pray that we can keep finding materials and other items that we will need for the house.
Be praying especially about the coming month. Because of the delays, we will need to use contractors to get us into the dry. So, we anticipate our largest expense to be in January (until we get to the kitchen and bathroom stages). Be praying for us – that we can be patient with God’s timing and that we will have all the finances that we need when we need them. We are nervous, but we have already seen God’s hand in providing an unexpected large gift this past month to help us with building.
Ministry Directions …
As we mentioned last month, I will continue to be teaching online at least through 2023. And we hope to make some mission trips to Ukraine if the situation mproves. But we are already praying about helping with a mission agency by providing training and pastoral care for missionaries. If we do this, we will continue to need to raise our own support. We will be having some meetings in the new year to explore some of these needs and to see if this is something that the Lord would have us do in ministry. Be praying as we seek where the Lord will be leading us in ministry for the future.
Family …
We continue to be so blessed by being able to stay at Hiding Place Hollow. Here we have a fully furnished house in a wonderful setting. Every morning, we get to see a spectacular sunrise and every night, we have an equally beautiful sunset. And we have even had snow already on a couple of occasions. This place has been a wonderful blessing and it will be hard to leave here in the spring. They provide housing, not only for us, but also for other missionaries. And if you want to help support them, you would be helping many, many other missionaries too. You can check out their website and see how God is using this ministry to bless many others!
We love the wonderful fall weather here in Arkansas. It has been nice and warm and at times, even cool and crisp. We have even had a couple of snows already. The girls were given a few pumpkins and they proceeded to decorate them and crave faces into them. This was their first time to be able to do this and they loved it!
Thanksgiving was a great time together with family. All my children and grandchildren were able to join us for Thanksgiving at the Coopers. We had lots to eat, games to play and holiday movies to watch. We even got to go ice skating together! We also put together a “Thanksgiving tree” and “Thankfulness Turkey” to write of reasons for being thankful this season. Only Joel and Ally could not make it because they spent Thanksgiving with her family in Virginia. But we will all be together here in Arkansas around Christmas. We are looking forward to everyone being together!
Katya’s mom will be joining us for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. We have not seen her since last January! We are hoping that she can move here to live with us after we finish our house. Also please keep praying for Katya’s documents. She still does not have her documents for immigration. She needs them especially so she can start to work on getting her driver’s license. That would help us out a lot.
Pray for Ukraine …
Continue to pray for Ukraine and the Ukrainian forces defending the country. Russia continues to prioritize attacks on civilian infrastructure because the Russian military continues to suffer losses. As a result, there are shortages of food, electricity, water, and heat. Now the Ukrainian government is even asking refugees not to return to Ukraine until spring because supplies are so low.
Many countries are now calling for Ukraine to “negotiate” with Russia. Even Pope Francis called on Zelensky to be open to “serious proposals for peace” in Ukraine. Zelensky responded by saying, “Imagine a situation where you’ve been attacked by bandits. They are threatening you, killing your children. And someone [suggests] maybe, it would be better to negotiate. That is impossible now. This is just my opinion as a citizen of Ukraine.” Russia said it is willing to negotiate if these countries will recognize the 4 territories that Russia has illegally annexed! Also, Russia continues to refuse to talk with the “fascist government” in Kyiv while blaming Ukraine for the war! Russia says that Ukraine is to blame for its citizens being without heat and light. And they complain that Ukraine is committing “terrorist acts” against Russia whenever Ukraine attacks Russia’s military bases in Ukraine! It is truly bizarre.
Please pray that the Lord will protect the people of Ukraine and bring an end to this war soon. Pray for the churches which are often the only ones providing much needed humanitarian resources and pray too that they can continue to share the gospel in Ukraine. And pray that the light will continue to shine in the darkness in Ukraine!
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina and Nadia
If you missed previous updates or just want to read some short theological reflections, you can find these at our website at https://teachingresources.org/ .
Also, some have asked about how to support us. You can send checks to Teaching Resources International, PO Box 1025, Cabot, AR 72023 or pay through PayPal on our website. Just put “#1000 Ehrhard” in the memo so our treasurer knows where to allocate the funds. If you want to help with our relocation fund or building efforts, put Relocation in the memo.
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