Paul Gray

We live in a town where it seems everybody watches everybody and we have noticed this even more since we live in a house now. Sveta, who lives on one side of us, has been asking Angela many questions about our faith, although when we moved in she told us she wanted us to be good neighbors and therefore we shouldn't talk about our faith. Sveta even took a Jesus our Destiny book to read. She watches us closely and what she has seen so far has made her thirst to know more about what we believe. Please pray for her salvation since she realizes life could end at any time and she's not sure she is ready to meet God in judgment. Our neighbor boy, Kolya, from across the street plays with our kids, eats with us occasionally and even visits our services sometimes. The lady behind us said she has told her friends that we take good care of our ducks and geese (They're not pets.) and she said our cabbage is doing good. Unknown to us, Tanya, the lady who lives on the other side of us noticed we gave muffins to Sveta one evening and when shortly thereafter we brought her some she said, I see you don't just look to one side of yourselves. Our neighbor who lives diagonally to us told others that we have good kids. We all know that the Bible tells us not to give offence to anyone by the way we live, but I, like many others, often forget how much we are being watched and how careful we must be to walk close to the Lord. (I Cor. 10:31-33)

We're really thankful for the new Sunday School program we are using. It works like a catechism and covers all the main things any student of the Bible should know. Our adults are covering the same areas in their class and families are trying to learn the weekly memory verses together. We have already seen good results and we've only covered 11 of the 150 lessons so far. We thank God for the brother who wrote it and allows us to copy his lessons and send them out to other churches through our correspondence ministry.

Please pray for us as we hopefully will finish our gospel flyer evangelization in Odessa Oblast in the next two months. Also pray that God will supply the rest of the needed funds for the van we've been praying for with you. At the end of June our van fund total was $14,259.39 which is just over 70% of our goal. Also pray for our VBS (July 25-29), youth conference (August 1-5) and my setting up meetings for September “ November 2011 to raise more prayer and financial support to help to really expand our gospel flyer and correspondence ministries in the years to come. Please pray with us that Olga will get a visa to go with me if it is the Lord's will. Lord willing with our soon to be "new" van we will be able to get out and sow the Word of God more throughout all of Ukraine. Thank each of you for being so kind to read our prayer letters and for helping and praying for us! We pray for you, too!

God bless, Paul, Angela, Olga, Andrew, Nick, John & Grace â€œAnd the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Luke 14:23

Greetings Beloved,
     In Titus 2:14 it says that Jesus "gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."  We thank God for all those who are saved, but especially for those who are saved and zealous of good works.
When we went on the evangelization to Dolinskoe about five weeks ago a number of those who volunteered to go with us took time off their regular work so they could do the good work of evangelizing. From this trip Ivan, who is about 65, was reached and he has been
to every Sunday service since.  He even has offered his home for a mid-week service.  It was a blessing to give a few Bibles and New 
Testaments to those who were really interested.

     A woman came to our service on April 29th and told us how she had come to be with us.  She said she was having a hard time walking back to her home and stopped at the community center to rest.  There she prayed, "God if you exist prove it to me.  Give me
the strength to walk home."  Bro. Yuri and his wife saw that the woman looked exhausted and invited her to rest inside where they were working.  They then offered her a ride home after she rested a bit and she accepted.  When she offered them money for the
ride Yuri said, "No, I did it in the name of the Lord."  She thought to herself that if he is doing this in the name of God then I should go where God is and that is how she came to visit us the first time.
     When (our sister-in-faith) Marina's house recently burned God blessed by one of our church's families taking her and her sick and elderly mother and her sick sister in until other members of the church could quickly fix up another place for them to live.  It also
was good to see the church come to the aid of a poor family whose son and daughter used to come to our Sunday School.  The son, Kirril broke both arms.  The parents had forbid their children to come anymore, although the kids like coming to church.

Greetings Beloved, January - February 2011

We are glad to bring our prayer requests and some answers to prayer to you again. God has been blessing our door to door evangelization in Limansky with some visitors coming as a result. At one home a 72 year old blind man and his wife came out. At first they refused our Christian literature, but after they listened they asked us to leave it. Later we sent them some of the Bible on cassette tapes for the man and he gladly received them. Please pray for the Word being sown in our town and for the towns of two national missionaries as we will now be helping them to go door to door in their towns.

Again God used Couriers for Christ to fill our need for Bibles. They supplied us with 204 regular print Bibles and 180 large print Bibles. Someone else gave us funds to buy 28 children's Bibles for younger aged kids. A parent who won't come to church will often read a children's Bible to his child and, as we have witnessed, sometimes get saved.

Three children, ages 9 and 10, from our church asked Jesus to save them since our last prayer letter. One of them, a girl named Anya, soon after she got saved came up to me after I preached on a Wednesday night and said, "Thank you for the message. It really spoke to my heart." It was good to see that this 9 year old girl now had a heart interested in the Word of God.

On the evening of January the 13th while I was out on visitation Angela called and said a tractor had come down our hilly street and hit the above ground gas line in front of the house above us and the one below us rupturing the gas line. A quick thinking neighbor turned off the gas and another stopped a drunk who was standing nearby from lighting his cigarette. We thank God He protects all in so many ways! Please pray for Alosha, 30, his wife Alona and Dima, 26. Each has a very bad drinking problem, but each one has shown a desire to hear what the Bible has to say. Our van fund rose almost 3% since the last time I wrote. We now have $12,568.62. Please pray God will supply the needed funds to buy, register and equip a good used VW van by the beginning of the summer. We are praying for a total of $20,000.

I am planning to visit the States between August 25 and November 22, 2011 to try and raise some more prayer and financial support. Last year our total income (i.e. for the work and the family) was down by about 20% from the previous two year levels. We also would like to have more people praying for us as we try to increase our evangelization efforts around the country. While in the U.S. I will also be learning how to make magnetic scripture signs and getting a new driver's license and passport. If anyone can recommend any churches to contact please let me know. To save money, etc. I will come back alone, although if God opens the door I may bring two of the children with me. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

With love and prayers for you,

Paul, Angela, Olga, Andrew, Nick, John & Grace (Phil. 4:19)

WOW, have I been encouraged since I got back! Some of our Bible Institute students have been continuing to follow God in His leading and are using the training that He has provided for them. Several of them have been continually faithful in going to different towns and preaching in their bazaars. And some of the other church members have been going with them to help pass out literature and witness to people. Not only have all of our people been encouraged and Christians that have walked by have been encouraged, but some people are hearing of salvation by grace for the first time.

I was also encouraged by the dedication our young preachers have shown to the other works that God has given them. On a snowy Sunday when hardly anyone was traveling on the roads, two of our preachers hitched several rides, and then walked more than 7 miles through the snow to go to the village that God has opened to them. The people there were amazed when they arrived and asked them, "How did you get here?" When they said that they had walked, the people were even more amazed because the area they walked through has wolves. And this made the people praise God even more for how God had protected his servants. And God again encouraged me when I heard some of our younger preachers asking prayer about opening up new services.

I want to thank everyone again so much for being so good to me while I was in the States. I appreciate all that everyone did for me. It was a blessing and encouragement to see everyone again. I hope to get to see everyone that I didn't see this time the next time I come in. Many people and churches gave me love offerings while I was in. I thought you might like to know how this money was and will be used...1. $2,000 for the missionary trip to Siberia this summer; 2. $500 towards missionary trips in Ukraine this summer; 3. $1,250 towards Bible courses; 4. $1,000 to ship to Ukraine boxes of donated clothes, shoes, scripture signs, etc.; 5. $850 towards Bibles; 6. $500 towards a computer and printer to be used for the Institute, church, etc.; 7. $400 towards medicine, food and shoes for those greatly in need. Those going on the missionary trip to Siberia are encouraged that God has already supplied the money for the trip. I'm glad we already have some money towards our bigger missionary trips in the summer. We were already out of some Bible courses and this money met an immediate need. The donated clothes and things have already arrived and the people are extremely thankful. We were already borrowing Bibles so the money for Bibles came at a very needful time. The computer and printer have already greatly helped me in the Institute.

While I was in America, God blessed me with one or two more churches who promised monthly support. This is a great blessing because as God expands His work here He provides for it. Letters have been gradually increasing in number. One lady wrote that her mother asked the local priest about getting a Bible. He said for about $10 he would be glad to get her one. This woman cried for two days because she so much wanted the Bible and couldn't get one. Her daughter said that often they even go without food for a day or two, so that much money for a Bible was totally out of the question. She heard about us and asked if we could send her mother a Bible. I can't find the words to describe the joy with which we send such people Bibles. Thank you so much for praying for us and for being a big part of God's work here. Please pray because our adversary the devil is against this work, but if we'll just be faithful, God will bless!