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Brethren, pray for us. |
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July 2006
Dear Friends and Family,
Since our last prayer letter (May-June 2006) was dedicated to updating you on the blessings and fruit of our translation and publication ministry we will use this letter to bring you up to date on the family and rest of the ministry.
Early May, Naomi returned from spending two weeks with her father who has been fighting cancer. It has been a blessing to see Naomi’s faith strengthened over the past few months. It seems that the enemy keeps dealing us blow after blow, but we know that it is all from the hand our loving heavenly Father for our good. The task of getting settled back into life after deputation during one of the harshest winters in fifty years, the miscarriage of a longed-for baby, trying to get the kids caught up in home school, worry over Naomi’s father, along with other problems with the church left us both asking the Lord a lot of questions. During the trials Naomi came to the point where she decided that she could choose the joy of the Lord or she could choose bitterness. Praise God she made the right choice. Those two weeks during Naomi’s absence were very hard on the whole family. Trying to take care of the house, kids, and home school, while keeping up with my ministerial responsibilities almost pushed me over the edge. I was excited as a little boy to pick her up from the airport safe and sound. May was also the month of our thirteenth wedding anniversary. The kids worked hard and finally caught up with their home school studies and are now enjoying summer break.
We have been reorganizing and restructuring many aspects of the ministry over the past few months. We restructured our discipleship program and began holding new converts classes once a month. We have had an average of 12 to 14 new converts and potential members attend. In June, we baptized three new converts who also joined the church. Our annual Children’s Bible Club was the highlight of July. We had around fifty children attend every day with five children making a first-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ. We also had a special Graduation service for several of our members who graduated High School. It is sad to think that they all are getting ready to be scattered to the four winds to continue their education. We are very concerned for them during this very vulnerable period of their lives and are praying about starting another church in Odessa to help.
After years of praying and considering what we can do for a children’s Sunday school program, the Lord finally gave us the light we needed to begin. My prayer is that our labor in developing and writing the curriculum will not only benefit our church, but others throughout Ukraine. I am very excited about it. It is challenging to come up with a Sunday school program that will work in Ukraine. There is only one curriculum available in the Russian language. It has no apparent goals in what it is trying to accomplish and it is obvious that the group that developed it is far from being “likeminded” with us. Our new program is thoroughly Bible believing with definite goals. It is also easily adapted to any church and is certainly affordable. It does not consist of expensive full-color workbooks. It is a structured program that gives the teacher freedom, within guidelines, to get the lesson across to the student on his own level. We are holding weekly meetings for training our workers, who are also excited about it.
Paul’s words to the Corinthians have been on my mind a lot lately. “…I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon (I Cor. 3:10).” It has been said that the true measure of the success of a missionary is not that which he accomplishes while on the field, but the work that still stands after he is gone. I have watched the ministries of dozens of missionaries in the former Soviet Union over the past thirteen years. I know of only two who have successfully been able to turn a church over to national leadership while remaining financially self-supported. With these things in mind, I’ve begun concentrating our efforts on taking the remaining steps necessary to help our church become truly indigenous, regardless of whether the Lord leads us to begin another building project or not. We have begun holding Bible Institute classes once a week to further train our men. The classes also give us the opportunity to discuss the details of the steps that we must take in order to turn the church over to national leadership. Please pray about this important phase of our ministry.
Our youth group is looking forward to our annual Youth Conference in August. Please pray for their safety as they travel and that the Lord will work in their hearts during the meetings. All of them have some very important decisions to make in the upcoming months. The most important being where they are going to put Jesus Christ. Our prayer for them is that they will all put Jesus Christ first in their lives.
We want to especially thank those of you who have written notes of encouragement over the past few months. They meant a lot to Naomi and me. I have been too busy to answer all the letters we have received. Lord willing, I will get around to it in a month or two. Again, we thank you all for your prayers, help, support, and friendship in the ministry. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:10