Every day I prayed for my dad and my whole family. I had heard that it is best to witness to someone two or three times and then to just be their friend. Jesus was the friend of publicans and sinners, so I knew I couldn't go wrong doing what Jesus did. Praise the Lord! After some years my oldest brother, Kevin, got saved. Then in 1994 my mother got saved and shortly after passed away with cancer. My dad was left all alone, and the Lord began speaking to his heart.

We trust this finds you well during these trying days. Life is certainly different from what we are accustomed to. Thankfully God has not changed.

Dear Churches and Praying Friends,                March 2020

"...our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith: That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto." (1 Thessalonians 3:2,3)

Greetings in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God that he counted me worthy, putting me into the ministry. This year is our twenty-fifth year of service on the mission field, and looks to be the most challenging. Currently, our family is happy and healthy; the situation in Bulgaria is difficult, though. To slow the spread of the virus the government has restricted any public meetings - including church. Also, they have restricted travel in and out of the cities, which restricts our access to banks and grocery stores. We're not sure how long these rules will be in place, possibly three months.

Praise the Lord that we were able to finish our annual flour distribution before these restrictions were implemented! Nearly eighty tons of flour were delivered to our church families, along with seven thousand liters of cooking oil. The Lord takes care of his children.

There is plenty of work to do. I continue to proof-read the Turkish Old Testament, comparing it word for word with the King James Bible. I recently made a trip to Turkey where I left several new testaments. The people were thrilled to have them, as our new testaments are full paged, and large print.

Please pray for our churches during these difficult times. There is such fear among the people. The Lord is our refuge.

I also would ask for your prayers for our daughter, Maggie. She is in Tennessee right now visiting her grandmother. She is scheduled to return to Bulgaria on the 7th of April, but it looks like she will not be able to come due to current travel restrictions.

Thank you for your prayers.

In Christ, Zachary LeFevre

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Dear Friends in Christ,       January 2020

I pray that you have had a good year in the Lord and, as the Romanians say, that the next year will be at least as good as the last.

This is Johnny. He grew up homeless with his mother and little sister. Almost 3 years ago now, when his grandmother died while his mother was away in Germany looking for work, he and his sister, Blue, became a part of our family. He was 7 years old and had never been to kindergarten or school. He told us stories of how he and Blue and his mother would go around with an old shopping cart to gather plastic bottles and pieces of metal to sell so they could buy some food. At night, Blue, who was still a baby, would sleep in the shopping cart in the park or wherever else they could find a little shelter. I was able to get Johnny enrolled in school. He is now in second grade and has been at the top of his class since day one. Most kids who have grown up on the street, by the age of 7 or 8 years old, have already had to turn to stealing to get by. Many have already done drugs, even if it is inhaling a narcotic, toxic stove pipe paint. For so many, this cruel, uncaring world has already crushed their innocent spirit. Somehow, the Lord protected Johnny. He is the kindest, sweetest and most tenderhearted child you will ever meet. He has brought so much joy into our lives. He is almost the same age as our biological son, Creed. They are inseparable. Earlier this past year, in one of our church services at the Children’s Home, Johnny asked God to save him and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. This past summer, I had the privilege to baptize Johnny, Creed and two other of our kids, Sully and Kelebek, who were all saved around the same time.

If you were to ask what kind of year we had in 2019, I would have to say, like most years, we had our ups and downs. But to see God save the children He has given us to raise makes everything worthwhile. I say we had a wonderful year, Praise His Holy Name!

Our thanks to all of you who have been faithful in your support of our ministry and our family. I hope that seeing the fruit of your prayers and financial sacrifices is a blessing to you.

In Christ,

Dave, Dara, Sandy and the kids

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,    October – November 2019

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord Jesus and rejoicing in His service! Writing a prayer letter is a great way to take a break from routine and reflect on what the Lord has done over the past few weeks. It also warms my soul to remember our family and friends back home. Thank you for all you do for the Lord allowing us the privilege to serve in the mission field of Ukraine. We pray for you all collectively and individually as the Lord puts you on our hearts and minds. We pray the Lord keep you all strong in His word and grace while the fiery darts fly (Eph. 6:16).

Thanksgiving/Harvest: Our annual Harvest service was a blessing this year. We all came to church dressed in our Ukrainian “Vyshyvanka”. It gave us the opportunity to thank the Lord for His goodness by inviting one of our local missionaries to preach and update us on his work in a town about three hours away, called “October.” We prepared an offering ahead of time to provide him enough firewood to heat his home for the winter. We also had a Thanksgiving get-together with other missionaries in Ukraine. It is always a highlight of the year to sing hymns, enjoy fellowship, and pray together in ENGLISH(!) with others who miss their families, friends, and churches back in the States.

Soul Winning and Fruit: Over the past few months it has done my heart good to hear many testimonies from our members who are bearing fruit as active soul winners. One of our young ladies, who recently graduated high school, has entered the work force and is witnessing as she goes. She rejoiced to tell how she led two people to Christ at work. We’ve had several others tell of neighbors and relatives who have received the Lord Jesus over the past few weeks. We are also seeing fruit in our ministry here that can only be observed by watching God build the believers up by His word over many years. It takes several generations to get to the level of many churches in America. It has become evident to us that training leadership for the pastorate is going to be possible by second generation Christians, those who grew up in Christian homes. The exceptions are few. Our members are truly bearing their crosses for Jesus’ sake by making decisions that are very unusual for this culture and it costs them something to be in God’s will. May the Lord give us more like these!

Building Project/Fund Raising: It is encouraging to see the Lord’s blessings on our building project.
Already a couple churches and individuals have contributed giving us about 12% of what we need to begin. We believe it would be prudent to first raise enough to do everything needed to finish the outside before breaking ground. This would include: the foundation, purchase and set the containers, roof, insulation, windows, doors, and finishing the outside walls.

We have been proceeding over the past year or so with baby steps, doing all the less expensive projects that have to be done in preparation for the real building project itself. So far we have:
• Fence. We put up a fence and gates around the parameter of our property. Local law dictates that a security fence must be around the property before building can begin.
• Gas lines. We also had to reroute gas lines to the fence line…at our own expense. The gas lines here are above ground on poles that are about ten to twelve feet in the air. These pipes were running right down the middle of our property. The gas company said we had to do all the work ourselves including pay for the materials and then when all was ready they came and did the hook up.
• Septic Tanks. We also managed to put in new septic tanks in an area that would be easily accessible for maintenance.
• Kitchen/shower. We converted our outside building containing a small summer kitchen and a utility shed into a larger kitchen with room for cabinets, stove, and fridge. We will need access to a kitchen for the building project to feed the workers. We also installed a summer shower.
There is one more baby step we need to take and that is to get a three phase electric line run to the church for the welding work. The electric company said that it will cost $2,000, but they do not have anyone employed at the moment to do it. Our present meeting hall is 15x28 feet and we are maxed out with a pulpit, piano, baptistery and 60-70 people. We look forward to have room to grow…and breathe!

Youth Meetings: Our church hosted a one day youth meeting with the Limonski church which was run by our students in the Bible Institute. It was a good time, with good fellowship, and good preaching about our great Savior.

Answers to Prayer: On the week before Thanksgiving we breathed a big sigh of relief as we finished the final step in our registration process and we are good for another year! We thank the Lord for the opportunity and for your prayers for us to get this done without too much time wasted. Now we need to exit the country with my son Sam to get him a visa in the coming weeks and would appreciate your prayers for him to not run into any problems.
The Lord answered your prayers for Galya and Sveta who recently received Christ. Sveta is really getting “plugged in” as they say. The Lord Jesus is very real to her and it is obvious that He is answering her prayers. They were able to finally find a house before the cold weather hit and could afford it with the love offering that was provided by the Ukrainian immigrants in the US. I was happy to see that their new home is not far from the church. The children are able to come to church clean and with clean clothes due to having running hot water inside their house. The Lord is good!
We are thankful to finally have my car fixed but only after another engine overhaul. It turns out that the engine block was cracked all along. After four major expensive engine overhauls it is now fixed and running well. Thank you for praying and please continue to pray for the salvation of man who was able to finally figure out the problem and fix it for us.

As the holiday season approaches we miss you all more than ever. Thank you for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue  Phil. 3:10

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