July - August 2004
Youth conferences in Ukraine
In July, the kids and I went to Ukraine for two different youth conferences.
The first one was held at a nice campground in Chernigov that once belonged
to the "Young Pioneers" - the official Communist party youth organization. It
is amazing to realize that we have the freedom to proclaim God's Word in a place
that was dedicated to the propagation of atheism and Godless communism for such
a long time. I preached in one of the meetings there.
This conference brought together over 90 young people from several missionary
churches all over Ukraine. These Christian kids were challenged to give their
whole lives to the will of God. I think almost everyone there made some kind
of decision. Several young men surrendered their lives to be preachers. A few
of the young people trusted Christ during the week. Many of them decided to
be a witness and a testimony at school this year. The spirit was excellent!
I was encouraged to meet so many fine young people who have a burden to reach
their own people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All four of my own children
made some kind of a decision about serving God with their lives. I'm so glad
we went.
We went from that conference to another one in Kharkov - an unusual outreach
ministry to unsaved kids. They were invited to come to a summer sports conference
where they would learn to play American baseball, which is an unknown sport
over here. People have heard of it, but nobody plays the game or has ever even
seen it on television. The idea generated a lot of interest! Flyers were distributed
around the area, and it was made plain that the baseball training would be sponsored
by a Baptist church, and that religious instruction would be part of the program.
Children had to have parental permission to attend. About 50 kids attended the
entire week. They heard Gospel preaching every day, and had baseball training
afterwards. Baseball can be used to teach a lot of practical lessons about life.
I was able to preach once at this conference, too.
The kids really responded to the game of baseball! There was a big game between
the two teams on Saturday afternoon. My kids really enjoyed the opportunity
to play. I got to play, too! I pitched an inning, and I played catcher for awhile.
Most important, though, was the way the Ukrainian kids responded to the Gospel.
About 35 of them gave their hearts to Jesus during the week. Sunday night was
an "awards ceremony" at the church. Many of the parents came, and they heard
the Gospel, too.
Back home in Oryol, we continue to distribute more of the thousands of New Testaments
that came to us from BIMI's project "Bibles to Eastern Europe". We have given
away about 9000 of them this year in our city. We like to go to some of the
public squares where the war memorials are. It's a tradition here for newlywed
couples to go to all the monuments on their wedding day and place flowers in
honor of those who died for their country. (I think that's a good tradition!)
We enjoy meeting the wedding parties next to the monument with congratulations
and a gift - a New Testament! It's not uncommon to meet 8 to 10 wedding groups
in one day and give each person their gift.
School will soon be starting, so we see a lot of new students coming to attend
the many colleges and universities here in Oryol. We will be there to give many
of them a New Testament and a Gospel witness.
I wish I had the space to tell you all about the two weeks that we were stranded
in Ukraine in August due to paperwork problems. We made good use of the time
helping some of our missionary friends in Kiev, Kharkov, and Simferopol. You
can read all the details on our website.
We continue to have Sunday meetings in our home. Ten different people have visited
our services so far! Pray that more would come, and that we will be able to
find a better meeting place soon.
In the service of the King,
Don Ossewaarde