Ben and Kristy Blog

Prayers for our Women’s Retreat

We (Josiah Venture Ukraine, made up of me, Brittney, and Cameron, my female teammates) are hosting a girls/women leadership retreat outside of L’viv 2/19-21

We invited female leaders and potential leaders from the ~ 10 different churches that we have worked closely with in Ukraine. We’ve been planning the event for a while, and at this point in the calendar, I always feel anxious about who will actually show up. Ukrainians aren’t accustomed to RSVP, and sometimes attendance depends on what ever else cool or uneventful might be happening that weekend. I tend to take the “no’s” personally. I need faith! It’s just that we work so hard and REALLY want no one to miss it. Such conferences are few and far between in this land.

Pray for faith that God will bring us exactly who He desires. Pray that we fill all 40 spots. Pray for over half of our guest, who will be traveling to get to us. Pray for our speakers from Slovakia. Pray that this will be a valuable time for the girls to be encouraged in Christian leadership and to realize the great potential that God has placed on them to partner in the Gospel.

International Games Parties

Much thanks to those of you have been praying since fall semester for the launching of a new ministry to help Ukrainian Christian youth reach out to some of the thousands of foreign, study abroad students in our city. They are mostly Muslim students from Morocco, and there are a few Chinese guys as well with whom our group has connected. It all started with a visit to their USL classroom (Ukrainian as a Second Language), which our language tutor is a big part of organizing. From there, Ben just kept inviting them to soccer every week, and word spreads fast. We’ve seen at least 20 different international students come out to soccer over the past few months. They have their regulars, and relationships are slowly forming.

Through Christmas we’d been praying for some kind of break through to connect deeper, regardless of language barriers. Our church joined us in praying, and since then, we’ve had two Wii/Playstation games parties, visited their classroom again, and have had multiple visits to their dorms, which may be the better place to hang out, since there are international student pods there. The students’ Ukrainian is improving, too! I was most impressed by a deep discussion about the Koran v. the Bible, which Syava and one guy had. Please pray for the development of this ministry. We believe that spring has some new things in store, and may they taste and see that Our Lord is good and that only the God of the Bible is worthy of following.

Just How Valuable Is Your Marriage?

After crashing at our students’ apt. over the Ukr/Polish border on Sunday night, we drove in our frozen van the 6+ hours to Krakow for a JV large- scale marriage conference, talking pretty much non-stop the entire ride, and getting KFC and Polish McDonalds every stop we could (the menu is better than the Ukr McDs, but we’re not complaining. And who brags about going to KFC? Missionaries do.)

We’d found an old marriage survey from our great leaders, the Laremores, a pastor and his wife from NJ who invested weekly into our marriage for our first 3+ years. It was basically a questionnaire of “how am I doing as your spouse in the following categories?”

• I pray with my spouse on a regular basis. I pray for my spouse on a regular basis.
• I praise my spouse in public. I do not speak unwholesomely about my husband/wife to others.
• I encourage my spouse to grow as an individual, and allow them to pursue personal interests, talents, …
• I speak honestly and openly to my spouse.
• Particularly in conflict, I treat my wife with love/I treat my husband with respect
• I enter into my spouse’s “world” and invite them to better understand yours.
• Do we invite Christ into all personal problems.
• Am I living with the power of the Holy Spirit?

That questionnaire launched us into a 4-day conference that was wonderful, first looking at the design of man and woman from God’s point of view, then going through a seminar on repentance and fixing heart issues, not just trying unsuccessfully to change behaviors, really discussing what it means to be one flesh (and what that does NOT mean, i.e. you are not to be one with your children; you are not to live parallel lives that sometimes coincide; dealing with problems in physical intimacy), how he needs unconditional respect and she needs unconditional love, and so on. Each day there were blocks of hours allotted for us to take alone time, answering more and more questions, dealing with deep issues that don’t get resolved in the day-in and day-out of marriage. There were a lot of lightbulb moments, like “oh, so that’s why she reacts like that.” and “I never even realized I was cutting him down when I do that.”

We went into this believing that we have a strong, healthy marriage. We left, thrilled with the areas that God clearly showed us we need to work on, humbled by the verse “do not think you are standing firm, lest you fall”, and excited by the fact that it can keep getting better, especially when the Holy Spirit is the constant center (not just when we remember to invite Him in, or when we’re desperate for help in some area.)

While Away from Blog Land…

In trying to identify why such blog silence (if 2 weeks is really silent at all) is because the first week after elections I realized that weather (-25 C = -13 F)  and the apartment are zapping every ounce of energy we have! We canceled language lessons for a week and gave our 110% to finish buying everything we need for the final remodeling details. It was below zero every day, as we headed out in 3 layers of clothing, praying that the van would start, keeping the battery on the heated bathroom floor overnight, in hopes that we’d able to drive and not have to walk around each day. Our van, a ‘94 Volkswagen (diesel) was out of commission for 3 days, simply from the chill. And we were trying not to panic because we knew we were going to Krakow (8 hrs. away) for almost a week, and wouldn’t be available to troubleshoot problems and buy materials. Thank goodness we hired a wonderful project manager, who helped us make sure everything was in place.

I remember going to bed on Saturday, not sure if our van would even make it to Poland the next day, feeling like a slave to this apartment. We really needed the trip to Poland! We’ve been praying about our time investment in this apt. effort, and we believe God has blessed us with a great opportunity, the project has gone considerably smooth considering some very odd circumstances, and there is only a month left in the project, which has actually come in UNDER budget. We just needed to get out of dodge and invest our energy in something even more valuable than property: our marriage. Read above for more details of a remarkable conference.

They Say We Need A Revolution

At our youth New Years Eve party, I mentioned (in a blog post) that we played Steal Bingo/Anonymous Gift Exchange/Polyana/DirtySanta (whatever you and your friends call that game) at 6:30am. I was lucky enough to receive a really nice, hard-covered day planner, where you write in the dates yourself, so you can insert pages of notes wherever you wish. You aren’t limited to a month or whatever. I live for planners like this. I am a journaler and one who writes out the details of each day to make sure that I’m accountable for my time, esp. as a missionary. (One of my biggest struggles in full-time ministry is figuring out when to say no, how to rest, and how to separate school/friends/student time, and remain faithful. It’s been 3 years. The journal/planner is one way to stay sane during insane periods of my life.)

Once a month, I “clean out” my email, and make sure that I am caught up with finances, bills, and communication with certain people. As I read emails, there is frequently the phrase “Hey, can you pray for…” – I then take a page out of the journal and try to be faithful to the requests. Tonight Ben brought to mind a HUGE prayer request for tomorrow:

UKRAINIAN ELECTION DAY is Sunday, January 17. Yikes. This holds a lot for this country, since 5 years ago the elections were corrupt, the Orange party demanded a recount, and then the corrupt loser poisoned the winner, disfiguring him and leaving Ukraine in a revolution. Five years have passed. We’ve been reading articles about people selling their votes, and that if you show on your mobile phone camera that you voted for Yanykovich (the same sore loser who poisoned the current president), you will get an equivalent of $10-20. And let’s just say that people will do it.

JOIN US IN PRAYING FOR FAIR ELECTIONS. Right now there are almost 20 candidates/parties. Anyone with more than 3% of the votes gets a say in Parliament. The two winners will go on to a second “tour” which will decide the final president in the Spring. If this corrupt guy gets elected, Ukraine is heading towards Russia and Russian will become an official country language. (His Ukrainian is embarrassingly terrible.) If the Princess with the Braid gets elected, that means other issues with corruption, but at least she is West-leaning. We would vote for someone not at all aligned with the oligarchs who stole all the industries in 1992 and are billionaires. The rich keep getting richer while the country weakens. Grrr…

Christ is Born! Let us praise Him!

Go to Facebook or www.benandkristy.com/pictures/gallery2 to see more photos!

The title of this blog is the traditional Ukrainian Christmas greeting. Where we say “Merry Christmas” in the States (which, to Satan’s delight, is offensive to many), the Ukrainians, at least in the western part of the country (different sides of the country have different customs), praise the birth of the King of Kings. All over Lviv are big nativity displays, and posters that celebrate Jesus’ first coming. Go figure – this country under severe communism and prohibition of religious practice for many decades is proudly announcing Christ, and our country, so proud of its freedoms and tolerance, must keep such expressions subdued. (Now we just have to get these dear Ukrainians to live for Christ with their lives, not just believing that the Messiah was born 2,000 yrs. ago, w/o any affect on their lives today. It has all the significance in the world! In this life, and more importantly, in life to come.)

I left off blogging just a day or two ago, inundated with homework for the new quarter, and not sure how we’d end up spending the Orthodox Christmas. All changed after our Christmas morning 1/7 church service, when a bunch of our youth with no family traditions on that day, grabbed their left-overs from Christmas Eve on the 6th, and had Christmas Lunch at Yulia’s house. Wow, it was Ukrainian and awesome. We even played Family Feud in English while waiting for lunch to be ready. At 5pm, we left for what ended up being 2 full evenings of Christmas Caroling, a big tradition for the youth in our church. We bundled up, wore matching hats and scarfs, and sang our hearts out to countless apartments and houses in the neighborhoods around the church. You can imagine the sight – there were over 20 of us each night! Many families were actually waiting and hoping that our group would come, all prepared with donations (common for good carolers to make a few hundred bucks)  and snacks for our group. We even caroled at the widow of Chornovil, a famous Ukrainian nationalist with a giant monument in Lviv. It was freezing and snowing, but the mood was incredible. At each house, we sang 3-5 songs and recited 3 poems. (Ben and I tried to stay in the back with some of the “tough, cool guys” because we only knew the lyrics well to maybe half.) I can’t really explain it, but for sure the Holy Spirit went before us as we sang about Jesus and asked Him to fill those houses those 2 nights. I kept thinking about the youth of Lviv, and how it is that generation that is going to bring joy and hope to this area of the world. It was really a privilege to celebrate in such a way with the kids and church that we care so much about.

Last night was especially fun because we convinced the group to carol to one building in the center, where they thought our language tutor lived. It was actually our new apt. building, and we started at our place, inviting them into this dust-infested shell of an apt. They were confused, because we hadn’t really let people know about our place yet. When we told them that we bought a place, there was much rejoicing. But we were even more encouraged when we went down to the 2nd floor and caroled for both neighbors, who were actually home that night! They were excited to meet us (we’d met one and not the other), and I am praying that God will use such an introduction to not only foster good relations with the 2 other residents in our building, but also that they would know about our work for Christ in this city.

One Man’s Christmas, Another Man’s School Day

Today marks Ukrainian Christmas Eve (called the Holy Evening, or the Generous Night). We weren’t sure exactly what our plans would be today, since, according to all the traditional Ukrainian texts we read in our lessons, it is a huge ordeal with a giant meal, consisting of 12 vegetarian dishes, including certain items they only eat at Christmas. Tomorrow (Thursday, Jan. 7) will be a 10am church service, when we will finally start singing Christmas songs this holiday season. (Why we’ve yet to is beyond us, but perhaps something associated with the lack of Advent celebrated here.) Although humbling to have no plans but staying at home on this special holiday, we used it to get started in our 2nd quarter of grad school. Every new class requires a big chunk of time to sit down, get familiar with the material, the expectations, the assignments, and to get to know your online classmates. This quarter is a bit different than last because the 25 members of the class are considered our cohort, and we will be primarily studying with them (at least core classes, but not necessarily electives) for the next 2+ years, quarter by quarter. We will also have 2 two-week on-campus intensives in 2010 and 2011. It’s pretty neat, since there are students from all over the world in the group. Since the master’s degree is global leadership, that is a pretty big pre-req for the class. (Experience in missions, if not full-time at least.) It is clear that God has big plans for us in pursuing this degree.

I actually forgot to write a blog post about the outcome of the Systematic Theology class that we finished on 12/11. We keep praying that God will use these classes to impact our students in Lviv. After studying the theology of the Trinity for weeks (my favorite subject of the entire class), I invited all the girls in our youth group over for a big American dinner, and then we studied the first chapter of Hebrews together. That chapter happens to be entirely about Jesus as God’s diety equal. It was so fun to teach and be able to pad the material with course material from Fuller. Pray for us, that this next class will have an impact as well.

Happy New Year 2010!

We did something we haven’t done in ages – we rang in the new year with an all-nighter with the young people from our church. There were 25 of us. But the festivities started hours earlier. Our church here functions like a family – it is always so evident how Ukrainian believers love being together. New Years is a holiday that is as big as Christmas. So it made sense that our church gathered at 5pm for singing, many, many words of encouragement and reflection on God’s 2009 blessings, a kids’ program, and plenty of food for everyone. That lasted for 3.5 hrs. Here is a 1-min. video from the night. Pastor Misha and Halya singing at New Years Celebration

Prayer and Singing to Ring in the New Year

Afterwards, there was a break until 11pm, when the youth New Years’ party began. Everything about celebrating New Years here and there (US) is different for us – the time of the party (11pm – 8am), the food (a full meal of cabbage salads, chicken, and potatoes), there was a full program, planned by our youth leaders; while the fireworks were sounding from every street in Lviv outside (they don’t do a central 10. min. show – they do 5 sec. shows in most streets/neighborhoods), we stood in a circle and prayed in the New Year. By the time the prayers were over, so were the fireworks. We did sparklers inside. When people started getting really tired, we brought out Nintendo Wii (thanks, Mom W.) and Monopoly. Some time around 6:30am we started our Steal Bingo game. We got home at 8am and slept all day! But it was a really fun night. A highlight for us was that there were a handful of kids who for sure had never spent such a holiday with our church before. We are looking forward to great things in 2010.

Never before have I craved Dad’s appetizers so badly!

It’s about 5am here. It was so fun to play Monopoly with boys who’d never seen the game before. Then Misha did some amazing card tricks, which probably seemed even more amazing, considering how exhausted we were.

Ternopil Camp Visit

The weekend before Christmas we had a very successful, blessed time visiting “New Life” and “Druzhba” churches in Ternopil, where we did camp with Blanchard Alliance Church (Wheaton, IL) last July. Like Paul did with Timothy and many of his other missionary travel companions, we enjoy inviting our students to join us in these city visits. Syava and Yulia were at camp with us in Ternopil last year, and Sergiy is dating a girl in Ternopil, so the 5 of us spent 2 nights and 3 full days meeting with students, leading a youth group service, I think Ben preached 3 times that weekend, visiting a village church that meets in a one-room house, meeting one-on-one with the head leaders to brainstorm plans for this coming year, we led a youth leader training where we had about 15 leaders hearing about different stages of Christian development, and how to minister to students in each category. We were guests at a boy from camp, Nazar’s house, which was special. He’s 14. His parents live and work in England. His grandmother raises them in Ukraine. Ben and I were talking after this visit, and would love for God to give us some “Nazars” like these guys in Ternopil – these young men were hungry to hang out non-stop with us, hungry for relationships. One repented at camp, but he needs a male in his life to really help grow him in the faith. Perhaps there are young men like this in Lviv – perhaps God would bring them to us. The young men we do have like this are, unfortunately, stuck in the juvenile rehab center at the moment. But there must be others!

The weather was below zero F, and the ice and snow was treacherous, so we took the electric train. It was an adventure! Now we must pray for God to clearly show us our plans to bless Ternopil this summer, and exactly what that will look like. We praise God for the fruit seen in students after camp, and we pray for these diligent youth leaders to not grow weary in their ministry, even when the results are almost always less than we dream for.

Mr. Gorbachov, Tear Down That Wall

Considering our lives and our organization are entrenched in the effects of Communism and the USSR, Berlin holds unique history for missionaries working in former Soviet Europe. A history of freedom, a fight between authoritarianism and capitalism, the devastation that WW2 brought about, the struggle for power, the suppression of religion, the demand for freedom.

The past weekend spent in Berlin sent me back to the book “The Cold War”, which suddenly has new meaning after spending significant time in a city where communists and capitalists struggled for power and caused some of the biggest hardship that Europe has ever known. I may have only been 9 when the wall came down, but it doesn’t change the impact I feel when I read stories of the Berlin wall going up overnight, when I hear stories about Checkpoint Charlie and the American sector of a city surrounded by Marx-Leninists who deceived millions about a “better life”.

“You could go from socialism…to capitalism in two minutes.” “The obvious differences in living standards had caused “great dissatisfaction” within the Soviet zone”, a Kremlin leader admitted. “The presence in Berlin of an open and essentially uncontrolled border between the socialist and capitalist worlds unwittingly prompts the population to make a comparison between both parts of the city, which, unfortunately, does not always turn out in favor of Democratic East Berlin.” President Kennedy responded around the time of August 12-13, 1961, as the wall went up over night, “It’s not a very nice solution, but a wall is a he** of a lot better than a war.” The president could not resist observing, though, when he himself visted the Berlin Wall in June, 1963, that “we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us.” The ugly structure Khrushchev had erected was “the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see…and on the other side of the wall, capitalism was succeeding. Stalin, Khrushchev, and Mao promised their people a better life under communism that capitalism could ever provide…[t]he prospects of socialism as a world alternative depended on its ability to compete with the world capitalist economy, as reformed after the 2nd World War,” Hobsbawm concluded. “That socialism was falling behind at an accelerating rate was patent after 1960. It was no longer competitive.” For Marxism and its successors cannot be judged on their economic performance alone. The human costs were far more horrendous. These [communist] ideologies, when put into practice, may well have brought about the premature deaths, during the 20th century, of almost 100 MILLION people. The number who survived but whose lives were stunted by these ideas and the repression they justified is beyond estimation. There can be few examples in history in which greater misery resulted from better intentions. (The Cold War, John Lewis Gaddis, excerpts from pgs. 113-118)

And honestly, not a day goes by in this culture that we don’t see the effects of communism, its aesthetic ugliness, its broken systems, the stunted growth of those who quickly forget about the injustice and want to return to dictatorship, waiting in line for days for a piece of meat or a cup of milk, receiving a 10×12 room as your house with a shared kitchen and bathroom for the building, having no freedom of religion, no freedom of speech, no right to choose. Thank goodness that Ukraine has reformed too drastically to actually return to such living, but the future of this country is still gray and unknown.  Join us in praying for Ukraine in these next few months. We believe that God hears the prayers of His saints, even prayers as big as change for an entire country. Presidential elections begin in the 2-3rd week of January, and the 2 primary candidates are both crooks, have both been sentenced in the past to prison for corruption, have shady ties with all the oligarchs and billionaires who unfairly took everything that was of any value in Ukraine when Communism collapsed. All they want is to increase their own pockets at whatever the cost, caring little for the future of Ukraine. And they will do ANYTHING to win. (One of these candidates is the former opponent of current pres. Yushchenko, who poisoned him in hopes for a victory.) There are other candidates who are wiser, more neutral, and there is even a 35 yr. old man who would do an amazing job of representing a new generation and a new future for Ukraine. (Go Yatsenyuk!) However, Ukrainians are easily deceived by empty promises, esp. by financial perks that are in NO way going to realize themselves, (esp. not now, since the IMF has withheld a loan installment because, “of the inability of the country’s politicians to get the budget under control.” (NYT 12/10/09) Instead, they are competing with false promises about what 20% pension increases they can give to people, during an economic crisis that is at an all-time low since Ukraine’s independence in the early 90s. It is a circus here. Pray for us, that the nonsense in the government will not harden our hearts to Ukrainians and the even greater need than ever to point the next generation to Jesus Christ. Only in Him can this country truly reform.