Years ago my son Caleb and I took our first trip to Odessa, Ukraine. It was a new and strange world to us in 1994. We had heard much about the Iron Curtain that had fallen and the collapse of the USSR. Now we were there to help establish a training center for Ukrainian pastors who were enjoying new freedoms; some had been in prison for their faith before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On a street car one evening we noticed people celebrating. A few passengers were downing vodka too. It was Ukraine’s Independence Day which happened three years earlier on August 24th of 1991. People were enjoying their freedom from the USSR. We were invited to the party.
Caleb and I meeting the goat herders while wall building in Odessa in 1994. See wall in background.
We had been working hard that week trying to get a cement wall built around the future training center. Local goat herders began to watch us at work one day. We befriended them. Later one thanked us with a jug of warm goat milk. It was unpasteurized of course. It also was “warm” symbol of acceptance to us and the beginning of ministry to that part of the world that continues today. God works in strange ways.
That ministry resulted in many trips there for me as I sensed God’s leading. Eventually our daughter Rachel felt called and applied to serve there full time in 2004. She was single then. Ironically she met her husband-to-be on that first trip. Only God could have planned this.
Our Caleb was to follow also. He was newly married to Christina from Ukraine. They actually met in the US. They prepared and went in 2008 to serve in Odessa on the Black Sea.
The second moment to remember in this time line was on Ukraine’s Independence Day Aug. 24, 2022. That is the day Caleb and family returned to Odessa after a brief rest here this summer. They departed while Rachel and Mike came for some R & R and ministry before returning also. We had a blessed big family party as we bid Caleb’s family goodbye again.
Caleb and family prepare to return to Ukraine. He is the one with the big beard. :-) Mike near the right has the hat and Pray for Ukraine shirt. Vladimir and I are the grandpas that look alike (Me on the left and Vladimir in the center). Pray for us too.
All is well, they have arrived safely in Odessa. Keep both families in prayer as they seek to minister in a country at war. Is it worth the risk? Yes! Many people are turning to Christ during this unique time of ministry.
Pastor Mark
Note that this Sunday Pastor Juan Carlo Magallanes will be speaking at Discovery as he reports on his ministry to Hispanics in Quincy, WA. Let us all welcome him.