Update on Ukraine #10 Borderland Bible Belt

It’s been difficult watching this war unfold. In recent days Russia started backing off and focusing more to the East. If that continues it is good news. Why? A quick look at history may help.

Ukrainian’s desire to rule itself came out strongly during WWI when the Ukrainian People’s Republic was formed. It later became part of the Soviet Union which existed starting in 1922. It was made up of 15 republics of which Ukraine was the largest (about like Texas). Russian was the stated language vs. Ukrainian.

“The Breadbasket of the USSR” was what Russia called her since she raised so much grain. In the 1930’s Stalin sent government agents to cruelly steal the grain crops and take them to Russia. This caused a manufactured famine as four million Ukrainians starved to death. The hunger we are seeing today is a result of Russia’s attacks again that bring back bad memories, So far 3,455 civilians have died there since February. About 15,000 Russian soldiers and 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have also been killed. That is the negative side of things as we reflect.

Believers in Makarovo, Ukraine welcoming Norm and our team with traditional bread and salt gift which symbolizes the good and bitter of life.. .

Believers in Ukrainian village having outdoor service by their new building.

Suddenly on December 26th 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became a free country again. What happened spiritually in Ukraine next was incredible. Pastors who had been imprisoned under atheistic communism now were released. They soon asked for assistance from the West to help their churches.

Believers at new Makarovo church.

That call was heard by my son Caleb and I via our mission agency (ABWE). We went in 1994 to help build a place for pastors to be better trained in the Scriptures. Previously they were self-trained. We made multiple trips with groups from our church as did others across the US. Soon a Training Institute was established in Odessa. This was one of many theological institutes that were started in the country. Even Pastor John MacArthur established a seminary in the Irpin area near Kiev. Two of my children became full time missionaries there at the turn of the century. They still minister there today helping evangelize, train and start churches for the generations to come.

Ukraine became the “Bible Belt” of what was the old Soviet Union. As you may know DBC helped establish or support various churches in Ukraine as well as Moldova. Baptists was one of the largest groups. Some Ukrainians went to Russia to preach Christ and establish churches.  One young Ukrainian friend went to Siberia to serve.

New church being built in Moldova several years ago Pastor Vasiliy Kaletnik.

Many of these churches in country are helping with Ukrainians caught in the current war. They are praying and helping in many ways. Christ is building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Click below for an update on the Gospel in Ukraine & Russia and the impact it makes today. My friend Duane Early paint a great picture about what is going on in the midst of war. God is at work. Continue to pray for our and other missionaries over there.

https://www.abwe.org/blog/jesus-among-soviets-duane-early-russia-ukraine-and-god-s-faithfulness

Pastor Mark

Palm Sunday is Apr. 10th. Join us for a pancake breakfast from 7:30 to 8:00am. Early service starts at 8:30.

A GRAND VIEW AHEAD: Reflections of a Light Keeper

When a ship nears her destination they watch for landfall. That is when they first see land. It was a moment to celebrate for ancient mariners who often didn’t know with any accuracy where they were. Landfall could be a distant mountain, land of some kind, or a lighthouse that cast it’s beam far out to sea. Read Acts 27 for Paul’s gripping description of being lost at sea and running aground on Malta in the Mediterranean. It is the best example we have giving insight into how ancient mariners found their way before even the compass was invented. Recently I visited Malta and swam near the spot where the people on Paul’s ship all swam ashore. I didn’t swim in a storm but nice warm waters of summer.:-)

Our good ship Discovery made landfall at Gig Harbor in August of 1988. Our church had started eight years earlier in a rustic lodge near Arletta. There the Lord brought people into our “boat” as we grew spiritually and eventually even bought some land. But, we needed to find a more central location to dock for awhile until we could build our own building. It was discouraging since we had little funds.

Then Dennis Davenport came to me saying he had found a better rental facility. It was the old Assembly of God building on Grandview St. next to the freeway and in Gig Harbor. They had moved into a new building but were renting out the old church. It had a nice auditorium upstairs, and downstairs it had restrooms, a few class rooms, a kitchen, and a fellowship hall. We soon rented it and shared it with a resident day care again. We had made landfall in Gig Harbor on Grandview St.. It was clearly another providential God-send so we rejoiced and quickly moved in. The Lord had opened the door for us at just the right time. We were only feet from the freeway and a few blocks from downtown. Cars whizzed unnoticed except when a trucker’s CB transmissions overrode my preaching briefly with a “Breaker, breaker good buddy, this is…” etc. Perhaps our preaching service was breaking in on them with some Scripture and the Gospel.

Finding landfall reminds me of a fascinating story an elderly lighthouse keeper’s wife told me. One morning in 1923 she heard a knock at the door of their keepers quarters. Outside were several sailors who had stumbled up the beach to call for help and a cup of coffee. The problem was that seven U.S. Navy destroyers had been on maneuvers but had gotten off course and slammed into the rocky beach of Honda Point at 20 knots near Santa Barbara. This was prior to modern electronic navigation. It was the largest peace time loss of Navy ships killing 23 men and injuring 100 others. It was foggy that morning so they couldn’t see. There’s a monument with one of the ship’s propellers on a bluff overlooking the crash site.

My point is you have to see a lighthouse light or hear the fog horn to avoid the danger. Our church was now in Gig Harbor, but could people see our light or hear our message? Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. “ (Mat. 5:14-16). Therefore, we began to reach out with brochures about our church, a youth program, and even put a steeple on the building easily seen by the thousands of cars passing on highway 16. People could find us much easier since we were more visible to the community. For the next eight years we would be there and grow.

During that time another seminary family, Don & Katie Valen, also joined us. Ironically, they had come from Kodiak, where we had also come from. They were moving toward full time ministry and so started our youth ministry at Discovery.

Then in 1994 Caleb and I had an opportunity to help on a mission project in Ukraine following the fall of the Soviet Union. Ukraine had declared independence from Russia so the door was now open for mission work. We responded to a mission agency (A.B.W.E.) to erect a portion of a concrete wall around a future school for pastors near Odessa on the Black Sea. Pastors had little theological training and few bibles so they had asked for help from the West.

When we arrived we were shocked by the need of the church after seventy years of persecution and government sanctioned atheism. So we returned the following year to again help build on the school. During this time we had various opportunities to develop relationships in churches that we still pray for and assist to this day. We saw the plight of people who lived in culture with little of even the simple things we enjoy in America. But the greatest need was the Gospel of Jesus Christ which changes lives. This was where my grandparents came from a century earlier. We had the opportunity to visit villages and saw life that was at least a century behind what we knew. The cities were also run down by communism. People often didn’t have even basic medical care. At that point I committed myself to the Lord to do whatever I could do to help them the remainder of my life.

Building a wall around future training center for pastors.

Caleb, myself, our cook, and Curt Sager taking a break for lunch on building site in Odeassa.

Church building we helped construct in the farm village of Makarovo.

Eventually my daughter Rachel and my son Caleb felt the call to full time missions in Ukraine where they live today. Today Discovery supports a total of six full time ministry families there planting churches; four out of the six are nationals. I have returned there many times along with others from our church who have also come for short term ministry.

After eight years at Grandview St. we received news that the building was for sale. The Nazarene’s were interested in buying it. We considered it also since we didn’t have a place to go. So we both made offers and we lost. As the Nazarene church moved in we were asked to move out eventually. Where would we go? We had bought a small piece of ground on Wollochet Dr. but we were not ready to build.

So we called for a week of prayer to see what God wanted. We had to find another temporary location before we could build. But financially we were not ready to build. In my mind I felt that if we couldn’t find a location that we would close the church and I would seek full time ministry, with our family, in Ukraine. An invitation was also extended to me by one of the missionaries there.

So we had our first prayer meeting to seek God’s will. That morning I was meeting with group of our men to pray. In the first round of prayer I suddenly remembered a letter I had received months before. It was from Harbor Covenant Church offering a free portable building. Hummm? Could we move this to the small tract we had on Wollochet and meet there until we eventually built?

Immediately I went home and found the letter in a forgotten stack of mail. I called the number and a gentleman from the Harbor Covenant Church met me to show the double wide mobile building they had. Then he said, “We also are selling the house and barn on 3.5 acres across the street.” It didn’t have the for sale sign on it yet but he showed it to me. It was a perfect place for us to purchase. It was central in the area and a larger site to build on eventually. It seemed logical to sell the other smaller site which by now had appreciated significantly. I presented the plan to our board and to our regional fellowship leaders who all agreed this was a good site. Within a week we had sealed the deal. Larry Ellsworth, one of our men, signed the papers to close on September 7th, 1995 which was exactly fifteen years from the time we started.

But, we before we could occupy this wooded site by a stream, we had to decide where on the site our small group could meet. I’ll tell you more about that next time.

Pastor Mark

PRAY FOR OUR BUILDING PROJECT THIS WEEK: Our 8th week of building since breaking ground July 5th.

Pray for Dan as he leads the Mountain Construction crew ahead.

Praise that the stem walls of the basement and new auditorium were poured this week. See pics below.

Pray now for prepping of the basement and auditorium floor area with a 4” layer of recycled crushed concrete over the future floor area. You will notice five 4’x4’ shallow holes in the gravel base floor. These holes will have extra thick concrete for the base of the five posts upholding the class room floors above.

Continue to pray as they appeal to county to accept a standard asphalt parking lot vs pervious.

SUNDAY, AUG 30, 3:30 PM Brief Church Business Meeting to vote on moving forward with construction and increasing the loan as needed.

Pray for any late Commitment Cards for the 2020 DBC Building Fund Commitment which were due last Sunday.