This is soviet, be careful.

When you are waiting in line to board the plane you are about to jump out of it really isn't all that comforting to see someone do engine work on the plane. Welcome to Ukraine.

When we showed up (Chris Mahar, an old bible college buddy and myself) to go skydiving we should have known that it was going to be sketchy. It was. The veteran who fought in the Afghan war from the 80's gave us 3 hours of instruction. Us and 80 other lucky youngsters. He liked the fact that we were Yankees, he kept telling us how the USSR stuff was way better than NATO stuff. Yeah right.

We were using WWII era equipment that some guys had used fighting Germans. I liked to imagine that the Russian wearing my gear lived through the jump because I didn't think I was going to.

The plane looked like a tin can with some wings, it sounded like a popcorn machine falling through the sky.

I was the first one to jump and let's just say I was standing at the door of the plane for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the guy to hit me on the back and say "your gone!"

Once I fell out I was doing summersaults and flipping like a gymnast. My chute took and then peace, that is all I can say. From the tin can, guys yelling, falling, wind, freaking out, to total peace and quiet. I took a photo while in the air and then started thinking about how to land.

They said that you could control the chute, they weren't being all that truthful. You land wherever the wind wants you to land.

I forgot to disable my safety chute and had to land with two chute open, which made for difficulties. Once I hit the ground I was drug about 2 miles before being able to knock the wind out of my chutes.

Maybe this isn't all that missionary but I definitely learned a lot about the Soviet mind. I think my little trip outside of town to jump out of a plane taught me more about the USSR than all of the books I have ever read.

I highly recommend it. In the last 25 years no one has died.

Blessings,
Jake

IN LUMINE

What does that mean? It is Latin for "in the light".
Where did it come from? I searched through the Latin vulgate for a few hours looking for a cool sounding phrase.
Why? I needed a name for our newspaper. I wanted something strange to get peoples attention.

It has evolved a bit since then. Now it is the name of our Publishing house. After bellyaching for a few years that there are no good books in Russian I decided to try to get some printed up. After reading "the passion of Jesus Christ" by Piper I thought that it would be a good book to start off with.

Since then we secured rights to two other books by Piper through Crossway books - "God is the gospel" and "seeing and savoring Jesus Christ" should be in hand by Christmas.

I am convinced that this is something God really wants me to put effort into because I have been so blessed by reading quality books like those above and I know that He will bless others as well, namely, those that I don't know and will never meet on this little earth who live in Russia and Ukraine. Printing books will build their faith and further the kingdom of God.

I guess you can say that I love reading and have grown to love God more through reading. I highly recommend good Christian reading. It wasn't an accident that God spoke to mankind through a book and I know that it wasn't another accident that he appointed teachers in the church and books to be the means teachers equip!

I am shooting for 6 books in 06'. Lord willing it will happen.

Please pray that the Lord will provide the amount still needed to print 7,000 books next month.

Blessings,
Jake

my first post.

Hello,

Here is an update I sent out a few days back on what is happening here in Chernigov. Hope it helps!

Hi folks,

We have started up our English club again and would appreciate your prayers. A handful of believers in our church have come to know the Lord through our previous club and I really believe that God wants to use this event again to make himself known. Pray that the unbelievers would see that knowing God and having a right relationship with him (as seen in us) is much better than life apart from him. I pray that we would be a powerful testimony of the goodness and value of following Christ.

Conor and Koren, who recently moved up to Chernigov to join the mission team, have had to take an unexpected emergency trip back to the states. Their little girl Emma was very sick and not getting better. Turns out she has Celiac disease, which means she can't eat anything with wheat in it. Thankfully, she is getting better now that they know what the problem is and they are planning on returning as soon as her health is restored. Pray for them to be strengthened by God and for the health of Emma.

The church is doing well. It seems that many have taken certain responsibilities upon themselves and we are functioning a lot more like a body. I am blessed and hope to see God give more direction and vision to the individuals in church. Pray for greater faith to go forward as a body in the purposes God has for us.

I am planning on taking a trip to St. Petersburg to the annual Christian Publishers book exhibition in early December. I really believe that God wants me to continue pursuing translating quality literature into Russian. We are working on two more books and hoping to have them in hand by the end of the year. I hope to shoot for 6 books in '06. Please pray for open doors, relationships to be built with others who are publishing here, and the Lord's guidance and provision.

I am currently writing new articles for our newspaper and hoping to have a larger print run with more material to reach the whole city this time. Pray that it would be an instrument of truth confronting the 300,000 people living in total ignorance of the things of God.

I personally am doing well and appreciate your prayers and support. I really believe that God wants to save many souls in Chernigov and would ask that you pray for a spiritual reformation to take place here.

Oh, that these people would regard God's name as holy and honor Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior! Pray for God's light to shine into the darkened hearts and that it would bring the spiritually blind to see and deaf to hear their maker calling them to come!

Sincerely,
Jake

Autumn in Ukraine- an update from the Footes

Greetings from Ukraine!

It's been a beautiful fall this year here in Ukraine. The weather has been abnormally warm and sunny and we've been enjoying the fall colors.

Usually in these updates I just write about how we are doing and the things we are involved in, but I would like to give you a little bigger picture this time so that you can know what God is doing here in Kagarlyk.

This summer a small group from the church started visiting the children in the local hospital once a week. The hospital system here in Ukraine is quite different from the American hospital system. Here it is a place where you go to be treated for any sickness you have. If you have a bad cold you check into the hospital for a week. So in the hospital there are generally people with anything from bronchitis to the flu to kidney problems. And they just sit in the hospital doing nothing all day. It is a great time to share God's love, to pray for people, and visit bored and lonely kids. So the group of two or three ladies go each week and share about Jesus, bring the kids a snack, and color or read a Bible story with the kids. It is great to see the church going out to people with God's love.

There is a missionary here from New Zealand named Magdala. She, for the past year, has been teaching English classes for anyone in the city who wants to learn English. This fall she was joined by a young lady in the church who is finishing her teaching degree and together they are broadening their classes to teach ages 9 and up. They have kids, teenagers and adults come to the classes, some of them Christians from the church and the rest just people who want to learn to speak English. Through the lessons their goal is to build relationships with their students and show God's love and what it means to have a relationship with Him.

Over the past few years Calvary Chapel Kagarlyk has set up a computer lab and offered computer classes for kids who want to learn how to use computers (and some who just want to play computer games after the lesson). This fall some of the people who taught the classes have decided to be involved in different ministries, but there are still a couple of classes a week. The goal of this ministry is to be able to build relationships with kids, to have good wholesome environment where they can come and learn something useful as well as have fun, and to show them that God loves them.

Then there is the mushroom enterprise. What is the mushroom enterprise? It is a business enterprise of mushroom farming aimed at creating a Christian work environment for men (and women) to be able to make a living, provide for their families, and at the same time learn to live in God’s grace. The reason for such an endeavor is that it is nearly impossible to find good work in Kagarlyk; so men who are trying to provide for their families go to Kiev and work six days a week and spend the other day with their families. Or they simply just drink. Over the last month four new people began working at the mushroom farm, and one of them a lady named Natasha gave her life to God. The others have stopped drinking (a prerequisite for starting to work there) and are coming to church each week. There is a need for more workers as the enterprise expands, so please pray that God would bring people who are ready to respond to the Gospel, that they would come simply to find work and instead find eternal life! Also pray for the men who work there that they would be rooted and grounded in God, for those who have not yet given their lives to God that they receive His salvation.

Another ministry that started over the winter at our church is an aerobics ministry. Sounds funny, but there is a young lady who wants to stay fit so she invites teenage girls to come and do aerobics with her twice a week at the church. Lately there has been quite a few of them and it seems to be spiritually fruitful as they fellowship afterward.

We are praying right now about an opportunity to visit an all girls internaught (boarding school for orphans) that is in a nearby village. One of the ladies who is involved in children’s ministry wants to visit these girls so we are praying God would open the door. Please pray that if this is something that God has for the church here that He would give us favor with the director of the internaught and the teachers.

So there it is. I think I covered just about everything. There is also the worship ministry that Liese is helping lead, and I’m playing guitar in, weekly prayer meetings, women’s bible study, and youth group. But I think those will have to wait for another time. I just want to encourage you that God is working. As you pray for us, for the work here in Ukraine know that God is answering your prayers and that you are not alone. There are people all over the world who join in with you in prayer for Ukraine. God is answering those prayers and we are blessed to see those answers. Thank for your prayers, thank you for your support, may God bless you and keep you,
Daniel and Annaliese Foote

God's Promise In Technicolor

Ok folks, check this out!

























No tweeking here with the photo - this is how bright it really was and uch more too!!!

For more details and to see what I got to see the morning after click here...

http://www.srn-chrislawson.blogspot.com/

Just a quick hi to you all from Chris and Jenn and the kids.

Keep reading the Word!















Found this 1776 Bible for $2.00.