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