Chris Zurbach's Novemer/December Update

Greetings from Chernihiv, Ukraine


Happy December!!! I am excited to write and let you know about some things that happened this past November and all that we are looking forward to this coming December. It is a busy time of year filled with New Years and Christmas programs. It seems that God is continuing to open doors for us to go into different areas of the city to share the love of God.

I think I shared with you before that I joined a fellow missionary here, Tracy, in going to one of the schools in the city to help out with their English class. We have a great relationship with the teacher and she is such an encouragement to see as she is very passionate about her students learning English. She has invited us to come and teach English through Bible stories or Christian ethics to her students. We go every week and are amazed to see God working in these children’s lives as they have so much fun learning English through hearing about God’s great love for them. Many of the children also come to our kids club, Krepost, that we are doing every other Saturday. God is blessing the club and we are seeing the kids grow in their knowledge of God as they come every time. Many of the kids are memorizing Bible verses that they recite at the the club. Our church is learning and growing too as they serve these kids and learn about ministering to children.

Another door that is opening is also in the same school that we are going to every week. The English teachers invited Tracy and I to come and meet with them every two weeks to get together and talk about women’s issues from a Christian point of view. To say the least we were fairly surprised by the invitation. The female teachers want it to be a sort of club or “sisterhood” as she described it. We don’t really know what to expect but are excited to get to know these women and share with them about the Bible.

Christmas Programs – We are pretty much doing Christmas parties and programs everywhere as there is quite the demand. We will be doing a Christmas party in the school sharing about Jesus’ birth and singing Christmas songs in English as requested by the teachers. We will also be doing a Christmas program for our kid's club. We are planning to invite all the kid’s parents to come and see the club. The children will be performing some Christmas songs and we will be performing a skit about Jesus’ birth with people from the church. We plan on sharing the skit with the children in the mental hospital and boarding schools/internaughts. We are also planning a Christmas day service as a church and want to rent a larger building to accommodate larger numbers as we are beginning to grow out of our little building. Christmas in Ukraine is on January 7th, which is a Sunday, so we are hoping many people will come.

Our church is doing really well and we continue to see God maturing the young believers here and challenge them to seek Him first in all things. We are meeting as a church this coming weekend to discuss all that has happened this past year and discuss our vision for this coming year. We are very excited for this coming year and expect God to do great things. Please pray for all these things mentioned above that God would pour our His Holy Spirit upon us and that many would come to know Him through all that we do. Merry Christmas to all of you – May the Lord bless you so much as you know Him. Thank you for your prayers and support - I am so thankful for you all.

Peace,
Chris

Please Pray for:
* Kids Club, Krepost, that many kids would come and learn to love Jesus
* God to bless our Christmas programs
* Wisdom and time for me to plan music and worship for all the Christmas celebrations
* Wisdom and provision in seeking to meet in a larger building