News from Kagarlyk, Ukraine

Greetings from Kagarlyk!

Summer has come to an end here in Ukraine but instead of the usual peace of mind that we gain from that experience we are faced with a busy schedule. I guess that makes up for a mellow summer. Let me bring you up to date on our summer and what is ahead of us.

This summer our church stepped back from the usual full throttle/ make every moment count/ do as much as we possibly can schedule that we have had the last couple summers. We felt that God had other things for us and that this year we should focus more on personal ministry. Instead of organizing concerts we just sat in public places to play music and talk to people. Instead of soccer tournaments a couple people made some portable soccer goals and have started once a week to head out to the school fields with their friends to play pick up games of soccer. Instead of a huge vacation bible school the children's ministry decided to spend more time with the kids that come to church and visit them in their homes and now that summer is over instead of being tired out from a long summer they are ready for the school year and preparing to expand the children's ministry. I don't think this change in ministry direction will be permanent but it has been good for our church to move from an event oriented way of looking at evangelism to a personal way of looking at evangelism.

Our role in all this was really low key and I spent most of my time doing more "pastoral" stuff like meeting with people and preparing bible studies as pastor Wayne and his family were in Australia for most of the summer.

Now that Wayne is back he is going full throttle with the bio-diesel production and over the summer they set up equipment to produce foam blocks. (Foam blocks, the translation of what they are called in Ukrainian, are cement building blocks that have a structure similar to foam so they are insulated and better for building than regular bricks.) The mushroom farm is now completely replaced by the block production which stands to be just as profitable a venture as mushroom farming, a lot less risky, and it offers more stable work hours for the workers. The goal in these enterprises remains the same: provide jobs for people in our town so they can work in Kagarlyk and not go to Kiev, teach Christian business ethics and in doing so build a platform to transform the business community in Kagarlyk. Please pray for these enterprises that God would continue to lead Wayne and that God would use them to transform the lives of the workers and the business community.

This week our church starts back up many of the ministries that take a break for summer. Computer classes, English lessons, and dance/aerobics are the main ones. Please pray for these ministries that God would use them to bring young people to Himself.

Coming up at the end of this month is a conference/retreat in Chernigov. It will be a small gathering of 5 or 6 of the smaller churches in the Calvary sphere in Ukraine. The theme of the conference will "The Church" and Danny will be teaching one of the main sessions. Our worship team will be leading worship for one of the sessions as well which is a huge step for our worship team. Please pray that the conference would be a time of growth and encouragement for all who go, and pray for Danny as he teaches.

Check out more of what we have been up to at our blog and also at our church website.

Thank you for your prayers,

Daniel and Annaliese Foote