Wednesday, July 9, 2008


                      Babushka at the well in Borkiv.                                                          

Greetings from Ukraine, privet! I was the designated blog writer for the day (Ryan Butler), so i am going to talk about what is going down in this part of the world. We are on the team to Borkiv, which is a small village in Liten. We are holding a bible camp for some of the kids in the village. My translator and I have somewhat of a different job though. Basically, what we do is go around and share the gospel with everybody, and God has really blessed our efforts, we have seen a few come to Christ, but a ton of people have heard the gospel, and we also gave most of them a bible to read. CBC has planted a "prayer house" or a church in this village, so it is cool to be able to point them to some people that can disciple them, or find out more about the Bible. I was told to tell of some of my adventures, so here we go! Dima and I (my translator), started off praying this morning at the bus stop, asking God to bring us some people we could share the gospel with. We saw a lady (who seemed to be about 140 years old) carrying her bread back from the market, and we asked if we could help her carry it, she said Yes, so we started to walk with her home (while i shared the gospel with her). We get to her house, and one of her friends was really hostile towards us, she would not let us give her a bible, and think she was cussing at us in Ukrainian, but i don’t know what she was saying, but my translator said it was bad. She told us that she was orthodox and that it was wrong to read the bible, I beg to differ!!!!! So, we started walking back to the bus stop, and sure enough, there was 7 people sitting there, right where we were before we left!!! I came and started talking with them, and asked them if i could share the greatest story in the world, so I started from Genesis and shared the gospel with them. This man, who was standing there, told us he was drunk, but that he was a Christian, but felt ashamed to listen because of his drunkenness, so he went and stood a little ways away, so i just finished sharing the gospel, and were saying bye to the people standing there, and the drunk man came up to my translator and I crying, saying thank you, and started shaking our hand, then got on the bus and took off. God is amazing. So, that was cool, but it had not even started yet. We get back to the camp and see two guys sitting on the sidewalk drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. We came and greeted them, and shortly found out that they were there for a funeral. I started asking them some questions about Jesus Christ, but they said they did not want to talk about him today, so we left them and told them that we were praying for them. Probably an hour later, one of the men came up to us and asked us what we were doing at the camp. We told them we were going through the plan of salvation, using the wordless book with colors, and it gave me a great platform to share the gospel. So, after i shared the gospel with him, we gave him a Bible, and he left, but later came back with his other friend, and i got to share the gospel with him!!! Then, after i did this, the whole family who was at the funeral wanted a Bible, so we gave them as many as we had, then they made my translator and I sign there Bible!!! It was really crazy, but God was really moving in their lives. That is some of the things that went down, but a lot has happened since we have been here..... q Please keep praying for us!!! Ryan Butler

2 comments:

Cassandra/By His Grace, said...

Ryan ~ So encouraged with all the people God has sent your way, and your using every opportunity to share the gospel. Keep it up, seeds are being planted and sown, and will come to harvest.

Jasmine and Kathryn ~ Thanks for your willingnes in sharing your testimonies - I know it's not the easiest thing to do, yet you honor God in your obedience to Him.

Ukraine Teams - You remain constantly in my thoughts and prayers. "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:6
Love and Blessings, Cassandra

Unknown said...

Jasmyn and Katherine,
This is your tech challenged mom. I have been so encouraged reading through the blog. While God has prepared others hearts through prayer, He has touched those reading too, such as mine. Your courage will go a long way. Sharing out loud is a huge step that God will honor. Thank you for being obedient. Love, Mom