Mission to Veliki Luchki, UKRAINE April 2005

Report by Glen Rickard

Tears rolled down her cheeks.  She was a lady of approximately 40 years of age with cracked and calloused hands from working constantly in the fields, the kind of hands that never quite scrub clean.   She was standing no more than ten feet from me in the congregation at Shalamonova, the beam on her face told me that these were tears of joy.   She wasn’t alone – other faces showed similar emotion after the announcement that East West Fellowship had just donated $1,000 (£660) to enable this small church to complete the new church building.   People in this community have never had a church before and the sum of $1,000 is for most people, beyond comprehension.   The Pastor, Dr. Samuel Karpuk was unsure as to how to express his gratitude, but there was no need.  Here is a man in his early seventies, a medical doctor, who having recently survived cancer, has engaged with a passion the vision to build a new church in this small village close to the Hungarian border.   Thanks to our help the building work is now complete.   In turn we extend our thanks to all of you who have given in support of this work.  You may recall that on our last visit we gave money to complete the church roof, which has been finished beautifully with the typical “onion” design reminiscent of St. Basil’s Church in Moscow.   I felt extremely elated during these moments, realising that we were amongst people of passion and vision for Christ, who now have a building from which to reach their community.

No matter where we go in Ukraine amongst the Christian people we are welcomed and invited to preach in the churches.  I never fail to be amazed that the gospel that we preach and the Bible that we expound, convicts sinners in the same way as it does in England and also warms and encourages the hearts of believers.   Apart from the language, I would think that I was at a church down the road from my home.  The love and the warmth that the Christians give to us is like a warm cocoon.   The love of Jesus Christ is not only the same yesterday, today and forever, but His presence, the power of His word and the fellowship of His people, are the same the world over.   This is truly miraculous and can only be the power and presence of the same Holy Spirit. 

We also visited Berigovo which is on the border with Hungary and Ukraine.   The Baptist church there is run by Pastor Valentin.   This bear of a man has a bright and effervescent personality, becoming a Christian about 8 years ago.  His previous life was not so wholesome.  He has a passion for Christ and has turned the church which apparently was failing, into a church that is thriving.   Dennis Boxall’s grandson, Justin Hill, accompanied us on this trip and after only our second day in Ukraine we visited Berigovo.   Immediately Valentin and his wife “adopted” Justin and he stayed with them for three days.  They have a large youth group and Justin was “at home” very quickly.   On his last night I also stayed and discovered that Justin had been sleeping in the church on a mattress supported by two pews, which had been turned to face each other.   I was given a similar bed and had the surreal experience of lying down to sleep with rows of hymn books and Bibles on either side of me in the pew holders!  Before we left Pastor Valentin we were able to give him a year’s salary (£700).  Once again he didn’t know what to say to us, being lost for words.   Pastors in the Ukraine are not paid any salary and either work part-time or live by faith. 

It was both humbling and exhilarating to spend time with such men of God, feeling their passion and observing their work for the Lord.  In some ways I feel that we have done so little for them, but I don’t think it would matter if we gave nothing by way of money, they are just so thrilled and encouraged that people care enough to travel to see them.  Please pray for these dear men of God and the churches. 

Anton Bernick continues to be an inspiration.  He ministers tirelessly for the Lord both inside and outside the church.  It would appear that he is now part of the town council and has a specific responsibility for any social issues that occur on the three streets that are closest to him.   This means that whilst we stayed with him, alcoholic men who Anton is ministering to, would continually turn up at the door, sometimes drunk, sometimes sober.   He deals with them with both compassion and firmness.   One evening we had the privilege of sitting in Anton’s home with four of these men and talking with them over a number of hours about football, boxing, Ukraine, U.K., President Bush and Jesus.  One of these men has come right through for the Lord and his face shines.  However, after he became a Christian, Anton allowed him to live with him for one week, during which time he and his son Peter were up most of every night as the man hallucinated, raged and sometimes became violent.  Anton’s wife Vera, told me that both her and their daughter Leah were terrified.  I found this incredibly challenging and was reminded of James Ch. 2 v. 17 which says “Faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead.”   Even as I write this I feel incredibly challenged at Anton’s passion for Christ and the unselfish way in which he works for the Lord. 

I just wish that our readers could meet these three men of whom I have been writing.  I regard them as dear brothers in Christ for whom I am grateful. 

Glen Rickard

May 2005

Mission to Veliki Luchki, UKRAINE April 2005

Report by Colin Dickson  

John 14 verse 6:  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

This was the first time that Paulene had accompanied me to Veliki Luchki and we left home before 4:00 a.m. being taken to Manchester airport by Jonathan, our son. We met Glen Rickard and Justin Hill at the airport. This was the first mission trip for Justin, the grandson of one of the founders of E.W.F. Dr Dennis Boxall.  We arrived safely at Budapest airport at about 2:10 p.m. on Friday April 1st 2005. We then took a minibus from Budapest airport to Kaleti-Pu station and had a long wait for the 6:20 p.m. train to Chop.  It was about 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning, when we arrived at Anton Bernicks house in Veliki Luchki and it was after 2:00 a.m. when we finally got to bed.

Having prayed much about this mission, we felt the Lord leading us to minister in two places: The Church at Shalamonova with the pastor, Dr Samuel Karpuyk and also at the Church at Beregovo with Pastor Valentin Nehro.

Our first meeting was at Beregovo Baptist Church on Saturday evening, we preached the Gospel and Justin gave a powerful testimony of God’s love and work in his life. The people of Beregovo speak Hungarian, therefore the preaching is translated into Russian and Hungarian. It takes half an hour to preach a ten minute sermon!

On Sunday morning Paulene, Justin and myself ministered in Beregovo and Glen preached in Veliki Luchki Baptist Church. In the afternoon we took a baptismal seminar and a youth meeting and Paulene spoke with the ladies at a womens meeting. We also visited an old lady, Yolan. That night Glen & Justin stayed in Beregovo.  On the Monday we visited Yolan again with food and also visited a babies orphanage.

It was a privilege to work in Beregovo with Pastor Valentin and his wife, Tanya. Pastor Valentin works tirelessly for the Lord, especially with the youth. We were able to give a large gift to Pastor Valentin to enable him to continue the work in Beregov.  Please pray that the Lord will continue to bless and prosper the work of Pastor Valentin at Beregovo.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had time in Veliki Luchki.  We visited a gypsy settlement, distributing sweets to the children.  That was an experience never to be forgotten!

We ministered at a childrens meeting, hosted in the Bernick’s house and led by Leah Bernick, the 14 year old daughter of Anton and Vera.  The Gospel was clearly preached to the children, and gave gifts.  We had time with the youth at the Baptist Church and also visited several poor families, providing food and sharing the Love of Jesus.  On the Thursday evening we spoke at the Veliki Luchki Baptist Church and rejoiced as we saw a lady come to Salvation.

We then continued our mission in Shalamonova with the pastor, Dr Samuel Karpuyk.  We were given a warm welcome and preached the Gospel and again saw a girl from the youth come to faith in Jesus. At many of our meetings there were several speakers: Justin, Glen, Paulene, myself and the pastor!  Each member of the team was blessed and used by God, speaking with the passion of the Lord and anointing of the Holy Spirit.

On the Saturday we were privileged to attend a piano competition in Mukachevo. The standard was extremely high and Leah Bernick gained second prize.  Please pray for the Bernick family, they work for the Lord in many areas and have wonderful testimonies of hoe God has blessed and delivered them in many varied situations.

Sunday morning – visited Uzhhorod Baptist church and were back in Shalomonova for the evening meeting.  We were able to give a large gift towards the work in Shalomonova.  It was good to see that the new building is nearly finished.  It was just a shell last time we were there.  Pray for this work, that the Lord will send many workers for the harvest.

On Monday Anton took us to Mikolc, Hungary. We spent the evening with Mary Bosz and Martin Robb.  We gave gifts to Mary and Rob and also for Sandor and Gizi, a couple who work with gipsies in Ukraine.

Tuesday, we took the train to Budapest and plane back to Manchester.

You may know that Viktor Yuschenko was elected president of Ukraine as a result of the second election on 26th December 2004.  This overturned the previous election result, and was a result of a peaceful protest, with thousands of christians praying on the streets of Kiev.  This is known as the Orange Revolution.  The new government is open to the promotion of Christianity and freedom, righteousness and justice in Ukraine.

We ask for prayer for the following areas:

Praise God.

Colin Dickson

May 2005

Mission to Veliki Luchki, UKRAINE April 2005

Report by Paulene Dickson  

After a long journey we arrived at Chop around midnight and reached Veliki Luchki about 1:00 a.m.  With the usual Ukrainian hospitality a lovely meal was served before we sank into our beds.

I had not visited this part of Ukraine before and it seemed to be very poor, mainly because of the lack of enployment.  But the Bernick family were a delight.

Highlights for me on this trip….  Visiting Beregovo and having fellowship with Pastor Valentin and his wife, they work so hard and cheerfully live in one room at the back of the church.  Then visiting the gypsies, nearly a riot!  Our weekend with the church at Shalomonova was very moving.  Pastor Samuel is such a godly man who has suffered so much for the Lord and it was great to see the church building, almost complete.

I also had a very interesting afternoon with the ladies of Beregovo church.  After a time of prayer and a short word, we all shared together, and I have to inform all our female readers that when I asked if Ukrainian men help in the house there was much laughter!  Younger husbands – yes they do help, older husbands – no.  It was a very interesting afternoon.

And I milked the cow!

PauleneDickson

June 2005

Mission to Veliki Luchki, Ukraine, April 2005

 Report by Justin Hill 

Having heard many stories of east-west fellowship missions to Ukraine, on April 1 2005,  I set off to experience it for myself.  The journey there was a tedious one which took a day and brought new lows in aeroplane food.

One of the places the Lord sent the mission to was a small village called Beregovo.  The church we visited was run by Pastor Nehro Valentin, a man who works constantly for the Lord particularly with his youth group who treat him as a hero.  Of all the places we visited, our time in Beregovo was particularly moving for me.  Our first service of the trip was there and this was the first time I gave my testimony and was amazed at the ease at which God allowed me to speak, though admittedly I was helped by the fact that three languages (English, Ukrainian and Hungarian) were being spoken and so I had a long gap between utterances to think while the translators spoke. 

I felt slightly on edge when I first arrived in Ukraine and my nerves were not helped when on the first day Pastor Valentin asked if I would stay with him and his family for the night, away from the others.  They suddenly got a lot worse when he then announced to the church that I would be staying for 3 days and that I was an English teacher. (I don’t even have a degree yet)  As God had put me at ease during my testimony, so the youth, who I spent that night with, put me at ease in Beregovo.  Although my Ukrainian was somewhat lacking many of the people spoke at least a little English while a couple of them were fluent and soon involved me in conversations.  They were particularly interested in my life back home in comparison to over there and it was such a privilege to spend time with people with such kind hearts.  They listened intently and seemed to enjoy what I was saying, no matter how small it appeared to me, and this of course helped me to forget the situation and begin to enjoy the opportunity God had provided.  I spent that night in the church where I slept, with 2 of the youth group, Tony and Chaba, translating different words from English to Ukrainian.

On my second day there I was joined by Glen and we went for a walk up the hills to a spot where we could see the whole of Beregovo.  It was such a beautiful picturesque sight and I instantly understood why they were so happy with there home, it looked like somewhere God had designed, not somewhere humanly interfered with ugly buildings everywhere.  I felt very welcome and thoroughly enjoyed my time there and God willing will be able to return in the near future.

Although many of the youth there spend most of their time at the church which is where Valentin and his family live, many are not filled with the spirit and Valentin works tirelessly in teaching them the gospel and hopes so much that they will come to know Jesus so please pray that his hard work comes to fruition and that they may be able to further assist Valentin in his work for the Lord.

After 3 days in Beregovo I returned to our base in Veliki Luchki where we spent the next three days and I got to spend time with the Bernick family.  Each Bernick was different although all were working for the Lord in their different ways.  The person who struck me the most was the youngest daughter Leah Bernick.

On one day, myself Colin and Paulene helped Leah with her weekly children’s meeting that she holds at her house.  Despite being only 14, Leah has been running this meeting for 2 years during which she has told many bible stories to the young children who she rounds up to come and listen to her speak about God.  Leah told me that during the protest over the false elections prior to Christmas last year she travelled 700km by herself to get to Kiev so she could join the protest.  As well as her knowledge of the word and her amazingly mature manner Leah also has a great musical gift and came second in a jaw-droppingly good piano competition we were able to watch during our stay.  During our period in Luchki we were able to minister with the youth and Church congregations at the Baptist Church and I also had the opportunity to play some volleyball with some of the boys from the youth choir.

The most difficult part of the trip for me occurred during this time when we went to visit a few of the poorer families in the village.  Seeing such poverty and desolation was something I had not previously encountered and taught me how much material possessions are unimportant.  I also got a glimpse of the work Anton Bernick does as I saw how he helps out these families as much as he can with his visits and what he gives to them.  His role in Veliki Luchki cannot be overstated, he is known by everyone, and everyone comes to him for help.  We were able to offer him some financial support but he and his family need our continuing prayers as they seek to serve the Lord.

Another village which the Lord sent us to was Shalomonova.  We spent three evenings there and again saw one man attempting to run the church by himself.  The pastor, Dr Samuel Karpuke is in his seventies but continues to put all his energy into serving God.  Our first night was spent with the youth there where one girl gave her life to Jesus.  It is very important that the youth do develop there relationships with the Lord as we noticed a severe lack of middle-aged people in the churches and it is essential that the youth go on to take leading roles in the church.  Dr Karpuke told us that although the girls had been coming to the church for a while they had not committed to God and so it was an encouragement for both us and him when one girl came to Christ.  Although smaller than the youth at both Beregovo and Luchki, the girls were also very close and obviously did things together so please pray that they will all start to follow their friend and come to Christ.

The new building in Shalomonova is almost complete and with the gift that we gave Dr Karpuke, the finishing touches can be applied and the building should be ready shortly.  The Church has been meeting in a small room for the last few years and hopefully the move will bring an interest to the church throughout the village.  There were other orthodox churches in Shalomonova and maybe people from there may come to the new building and see the message of Jesus spoken.

Although there are still many problems in Ukraine there is definitely an interest in Christianity within the people.  They are receptive to the gospel and are crying out for the touch of God in their lives.  Please pray that the wonderful changes in the Ukraine continue and more and more people get to here about and come to know the Lord.   

Amen.

Justin Hill

June 2005

Mission to Summer Camp, near Beregovo, Ukraine, July 2005

 Report by Justin Hill 

My visit to Ukraine in July was my second trip but my first on my own.  I had been invited by Pastor Nehro Valentin, who I had met on my first trip with EWF in April, to come and work with him on a summer camp that he runs for children.  Before I left I had been quite nervous about how I was getting there as my only contact had been with Valentin via e-mail and although his understanding of English is good I was worried he didn’t quite understand my information.  However, my fears were removed when I met Valentin at Budapest airport where we joined some Hungarians for a 10 hour mini-bus journey into Ukraine.  I spent the first weekend with Valentin and his family and attended at both his church in Beregovo where we visited in April and another church in a small village called Gat a few miles outside of Beregovo.

I had spent most of the plane journey trying to brush up on my Russian with a phrase book I had picked up at the Airport.  I didn’t know much but hoped to at least be able to understand and speak a little.  However, when I arrived Valentin told me that we would be on a Hungarian speaking camp.  While my Russian is very bad, my Hungarian is non-existent and my chances of understanding much were gone.  How much this would affect me started to become clear on the first day of the camp.  At this point neither the Dutch people who were to join the camp or the interpreters had arrived and I was often the only English speaking person.(Valentin was usually very busy)  Games sessions would be okay but both the leaders meetings and the camp meetings were meaningless to me as I couldn’t understand a word and I struggled to get by the first few days as I couldn’t talk to anyone.  Even when the English speaking people did arrive I didn’t find that much changed at first.  I could now understand the meetings which helped but I still struggled with feelings of being alone particularly from God who seemed to be back in England.  In a time of desperate prayer God showed me that he could not be close to me while there were certain aspects to my life still going on and that if I was to become close to him then there were things I would have to change when I returned home.  I found that this time of laying out my problems and asking for forgiveness gave me a great sense of contentment and an understanding that I had been given a great opportunity and needed to make the most of it.  This was the one time where I felt God really speaking to me.  During the rest of my time there I was a lot more at ease and knew God was there with me and I was able to really enjoy it.  My main regret is that I had not chosen to pray earlier and that I had tried to get through a hard few days by myself instead of asking God to help guide me through it.  However, I also feel that I learned a great deal about myself and what I need to do and have benefited in a way I probably didn’t expect but that may allow me to have a much stronger relationship with the Lord.

Over the remainder of the camp I began to get much more involved, both voluntary and when picked on during the games.  Because I was the only leader from England I was automatically a favourite for the jokes to be played on and found myself with shaving foam over my face, yoghurt on my clothes and was once selected to play Goliath.  After which, I was known as ‘Goliat’ by many of the kids.  Surprisingly I bonded greatest with the Hungarian leaders.  Although we could not hold conversations we soon learnt a few little words in each others languages that allowed us to interact.  It was the introduction of a whoopee cushion that was possibly the biggest help as myself and one of the Hungarian lads, Bolasz, were able to create mischief amongst the camp as we targeted different people to get with the cushion, causing great amusement for both the children and ourselves.

I didn’t know what to expect with the children in terms of their needs.  I guess on the whole they are better off than they would have been 10-25 years ago.  Most had reasonable looking clothes that were well conditioned.  They seemed well educated and looked reasonably healthy.  What the truth is I couldn’t really tell.  The children are chosen by local pastors(the pastors over there will know much about his local village and the people living there) who are told to select those most in need and Valentin informs me that while things have improved these kids are still in great need of love and attention and come from very difficult family backgrounds, usually affected by alcohol abuse.  These children desperately need to hear the good news.  As you would expect, some rushed to accept it while others were not interested.  Either will struggle now returned to their home but some at least returned with hope and these camps are so important in giving children the message and the opportunity and Valentin informs me that a few of the children have started attending churches in Beregovo.  Please pray for Valentin and his family who work so hard to make it possible to inform many about Jesus. 

God Bless,

Justin.