|
Dear Team, Family, Prayer Partners and Friends:
Praise God we arrived home safe and sound last night about
7:00PM. THANK YOU
for your faithful prayer covering.
This trip was the most successful, the most fruitful, and
the most
directional trip we have ever made. For Christ's glory and
our joy, we
advanced into
regions of Ukraine never before touched by any medical
missionaries.
To all of you who prayed and interceded for the success of
this outreach, we
express our sincere thanks. Nothing is accomplished without
prayer. You were
the foundation that this work walked on each day. Because of
you, there were
salvations, healings, and fruit. In our opinion you were the
most important
members of this team. Thank you for covering us.
God sent us to three villages in a particular area of
Ukraine which is the
poorest and hardest to reach both spiritually and
physically. We were only a
few
miles from the Russian border.
This was new territory for us. We had visited the region
last year and had
made a commitment to an American missionary living there to
come and do a
medical clinic.
The infrastructure in Lugansk is almost non existent, with
roads, sewers,
housing, and water in desperate need of repair. In spite of
all the
inconveniences, we took God's light and love into this
region through
practical mercy
ministry and Gospel presentation.
Because of this, God added to us 30 new converts.
The Bible tells a story in II Samuel Chapter 9. It is a
wonderful story of
God's mercy through King David to a crippled man named
Mephibosheth who lived
in
a town called Lo-debar. Lo-debar was " the other side of the
tracks."
Jim and I always ask God to send us to the Lo-debar places
on earth, the
forgotten places, with crippled people, and broken
hearts. Our places this
year
were called Olkhovka, Bellyanka and Sudagon in the Lugansk
oblast.
We would like to take this opportunity to give a praise
report along with
some "special thanks " to those of you who helped us
accomplish the task and
bring in the harvest for Life House Ministries' Ukraine 2007
trip.
We held a total of 4 medical clinics and saw 750 patients.
We filled over
3200 prescriptions and left thousands of dollars of medical
aid to be used
this
winter as medical needs arise among the churches.
There were only 3 physicians along with Jim who saw
patients, and 3 of us
working in the Pharmacy dispensing meds along with our
interpretators. Don't
let
the HMO people hear those statistics or the whole medical
field will be
expected to produce those kinds of numbers!!! ( he he he )
We visited our beloved Orphanage and saw the children. This
month the
government was not able to provide any potatoes for the
children. It is their
diet
mainstay. We used our resources to bring in a truck load
(about 1000 pounds)
and
fill the storehouse. We also were able to financially buy a
lawn mower for
the playground which is also the soccer field. The children
had shovels and
were
removing sod by hand. We are happy to report that the
gymnasium is now
finished and we provided funds for sports and exercise
equipment for therapy
for the
children and special uniforms for their teams. The children
were thrilled.
And what about those pigs??? Would you believe we have 86
little porkers!! We
saw the 6 sewing machines (at $200.00 each) that were bought
with the sale of
some of the pigs. What a blessing for these children to
learn a trade. When
they are 18 they are turned out of the orphanage and must
have a trade or
they
face life on the streets in prostitution and stealing.
PARTNERS, WE NEED MORE
SEWING MACHINES!
We had our first look at Life House Ministries Drug and
Alcohol
Rehabilitation Center in Lutugino, Ukraine. It is a region
within the Lugansk
oblast.
Remember that we collected $2500.00 last year and bought a
large piece of
land with
three buildings on it. As we pulled up to the property we
were greeted by the
Pastor Roman, an awesome man of God, who had made a sign
over the entry gate.
It translates, " House of Life Rehab Center. "
He and the church leadership were so happy to have this
place. It had been
their prayer for some time, and now was reality. They toured
us through a
clean
but sparsely decorated facility. The kitchen was no larger
than 3x3 feet, the
bedroom had 8 beds lined up side by side, and the
refrigerator was empty.
There was an outhouse and summer shower. Schedules hung in
the front room,
with
work times and Bible studies for each day.
The men must go to work and earn money for food and personal
items. Most
people won't hire them because of their addicted status, but
they have found
successful work digging graves with hand held shovels.
Pastor Roman works
side by
side digging with the men, because most months there is not
enough food for
the
men, women and children to eat. Yes, children. The woman's
facility allows
the children to come and be cared for as well. The women do
the cleaning,
washing, gardening, cooking and caring for the children,
while the men do the
day
labor jobs.
Jim and I promised to the send funds for a project called "
Food for the
Table. " PARTNERS.. WE NEED SPONSORS FOR THIS FOOD.
The success rate has been so good from the people coming out
of the program
that the local newspaper has done a series of reports on it.
Another way of
spreading God's grace and showing His power.
We met the first graduate " Andre " from the Center. He is
now an elder and
leader, in charge of the Center, under the direction of
Pastor Roman, and is
also the Worship Leader for Bellyanka Church. We also met
another man, who
had
graduated from the program. Pastor Roman had him in the
Sunday service. I had
the privilege of meeting him and presenting him with a
bouquet of flowers and
words of encouragement during the service.
We had a meeting with the Major of Lutugino and prayed with
him. He extends
his heart felt gratitude for what we have done in their
region. We met the
Chief Physician of the Lugansk Oblast. Another meeting was
with the Deputy of
Ministry in Kiev and a final meeting was with Pat
Robertson's (CBN 700 Club)
Director of Operation Blessing in Kiev.
We know that God arranged some pretty huge Divine
Appointments for us this
year. We have been strategically assigned and given favor by
God for such an
hour to present His Gospel to a people living in darkness.
God opened many
doors
for us on this trip
I say all this to thank you partners, if we did not have
finances, we could
not do this work.
Jim and I ask that you continue to help us. These are some
of the most needy
people on the face of the earth. They are not lazy, they are
not illiterate,
they are warm loving respectful people who need us and but
for the grace of
God, there go I.
We always want to be honest with you and transparent. We are
not perfect and
face battles just as you do. So in closing I want to share
where we were a
few
weeks ago and where we are now in the Lord.
I think this will encourage you greatly.
We had planned this to be our last trip to Ukraine. We
believed that we had
done all we could to help the nation of Ukraine. We put
together the trip
with
enormous difficulty, we had no peace nor joy about traveling
outside the
United States and far away from our family. Our only reason
for going this
year was
because we wanted to honor our promise that we made to Bruce
MacDonald, the
American missionary living there. We planned to continue
feeding the children
and doing orphanage projects but not to take medical teams.
During the first 4 days of the trip we eagerly awaiting the
time we could get
on a plane and go home. But something happened to us when we
arrived to
Lugansk. Jim and I listened to Bruce Mac Donald tell us
about Pastor Roman
and the
sacrifice he and his wife Katia had made to come to this
region. How they
gave
up a good salary and good life, how they nearly staved to
death and had only
tomatoes to eat for three months. How during that time Katie
miscarried
because of their starvation and difficult life. How Roman
walked for miles,
shoveled
coal to make some money, prayed in the foothills of the coal
mines for God to
do something in this region.
Back at the hotel that night, Jim and I talked about our
ministry and in
prayer we surrendered our will to God. Roman and Katia's
story had really
touched
our hearts. We no longer wanted to go home, nor did we want
to stay in
Ukraine, we simply wanted whatever God wanted ...
As I opened the Bible to Philippines 1: 23. I read Paul's
words about
something he too struggled with.. He said He yearned to be
free of this world
and to
be with Christ. He thought it would be gain to be with
Christ, but then he
said these words.. Verse 23: I am convinced of this.. I know
I shall remain
and
stay by you all, to promote your progress and joy in
believing, so that you
may
have abundant cause for exultation and glorifying Christ
Jesus through my
coming to you again. "
Those words revealed God's will to us. We were to stay with
the work God had
given us in Ukraine. We had favor with top officials, a
shipping route and
people there who could get our boxes delivered, we had
contacts and people
who
depended on us.
Wednesday night Jim and I were in a church service in Kiev.
At the end of the
service, a woman we had never met turned around and started
to speak to me in
Ukrainian. I asked our translator to interpret.
She said that God had a word for us and this is what she
said..
" There has been a great force coming against you from the
enemy. Tonight God
has cut it away from you and opened a large door for you to
walk through. You
are to continue your work here in Ukraine. "
This woman did not know anything about us, or our struggle
in coming to
Ukraine this year. She was God's prophet confirming the word
we read in
Philippians. God always confirms His message to His
servants.
Partners this is your work as much as it is ours. We need
your monthly
support. There is no amount that is too small. We have so
much in this
country and
much is expected of us because of it. If you receive this
letter and are not
a
regular giver, would you pray and ask God what He would have
you to do? Your
donations are a tax credit, but more importantly they are a
"Heaven Credit! "
Checks may be made payable to Life House Ministries and
mailed to the address
below.
In His Service,
Jim and Millie McIlvaine
|
