"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
After returning from last week's village, we prepared for the following week on Tuesday and enjoyed a day off. Some of us spent the morning talking at a coffee shop in downtown L'viv while others had lunch with the Day family. After finishing laundry and drying out our camp gear, we younger guys had dinner together at one of the apartments. Andrew Howard and William were nice enough to make myself (Elliot) and Andrew Joyner pasta for dinner. After finishing we headed back to the Ministry Center and got some sleep.
Jessie leads the team in prayer before we depart for the three-hour drive north to Rivne.
Wednesday morning we loaded the van with 60,000 Bible First invitations and left around 9:15am for the city of Rivne. We arrived around noon and began passing out tracts until 6:00pm. We regrouped, checked into our hotel and met up again for dinner after taking quick showers and changing clothes.
The following morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at our hotel, met up for our devotional and made a plan for the day. We split up in groups of two and began ringing the intercom systems on apartments, hoping someone would let us in. We had lots of success and no problems throughout the day. When we had completed all the areas we planned to hit, we returned to our hotel and prepared for one last day.
William West enters a "pidyeezd" (the entrance to a group of apartments) in order to place tracts in the PO boxes.
These kinds of PO boxes with the large opening at the top are a CMO favorite. Affectionately referred to as "wide slots" they are a coveted find during literature campaigns.
On Friday we packed up all our gear into the van and spent the morning distributing more tracts in Rivne. Everything went well besides a lady threatening to call the police on Ben and myself getting trapped in an elevator for a brief moment. We called it a day around noon and left Rivne for L'viv. The trip was very successful and we ended up distributing 48,800 tracts over the three days we were there. During that trip, CMO also reached an important milestone of 2 million tracts distributed over the last 11 CMO projects.
Saturday morning we met as a team and discussed book reports after Nathan presented a devotional on ministry. At noon we took a lunch break then packed the van with all our chalk art equipment and went to the city center of Lviv. We started around 1:00pm with Bible surveys, which consist of asking people about their attitude towards the Bible and hopefully getting their information in order to send them a free Good and Evil book. Following the surveys, we set up the chalk art, then myself (Elliot Shupe), Andrew Joyner and Ben Sargent all street preached. After each sharing of the gospel we passed out gospel tracts and Good and Evil invites to the crowd. We packed up around 5:00pm and left for the ministry center to put everything away.
Nathan teaches a lesson on the correlation between investing principles and early commitment to serving Christ in ministry.
Joshua's two eldest daughters, Rebekah (left) and Abigail (right) joined the team on Saturday afternoon for chalk art and street preaching.
Elliot Shupe had the first message with Tolik translating and Nathan drawing the Higher Ground scene.
For the second message, Ben Sargent preached and Joshua translated. Nathan drew the Three Crosses scene.
For the third and final message of the day, Andrew Joyner preached while Joshua translated. Nathan again drew the Higher Ground scene.
The next day we packed the van for the weekend and left for Church around 9:45am. Unfortunately we had to leave Ben behind because he needed to return home early for a family emergency. Following church we left for the Carpathian Mountains to the village of Smil'na. We had a very successful film showing and a very positive response from the villagers. There were 20 people in attendance to which we were able to share the gospel and give literature too. That evening we set up camp in the same location we camped the previous weekend and got some rest.
People from the village of Smil'na view the film.
As usual, Joshua preached the Gospel after the film had ended.
William West and Andrew Howard hand out copies of Good and Evil books as well as starter packets for our Bible First course.
Monday morning we broke camp and went into the village of Tur'ye to pass out invites for the film showing next weekend. After confirming the details of the showing with the village head, we quickly stamped invites with the date, time and location. In twos we trekked through the village putting film invitations on gates, front doors and mail boxes. We finished in good time, packed into the van and went straight to the airport in hopes of catching Ben before he departed. We arrived long before his flight was set to depart and were able to bid him farewell as he heads back to the States.
Stamping invites and preparing posters in the village of Tur'ye, where we'll do our film showing next weekend.
Elliot places a film invite in a mailbox in Tur'ye.
Ben Sargent prays with the team at the L'viv airport before his departure.
The week went by quickly and we are thankful to God for his continued protection over us and those back home. With our free day tomorrow we will take advantage of the time to clean up, and prepare for our last week here in Ukraine.
How you can pray
- Pray for those who heard the Gospel preached this week, both in L'viv and in Smil'na.
- Pray for our final showing of the project next week in Tur'ye.
- Praise the Lord the for the new responses which are already coming in as a result of our literature campaigns in Lutsk, Sykheev, and Rivne.
- Pray for a speedy recovery for Ben Sargent's wife, Karen. She was recently in a car accident and suffered a concussion.
- Pray that God would continue to keep our vehicles running.
- Pray for health and safety for the team.
View the full Week 3 photo album on our Facebook page!
As the CMO men work to distribute Bible literature during the week, God is already bringing in many responses — both through mail and via our Ukrainian web sites. What an encouragement!