Preface
Recently, I was asked to write an article about a missionary colleague of mine, Nathan Day. Having completed the assignment, I’ve decided to publish it here on our blog. If you’re not familiar with Nathan and his ministry, I would encourage you to get to know his family and to pray for him. If you’re in a missions-minded church, you might even consider printing out this article and giving a copy to your pastor. Good men on the field are hard to find, and those that are laboring for the Kingdom of God deserve our prayers and support.

Nathan and Josh planning a tract outreach during CMO 2010

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I met Nathan Day for the first time in 2003 at Bangkok International Airport in Thailand. Standing 6’ 3” tall, he wasn’t hard to pick out as he towered over the crowds of shorter Thais. Nathan had come to Thailand to participate in a new ministry opportunity from No Greater Joy called Nations Training Institute. The goal of this ministry was to train up young men for evangelism overseas by providing them with real, hands-on experience in foreign missions. Today, Nathan is one of the most valuable members of our team, and one of my closest friends. He plays an integral role in our ministry in Ukraine, and I often wonder how I ever got along without him! This is the story of how God led Nathan from his home in Colorado into a life of full-time ministry overseas.

In early 2001 Michael Pearl placed an advertisement in the No Greater Joy magazine inviting men to attend a missions camp at his church in Tennessee. Among those to respond was a quiet, unassuming homeschooler from Colorado: Nathan Day. Although very interested in the camp, Nathan was hesitant to commit due to one of the prerequisites for attending: he would have to pass out several hundred Gospel tracts in his hometown. Those who know Nathan today will likely find it humorous that such a thing could have ever caused him concern. At the time, however, tract distribution was something that Nathan, like many modern Christians, had rarely attempted. Nathan ultimately decided to take the plunge, and soon found that passing out tracts was not quite as insurmountable a task as he had thought.

When the missions camp began in August of that same year, Nathan was there along with about 30 other young men. Together, they spent seven days learning about biblical evangelism and missions techniques from veterans like T.J. Slayman and Tom Gaudet. That week changed Nathan’s life forever, and it became the catalyst which God used to lead Nathan into foreign missions.

Nathan and the group at the 2001 missions camp in Cane Creek

Two years later in September of 2003, Nations Training Institute was launched in Bangkok, Thailand, and Nathan was one of the seven young men who enrolled. While in Bangkok, Nathan and the other trainees spent several months participating in a variety of evangelism venues, including literature distribution, English teaching and prison ministry.

The original NTI guys in Bangkok, 2003

Nathan teaching English in Thailand

As the training time in Bangkok was approaching its end, many of the men began discussing their next steps in ministry. I had already made plans to return to Ukraine, and I invited any who were willing to join me. Nathan decided to come, and in early April of 2004, we arrived in L’viv together.

Nathan didn’t waste any time getting to work. He immediately enrolled in language lessons, studying Ukrainian with a private tutor for many hours every week. Because he was still single at the time, he had the advantage of sharing an apartment with a Ukrainian man, and this allowed him to progress rapidly in his language skills. Just over a year after his arrival in the country, Nathan spoke publicly in Ukrainian for the first time when he taught four sessions at a Bible camp we organized in the Carpathians.

Today, Nathan oversees our entire Ukrainian correspondence course, which reaches nearly 600 students at this writing. During the summer months, he is heavily involved with our Carpathian Mountain Outreach program, which is, in a way, a continuation of the original vision of Nations Training Institute. Nathan also loves numbers, and over the years he has kept valuable statistics which have helped us to maximize the effectiveness of our outreaches. Not only has Nathan been instrumental in taking the Gospel to thousands of unreached Ukrainians, he has also discipled many American young men in the process, leading by example and helping to raise up new laborers for the harvest fields.

The Day family: Katelin, Nathan, and Melissa

In late 2009, Nathan married Katelin Rebsch, and their first child, Melissa, was born in December of 2010. I thank God for Nathan and his family, and would like to ask you to pray for them as they serve with our team, working tirelessly to advance the cause of Christ in Ukraine. You can learn more about Nathan and Katelin by visiting their blog: http://day.euroteamoutreach.org, or by e-mailing Nathan at nathanaday@msn.com.

Last Monday morning (3/14), Kelsie and I traveled with our friends, the Days, to Krakow to apply for new religious visas. Essentially these visas will allow us to stay in the country for longer periods of time without having to continually cross the border every 90 days.

We arrived in Krakow late Monday afternoon, and we were at the Ukrainian embassy first thing Tuesday morning. We had a bit of a run-around trying to get all the necessary photo-copies made, payments submitted, and receipts turned in before the embassy’s document submission deadline of 12 noon, but with God’s help we made it in time. Later that afternoon, we picked up our passports complete with brand new, one-year R visas. We were back in Lviv early Wednesday morning. Thank you all for praying about this with us!

Just arrived in Krakow. Time to go get some dinner!

Now that the Day and Steele families have R visas, we are working to get new visas for the Beals and Denise Hutchison. Right now, they are in the process of obtaining their letters of invitation, and once they have those they will also travel to Poland to apply for the visas. Please pray that this would all work out quickly and successfully.

If you want to see more pix from our trip, check out Nathan and Katelin’s blog!

Recently we decided that we would try to release a new ETO video report every month. Well, so far so good. The March report is here! This one’s a bit longer than usual, but I think you’ll forgive us when you see it. Here’s a quick overview:

• Proofing a Ukrainian lesson translation
• English Club footage
• CMO 2010 by the Numbers
• Blooper Reel

Thanks for keeping our ministry in your prayers!

This morning, I arrived in L’viv on an early train from Kyiv, where I had spoken at two Baptist churches. Last week, while speaking at a conference for Campus Crusade for Christ, I met the Ukrainian director of student ministry within Campus, Sergiy Kryvonos. He invited me to come and speak to his church on one of the topics I had taught at the conference: Hearing from God. This session explores the concept of finding God’s will, and in general learning to hear His voice and follow. My time to speak at Sergiy’s church was scheduled for the evening service, and in the morning I was invited to speak at a smaller church in a suburb of Kyiv.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures for this post, but I just wanted to provide a quick report and to thank those of you who prayed for me during this time. I believe that God was honored and that saints were encouraged to follow Him.

Immigration Update
Another piece of very good news is that things are looking up in the immigration arena. While in Kyiv, I also picked up a letter of invitation which will allow Kelsie and me to apply for religious visas. Nathan and Katelin Day should also be receiving a similar letter this week. The four of us are scheduled to travel to Krakow this coming Monday, where we will submit our documents at the Ukrainian embassy. Please pray that we will receive our visas quickly and without any complications.

The benefit of having a religious visa (type R) is that we will not have to be concerned with registration for the entire term of our visa! Ukrainian law states that those entering the country with a type R visa are automatically registered for the term of the visa, not just for 90 days. This will be a huge plus for us and will mean fewer trips across the border. We’ll post more info on this situation as it becomes available. Thanks for praying!

Last weekend, I had the privilege of speaking at the national Campus Crusade for Christ conference in Vinnystya. Their were about 275 people in attendance from Ukraine and Belarus, as well as few from other countries. The theme of the conference was “Living Upstream”. That is, following after Christ (upstream) as opposed to following the world (downstream). The topics were primarily aimed at believers, though I also had many opportunities to present the Gospel to unbelievers. Here’s a quick overview of the four sessions I taught, followed by some pictures.

Session 1: Conformity to Christ
In this session I spoke about God’s universal plan for all believers, conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

Session 2: Hearing God
I spoke about how a believer can hear from God, how to find God’s will, etc. The session concluded with a five-point “quickstart guide” to finding receiving direction from God.

Session 3: Freedom from Sin
One of my favorite topics. I went over the basics of freedom from sin found in Romans 6 & 8.

Session 4: Running the Race
This session was primarily a call to action. I discussed the importance of remaining focused on the race, and serving God through evangelism.

Students arriving at the conference center in Vinnytsya

The Bible was continually emphasized as our final authority.

There were about 275 people in attendance, mostly students.

There were many opportunities for fellowship at the dining hall.

The winter weather didn't stop this crowd from having a good time!

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..." (Matt. 28:19)

Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for me during the conference. It went very well, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to teach. Also, a very big thank you to Tolik Deminko and his crew for putting the conference together. All I did was show up and talk, but there were many others working very hard behind the scenes to make this event successful. I am confident that the Lord was honored, sinners were challenged to repent, and saints were edified. To God be the Glory!

UPDATE (March, 13): Since publishing this post, we have done more research on the visa issue. In short, we have decided that at this point, religious visas (type-R) are the way to go for our team. We were able to get letters of invitation for our family and the Day family at a very reasonable price. In the morning, we leave for Poland where we will apply for our visas at the Ukrainian consulate in Krakow. We would appreciate your prayers for smooth border crossings, and successful visa application. If all goes well, we should be back in Ukraine Wednesday morning.

UPDATE: We just got word that Denise and the Bardwells were able to cross back into Ukraine today without any trouble. This does not mean the immigration problem is solved. It is, however, another demonstration that rural borders are typically later to adopt protocol than the airports. Thanks for praying!

Just a few days ago, a missionary friend of ours named Dan Bardwell flew to America for a one-month trip. As he was going through Ukrainian customs control at the L’viv airport, he was detained. The officials told him that he had overstayed his allowed time, fined him 600 grevenas (~$75), and informed him that he could not reenter Ukraine for 50 days.

We made some inquiries, and it appears that Ukraine is beginning to implement the stricter interpretation of a very vaguely written law. The law states that foreigners may stay in Ukraine for up to 90 days. That part is clear enough. But what happens when the 90 days are up? It really depends on who you talk to. Some claim that you can leave the country and immediately return. (This is what we have been doing and is the reason behind our frequent crossings into Poland.) Others maintain that after being in the country for 90 days, one must then be absent for 90 days. 90 in, 90 out. This is most certainly correct for those who do not have visas, but we have been told that since we do have visas (5-year, mulit-entry) that this part of the law does not apply to us. Well, Dan has the same type of visa that we do, and the officials at the airport essentially kicked him out.

The solution? It is possible to apply for an extension of stay beyond 90 days (commonly called registration) but we’ve already been told that our visa type (cultural) is no longer being accepted for registration. The likely outcome of all of this is that we will have to apply for new visas.The details remain unclear at this point, but this process has the potential to become expensive. These are the basic costs involved for one person.

• Visa – $150
• Letter of invitation from a Ukrainian organization – $250
• Registration (for one year only) – $290
• Total for one person: $690

Ouch. Please pray that God would intervene on our behalf and keep the doors open. Pray that we will have wisdom to know which type of visa to get and who to get it through. And especially pray for the Bardwell family. Dan will now have to remain in the US much longer than he planned to. In addition, Laurel and the children had already scheduled a border crossing today, as their 90 days is nearly up. Densie Hutchison will be accompanying them. Based on what happened to Dan, there is a possibility that Denise and the Bardwells could get stuck in Poland. We’ll update this post with more details on their situation once we have them.

Thank you for praying for us and for the ministry here in Ukraine.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here’s our February ministry report.