Good and Evil, family news, our new ETO staff family, CMO 2018 — where do I start? Two pages never seems enough to fit in all the news. But this time, I’m going to try…
There are months when so much is going on, it’s hard to find time to write newsletters! God is blessing the ministry and keeping us busy with progress on a variety of fronts. In this issue, we’d like to give you a little grab bag of several mini-reports. Let’s dive in!
Good and Evil in Ukrainian
As you may know, last year we completely ran out of Good and Evil books in Ukrainian. G&E is a battle-tested ministry tool, and we’re working on a brand new Ukrainian translation. ETO has received several donations for that project, and we’re optimistic that God will provide the remaining funds in time for us to print. Please keep praying for this project! The presses need to start rolling no later than May 1 in order for the books to be available for CMO. And speaking of CMO…
CMO 2018
Lots of people have been asking about CMO, and we’re excited to share the news: CMO is coming back in 2018! By God’s grace, we are well on the way to overcoming some of the hurdles that led us to skip 2017, and we’re excited about next year’s project.
CMO 2018 will begin in mid-July and last through mid-August. We hope to have the 2018 Application, Info Pack, and other documents and details posted to the CMO web site soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about the project in general, please have a look at the materials from the 2016 project. Many aspects of CMO remain the same from year to year.
Welcome to the Zhylavy Family!
We are very pleased to announce that ETO has gained a new staff family! Anatoli and his wife Anastasia have four children, and they joined our team as full-time missionaries in August. Anatoli is a Ukrainian philologist, and he is spear-heading our new translation of Good and Evil as well as revising our Ukrainian Bible First text. We’ll be posting more about the Zhylavy’s in a future update, but until then, please check out their bio page on the ETO web site: www.euroteamoutreach.org/zhylavy
Anatoli and Anastasia along with their four children: Kateryna, Valentyna, Hanna and Lukian.
Bible First Online
Someday soon, it will be ready. The software that will allow coaches and students to use Bible First via the internet has been a long time in coming. But this October, we got a much needed boost.
Nathan, Trevor, Joshua — hackers for Christ!
Trevor Brown is a software engineer from Florida, and he’s been helping us build Bible First Online since its inception. During the month of October, he used every day of time off he could scrape together and flew to L’viv for a coding marathon. He and I, along with Nathan Day, spent pretty much every waking hour for two weeks writing code. As a result of this latest push, we are now very close to importing our own Ukrainian students into the new system. Once we’ve been able to test the app internally for a while, we’ll release it publicly for others to use in their own ministries!
On his very last night in L’viv, Trevor tests out the script that will import our existing Bible First students into Bible First Online. (Hacking always works better if you wear a black stocking cap. ;)
We even have Bible First Online cookies! (courtesy of Miss Denise Hutchison)
Kids’ Class
I’ve written before about the kids’ class I lead on Sundays at our church here in L’viv. This is one of those ministries I wasn’t looking for — God just dropped it in my lap. I’ve been surprised at how much fun I’ve had with this group! Every week, we do sword drills, read through a section of Bible First, and work on memory verses. Inspired by my mom’s memory program for her grandkids, I’ve been offering the kids modest financial incentives to memorize Scripture. That has really taken off! Even during the week, kids come to my house to say their verses. One girl even brought a friend from the neighborhood who has now started a memory project!
Sword drills are a fun time each week. The kids are getting pretty good at finding references quickly!
It’s wonderful to see these kids learning to navigate their Bibles and reading passages aloud in class.
Family Update
Let’s start with the cold, hard facts: Kelsie Steele is my hero! The home environment she has crafted for us astounds me daily. Yes, like many large-ish homeschool families, our home often bears resemblance to Grand Central Station, but out of the chaos comes a sweet joy that I see in our children. It makes my heart glow!
This lady is my hero. I love you Kelsie!
Abigail is now 12, Rebekah is nearly 10, Hosanna is 7, Kathryn is nearly 3, and little David is a 10-month-old toothy bundle of smiles who is going to crawl off any day now! I wish I had room to write more (maybe in the blog version?) but I’m happy to say God is guiding and blessing us. We are so grateful for your prayers and support for our family as we minister for Christ in Ukraine!
David brings us all so much joy. He’ll be crawling any day now!
Pssst! Lots more pictures if you scroll further down!
How You Can Pray
- Pray for a strong team for CMO 2018!
- Pray for the translation, funding and printing of Good and Evil in Ukrainian in time for CMO.
- Pray for the Zhylavy’s as they join us in ministry.
- Praise the Lord for the progress being made on our Bible First Online software. We can’t wait to share it with you!
- Pray for peace and liberty in Ukraine.
Don’t go yet! Check out these bonus pictures…
Hosanna loves helping Mama shop. Especially when they have the kiddie carts for her to push!
Daddy date with Abby
Daddy date with Rebekah
Abby recently had a birthday party and invited several friends to the local ice rink. Good times!
Daddy date with Hosanna
Kathryn says hello! This little girl is fireball of energy, and she keeps us on our toes. :)
Selfie time at the Sunday kids’ class!
Bohdan was the first in the class to complete a level 4 memory project (30 verses or more). He memorized all 33 verses of Proverbs 1!
Not far behind Bohdan, Anya also completed Proverbs 1! These kids are on fire!
While Trevor was here, we did a little sight-seeing. Here we snapped a quick selfie from the lookout on High Castle.
