Brethren, pray for us. I Thessalonians 5:25 The Rue Family Missionaries to Ukraine   Field Address: A/R 60 Glavposhtamp 65001 Odessa, Ukraine Phone: 011-38-048-533-1818

Sending Church: Bible Baptist Church 1173 Jo Jo Road P.O. Box7135 Pensacola, FL 32534 Support and Mailing Address: Charity Baptist Mission Inc. P.O. Box 692 Bristol, TN 37621-0692

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;  Phil 3:10

Email: ruemissions@yahoo.com  www.ruemissions.com

 

June - July 2023

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and awaiting His soon return. This situation in Ukraine is turning into the very thing I feared it would, a prolonged conflict that could go on for years. Just when we thought things were settling down, Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal and then drones and missiles began hitting the very places that we often frequent in Odessa, like the building across from the Odessa Polytechnic University where there was a Children’s Science Museum, a grocery store, our barber, and our family’s dentist (See photo). One of our church families lost their newly renovated apartment due to the drone strikes in southern Odessa. Our men now travel to Odessa only when necessary, because of the volitivity of the situation. The US embassy continues to post Security Alerts stating that the current “Travel Advisory is a level 4: Do Not Travel” and further warns of increased missile and drone strikes to spoil Ukraine’s upcoming Independence Day celebrations.

Our church in Rozdilna is doing well and is stable. The newly saved are growing and together with the church they are doing what they can, under these circumstances, to reach souls with the Gospel. Our church could neither hold a youth camp nor a VBS for the kids this year because of the war. Instead, they continue to work with the refugees registered with the local authorities in our area. They again ministered to around one hundred families where they gathered them together and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and gave them food, clothing, and literature. Brother Alexei has calculated that each refugee outreach costs around $2,000 to minister to about 100 families/households. We continue to send offerings to Ukraine as the Lord provides. The time involved with travel, shopping, visitation, and contacting each family individually is demanding, but they are doing it all during curfews, air raid sirens, and checkpoints. Not to mention any eligible man seen on the streets could be taken at any time to fight. We had a scare when the local recruiter’s office called up my right-hand man, Brother Alexei, to appear. They let him go home since he has exemption on several levels.

On a happier and more personal note, our family just celebrated the wedding of our son Samuel to his bride Susanna. They were married on July 1st, when I had the privilege of preaching and Evangelist David Spurgeon, Susanna’s grandfather, performed the ceremony. The wedding felt a little like a revival service during the congregational singing! We really enjoyed spending some time with Samuel and Susanna and pray the Lord will use them for His glory.

It’s summertime again, the time when churches engage in VBS, youth camps, and camp meetings. Our children are very happy that they could experience these types of meetings in English-speaking in America. We continue to work our way down the list of supporting churches that wish us to give them an update on the work in Ukraine. Our travels were mainly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee where I was glad to be used of the Lord to encourage the saints in missions. We are thankful for the responses we’ve received and one young lady even “walking the aisle” for salvation during the invitation.

Please continue to pray for us as we fulfill our obligations to visit our remaining supporters and that the Lord will give us wisdom in His will for the near future. May the Lord richly bless you in every way.

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue

Phil. 3:10     (A printable PDF version is available here)  (www.ruemissions.com)

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,   April - May 2023

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sustains us in His will by His grace. The reports I receive from our men and women in our ministry in Ukraine are encouraging and give new meaning to the words, “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord (1 Thess. 3:8).” Seeing our ministry thrive during the tribulations of wartime causes us to bow our heads in thanks to God. Brother Alexei, my right-hand man in the ministry, made a recent trip into the war-torn area of Mykolaiv. This letter contains some of the highlights, along with pictures, of their trip.

The Lord graciously opened doors for us that were once closed as an answer to our prayers. When the war with Russia began, Brother Alexei and I began to discuss how we could help in the Mykolaiv region, because of the influx of refugees to our town from there. They came with stories and needs. The Lord provided the funds with which our ministry purchased a ten-year-old van for the purpose of taking aid to the region and providing transportation to anyone who wanted to flee. While registering the vehicle at our local DMV a corrupt officer wanted a bribe which Alexei refused to give. As a result, the van was impounded with the threat that it would be confiscated and used by the military in the war. This set our plans back for months, but the Lord was obviously keeping us from the area, because it was attacked relentlessly during the months that followed. We prayed and waited on the Lord. Eventually, Russia withdrew its troops from the area and our lawyer filed the paperwork for our vehicle’s release. The door was opened once again! Brother Alexei decided to make the trip with one of our supported local missionaries Oleksander Illchenko. Over the past seven years, we’ve helped him finance several nationwide evangelistic campaigns where he visited every major city in Ukraine giving out all the literature he could while preaching on the street. He made contact with many Christians during these campaigns and was able to get information from them about which towns had the greatest need.

Brother Alexei described the road to Mykolaiv as “eerie.” He said that they were literally among the very first to travel the road after it had been cleared of the mines placed there during the Russian occupation. Many small towns and villages were now ghost towns. The streets were completely empty, and they only encountered a couple of cars on the road for many kilometers. The streets were lined with civilian houses destroyed by the Russian army. It appears that their orders were to completely make these towns uninhabitable.

Overall, six towns were visited. Literature, food, and clothing were given out freely. Alexei said that these people were hungry for the word of God unlike the areas of Ukraine where they have not been so affected by the war. Crowds of desperate Ukrainians gathered in schools, civic buildings, and on the street for help where Brother Alexei and Oleksander preached to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

One town in particular, named Snigirovka, was very desperate. They endured a full Russian occupation where their town was blockaded. They did not allow anyone to enter or leave the city. Food disappeared from the shelves and the people became the sick sport of the Russian invaders. One man saved the bullets fired at him through his windows while he was in his home. He kept them in a coffee cup and told them his story of survival. There were many such stories. Unfortunately, this letter is too short for them. I guess they will be written after the war is over. Or you can wait till the Judgment when all secrets will be made manifest by our Lord Jesus Christ. It will be more realistic than “virtual reality” complete with “surround sound!”

The names of the other cities visited were Novaya Odessa (New Odessa), Mikhailovka, Zarechnoe, Shirokoe, Lubino, and Partizanskoe. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was preached to them mainly in the Ukrainian language and several people received Christ as their personal Savior. Brother Alexei and Oleksander helped these people any way they could. They even helped install doors on the homes of the elderly whose houses were broken into by the Russians. We will continue to send funds to these people as the Lord provides.

We have a prayer request for one young man in our church, named Vitya Ganichenko, who was recently taken into military service. He received Christ as a young boy during one of our Children’s Bible Clubs years ago. He has some health issues that one recruiter’s office said exempted him from service, while another said he could serve. They took him quickly and didn’t allow him to go home. Please pray for his safety and that he comes home whole and alive.

The Lord continues to give us safety for our travels, answers to our prayers, and fruit for our labors. Over the course of the past two months, we updated our supporting churches in Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, Washington, Ohio, and New York. It has been over ten years since we have seen many of them. Please continue to pray for us as we gladly fulfill our obligations to visit our remaining supporters. May the Lord richly bless you in every way.

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10   (A printable PDF version is available here)  (www.ruemissions.com)

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,                          January - March 2023

Greetings in the lovely name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord, enjoying His presence, His Book and His blessings. The year 2023 began with the usual tax preparation. Daunting as it is, this year’s tax prep had the added blessing of documenting all the channels through which funds were sent to Ukraine for those suffering from this war. It was humbling to see the generosity of our supporters who gave to provide Bibles, literature, food, clothing, medical supplies, surgeries, and various needs for our military friends fighting in the war with Russia.

Ukraine Update: The past three winter months have been a time of just surviving day by day, dealing with shortages, power outages, curfews, sirens, and shelling. Our church in Ukraine is still standing strong. The church’s services continue each week, and they do what they can to minister to those affected by the war. There has been renewed planning to transport aid to those in the city of Micholaev. Please pray for their safety. In addition, please continue to pray for the eight men connected to our church who are fighting in the war. Two of them are located in Bakhmut, where it is reported that life expectancy is about four hours in the hottest part.

People Projects: As witnesses for Christ, our mission is to sow and water, while God gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6-8). Sometimes it is our privilege to pick ripe fruit where others have labored before us and give a glowing report of a soul saved. Then there are other times where we sow the seed and tend to the sapling wondering if it will ever bear fruit. This could take years until the glorious moment arrives when they bow their hearts in faith calling on the name of the Lord for salvation! What a relief! After salvation, however, there is yet another time of travail on the part of the soul winner…to see Christ formed in them (Gal. 4:19). This could also take years and requires from us an equal investment of time, prayers, energy, and nerves(!).

I have three “people projects” to report on that the Lord has graciously allowed us to tend to over the years. First, we have a young lady in our church named Vladyslava who has been a faithful part of our ministry since 2017. Her mother, Oksana, led her to Christ and is still faithfully serving in our church in Ukraine. With her husband fighting in the war, Oksana has recently taken on herself the ministry of intercessory prayer. Vladyslava had a terrible time getting to safety when the war broke out. She was in Kiev when a rocket hit a building next to her dormitory. After a long, hard journey she ended up in Alberta, Canada. We kept in contact with her and learned that she needed help. Thank God, we were able to sponsor her into the USA and she is now living with us while we finish our furlough. Please pray for her as she seeks God’s perfect will for her life and as she grows “till Christ be formed” in her.

Another “people project” is a young man named Sergei. He was our neighbor in Rozdilna, Ukraine. He was the best friend of my two sons, Benjamin and Samuel. It was a blast watching their antics during boyhood!

It was even greater to watch him get saved and become zealous for the Lord. When the war with Russia began, Sergei was working in Poland where he led a young woman to Christ and married her. Then an opportunity came open for him to relocate to Canada. He contacted us asking where there was a good Bible believing church and we gave him Missionary Gabe Cochran’s contact info. What a blessing it was when Brother Cochran sent me a picture of them after their meeting at the airport. It is a great comfort knowing that he is in a church with a pastor like Brother Cochran where they can continue to grow “till Christ be formed” in them.

The third “people project” is none other than my own half-brother, Micah (Nathan) Rue. I wrote about him and his salvation experience in our January-February 2021 prayer letter. After Nathan’s salvation, we were put in contact with another missionary in Peru named Marko Lyndsey who helped him in many ways. I looked into Nathan’s legal problems and began a conversation with the embassy in Peru. Over the past year, I watched Nathan grow in the Lord. He finally agreed to come home and surrendered to the truth that the Lord was in charge and would give him grace to deal with whatever prison sentence was waiting for him. Brother David Drake, upon hearing of Nathan’s situation, donated the money needed for the plane ticket home. Nathan was immediately taken into custody upon his arrival and was extradited to NJ after about two weeks. At his hearing the judge dropped all the charges after seeing that Nathan had over 50 successful missions! I had worked on helping him get home for over five years and the day finally came! Nathan was dependent on me, but I needed help. I prayed and decided to call Pastor Mike Veach in Staten Island who was close enough to get to him. He and his church rallied around Nathan and helped him in so many ways. Today, Nathan is in the VA hospital in NY, where he is enrolled in several programs. They have already determined that he is going to get 100% disability and they are helping him with his bouquet of alphabet issues (PTSD, etc…). He plans to stay close to the church there in Staten Island after he finishes his treatment. Please pray for Nathan, that Christ will continue to be formed in him (Gal. 4:19).

If you take a step back and look at these three souls for whom our Lord Jesus Christ died it will amaze you of the Lord’s power, grace, omniscience, and omnipresence, working in and through His body, the church, to get His children where He wants them to be for His glory! Glory be to God! Be patient with your own “people projects.”

Rue Crew Review: The Lord has been very gracious and faithful to us during our time on the road during the winter months. Our travels were mainly in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee with a trip to New York added in. Naomi, Joseph, Samuel, and I enjoyed birthdays stateside with family. My son, Samuel, is now engaged to Susanna Napier, with the date set for July 1, 2023. Our son, Benjamin and his wife Faith celebrated their first wedding anniversary. Another special, quiet celebration for me is February 18, the day that Jesus Christ changed my life forever! It is hard to believe that I met Him 34 years ago, when Jesus passed by my way!

Please continue to pray for us as we finish updating our supporting churches and take a few meetings by special invitation. Please pray for God’s direction and guidance as to when and where to return to Ukraine. In the meantime, we are busy and trying to get the medical attention needed to continue to heal and be strengthened for our next round. May the Lord richly bless you in every way.

That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:10               (a print ready version is available here)

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,  August – October 2022

Greetings! I pray this letter finds you well in the Lord looking forward to His soon return. This is my third attempt at writing this overdue prayer letter. The first two turned out to be small theses. There is so much that could be said about our ministry, our church family in Ukraine, the situation with the war with Russia, our family, etc… Please accept this letter as a brief overview of what could be said.

Ministry Update in Ukraine: We stay in communication with our people in Ukraine and stay abreast of the situation there. The US Embassy in Ukraine has issued a “No Travel” advisory to Americans. The only way to travel into the country is by car or train since the airports are all closed. Our church people still advise us to not return to Ukraine right now given the precariousness of the situation. While they are hopeful that full-scale war will not come to our region it is still unpredictable and could change very quickly. We are taking their advice and waiting till Spring to reassess the situation for a possible return date to Ukraine. This winter looks like it is going to be a hard one with curfews, electricity shut offs four plus hours each day, and air-raid sirens daily.

We are overjoyed and thankful to hear that our church in Ukraine continues to rally around the word of God at the feet of Jesus Christ. They continue to assemble, pray, witness, and serve the Lord by reaching out to the lost in the community with the Gospel using Humanitarian Aid to open the door.

Since our church is registered as a religious non-profit organization, we have the legal authority to receive Humanitarian Aid that was donated by the UN. By hand, our men moved 26 tons of food from Odessa to our church in Rozdilna, where they distributed it locally to those suffering from the war.

This opened a huge door of opportunity to get the Gospel into the hands of the Ukrainian people. It almost, however, turned into a riot after word got out that our church was distributing food. A line began to form at 6:00 a.m. and was three blocks long by 10:00 a.m. Our people handled the crowd heroically. If you have ever tried to manage a mob of desperate people you would understand! Since distributing help to the poor and refugees they have reported that several people have prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.

One man, named Misha, fled the heavily shelled city of Mykolaiv and came to our church to donate his time helping people. He quietly helped our men and heard the Gospel explained. He received Christ as his Savior and has continued to serve alongside our church in the trenches of front-line missions. We are overjoyed to receive the latest stats on the video presentation of the Gospel that we were able to help Pastor Bevins Welder put together with Pastor Joel Logan.

So far, over 30 million people have viewed at least some portion of it. Of the 30 million, 11 million of them watched the Gospel presentation all the way through and went on to log onto the website! What a blessing it is to think that we had a small part in explaining the Gospel to 11 million souls in the Russian language!

Ministry Update in the USA: The past three months have been busy with meetings. We spent a lot of miles on the road, over 12,000 of them, driving to meetings in CO, KY, MN, OH, NJ, CT, NY, IN, and TX. We’ve seen God’s hand of provision and protection the entire way! During this time, we have seen souls walk the isle for salvation, altars full, and young people surrender to full-time service. The Lord has given us the opportunity to preach on the street with a couple churches and opened the door to give an interview about Ukraine over the radio with Brother Grissom in Hastings, MN. Pastor Vince Massa in CT has a few men and women from Ukraine and Russia in his congregation. They gathered a small group, and I had the blessing of preaching to them in Russian, with several of them hearing the Gospel explained for the first time.

We’ve also had our share of setbacks and obstacles. Our vehicle has broken down six times with the same problem, leaving us stranded during, on the way to, and traveling home from meetings! Please pray that the dealership service department will honor the warranty. In addition, my laptop that I have used for fourteen years died on me and I’m still trying to retrieve all the years of files. Then we entered the ranks of those who have experienced being targets of credit card fraud twice in two weeks.

Please be in prayer for us as we prayerfully consider making a quick trip into Ukraine before the hard winter hits. Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air! That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10   (a print ready version is available here)

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May – July 2022

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

I pray this letter finds you well in the Lord looking forward to His soon return. This is my third attempt at writing this overdue prayer letter. The first two turned out to be small theses and were too long. Lord willing, I will find a way to put all my thoughts on what is going on in Ukraine from a Bible believer’s perspective and post it on our website.

After much prayer and consideration about the Lord’s will we have decided that He wants us to stay the course and finish what we came here to do in the USA and prepare for our return to Ukraine. We have supporting churches spread out in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and New York that we have not yet updated. We have not seen them in anywhere from ten to seventeen years. When we are finished with this part of our ministry we will take another look at the situation and hopefully return to Ukraine to a people prepared of the Lord ready to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If, however, the war is still going on we will look into ministering to Ukrainian refugees in one of the bordering countries until it is safe to return with my family.

In the meantime, we continue to encourage our people in Ukraine and send money to men in four separate areas where they can help those whose lives have been turned upside down by this war. I received a report from one brother that he has led over twenty people to Christ using the aid we sent him as a way to open a conversation. We also just received a report from my assistant in Rozdilna, Brother Alexei, that our church contacted the local authorities to receive a list of registered refugees from eastern regions hit the hardest. They made contact with 200 households and ministered to them. They also organized a church service where around one hundred refugees came and heard Brother Alexei preach the Gospel to them and give them food and clothing that was purchased by the funds sent from you, our supporters. My hope and prayer has been that the Lord would use this awful situation to prepare people to receive the word of God from western missionaries. The anti-west propaganda that has been pumped into Ukraine from Russia for the past twenty years made it very difficult to even have a conversation with them. The Lord has very graciously answered our prayers and, for the first time in my lifetime, our ministry in Ukraine received a positive write-up in the local newspaper in Rozdilna about how we are helping people and preaching the word of God to them! You would have had to have lived in Rozdilna for the past thirty years to understand what a miracle this is!

Words cannot describe how thankful we are that our church and people are still standing against all the trials and temptations that are in Ukraine right now. They continue to hold regular church services and reach out to the surrounding areas with personal witnessing, literature, and humanitarian aid (See 3 John 1:4).

We would like to include a short update on our family. My son, Samuel, has decided to relocate to Boise, ID for work and attend the Bible Institute there while he transitions to life in the USA. I drove him out there and helped get him set up. It is so hard to let go, especially when they are so far away. My consolation is that I’ve watched Samuel over the past few months really get his own relationship with Jesus Christ and prayerfully make decisions about what God wants him to do, not what he preferred to do (See again 3 John 1:4). My daughter is still willing to return to Ukraine with us but is open to whatever the Lord wants her to do in the meantime. She is also praying about finishing her Bible degree but must first work and save her money to relocate. She has become almost irreplaceable to me in the ministry as a secretary and accountant. I can’t describe my thoughts and feelings about losing her. She really adds a lot to our ministry. Please pray for the Lord’s will to be done in her life as we face some difficult decisions ahead.

Bible believing churches and people continue to express their desire to financially help those affected by the war. We still have channels open to help people inside Ukraine. If you would like to help please send a check to our mission board with the words “Rue/Ukraine relief” on the memo line. My number is (513) 376-1011 if you have any questions. Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
 

That Ukraine May Know Him,  (a print ready version with pictures is available here)

Christopher Rue  https://www.facebook.com/people/Rue-Family-Missionaries-to-Ukraine/100068352738533/

Phil. 3:10  http://ruemissions.com/may-july-2022/

 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,     March – April 2022

The Thought of Heaven: The past two months have been an emotional rollercoaster. One moment we are glad, encouraged, and hopeful; the next we are full of heaviness and sorrow. Taking a step back and looking at what God has done, and is doing, in Ukraine helps us to continue constant in the Lord. I often breathe a prayer of thanksgiving to God that our church and its members are still standing fast. Many of the women and small children have left. They are now refugees in Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia. We stay in contact with them and do what we can to encourage them to serve the Lord with what talents they have where the Lord has put them. Others stayed in Ukraine with their families to help. Several of the men from our church have enlisted to defend Ukraine from Russia. They are still holding Sunday morning church services, praying, witnessing, and helping those in need. I realize that several missionaries have had to watch as their churches were scattered, and, as one brother said, “they have said they are never returning to Ukraine.” I’m so thankful that we’ve not been required of the Lord to swallow that bitter pill.

The Lord has encouraged us with the statistics that have filtered in over the past month regarding the video presentation I had the privilege to give for use on Pastor Joel Logan’s website targeting Russian and Ukrainian speaking people with the Gospel. Somehow they have the ability to know how many people have watched the videos all the way through and how many people have watched them for 30 seconds or more. So far, over 8.5 million people have watched the videos all the way through, with over 16 million people watching it for 30 seconds or more. The presentation in Russian is as clear and thorough as we could make it to lead someone to Christ! The Lord has done exceeding abundantly above all I could ever ask! They have received many testimonies of people who have prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. The thought of what the Lord has done, and is doing, with this has made the thought of heaven much sweeter!

Ukraine Relief: We have been simply amazed at the outpouring of generosity of Bible Believing churches in the USA for Ukraine. So far, we have been able to get over $40,000 in aid to people inside Ukraine who need it, some desperately. These funds have been channeled to those in need through vetted, Bible-believing men who have proven themselves faithful over the years. Our relief program had small beginnings. I simply worked with our men and instructed them to help those closest to them, because the Lord said, “Love thy neighbor…” I told them to start with the poorest in the church and then enable those who didn’t need help to help their neighbors and family members both saved and lost. Every form of aid was to be given out with the message of the Gospel in spoken and printed form along with a message from American churches, “This help is from Bible believing churches in America who love them and are praying for them.”

These funds have provided various things such as food, clothing, medicines, surgeries, bandages, body armor, and transportation for women and children to safety. From my end here in the US there has been a constant challenge of working with the banking system and dealing with bureaucracy to get these funds inside Ukraine. On their end in Ukraine there has been the challenge of receiving these funds, rationing, curfews, and limited cash in the banks. They have to drive over two hours just to make a withdraw from the bank going through multiple military checkpoints and buying supplies trying to make it back home before curfew begins. Think about that and thank God the next time you make an easy cash withdraw from a nearby ATM.

At the present time I have to rely on trusted individuals to move money. However, we are currently working on trying to get everything set up to move money through our local church’s bank account. Our church has already been able to help several national pastors who do not have any documented proof of their status as ministers to receive aid for their churches from various humanitarian organizations. I’m so glad I spent all those hours with a lawyer years ago setting this up for our church to be a blessing to others. At the time it seemed very tedious, but what a blessing it has been over the years to many missionaries and ministries in Ukraine.

The first stage of our ministry yielded over ten people receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior! These were the family members and neighbors of our church members who were dealt with personally, one on one. We have prayed for some of them for over ten years to be saved!

We were contacted by several national pastors and evangelists whose families and ministries needed help. We sent several thousand dollars to men who needed to get their families to safety while they did personal work along the western border of Ukraine. We sent funds to men from our church serving in the military who needed supplies. One brother from our church, Kolya, who is an officer, was able to lead one of his subordinates to Christ. He was so excited to do so. He wrote me and said, “Pastor, God has me here for a reason. Thank you for teaching me sound doctrine!” We’ve also helped another brother, Slava, who is manufacturing homemade, steel reinforced vests for civilians and transporting them to safety.

We prayed and discussed ways to help those in desperate need in other areas. Our region has been bombed several times and there was an attempt to take control of our town by pro-Russian separatists from Trans-Nistria. Several vans of weapons and terrorists drove into our town and opened fire on the military enlistment center. The attackers were neutralized and the weapons were confiscated. There has been relative peace in our town ever since. However, there is a build-up of several thousand pro-Russians close to our town in Trans-Nistria, whose border is just twenty miles from my house. Men from our church are stationed there on the border to protect our town. Please pray for their safety. While we are enjoying relative peace in our town we have received requests from refugees for help from the city Mykolaiv. This has given Brother Alexei a burden to help them there with supplies and providing transportation to those trying to escape the rockets that have increased lately. It looks like Mykolaiv could be the next Mariupol. So, Alexei pledged to sell his car and use the money towards a passenger van to transport supplies and people to safety. Other men from our church who are serving in the army gave money as well. One young man gave $1,000. With these funds and the funds from US churches, we are looking and praying for the Lord to direct us to the right vehicle to use for His glory.

On The Road Again: While preparing for taxes for 2021 we calculated our miles travelled to meetings. The total came to be very close to 25,000 miles! Twice we were almost hit head on by drunk drivers! When I think about the miles we’ve travelled in our lives just to preach in both Ukraine and the USA I’m reminded of the statistics of accidents and fatalities. It is truly the gracious hand of God that has kept us safe.

We hit the road again late February and spent the past two months updating supporting churches and presenting our ministry in new ones in Texas, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, and Kentucky. The meetings have been a blessing and we’re very thankful that we have fruit in some churches along the way in the form of rededicated lives to Christ, a renewed burden for missions, and we even had a young woman named Molly walk the aisle to get saved in Brother Schaffer’s church in Iowa. We are also very thankful for the new churches that have taken us on for support and for the funds raised for our ministry including the Ukrainian relief fund.

Rue Crew Review: Our last prayer letter was so long that we could not give a personal update. The big news in January was that our son, Benjamin, was finally married to his fiancé, Faith, and they are now blissfully living in their long awaited “La-La Land of Love!” We are very thankful that they were married according to the word of God and are growing at the Anchor Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio. We have been working at improving our family’s health during furlough. Each member of our family has some kind of health issue of whatever degree with Naomi and I being the worse for wear. I will spare you the details but please be in prayer about some tests on my heart coming up. Also, please pray for Naomi who has been dealing with thyroid issues for years now. Our other issues are slowly improving. We feel much better and stronger, getting ready for our next term of service in Ukraine….one more round!

We still have several open channels to help people inside Ukraine. Not only are people being helped but it provides a great witness and open door to sow the seed of the Gospel. If you would like to help please send a check to our mission board with the words “Rue/Ukraine” on the memo line. My number is (513) 376-1011 if you have any questions.

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,   (printable PDF of this letter with pictures)
Christopher Rue  Phil. 3:10

 

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January – February 2022

Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I already had this prayer letter written in my head two weeks ago…or so I thought. I can hardly remember what I intended to write now. So much has happened and things are changing daily regarding the war in Ukraine. While I was not surprised that Putin would invade and take Donetsk and Luhansk, I was completely taken back by the scale of this invasion.

From the moment that we understood the magnitude of Russia’s invasion we devoted ourselves to helping our friends and loved ones in Ukraine get to safety. Our first concerns were for the safety of the Kline family who were in Kherson, and for a young lady from our church named Vladislava in Kiev. We were relieved to hear that the Klines made it out safely. Vladislava, however, was left all alone in the university dorm building with no one to help her after a rocket hit the building right next to hers. She had no money nor her traveling passport needed to leave the country. Thankfully, she met up with the Taraniuks who took her with them to Ivano-Frankovsk, where they endured some air raids. We were able to send her money to get to the Romanian border. We were also very concerned for the welfare of Darina and her two children in Odessa who were there alone while her husband was working on a commercial ship. She spent several nights in the bomb shelter before gathering the courage to flee to Romania by herself with her small children. We were also very thankful to hear, little by little, of other missionaries who were making it to safety.

Many women and children from our church loaded up what they could and were escorted to the border by their sons and husbands. They sought safety before any heavy fighting came and they are now scattered in Romania, Poland, Hungary, Germany, and Moldova. Several of our men have volunteered and others were conscripted to fight. Some are serving right on the front at this very moment.

Quite a few people from our church stayed in Rozdilna. Brother Alexei, the pastor of our church, along with his wife Vika made that difficult decision. She is expecting their second child and they also have a handicapped son, Vanya. Our deacon and his wife, Andrei and Ella Bondarchuk, also decided to stay with their two precious children. I asked them if they needed help getting their families to the border as refugees. They decided to stay and care for the church and defend their city in case of an invasion. Both families are looking after the church’s elderly and shut-ins, along with some of the mothers with small children who stayed.

Though our people are scattered they are communicating using an app called Viber. That app was used in the past for things that caused our church much trouble and heartache. I’m so glad that it is being used of the Lord for prayer requests, fellowship, Scripture, and valuable information needed for survival. It is quite evident that they have matured in the Lord. What a blessing it has been to me to read their posts (see 3 John 1:4). Several came to realization that they did not truly value their church as they should have during peacetime. To my surprise they met for church services last Sunday in spite of the danger! Brother Alexei told me that the sirens of an air-raid began to sound as they prayed! The men present determined to pray, one by one, till they were done. Alexei said that it was quite a sight to see. No one flinched. They kept on praying in spite of the sirens!

As we learned of the conditions along the border to the west, Brother Kline and I began to discuss the possibility of me making a special trip with my son, Samuel, to help. However, after a few days, the world-wide media coverage has prompted quite a humanitarian response. Though the conditions are hard inside Ukraine’s border, once the refugees make it through, there is plenty of humanitarian aid to help. The real need is for tracts and reaching people with the Gospel. I’m told that local churches on both sides of the border are responding with literature. The apartments and hotels are booked up and there is little room at the border for us to set up a food line or the like. After praying about the situation and hearing the reports of what really could be accomplished by my physical presence at the border, I decided that more can be done by coordinating aid to get to people inside Ukraine where there is a greater need. I may make a trip later after the hype is over. We have opened channels by which we can get money to people in need using their bank cards. I am also working on getting both Russian and Ukrainian literature for use on both sides of the border. The men in our church are stocking up on supplies and storing them in our house, which is also being used as a shelter for some when the air raid sirens sound their warnings. Brother Alexei, his brother Vitya, and Andrei are busy buying supplies and taking them to the others in the church so that there is less risk to the elderly.

We recently opened a second place to help in Dnepropetrovsk, where Oleg, my translator, relocated to take care of his elderly parents. We have opened the channel for him to receive money. He has been a friend of mine for many years. He is one of the best translators I know in all of Ukraine and he has translated enough material to gain himself a PhD in my opinion. I contacted him about the possibility of him stepping up and becoming a missionary to the area while there is such a great need. He agreed! He is currently working to help people with basic food and medicine, while giving them the Gospel.

We are so thankful to hear that our people who stayed are witnessing and have even led at least five souls to Christ over the past few days! One sister, who has tried to lead a soul to Christ for years, finally got two!

The Lord opened a great door to reach Ukrainians with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastor Joel Logan raised the funds to push an advertisement campaign over four social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TicTok, and another). When the dear people in Ukraine log onto these websites an ad pops up taking them to a website that Pastor Logan and his men have started. There are two presentations of the gospel there: one in Ukrainian and the other in Russian. Pastor Bevans Welder approached me about filming this gospel presentation in Russian using the equipment and men in his church. We worked until midnight. After twenty-two takes we got it down to twelve minutes. They said that it has already been viewed by almost a million souls by the fourth day! They raised money to air the ad for ten days! My heart is overjoyed with the thought of souls being saved as a result of these videos!

We have received many phone calls from dear saints expressing their desire to help in some way. Now that we have at least two channels open to help people inside Ukraine we can receive donations to that end. If you would like to help please send a check to our mission board with the words “Rue/Ukraine” on the memo line. There is a lot of hype right now, but after it blows over the hard work and desperate needs will begin. I would like to be ready. My number is (513) 376-1011 if you have any questions. Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,                        July – August 2021

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and awaiting His soon return.

Update From Ukraine: In the past we’ve trusted the Lord and committed the ministry into the hands of national preachers many times. There always is a bit of trepidation and concern when we do. The peace that the Lord has given us this time around is such a blessing. The ministry is thriving in spite of many problems and changes. They’ve been involved in evangelism not only locally but also making trips into new territory with the Gospel. Brother Alosha and several members of the church set aside a week for reaching out to new towns with literature and door to door visitation. Each day they visited a new town using the time for personal work and literature distribution. Brother Casey Kline graciously drove his van to transport the group each day. I received a report that this year’s Bible Club went well with around 12 of the older kids responding to the Gospel message that was thoroughly and personally explained. Amen!

Building Project Update: We’ve been very encouraged by a couple love offerings that got us closer to our goal needed to begin the building project. I asked my assistant to look into prices to see if our estimation was still accurate. It has been three years since we first started saving and we haven’t checked on prices since then. Inflation over the past three years and price hikes due to Covid have increased the starting price by 10k. Seeing that we are already in the fall season, it looks like we will have to wait until spring to break ground. There are still two things left to do that will help us prepare for ground breaking. First, we need to have the city change our current power lines to three-phase. We are going to need this for all the welding. Secondly, we can begin searching for a large cement mixer. Our town does not have a concrete company and ordering a truck from Odessa would be risky and expensive. In the past, we’ve mixed concrete by hand, but this project will require a little more than elbow grease.

Deputation/Furlough Update: I am writing this letter “on the road.” I’ve learned to trust my wife’s driving allowing me to catch up on all the administrative demands of the ministry. We are currently returning from over two months of meetings in the North West. During those two plus months we’ve added over 12,000 miles on our van. Our meetings were in North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. This part of our deputation/furlough has been exactly what we needed. We preached, prayed, fellowshipped, and passed out tracts along the way. I could spend several pages on anecdotes, but suffice it to say that we were encouraged by the state of the Bible believing churches in this region of the USA. The pastors of every church we visited were solid in the Lord and the Book! We are still working on scheduling meetings. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a specific date. My number is (513) 376-1011.

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:1

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Dear Praying Friends and Family, May – June 2021

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and awaiting His soon return. The best way to begin this letter is to just say, “God is good!” Our spirits and souls are being refreshed by the Lord and His people on furlough...in spite of wear and tear on our bodies from all the driving!

Update From Ukraine: My assistant, Alexei Kalinin, has been doing a good job filling in my absence. It is a blessing that we can have conversations about the work and discuss future plans and ministry issues. The Covid restrictions are loosening up and the Lord has put it in his heart to spend some time reaching the surrounding villages and towns with the Gospel. They are also getting ready for our yearly Children’s Bible Club. He also had to conduct his first funeral for a long-time member of our church, Sofia Pavlovna. She was a sweet and dear saint who suffered from, what looked like, Alzheimer’s disease. For over five years, our church, out of their own pockets, took care of her out of love for her and the Lord Jesus. Christian charity is so much more reliable than socialized medicine!

Building Project Update: The past two months have kept us busy in Ohio and Kentucky where we have been encouraged that the Lord is working in and through us for His glory both here and in Ukraine. We stood amazed during a church’s missions conference as they spontaneously took up an offering for our building project. We have been praying, working, and saving for this project for over three years now and we are almost ready to start. I hope we can break ground this year while the weather is warm. We now have 32K of the 40K needed to begin the main phase.

Deputation/Furlough Objectives: We are often asked the question, “When are you going to return to Ukraine?” I do not have a return date set yet, but what I do have is a list of objectives to accomplish. First, we plan to visit all of our supporting churches and update them on the work and our future plans. We have some supporters that we have not seen in over ten years, some fifteen, and we don’t know when we will get a chance to visit again after we return to the field. Second, we need to raise additional support. We lost support over the past eight years and need to replace it. We were informed by one of our best individual supporters that they are giving us notice to replace their support while we are stateside because they are now in retirement and can no longer help like they did in the past. These dear saints have supported our work for over twenty years and have saved me at least a half a year of deputation work. It is going to take quite a few new churches to replace their support. Lord willing we plan to do most of our deputation work in the Texas and NY areas since we only have three supporting churches in both those states combined. Lastly, we have several projects that need funding, the most important being: 1) return trip costs and; 2) a vehicle for use in Ukraine. We thank the Lord for the generosity of one dear church who took care of our return trip costs and also gave quite a bit towards the purchase of a vehicle when we get there.

Future Deputation/Furlough Travels: We are currently preparing for our trip to the North West states to report to our supporters there and also visit some new churches along the way. This trip will take us all the way through the first part of September. Please pray that the Lord would give us souls and use us to encourage the saints. Also, please pray for our safety and that we can find places to sleep between meetings. We also plan to travel from Seattle, WA to Pensacola, FL to take in at least one Blowout while we are in the USA. Please pray for that long trip as well. I really appreciate your prayers for us and all the help we have received along the way in the Lord’s work. We are still working on scheduling meetings. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a specific date. My number is 513-376-1011.

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:10
 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family, March - April 2021

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord. We want to thank you for all your help in the work the Lord has called us to do in Ukraine. The long “To Do” list helping us transition is being checked off. In spite of Covid we are finally able to direct our time and energy to updating and encouraging our sending churches in the work in Ukraine.

The reports received from my associate in Ukraine, Brother Alexei, give me great peace of mind knowing that the Lord is with them and comforting them in the work going forward. Over the years I’ve seen and heard of quite a few works that have ceased to exist after the missionary left the field for an extended amount of time. That is always a great concern as the Apostle Paul expresses repeatedly in his epistles. Overall, the people and ministry are holding strong for the Lord. The quarantine requires them to limit services and use the internet to broadcast on occasion. Many of the elderly in the church are dealing with a lot of sickness, but our people are helping one another. They are also holding Bible classes in a nearby orphanage. I can’t express enough the relief, joy, and thanksgiving we feel for what the Lord is doing with our ministry.

Our meetings so far have been a huge encouragement to us in the work. After having been on the field this past term for nearly seven years, I again see what a necessity furlough is for missionaries. It has been great to see pastors and churches that we have not seen in years, like Tabernacle Baptist Church in Denver, NC. We haven’t seen them in 17 years, yet they have faithfully prayed for our work and supported us the whole time! Temple Baptist Church’s missions conference in Statesville, NC ministered to us in ways we never expected. They encouraged us in the work and gave us the opportunity to have fellowship with other veteran missionaries, which helped us tremendously. More and more, we are being refreshed by pastors and their congregations. I am speechless and amazed at how the Lord works with and through His people in the Gospel ministry. We were able to spend time with Pastor Joe Silvestri and saints there at Wooster Bible Church. We always come away from their church and home encouraged in our personal walk with Jesus Christ. It has been good to visit other churches in the Cincinnati area like Branch Hill Baptist Church, Mt. Hope Baptist Church, Anchor Baptist Church, Lebanon Baptist Temple, Bible Believers Baptist Church, Friendship Baptist Church, and Miltonville Baptist Church who have all been a big blessing to us over the years.

I wanted to use this letter to write a paragraph or two about personal issues and things that the Lord has been teaching me about ministry and family. All pastors, evangelists, and missionaries know of the challenges of raising children in the ministry. Missionaries face an added challenge dealing with transitioning back to life in the USA at 18 to 20 years old. During my first ten years of missionary work several well-meaning elderly saints wanted to give me advice in this area. I was “all ears”, as they say, knowing that, “With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding (Job 12:12).” The tone of their counsel was, “Remember young man, God called you; not them,” referring to my children. I took this advice and applied it to our family trying to be realistic about expectations of my children in regards to missionary service. We also constantly reinforced the idea to our older children the need to prepare to leave home after finishing high-school if they do not have a definitive call to stay in the ministry.
 

The outcome, thus far, has not been that great; at least in our family. As occasion presented itself, I’ve had conversations with other veteran missionaries on this, and I’m alarmed to hear of so many good children of good missionaries dropping out of church altogether. “Houston, we have a problem.”

Red flags began to go up when I overheard, on several occasions, conversations between my children and inquiring adults about what we do. Their replies were, “My dad is a missionary”; not “We are missionaries.” That there be no misunderstandings, let it be said that our children do indeed serve along side us in the ministry. However, there seems to be the need for an ever so slight adjustment in their hearts. I feel that we have made a big error and we are trying to correct it now. It stands to reason that if God wanted my children to be Americans in the usual sense that He would have had them born to American families in America. God placed them in our family and we are missionaries serving in Ukraine. Just as there is a special call given to Americans to leave America and go to the foreign field, it is only reasonable to think that there should be the same for missionary children to leave the field where God put them and call them back to America.

After serving the Lord in Ukraine the first ten years I began to see that my lifespan was not as long as my vision. I have enough vision for several lifetimes. In other words, the work that needs to be done in Ukraine spans generations not a single lifetime. Second generation missionaries would be a great blessing to the Lord’s work. No wonder the Devil concentrates his attention on them to take them out. We missionaries often think that the Devil attacks our kids to stop us (which is true), however, the opposite may be closer to the real reason. Second generation missionaries would be able to do so much more for the Lord. My wife and I have counted the cost of serving Jesus Christ into our twilight years and we are all in! Whatever the cost! We are encouraging our children to serve alongside us in this work, unless the Lord calls them elsewhere. This minor adjustment has brought tremendous comfort and liberty to our hearts in the task of raising our children for God. My daughter has made up her mind about helping us in the ministry and working towards being self-supporting with a job that will allow her to work online. Our son, Benjamin, believes the Lord wants him to begin his life in the USA. We are helping him transition while we are here. He is praying about a lot of things, including going to Bible Institute. Our son, Samuel, is my right hand man in the ministry at the moment in the USA. I really need the help and I keep him busy. He is also praying about the future and is looking at returning to the field with us and helping in the work until God makes things clearer to him about His will for his life. As for our younger children (Christopher, Michael, and Joseph), we have enrolled them in online classes in Ukraine while we are on furlough to further their language studies. Please pray that the Lord’s will be done in all our lives as we serve Him.

I have begun scheduling meetings and look forward to seeing you all sometime soon. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a specific date. My number is (513) 376-1011. If not, you should be hearing from me in the near future!

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

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January – February 2021

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord. We want to thank you all for your prayers and support. It has been a blessing to see what the Lord has done over the last two months and we are excited to see what He is going to do with us during this furlough.

Good News From Far and Near Countries: Change, relocation, and reverse culture shock left our souls a bit thirsty. Proverbs 25:25 says, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” We had some great news from two far countries! I guess that equates to a big gulp! The first bit of news came from Peru where my brother has been for several years. Micah is my half-brother, but we hardly know each other because we did not grow up together. He has PTSD from his time serving as a sniper in the Army Rangers. He did three or four tours and his life fell to pieces. There is not enough space in this letter for all the details. Micah and I came in contact with each other five or six years ago through the internet. He battles alcoholism and didn’t really believe in God. Our exchanges were… “interesting.” In short, he was trying to “take it like a man” and “pay for his own sins.” I searched for a missionary nearby that could help him. Pastor Bevans Welder told me of a missionary in Peru named Joe Hembrough who himself is a veteran. He began talking with Micah and was able to put him in contact with a national pastor who gave him some work. Everyone prayed. Brother Hembrough and I spoke about how to help Micah, seeing he really needed help of every kind, but of first importance was salvation. Brother Joe told me his opinion… “He’s either going to self-destruct and die or find God.” I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear from Micah in late December. He called to tell me that alone, homeless, during a downpour, on his knees in the cold and mud he prayed and received Christ! He said that as he was agonizing with the Lord in prayer, that the Lord put a blanket of warmth around him. He said, “He hugged me and made me warm…literally!” Please pray for him. I am going to try to get down there to Peru if the Lord allows and help him get back to the USA where he can get into a church and get some help.

A year ago I mentioned one visitor who came to our services while we were broadcasting during the quarantine. Her name is Xenia, a close friend of Sister Sveta who trusted Christ about two years ago. Sveta has been praying and witnessing to Xenia ever since she got saved. She came to church just that one time and listened closely to the message during quarantine but didn’t receive Christ. Here we are a year later and the Lord has answered our prayers and Xenia came to church again. Brother Aleksei told me that she responded to the invitation to receive Christ a few Sundays ago!
We are also thankful to see fruit here in the USA. Pastor Greer of Branch Hill Baptist Church gave me the opportunity to preach while he was out of town. It was my privilege to see a young man respond to the invitation for salvation that morning. I fully realize that he came ready to be saved due to the prayers and personal work of Pastor Greer and his people. However, it really did my heart good to see someone “walk the aisles” and gives me hope that this is a foretaste of what is to come while here on furlough.

The Lord has added more reasons to rejoice seeing my younger sons getting a burden for their new friends here in the neighborhood where we live. Christopher asked me to teach him how to win people to Christ and has been listening very well and memorizing Scripture. All my younger sons have been praying every night for their friends to get saved. Please join them in prayer for Uriah, Noah, Malachi, and Jacob.

The Rest of the News: The majority of our time since landing has been spent just trying to acclimate to the USA again and stabilize. Housing, transportation, insurance, delays due to Covid, driver’s licenses, etc… have taken a lot of time. Getting my office and our home school up and running took more time than expected in this Covid atmosphere. Helping my teenagers transition to American life was not something I thought about when I surrendered to the call of being a missionary. It is as if all the things teenagers do during their high school years in America have landed on us all at one time! We are very thankful that Miriam has already found work. The Lord has brought her through some things and she has gotten to the place where she wants to serve the Lord in Ukraine. A year ago she told the Lord, “Anywhere BUT Ukraine.” She is teaching English to foreign students with an online company and wants to be self-supporting by the time we return to Ukraine. Benjamin and Samuel are still looking for work which is hard seeing they still don’t have their driver’s licenses. We couldn’t afford sending them both to driving school so I have been taking the time to teach them myself. They are very close to being ready to take the test and I’ll be close to needing medication of some kind!

Meetings: The Lord has given me plenty of opportunities to preach even though our ministry presentation is not yet ready. There are literally thousands of pictures to wade through and a lot of blessings to catalog and figure out what stays and what goes! Lord willing, it will be ready very soon. Please pray that the Lord will bless the presentation to be a blessing to the saints.

I have begun scheduling meetings and look forward to seeing you all sometime soon. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a specific date. My number is (513) 376-1011. If not, you should be hearing from me in the near future!

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:10

 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family, November – December 2020

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and overcoming the spirit of this world by the Spirit of God. We want to thank each and every one of you for your continued prayer and support in the work God has called us to do in Ukraine. Words cannot express how thankful and humbled we feel after receiving the cards, gifts, and extra love offerings for the holidays. We were able to help some Ukrainian brothers and sisters in need and my kids send their cheerful gratitude!

November: It was a busy month for us both personally and ministerially. It was mainly used preparing for our departure to the US. By God’s grace, we maintained our ministry and homeschool schedule while packing and setting things in order. There was a lot of time needed to arrange for housing and a vehicle in the US as well. We had to change strategies for our door- to-door, soul-winning campaign due the government extending the quarantine into 2021. Instead, we had a month of soul winning classes for those who had not yet been trained to lead someone to Christ, as well as for those who wanted a refresher course. The resulting testimonies of those who went everywhere witnessing were a blessing. The Lord gave me an opportunity to witness to the mother of one of our members for about three hours. We have been praying for her for several years. She did not receive Christ at that time, but it is obvious that she is very close. It was also an encouragement to see that those who were saved over the past several months have been growing and attending church regularly. Our last Sunday in Ukraine was a day filled with fellowship, tears, prayers, and farewells. We are comforted by the Lord that the work is being overseen by my assistant, Aleksei Kalinin. The church also recently voted on our next deacon, Brother Andrew Bondarchuk, after our last one left to pastor another church. These men, along with Aleksei’s brother, Victor, are doing a great job leading the work.

December: The month began with the long drive to Kiev to depart the airport there instead of Odessa. We were praying and hoping that their more relaxed passport agents would not give us a hard time over my son’s expired registration. Thank you for praying. All went well. It was one of the most boring flights we’ve ever had! No threats, detainment, or searches! Blessedly boring! There were a lot less people on the plane which meant better service, shorter lines, etc…

My driver’s license had been expired since January of 2020. We spent a lot of time trying to get it renewed from Ukraine with no success because of the Covid shutdown. I immediately went to the DMV upon arrival and waited for hours only to be told that the day before was the last day that I could have renewed. I had to start all over like a teenager. I breathed a sigh of relief after passing the test for my temps, then another after taking the driving test. I wasn’t confident that the driving skills I had acquired in Ukraine would help!
We are so thankful to finally get to see family again. We had a family get-together during the holidays where I was able to preach and witness to family members who have not yet believed on Christ for salvation.

Furlough and Future: There are several reasons why we decided to take a furlough at this time. First, we have been praying specifically about this and the Lord answered our prayers. Next, it has been over six years since our last furlough and several pastors have been asking me to come and meet their congregations again because of so many new members. Another reason was because it was the best time to take a furlough before entering into the next phase of our ministry. After years of preparation and prayer we will be finally working to establish a church in the city of Odessa where we have lived and witnessed for years. We have been patiently waiting on the Lord’s timing to make this move and we are excited to begin. Once we put our hand to the plow, so to speak, we will need to work without interruption for a good long time, or until the Lord comes! Last but not least, we have children who have grown up and need some help transitioning to American life.

Prayer Requests: The tasks at hand and ahead are too much for me to figure out alone. We need God! We need prayer! Please pray for:
• The Lord’s continued blessing and protection on the work in Ukraine.
• Our family to get settled (housing, vehicles, driver’s licenses, insurance, bank accounts, telephones, etc…)
• Our children’s continued education and employment.
• God’s blessings in preparing our ministry presentation.
• God’s direction in scheduling meetings with our supporting churches to give an update on our ministry.
• God’s leading in scheduling meetings with new churches to replace support that was lost over the last six years.
• God’s timing in returning to Ukraine.

We are looking forward to seeing you all and spending some time with the saints and especially the pastors. I plan to begin scheduling meetings soon. If you would like to contact me my US phone number is 513-376-1011.

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him, Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,   September – October 2020

 

Bible Institute Graduation: With great gratitude I am glad to announce that we have finally graduated the students who stuck it out till the very end of Bible Institute. We started with 17 and had only five finish all the courses. Many could not finish due to the economic instability of Ukraine. These graduates received over 1,200 hours of instruction and worked very hard to receive their certificates and degrees. It was a big load and a lot of hard work. Listening to these students give their testimonies of how the Lord had changed them as a result of constant exposure to the Bible, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship made it well worth the work. I am grateful for the help of my translator, Oleg Sizganov, Case Kline who helped with the load, and another brother who also taught a couple classes. We would not have been able to finish this in a 3 ½ year period without them.

 

Helping People: The Bible says that our Lord Jesus “went about doing good… (Acts 10:38).” I don’t have the apostolic signs (that would be nice!) to heal the sick and do miracles, but we have a God who can! We currently live and minister about 100 kilometers north of Odessa in the interior of Ukraine. We do not have the conveniences of the city here and the people are much poorer. Thus we are surrounded by poverty and hardship. We are thankful for the generous love offerings that you give that allow us the privilege of helping people. Most of the time I do not mention these things in our prayer letters for several reasons, one being that I never want them to think that we are making merchandise of them (2nd Peter 2:3). They too have access to the internet and can read missionary prayer letters. I know of Christians nationals who left missionary’s churches because they thought the missionary was being dishonest with their supporters. Despite all this I decided that it would be a blessing and an encouragement to you to see some of the faces of the people that you have helped recently so that you can pray for them.

 

First, please pray for Grandma Raiya. She received Christ in our church 25 years ago. She is a huge blessing to us and doesn’t flinch to witness to others. She is both sweet and bold. She was a sniper during WWII when she was just a teenager. She developed a blood clot in her leg which led to gangrene. The doctors will not amputate because they say her heart cannot take it. Her daughter has quit working and is caring for her fulltime. She has had gangrene since August and is fighting for her life. My wife is trying to help her get her heart stronger so they can amputate while trying to keep the gangrene from spreading. Please pray.

 

I’ve mentioned a sister in our church name Galya in past prayer letters. One of her daughters broke her arm three years ago. The doctors didn’t use pins to put it back together. Instead, they wrapped the bone with some type of thread that doesn’t dissolve. Galya brought her to Naomi when a large hole opened up and it began oozing. We told her to immediately go see a specialist and that we would pay whatever the cost. She will be in the hospital for over a month for operations and further care. The bone had grown around the thread and they are doing what they can so that she can have normal use of her arm as she grows. The doctors have had compassion on them and are writing off almost all of the hospital and doctor’s fees. We are covering the rest of the expenses.

 

My assistant’s son, Vanya, had some problems during childbirth. He is not developing properly and does not speak well. We have paid for many different medicines and clinics in the past with no success. Naomi found a doctor in the USA who will take Vanya as a patient via video consultations. We can get their blood work done here and translate it for him. His first consultation is scheduled for Thursday next week and we are praying that he is able to help.

 

We have also been helping a national evangelist over the past four or five years. He now has six children and lives in a one room house. His chimney collapsed and destroyed their roof and interior in their home, while his wife was pregnant. Their home was uninhabitable so he sent her away while he tried to clean up the mess. We sent them help with the doctor bills and with his house so she could return. He called and thanked me for the help. He said, “Brother, out of all the other churches in Ukraine you are our biggest supporter. You give more than all others. If it weren’t for you, we would be eating out of garbage cans.” Such a statement does wonders to warm the heart and I am thankful to God for being allowed to help like this.

 

Miscellaneous Ministry News: The Lord blessed us with one lady receiving Christ in our church and she has been attending ever since with her little boy. Please pray for her growth.

 

Thankfully we successfully applied for an extension to our residency permits. The quarantine caused big delays in our paperwork. We made it by two days, but were not able to apply for Samuel’s residency permit. We are not sure what will happen at the airport when we leave. I’m sure it will not be pleasant and will result with us paying some fines. Please pray that there are no other problems.

 

The Lord’s people have been very generous in sacrificially giving towards the building project. We are very glad to announce that we have 50% of the funds needed for our new church building. We pray that we will begin in spring when the ground thaws. Until then we will continue to pray, work, and save. We want to thank all of you who have prayed and given towards this project which will greatly help establish this church in the area and help her reach out even farther into the area with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Furlough: Since January this year we have been in prayer about the Lord’s timing in returning to the USA for furlough. Our biggest prayers were about the strength of the ministry, plane tickets, housing, and a vehicle. We are still somewhat concerned about the ministry due to a few Billy goats who keep causing problems. Other than that all is good. The Lord amazed us with the generosity of one friend of mine who paid for all of our plane fare! Praise God! Housing is also taken care of where our family of eight can stay. All that is left is the vehicle. Please pray we find the right one. Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

 

That Ukraine May Know Him,  Christopher Rue  Phil. 3:10

 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,          July - August 2020

I hope this prayer letter finds you all well in the Lord and rejoicing in His blessings.

The Quarantine: The Ukrainian government has once again put the country on lockdown, this time till October 31st. As I sit to write this letter, our family and about half of our church is experiencing Covid-19 symptoms: loss of taste and smell, fever, chills, aches, fatigue, coughing, and difficulty breathing. But that is just what has happened in the last week. We have had sickness in our home for the last two months and it has been a bit daunting. First, my two boys, Ben and Sam, contracted streptococcus at a youth outing which turned into scarlet fever. After that ran its course, mumps hit our family. My wife has been trying to nurse us all back to health and then she finally succumbed to the virus. She is now showing signs of pneumonia and asked me to ask you all to pray for her. This is a little strange for us, because the Lord has been so good giving us good health for years. We hardly ever get sick.

 

   

Graduation Service: After battling sickness for over six weeks we thought we were in the clear and decided to finally hold a special service for the graduates in our church. My son Samuel, was one of them. He has worked very hard. There were a few unsaved family members in attendance who listened closely to the preaching of the word of God. It was a big step for them to come to church. Please pray for their salvation.
Bible Institute: The Bible Institute is now finished and preparing for a graduation service, which will have to wait a while. I planned to invite a special speaker for the milestone event in our ministry, but the shutdown has changed all of that. Now that it is behind us, we are concentrating on strengthening the church and preparing to transition to national leadership.
Church Building: We are very grateful to report that we now have over 40% of the funds needed to begin the new church building. Thank you for praying and to those who have given to this need.
 

Prayer Requests:

• Our family’s health.
• The salvation of souls and especially of our neighbors.
• Our various literature projects.
• God’s direction for furlough.

Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

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Dear Praying Friends and Family, April – June 2020

I hope this prayer letter finds you all well in the Lord and rejoicing in His salvation and service! Summer is finally here and the fruits and vegetables are beginning to come in. The black soil of the Black Sea region is truly amazing. It reminds me of the fruit tree of Psalm 1:3 that, “…bringeth forth his fruit in his season.” One of the keys to being fruitful in the ministry is to stay rooted and grounded where God put you!

The Quarantine: Due to a new spike in Covid-19 cases Ukraine has put the country back on lockdown until July 31st. We resumed holding services after seeing that there were no cases of the virus in our area, but with caution. We began with just Sunday morning services and then added the others slowly. We are currently back up to full speed with the Bible Institute and usual church services. However, we are still not sure how our summer plans are going to turn out. Please pray for wisdom about holding evangelistic services in nearby towns and our annual Children’s Bible Club.

Rue Crew Milestones and Future Challenges: My son, Christopher, became a teenager in April. Benjamin turned 19 in May. Samuel graduated High School and Miriam finished her degree. We are all ready for a break. In just a few weeks we will begin our 7th year since our last furlough. In the meantime, our eldest children are continuing their schooling so they can work online from home until we return to the US for furlough. The month of May also marked our 27th wedding anniversary. The Lord sure has been good to us.

I am asking the Lord to make His will plain to me about the timing of our return to the States for furlough. It is a huge undertaking with a family the size of ours. Miriam, Benjamin, and Samuel have some very serious decisions ahead about their future and God’s perfect will for their lives. So, in addition to getting reacquainted with our dear supporting churches we have to help our children learn what it means to be an American. Naomi and I don’t even know anymore ourselves. Please pray for our children for God to make His will clear to them. And please pray about all the logistics involved. Housing, vehicles, and airline tickets are our most pressing need. We have a furlough fund but it is far from being what it needs to be for us to return.

We are asking the Lord to allow us to finish up several projects before leaving. The most important is the transition of the church and all ministries to national leaders. Secondly, there are various projects in the literature department that need to be finished. We aim to provide, in the Russian language, all we can to root and ground Bible believing pastors and their congregations. This includes the finishing touches on the Bible Institute materials and a children’s Sunday School program. We also have all the materials in Russian for any church planter/evangelist to disciple new converts and organize a local church. There is still some work to do on the new Russian Hymnal before it is ready for printing. All that is left are translation issues. Of course, the Bible Institute graduation will be a highlight in the ministry for us all! We have also been looking forward to the summer months for village evangelism. Please pray for wisdom in the current climate that we will be able to do what we can to win the lost.

Building Project/Fund Raising: We are happy to report that we are now at 30% of our goal to begin the building project. We have prayerfully counted the cost (Lk. 14:28) and believe that doing the work ourselves will add up to a lot of savings. We have some first-class welders, plumbers, and brick masons. We were hoping to start by now to take advantage of my son’s young backs before we return to the US for furlough.

Prayer Letters, Prayer, and Spiritual Battles: The power of prayer in the ministry and spiritual warfare cannot be overemphasized, thus the importance of our prayer letters. I’ve seen the prayers of God’s people move the hand of God to lift hindrances, bring conviction of sin and salvation, stop attacks from the “powers that be”, supply needs, bring healing, comfort, reconciliation, and many other things. For this reason, I try to include both the blessings and the heartbreaks; the victories and defeats. The problems are mentioned so you will pray, the blessings are included to encourage you to rejoice and praise God; knowing that your prayers are being answered.

When writing a prayer letter and rejoicing in what God has done there is always a hesitation in the back of my mind. I’ve noticed that, when I mention someone in our prayer letters as a source of encouragement to our supporters back home, they almost always come under attack. A couple of times I actually paused to highlight a brother or sister who were doing very well in the Lord for fear of impending backlash. You may say, “That isn’t right, Brother Rue, to think that way…. You should trust God, etc…” But, you haven’t been here and seen it on the scale that I have. Sadly, I know too well what the Apostle Paul said in Phil. 3:18 and 2 Tim. 4:10. Praise God that we also know very well what he meant in 3 Jn. 1:3, 1 Thess. 2:19, etc…

In our January prayer letter we rejoiced over a man, Maxim, who had then recently been released from prison. He started attending church, received Christ, then brought a friend to church named Zhenya who also received Christ. We mentioned him in our last prayer letter. They both attended church services before the quarantine and even came to church during broadcasts. It was a great blessing to watch them grow. Then, sadly, Maxim seriously injured his eye on a job and started taking pain medication. The quarantine hit, and he was without work and almost lost his eye. Injury, pain, fear, no job, quarantine, and little fellowship led him to start drinking again. I am told that he had a seizure, during which he almost bit off his tongue and hit his head in the fall. He went to the local hospital and they told him to go to the Odessa hospital but he didn’t go. The transportation wasn’t working because of the shut-down. That night he strangled on his own swollen tongue. His friend, Zhenya, is devastated and it so shook his faith that he went back to drinking too. I had the sad task of calling his mother in Zhitomir to tell her the news. Her wails and crying were so sad. I tried to comfort her with the Scriptures giving her assurance that she would see him again. She was saved and attends a Baptist church there in Zhitomir, but his death was unexpected. She had hoped that he was finally getting his life back together again after getting saved and going to church. Please pray for these families.

On the other hand, our church is thriving, witnessing, meeting together in spite of rumors and threats for disobeying the quarantine, and there is still a shout in the camp during worship services! We are very glad to see the continued growth of the new converts and their children!

I had the added blessing to take part in the ordination service in Limonski where Brother Maher has labored for years. He left the church in the hands of several men, and it took a number of years before one of them stepped up to the plate to take the pastorate. We laid hands on Slavic and Brother Kolya Veselkov who have faithfully served in planting a church in a small town about two hours away. I had the privilege of teaching these men in our combined Bible Institute 17 years ago. There was a lot of prayer, time and money invested in these men; and it is a blessing to see that it was not in vain (Gal. 4:11; Phil. 2:16; 1 Thess. 2:1).

Thank you for taking the time to read our latest prayer letter. We pray for you all, especially you pastors. We want to thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10
 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,                  December 2019 – January 2020

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord Jesus and rejoicing in His service! It is going on six years since our last furlough and we find ourselves missing home and longing to see our family and friends in the churches. The first week of January is always spent preparing for taxes, which affords me the opportunity to relive what the Lord has done and take a look at the sacrifices of God’s people so that we can be here. I am humbled and thankful for all of you who give so that the people of Ukraine can know our Savior Jesus Christ. Please know that we pray for you often that Jesus Christ would be real to you and that He would answer your prayers in such a way to bring Him glory and strengthen your faith.

Holiday Season: If it feels a little late in the year to be talking about last Christmas I’d like to let you know that we still receive Christmas cards in March and April! We wish to send our thanks to those who sent special gifts for our family and ministry for Christmas. We felt very spoiled this year! Our church and family were thrilled to take up a special love offering for our missionaries who are engaged in winning souls and planting churches.

The children in our Sunday School presented a play depicting the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, reciting Scripture from memory and singing the classic hymns. We had a great New Year’s celebration with preaching, singing, testimonies, prayer, and….fireworks! It is not illegal in Ukraine to shoot fireworks so every house and business puts on their own display at the same time. There is literally a fireworks display in any direction you look for about 20 minutes after midnight. I still have a bit of boyish pyromania in me, so I think this is very cool!

Building Project/Fund Raising: We are thrilled to report that we have 20% of the necessary funds to begin our building project. The Lord sure has been good to us and encouraging us in this project. The weather has been unusually warm this year which means that we can start as soon as we are ready. We are still working on trying to get the three phase electricity hooked up. The electric company is currently working on the paperwork which we hope will be completed soon.

Ministry in a Nutshell: We continue to rejoice and give thanks to the Lord for His goodness to our church in the area of soul winning. Six people have received Christ over the past several weeks as a result of our people doing personal work. It was especially good to hear of one lady, Oksana, who has prayed for the Lord to allow her the privilege of leading someone to Christ for two years now! Sister Sveta, who recently received Christ herself, gave a great testimony of how she led one of her friends to the Lord. We are preparing for a baptismal service in the near future.

We are also encouraged by three new men who have begun faithfully attending services. One came after being released from prison. It has been hard for him but he is really trying to do right. Another man came back after being in the world for about seventeen years. He struggles with drug addiction and now has AIDS, which is a first for us as a church to deal with. If any of you pastors have had to deal with this I sure would like some advice. I have a US number: (513) 376-1011. Or, write me at ruemissions@yahoo.com.  We want to minister to this man but want to protect the congregation as well.

The Bible Institute is continuing well and keeps me very busy. We are all looking forward to graduation and having more time for evangelism and catching up on various projects. Please pray that we finish well.

Family Update: We are very excited that our daughter, Miriam, is back home with us for a while till she finishes her degree. It is a good thing that she returned home when she did. We suspected that something was not quite right with her health and ran some tests. The blood tests revealed that she is anemic and that she has the same condition that Naomi has been fighting. It is a condition where they cannot absorb iron, even though iron may be present in the blood in sufficient quantities. Naomi has been working with a functional doctor in the USA to help her with her various health problems. Things are improving but we still need a lot of prayer. My cancer-marker blood tests came back the same as before, which is a big relief. The rest of the family is in good health, thank God! Please pray for my oldest son, Joshua, who has been in the States for the last seven years that he would get close to the Lord.

New Converts Growing in the Lord: The Lord did something for the young lady I mentioned in our last prayer letter that I thought would be a blessing to you. She attended our church for around six months before making the decision to receive Christ. Since the day she got saved she is growing and is overcoming a lot of things the world has been throwing at her. We always pray for our converts that the Lord would answer their prayers in such a way that they would know beyond any doubt that the Lord did it for His glory. The Lord answered our prayers in a great way. We received a special love offering to give to her personally. I let her know during prayer meeting and she gave a testimony of how the day before she was asking God to somehow help her. She needed to feed her little boy, pay her rent and utilities which were already due. She came to church with her last 20 Hryvna (about 80 cents) and left with $200! She was overjoyed with tears. She began to realize how the Lord already knew her need weeks before she prayed and put it on the heart of a saint of God to help her. She continues to witness everywhere she goes.

Thank you for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,  Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,    October – November 2019

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord Jesus and rejoicing in His service! Writing a prayer letter is a great way to take a break from routine and reflect on what the Lord has done over the past few weeks. It also warms my soul to remember our family and friends back home. Thank you for all you do for the Lord allowing us the privilege to serve in the mission field of Ukraine. We pray for you all collectively and individually as the Lord puts you on our hearts and minds. We pray the Lord keep you all strong in His word and grace while the fiery darts fly (Eph. 6:16).

Thanksgiving/Harvest: Our annual Harvest service was a blessing this year. We all came to church dressed in our Ukrainian “Vyshyvanka”. It gave us the opportunity to thank the Lord for His goodness by inviting one of our local missionaries to preach and update us on his work in a town about three hours away, called “October.” We prepared an offering ahead of time to provide him enough firewood to heat his home for the winter. We also had a Thanksgiving get-together with other missionaries in Ukraine. It is always a highlight of the year to sing hymns, enjoy fellowship, and pray together in ENGLISH(!) with others who miss their families, friends, and churches back in the States.

Soul Winning and Fruit: Over the past few months it has done my heart good to hear many testimonies from our members who are bearing fruit as active soul winners. One of our young ladies, who recently graduated high school, has entered the work force and is witnessing as she goes. She rejoiced to tell how she led two people to Christ at work. We’ve had several others tell of neighbors and relatives who have received the Lord Jesus over the past few weeks. We are also seeing fruit in our ministry here that can only be observed by watching God build the believers up by His word over many years. It takes several generations to get to the level of many churches in America. It has become evident to us that training leadership for the pastorate is going to be possible by second generation Christians, those who grew up in Christian homes. The exceptions are few. Our members are truly bearing their crosses for Jesus’ sake by making decisions that are very unusual for this culture and it costs them something to be in God’s will. May the Lord give us more like these!

Building Project/Fund Raising: It is encouraging to see the Lord’s blessings on our building project.
Already a couple churches and individuals have contributed giving us about 12% of what we need to begin. We believe it would be prudent to first raise enough to do everything needed to finish the outside before breaking ground. This would include: the foundation, purchase and set the containers, roof, insulation, windows, doors, and finishing the outside walls.

We have been proceeding over the past year or so with baby steps, doing all the less expensive projects that have to be done in preparation for the real building project itself. So far we have:
• Fence. We put up a fence and gates around the parameter of our property. Local law dictates that a security fence must be around the property before building can begin.
• Gas lines. We also had to reroute gas lines to the fence line…at our own expense. The gas lines here are above ground on poles that are about ten to twelve feet in the air. These pipes were running right down the middle of our property. The gas company said we had to do all the work ourselves including pay for the materials and then when all was ready they came and did the hook up.
• Septic Tanks. We also managed to put in new septic tanks in an area that would be easily accessible for maintenance.
• Kitchen/shower. We converted our outside building containing a small summer kitchen and a utility shed into a larger kitchen with room for cabinets, stove, and fridge. We will need access to a kitchen for the building project to feed the workers. We also installed a summer shower.
There is one more baby step we need to take and that is to get a three phase electric line run to the church for the welding work. The electric company said that it will cost $2,000, but they do not have anyone employed at the moment to do it. Our present meeting hall is 15x28 feet and we are maxed out with a pulpit, piano, baptistery and 60-70 people. We look forward to have room to grow…and breathe!

Youth Meetings: Our church hosted a one day youth meeting with the Limonski church which was run by our students in the Bible Institute. It was a good time, with good fellowship, and good preaching about our great Savior.

Answers to Prayer: On the week before Thanksgiving we breathed a big sigh of relief as we finished the final step in our registration process and we are good for another year! We thank the Lord for the opportunity and for your prayers for us to get this done without too much time wasted. Now we need to exit the country with my son Sam to get him a visa in the coming weeks and would appreciate your prayers for him to not run into any problems.
The Lord answered your prayers for Galya and Sveta who recently received Christ. Sveta is really getting “plugged in” as they say. The Lord Jesus is very real to her and it is obvious that He is answering her prayers. They were able to finally find a house before the cold weather hit and could afford it with the love offering that was provided by the Ukrainian immigrants in the US. I was happy to see that their new home is not far from the church. The children are able to come to church clean and with clean clothes due to having running hot water inside their house. The Lord is good!
We are thankful to finally have my car fixed but only after another engine overhaul. It turns out that the engine block was cracked all along. After four major expensive engine overhauls it is now fixed and running well. Thank you for praying and please continue to pray for the salvation of man who was able to finally figure out the problem and fix it for us.

As the holiday season approaches we miss you all more than ever. Thank you for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,

Christopher Rue  Phil. 3:10

 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,             August – September 2019

 

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord Jesus and rejoicing in His service!

 

Ordination Service: Over the years the Lord has allowed me the honor of laying hands on six men in Ukraine. All but one still serve in full-time ministry today. We held an ordination service at our church in August ordaining Brother Sasha Taraniuk and sending him to Kiev where he is now the pastor of Bible Believers Baptist Church. He began using the Sunday School lessons I wrote for church planters on soul winning. He told me that their members have already led four people to Christ!

 

 

 

Church Building Update: A friend suggested using old shipping containers for building our church building. I scoffed. However, after researching the technique and checking with local authorities, I have concluded that this is the answer to the three main problems we had to solve before breaking ground. The first problem involved the foundation; the second, the roof; and the third, cost. This approach solves them all. We need six containers all total for the new building project (see the drawing). Instead of pouring a very expensive foundation and risk collapsing our current building we will put this building on concrete reinforced pilings, thus saving a lot on the foundation. We are still working on calculating the final cost but so far we have calculated that each container will cost $4,000 each to purchase, transport, and set in place. We still have to calculate the costs for the roof, insulation, finishing the outside, drywall, wiring, and plumbing. That said, our first stage is $24,000 for six used containers set in place which would give us the shell. The men in our church will do most of the work themselves.

 

Our current building is just a renovated house. Our meeting hall can seat 70 people uncomfortably. We’ve handled up to 85, but it is not safe. This church needs a bigger facility to serve, not only the town, but the region. In the near future we are going to put together a video so that people will be able to see the need. Please pray for the Lord to provide the wisdom, funds, and strength to see this work to completion.

 

Baptismal Service: Missionary Chuck Leonard contacted me about a year ago about a woman who recently received Jesus Christ and moved to our area. Her name is Lena and she is doing really well attending our services and growing in the Lord. We decided to hold a baptismal service and Brother Leonard came with some of his men. It was a great day! Sveta got saved; Sasha was ordained; Lena was baptized; and we had dinner on the grounds! We were speaking in tongues, but not like you may think! These were understandable languages! We had Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Moldovan, and (glory to God!) English!

 

New Names in Glory: In our last letter we mentioned Galya who recently received Christ and asked prayer for her daughter Sveta. We are very glad to write that Sveta finally received Christ after attending church for around four months! They are very poor and have to start life over after leaving a horrible situation with an abusive alcoholic. They were practically homeless and currently live in a mud-brick house that has only three small rooms, no inside running water, and an outside toilet. It is sad to see those five little girls living in such conditions and we are concerned about the coming winter. Our church has rallied and has provided clothing, food, and work for them. One lady in the church put out an APB to Ukrainian friends who immigrated to the USA. Their network, along with one local church, has begun raising funds towards the purchase of some sort of housing for their family. It is a blessing to watch the Lord answer their prayers and strengthen their faith.

 

Funerals: Our ministry had a trying week with two funerals. We were in the middle of the preaching service when one woman began having heart attack-like symptoms after she found out that her estranged alcoholic husband had died. He received Christ years ago and had victory over alcohol for over ten years then he relapsed. Ever since, he has left a wake of destruction in his family. He racked up debt causing both his wife and daughter to seek work as migrants in Poland to keep from losing their home. I preached at his funeral where there were about 40-50 people present and preached hard against sin, alcohol, and told them of the only way to Heaven – Jesus Christ. People were visibly shocked at plain preaching. They are used to the local priest droning on in an unknown tongue; they are not accustomed to a Baptist preacher not pulling any punches. We’ve heard reports that people are talking about what they heard that day. Please pray for an awakening here in this town!

 

The other funeral was of an elderly man, the father of one of my converts. I’ve spent many hours reasoning with him and his wife from the Scriptures of their need of salvation. Several months ago we rejoiced to hear that his son led him to Christ. The word of God, especially I Thessalonians chapter four, was a great comfort to us all that day. Several members of the family stood and listened carefully, who were before very antagonistic to me when I arrived with a Bible and hymnals. We pray the Lord deals with them about their need of Jesus Christ.

 

Bible Institute: We began our Bible Institute classes again and have just one semester to go till we have our graduation service. The courses we will be studying are: Matthew; the Pastoral Epistles; Advanced Theology; and Church Planting. In addition our guys are going on visitation and doing personal work. There is a lot of work to be done with the writing, translating, and printing of materials and we ask for prayer for strength and wisdom as we go forward.

 

We want to thank you all for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

 

That Ukraine May Know Him,  Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10 Email: ruemissions@yahoo.com  www.ruemissions.com 

 

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Dear Praying Friends and Family, August – September 2018  (Click here for a printable version)

I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and rejoicing in His fellowship, service, and blessings. We are thankful to be back in Ukraine after two very busy months in the USA. The short break was a blessing and did us all good. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to see at least some of our family and friends, along with a few churches. The Lord blessed several of our meetings with one man responding to the invitation for salvation, others rededicating their lives to Christ, and another who is interested in missionary service.

The main objective for returning to the homeland was to help my daughter transition from life as a missionary in a foreign field to life as a child of God in America. We are thankful that the Lord was with us and helped every step of the way. First, Miriam had to get her driver’s license. With only one week to prepare she passed both tests. The Lord sent several good brothers in the Lord who helped us find a dependable car and insurance. The next big step was driving to Pensacola where we got her set up with an apartment and suitable furnishings to get her started. There were utilities to be turned on, bank accounts to be set up, used appliances to be found and delivered, etc. The Lord blessed Miriam with some wonderful roommates who are all attending PBI together as first year students. We are thankful to have had Miriam for the extra years. We miss her but rejoice that she is doing well and is in God’s will.

The time away was not only good for us but for the men in the church as well. They kept the ministry going and, as a result, grew in the Lord and His work. In addition to the usual pulpit ministry of teaching and preaching, they made visits, counseled, and ministered to the saints during the week. There was even a new visitor who has been attending faithfully since we returned. We are praying for his salvation. They also put in the main part of the sewage system for the new church building along with replacing the old entry stairway to the current building. In short, I was very thankful to see the Lord working in their hearts and blessing their desire to see God’s work advance in Ukraine.

As soon as we returned to Ukraine I had more blood work done to see if the cancer markers were all still good. A whole year has passed since receiving the first results of my blood work when there were three cancer markers that were just high enough to be flagged. Two months later they were elevated to stage two. At that point we rolled up our sleeves and decided to fight it. For the following eight months we threw everything we could at it. I lost about 25 lbs. but gained it all back after reintroducing things back into my diet. The trip to the U.S. had me concerned what the blood work would say after eating out so much while on the road. Praise the Lord the numbers all look good with only one being close to getting a red flag.

I figured a few words about our return trip may provide some comic relief. Our trip began with the typical Ukrainian bang! Our tickets required us to be at the Odessa airport by 3:00 a.m. for registration, which meant that we had to leave our house before 2:00 a.m. Our vehicle has turned out to be a great blessing and a tremendous trial all rolled in one. It decided to break down on our way to the airport. The Lord had everything in control when I ordered an extra van to carry our luggage. It actually was large enough for us all to squeeze into and get to the airport on time.

The typical problems awaited us at the Odessa airport. Everyone, from the check-in desk clerk to the shuttle bus driver, was grumpy and seemed to resent us for needing to fly out at such an awful hour. My two sons, Benjamin and Samuel, packed their U.S. military knives, which they received as gifts, in their check-through luggage. They met the local criteria of a legal “cold weapon” that does not require registration. (Yes, certain knives have to be registered here just like guns.) The security workers have been well trained to handle potential threats to national security, like us, and sprung into action. They took me and my two sons into a side room for questioning. Benjamin also packed an airsoft pistol which really escalated the situation. Two of the security officials were women who had quite an emotional disposition compared to the men in uniform with real automatic weapons. One of them was convinced that Ben’s airsoft pistol was a real gun. Ben offered to shoot himself with it to prove that it wasn’t. There was no sense of humor about this offer. Only an over emotional “NO!” The other cut herself while taking the knife out of its sheath. That didn’t help matters. First they called the chief of security, then the police, then the militia who all required photographs. Things here are a little tense because of the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk. They kept asking if Benjamin was military. It must have been the combat boots and camouflage he insists on wearing that tipped them off. Thankfully, they allowed us to go after signing some paperwork. I was comforted knowing that we still had time to get through passport control to our gate. Passport control, again, raised an issue about Benjamin being seventeen and in the country without visa or residency status. They detained him and would not let him leave the country. I argued that I had already inquired about this earlier with the authorities who said that underage children do not need a visa. They were going to write up a “protocol” on him and assign him a court case to pay a fine. In the end, they let him go with a warning and we made it to our gate in time. In hind sight this situation had the potential to turn bad but “the peace that passes all understanding” kept our hearts knowing that He was in control. Thank you Lord!

We are glad to be back in Ukraine and are trying to get settled into our homeschool routine along with getting things ready for winter. Please pray about our vehicle situation. It was taken to the shop after our departure to the U.S. and was fixed in time for our return flight. However, it broke down again on the way to the airport to pick us up. We’ve been sitting here without a vehicle for weeks now. This time the turbine broke and needs replaced which is not cheap. At this point I don’t trust it anymore and will try to sell it after getting it fixed. Please pray we can find a more dependable one. Please further pray for the Bible Institute classes to resume along with our paperwork for renewing our residency status, especially Benjamin’s!

We want to thank all who helped us out along the way and wish we could have had more time to make visits and see all of our family and friends. Lord willing, we plan to return to the U.S. for a furlough sometime in the not-too-distant future, when we will have more time spend with everyone.

We want to thank you all for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him, Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,                                   May – July 2018

Apologies: First of all, I would like to thank each and every one of you who support and pray for our ministry in Ukraine. Our prayer letters are our lifeline to you back home who are “holding the ropes.” Many of you did not receive our last prayer letter until it was about six weeks overdue. The fault was mine. I wrote it in a timely manner and sent it to everyone on our e-mail mailing list and forgot to send it to our mission board. The oversight was called to my attention when a church contacted me to let me know that they had not heard from us in a while. Thank you for your patience and I’ll try to not be so scatterbrained in the future.

Upcoming short trip to the US: After much prayer it is clear to us that this is the right time to take Miriam back to the US. She will be attending PBI and working towards her bachelors of business administration (BBA) with the University of Northern Ohio, the latter of which she has been taking online classes for the last year. She has been such a blessing and help to us in our ministry here. It is very difficult to let her go. She loves God and has put His will first, waiting patiently for His guidance in this chapter of our family and ministry lives. Please pray for her as we take this journey together to get her settled in. We will be in the US for all of August and September. I would love to stay busy preaching and try to be a blessing while in the US. If anyone is interested in scheduling a meeting please contact me by e-mail ruemissions@yahoo.com or by phone after August 1, at (513) 376-1011.

Bible Club: This year marked our 18th anniversary of holding Children’s Bible Club. God obviously blessed this year with a lot of new older kids, many of whom received Christ as their Savior during the week. We averaged about seventy children with our highest day being eighty in attendance. This year’s theme was “Great Questions of the Bible!” They all received a lesson, then did crafts and memory work that fit the day’s lesson. Every day they were fed a small lunch and our youth group did a skit for them. There were plenty of prizes, fun, and games. They loved the sword drills and Bible songs. This year we began teaching them about the prayer altar. On the second day five older girls were dealt with and received Christ. They came the rest of the week and brought friends. On the last day we had 11 children respond to the invitation who had not yet received Christ after giving them an object lesson demonstrating the imputed righteousness of Christ to the believer and his sins being imputed to Christ on the cross. My friend Earl Wafford taught me how to do this years ago and we have used it in Bible Club every year since.

Youth Conference: Our youth attended the youth conference held in Limonski for the second year in a row. This year was a special blessing because my son, Benjamin, surrendered to God’s call on his life to serve in fulltime ministry. All of my older children are growing close to the Lord along with several others in our youth group. On the second day of camp, Sergei (Mowgli – see our last prayer letter for details), asked if he could skip youth camp to attend our midweek prayer meeting because he likes praying with us. He said that the first day of camp was fun, but a little spiritually dry. I told him that he would have to enlist others to the task of praying for God’s blessing on the camp. They started praying together for over an hour at a time at night and God blessed it!

Church Update: The building program for the church is going slowly forward. We are still saving for the first phase before actually breaking ground. In the meantime we poured a new concrete porch and stairs for the entryway of the existing building. The old one was an eyesore which we tolerated thinking that it would be temporary. We also put a nice wide awning over the entry so that there is cover during the snow and rainy seasons.

We are very encouraged by the return of my old secretary who left after being offended at several people in the church. I dealt with her once about getting right with God, but she didn’t budge and eventually turned all her bitterness against me since I didn’t repeatedly beg her to come back. She finally did return a changed woman...seven years later! She joined the church along with her new husband and they are doing great!

From time to time I’ll have a sister or two in the church complain that our church is too chauvinistic, that everything is for the men. I’ve assured them that there is no male conspiracy going on, just Bible-believing Christianity! Coincidently, those that complain are all divorced and still unmarried! Anyway, just to prove them wrong, we scheduled a women’s retreat where they had a great time of fellowship together with a fireside picnic in the country. Funny thing is that they requested that two men from the church help them with the fire and to be within calling distance should any wild boars show up! Other than the usual goings on we have a wedding in the works along with a baptismal service for several new converts.

Future Plans: Over the past year I’ve been waiting for several things to be accomplished before focusing our time and energy on beginning the work in Odessa. First, there is the trip to the US to help Miriam get settled in. We’ve been waiting on the Lord and now it is time. Knowing that we would have to leave for a month or two, I did not want to start something only to leave it for such a long time. The second thing was our full time Bible Institute. Over the past three plus years we have taught every class that is taught at PBI with the exception of Greek and Hebrew. There are several classes left that I will finish during the upcoming semester. With that accomplished I’ll have much more time for the work in Odessa. Lastly, there was the issue of giving time to instruct and prove my assistant for the pastorate. He is doing very well and will have his first dry run at the helm during our two months in the US. Please pray for him and his wife during this time.

Answered Prayer: We want to thank you all for praying for our various health needs over the past year. Since returning to Ukraine over four years ago, Naomi suffered through four miscarriages, the last of which almost killed her. We are only now learning how devastating the loss of blood is on a woman’s thyroid. She has been studying and working with functional doctors in the US and we are seeing great improvement. We are so thankful for the Lord’s mercies. My various health issues are getting back to normal. I haven’t felt very comfortable talking about it, but I’ve had my own private battle with depression over the past ten years. The only time that I felt normal was when I was preaching. My blood work revealed that I had stage two stomach cancer, very low vitamin D levels, adrenal fatigue, and bad cortisol levels, among others I don’t care to mention. In short, I was a mess. My wife rolled up her sleeves and took on the task of doing the research to heal cancer naturally. I went on a total vegetarian diet and included several cancer healing protocols over the course of four months. I want to thank my God and Savior Jesus Christ for His mercies on me and my family. My cancer levels are now back to normal; the skin cancer on my arm is healed; and for the first time in a long time, I’m beginning to feel like my old self again. Also, thank you for praying for our vehicle situation. After two months in the shop, they were finally repaired.

We want to thank you all for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him,  Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10  Click here for a printable PDF.

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,                       April 2018

Good Stuff: The months of March and April have been great. We had three people follow the Lord in believer’s baptism including my son Christopher. That same evening we had the Lord’s Supper where two ladies in our church were reconciled after a time of being “at odds” with one another. The Lord’s blessings were evidenced the following week when sister Taraniuk, a school teacher in the town of Yakovlevka, explained the meaning of Easter (Passover) to her all classes. The kids had many questions and the conversation easily turned to salvation and the Gospel. She said she really didn’t know how to act when her entire sixth grade class said that they wanted to pray and receive Christ! She too is against “Easy-Believism” so she went through the plan of salvation again and verified that the kids knew what they were doing. All twelve prayed in class to receive Christ. She said they all wanted Bibles and are reading them!

Opposition and Prayer for Protection: In additions to the blessings, the last two months have had an unusual amount of opposition. First, Sister Taraniuk was hauled into the school principal’s office and was grilled about her teaching the Bible in the classroom. Evidently, the kids went home and told their parents that they had gotten saved and started reading the Bible. This was somehow a problem. The hypocrisy here stinks to high heaven. The director of that same school allowed a huge icon of the Virgin Mary in the front foyer of the school. She has also allowed the local Orthodox priest access to the kids giving them the impression that there is only one church allowed in school. The same day she found that the bank has begun to dock her pay because of her husband’s bad investment deal with the bank. My daughter, Miriam, was walking home alone one day when a black SUV, with four men inside, appeared as though they were planning to abduct her. The initial encounter occurred when they first saw her on a well-travelled street. She saw them turn around and followed her until she came to the place in the road where there are no houses. When they pulled up close Miriam got her mace and then just stared them down and shook her head at them and told them, “No!” Thankfully, they turned around and sped away. The third was too close to home. Last Friday night we all went to bed late and I had just started to fall asleep when I heard our front door open. My first thought was that our neighbor needed something and had woken Ben or Sam. The next thing I heard was Ben yelling “Hey!” then the crashing sound of shattered glass followed by the sound of two men fighting. Then I heard the front door opening again. I jumped up and grabbed my baseball bat and ran downstairs to find Ben pale as a ghost with blood all over him. A man broke into our house and just happened to run into Ben who was coming out of the bathroom. He shouted at him and threw the nearest object, a 25 ft. tape measure, and missed, breaking a window. The robber had some kind of tool with which he slashed at Ben four times gouging his chest, shoulder, and right arm. Thank God it was not a knife. Ben managed to get three kicks in before the guy high-tailed it out of here. After calling the local police and filing a report we nervously and thankfully went to bed at about 3:00 a.m. We thank God for his protection working out the details seeing no one was seriously hurt and nothing was stolen. My children have a new respect for their parent’s constant vigilance and caution which can be a drag to them at times. (Continued on the other side...)

Building Project: Everyone in our ministry, including myself, has a touch of Spring fever. The winter was long and being housebound for three months is enough to make any hermit stir crazy. We thank the Lord for the change in seasons which has given opportunity to minister to the youth and do more work on our building. We are still waiting for the final “OK” to be given before we can actually begin. This last inspection is simply to verify that we did not already begin building without the proper permission. If we had begun we would be facing a fine. However, we have been waiting over six weeks for the inspector to come from Odessa. In the meantime we are working on several small projects that will help facilitate our goals of having a building large enough to minister to this town and the surrounding region. Our current small project involves rerouting the water lines, pouring a meter pit and installing a new water meter. This is all in preparation for the first stage of our project – the foundation and sewage system. We are doing the work ourselves as the Lord provides and only begin each phase when we have the funds to do so. Please pray with us about this work.

Family Update: My kids are getting older and so are we! Ben just took his ACT test. Being here in Ukraine makes things like this both time consuming and expensive. We had to travel to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and get a room for the night and order taxis to get around. The Lord worked it out where an old Ukrainian friend just happened to be the taxi driver that came to pick me up from the hotel. He is a little backslidden and needed some encouragement to get back to the Lord Jesus. Our daughter Miriam is a huge blessing and asset to our family and ministry here. Sadly, however, we know that it is time to pray and consider returning to the states for about two or three months to take care of a few personal things and help her transition to life on her own. We are all content to do this in God’s time and we’ve been praying about it for over two years. We hope that we can do this sometime in August so she can start school in September. Please pray the Lord’s will in this. She loves God and wants His will for her life.

Anniversary: Naomi and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in May! We look forward to a little alone time and will probably spend it talking about our kids and the ministry!

Prayer Requests: Most all our church members have lost relatives and they are constantly witnessing to them and asking prayer for their salvation. Please pray with us for them. We have a somewhat carnal request as well. We have been without a vehicle for almost six weeks. Both of our vehicles are in the shop to be repaired and I think that the old ministry van just needs to be retired. It was great for hauling building materials and chauffeuring groups of people to church on Sundays. However, it is getting more difficult and expensive to repair. Please pray we can get them fixed soon.

We want to thank you all for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him, Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

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Dear Praying Friends and Family, November – December 2017

Holiday Blessings: The holiday months were full of blessings for our ministry and family. The ministry is doing really well. New converts are growing and staying faithful to get the Gospel out, and services are well attended. The Bible Institute is going strong and is a challenge for all of us. Our neighbor, Sergei, who was recently saved is growing in the Lord and won his brother to Christ. His school teacher noticed a change in his character and asked him about it. He told her he received Christ and started reading the Bible. She had a lot of questions and we are trying to set up a meeting with her, praying for her salvation. Missionary Ed Keough came and preached for us during the Thanksgiving weekend, which was a special treat for everyone. We’ve had several visitors, and we have several waiting to be baptized and others wanting to join the church. Our congregation supports six missionaries and sacrificed over several weeks to take up special love offerings to send to those families over the Holiday Season. We also want to thank those of you who generously sent us extra love offerings for our ministry and family during the holidays. It sure was a blessing to buy the kids extra gifts and let them know that they were from the saints back home in the USA.

Building Project/Answer to Prayer: We were very encouraged by a couple of special offerings that were sent for our building project. It was confirmation to our prayers. We are still in the document/drawing stage. We have had to go back to the drawing board seven times now! I think we finally have the plan and approach that we are looking for. All we need now is the final approval, and then the architectural drawings can be ordered. Thank you for your prayers and help in this area. We have a very long way to go but are excited about the thoughts of having a building for a larger ministry.

The Gospel Preached in Public Schools!: Our first presentation in one of the local public schools went well with the exception that, at the last minute we were forbidden to pass out literature! At least we were allowed to distribute the full color flyers that we put together, which contain more information on salvation and the Bible than these kids have ever heard in their lives. The other schools postponed our dates until after mid-January due to various reasons. First, the holidays presented an obstacle. Then the schools closed for a few weeks because of the freezing temperatures. They barely heat the schools in winter because the local communities cannot afford it, due to the ever rising gas prices. Recently another setback occurred when an outbreak of measles hospitalized several children with five reportedly dying as a result of complications in Odessa. Now, there is a diphtheria outbreak.

Answered Prayer and Prayer Requests: Thank you for praying for my parents during their recent trial of faith. My step-father had to have open heart surgery which lasted about six hours and involved them hooking him up to life-sustaining machines, while they stopped his heart and did the procedure. It was a difficult situation. I wanted to be with my family at this time but we had already scheduled a meeting to preach in the school. We decided to stay, trusting that the Lord would take care of him while we stayed and preached the Gospel.

I also want to thank you for praying for my own health. I am still undergoing treatment but my most recent blood work was very encouraging. Please continue to pray about my family’s various health needs.

Please forgive this very late prayer letter, along with the fact that it was hurriedly written. We want to thank you all for your friendship, prayers, support, and all that you do for the Lord that gives us the privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him in the New Year! Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!

That Ukraine May Know Him, Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10

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Dear Praying Friends and Family,