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Ukrainian Crisis Letter - Summer of 2024
Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters,
Mid June: We moved back to Ukraine. We Praise the Lord for His protection as we live in Odessa which has missile and drone attacks 1-3+ times a week! We have been Ministering to Lakeside Baptist Church in Lemansky, Ukraine and assisting Slavic our national pastor as we make trips to other parts of Ukraine. Pray for the Church’s outreaches and Growing Correspondence ministry: printing and sending out thousands of tracts weekly.
July 5 and 6 trip to Nikolayev Oblast (Territory formerly Under Russian Occupation): Missionary Casey Kline and Brother Sasha Illchenko needed help with transportation to Preach and distribute 500 Aid boxes in five heavily damaged villages. We had great liberty and many responded to receive Christ as they heard the Gospel clearly for the first time.
July trip to Chernivtsi: Pastor Valera invited me to present the Gospel to visited 45 families who had either lost their Husband, Son or Daughter due to this war: The Lord supplied both physically with a large care package of food and spiritually with a clear Gospel Explanation: Gregory 72 and Lydia 54 called upon the Lord for salvation. The Lord opened up opportunities to present the Gospel at three week long Children’s camps: 65 children and parents, then 100 children in a small town and over 310 came out from five different mountain villages- 90 parents also heard the Gospel.
(Most of the time I use either a large “EvangeCube” or “EvangeFold” with pictures to clearly illustrate the Gospel).
*{If interested in this material: https://www.christianbook.com/page/church/outreach/evangecube (watch the video of how to use the eCube *ON SALE). *Large Evangefold: https://www.etsusa.org/church-supplies/evangelism-resources/evangecubes-c6095/
August trip to Chernivtsi: Oksana and I encouraged a few new Churches. We also presented the Gospel on eight Evangelistic Visits as well as teaching the Gospel to 85 and 60 children at two VBSs. I taught a Workshop on Practical Evangelism to 30+ young adults and youth. We also worked at a camp ministering to 35+ widowed wives and wives of soldiers actively serving in the war. I was able to clearly present the Gospel to them and their Children separately.
Praising the Lord for how He works (Philippians 2:13):
Our Son DAVID labored from April-August with Slavic (Oksana’s Brother) doing Evangelistic/Humanitarian help & participating in Christian Camps in Odessa. On August 4th he Followed the Lord in Believers’ Baptism at Lakeside Baptist Church! He also Proposed to His Fiancé Evelyn! She is from Odessa and worked at camps with him for three years.
Our Elisabeth spent the summer here: visiting Refugee friends, as a leader at Camps in Odessa & helping with Lakeside’s VBS. She is now finishing up her last semester of college and is seeking God’s direction for her Life.
Prayer Needs: 1) Learning to Speak and Preach in the Ukrainian Language. I have preached in Russian for 30+ years, BUT due to this WAR, most Ukrainians don’t want to hear the Aggressor’s --language.} Pray for Me!
2) Slavic (Oksana’s Brother) is distributing firewood and Evangelizing families in the formerly occupied Kherson Oblast.
3) Evangelistic visits: Slavic’s camp is housing 30+ (mainly elderly) displaced souls who we will be visiting to sow the Gospel seed and water it as we minister to these Displaced souls resettling here seeking refuge from the bombings.
4) Bro. Eugene laboring in Sumy Region set up a small bakery; They Preach and distribute large loaves of bread with Gospel tracts while Evangelizing where daily Russian Mortar Attacks are forcing the Evacuation of five border counties!
*{Looking for an Evangelism PROJECT to pray for or participate in: 50 cents will bake a loaf of “Bread” to reach souls! 5) Project 2: Care Package for Soldiers including: First Aid and Hygiene supplies, Chocolate bar and Gospel Tracts~$15.
Make check to: Charity Baptist Mission, PO Box
692, Bristol, TN 37621-0692
Write in memo: Maher - Ukraine – Bread or Maher- Ukraine – Care Package
For the Souls of Ukraine,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Thank You all for faithfully praying, supporting & being genuinely concerned for our family and our safety and especially for the souls of Ukraine during this devastating time: Remember Phil. 1:12 Things Happen so God can Further His Gospel! A printable PDF version is available here
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Dear
Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters, Ukrainian Crisis Letter Spring of 2024
Feb. 14th to April 10th was a very fruitful trip to Ukraine blessed with great
opportunities to present the Gospel!
Ministering to Lakeside Baptist Church in Lemansky, Ukraine included making
visits to lost loved ones of our Church members and visiting local lost families
to sow the seed of the Gospel in their hearts. Slavic our national pastor
teaches a class for our young preachers every Saturday evening. His Brother
Michael also teaches a class on Homiletics (How to Preach) on Thursday evenings.
I was able to take five of their classes and train them on practical evangelism
including a few practical application lessons during one of which Sergey, a
young alcoholic who has been coming to services decided to attend. It was great
to show them all how to explain the Gospel to this young man and them to see the
Gospel open his understanding and gloriously save his soul. Continue praying for
the Church’s outreaches and the Growing Correspondence ministry which is
printing and sending out thousands of tracts weekly.
Chernivtsi presented many great opportunities to present the Gospel in different
Churches as well as special small groups organized specifically to help 100+
displaced Ukrainians both physically with a box of food, a good meal and
spiritually with a clear Gospel Explanation. After the preaching, Lyudmila (60+)
called upon the Lord for salvation.
On April 23rd I taught a three-part Seminar on Practical Evangelism to over 100
young adults and youth. They then practiced out on the streets in 10 busy areas
of the city. While sowing the seed, they were encouraged to see three out of
four people took the tracts gladly, many read them immediately while others
willingly engaged in conversations.
Chernivtsi Oblast: Oksana and I worked together making many Evangelistic visits
with three smaller village Churches.
Khmelnitsky Oblast: We worked with a local pastor making Evangelistic visits as
we challenged two Churches too.
Praising the Lord for His direction for our ministry. Lord Willing in June we’ll
return permanently to Ukraine and relocate to Chernivtsi, the city where most of
our ministry opportunities and practical language learning will be centered.
Prayer Needs:
1) Learning to Speak and Preach in the Ukrainian Language with the training of a
university teacher. *{We’ve preached in Russian for 30 years, BUT due to this
WAR, most don’t want to hear the Aggressor’s language.}
2) Evangelistic visits: Many local pastors are very eager for us to make visits
to sow the Gospel seed and minister to the many Displaced souls resettling here
seeking refuge from the bombings and/or because they lost their homes.
3) Our Son DAVID who is laboring with Slavic, Oksana’s Brother to prepare for
summer Evangelistic Camps in Odessa.
4) Brothers keep making outreaches to minister in Eastern towns devastated by
Russian Assaults.
Printing Ministry: We have recently printed 120,000 Testimonial tracts, 20,000
Ukrainian and some Russian copies of “The Dying Drummer Boy” which is a booklet
tract which is very effective in general witnessing, but especially great when
witnessing to Jews and also printed over 10,000 full-page Tracts entitled “The
True History of Passover” dealing with the real meaning of the Death and
Resurrection of God’s perfect sacrificial Passover Lamb.
Refugee Help: We recently sent out four boxes of Gospel literature to Europe for
use with Ukrainian Refugees: three boxes to two different Brothers in Ireland
and one box to a Ukrainian Church in Portugal.
Furlough has been encouraging as His Spirit moved hearts. We Thank the Lord for
three new supporting churches.
For the Souls of Ukraine, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
We would love to Encourage your Church - Call me (513) 969-4229!
We sincerely Thank You all for faithfully praying, supporting and being
genuinely concerned for our family and our safety as well as for Oksana’s family
and especially for the souls of Ukraine during this unbelievably heart-breaking
time.
(A printable PDF version is available here)
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Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters, Ukrainian Crisis Letter January 2024
Our Greatest Joy except our own Salvation is knowing that our Children know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. On that note we want to thank so many of you who Prayed for our son David, Halleluiah! He got SAVED!!! Oksana had asked him to read and analyze a few Gospel Tracts (Chick tracts) which we were praying about giving to Feruza, our Muslim friend. As he read them, He realized that he had not really called upon the Lord to Save him from his whole heart. *We began to see the Lord changing our son and could hardly believe our eyes how caring and reciprocating he became as the Spirit of the Lord changed his heart and fruit began to grow instead of thorns and thistles! Christ indwelling us through His Holy Spirit truly does transform the heart and change our desires. (Our hearts rejoiced that he professed Christ openly to his best friend. He is planning to get baptized at Lakeside Baptist Church in Lemansky, Ukraine this summer when the whole family will be there. He is even passing his tithe to the Church through me on our current trip.) Please Pray the Lord will show him His Perfect Will for his life! Pray for him also as he goes to do volunteer work in Ukraine from April 8th - August 12th. {It is true that they cannot get away from Prayer!}
As I write this letter, Oksana is packing our suitcases for our trip to Ukraine from February 14th to April 10th. Upon our arrival in Poland, we will be sending out a box of literature to Ireland to help a missionary reach the Ukrainian refugees in his area. We will also be ministering in a Ukrainian Church in Poland on the 18th. Then we head into Ukraine where a good portion of our trip we will be ministering to Lakeside Baptist Church in Lemansky. Slavic our national pastor could really use some encouragement and help. He is already planning for me to teach his class for our young preachers. Pray for us as we will also be making many Evangelistic Visits among the displaced souls living in the Lemansky area.
**After Lemansky we will be making evangelistic visits in villages around both Chernovtsy and Khmelnitsky.
*** Evangelistic Crusade in the city of Dnipro from March 10th – 17th. A group of Brothers & Sisters will be going out with different Baptist churches in the Dnipro Region to make Evangelistic Visits presenting the Gospel of Christ!
[As you Pray for the souls of Ukraine, keep in mind that they are more open to listening and reading tracts than ever!]
Please lift us up in prayer as Oksana and I are making this trip. Please pray
that the Lord will: (1) keep us safe,
(2) use us for His glory and (3) use us to help many Ukrainians understand,
repent and receive Christ for Salvation. (4) Also, Pray that He will show us
where we are most needed - We are planning to move back permanently after we
finish up our furlough this summer.
February 24th will mark two years since the war began and it keeps getting worse, please pray for the salvation of both Ukrainian souls as well as the Russians.
Pray for Dasha & Vitalick whom we met while passing out tracts in Miami, FL. They are actually my in-laws’ neighbors who recently fled to America from Odessa, Ukraine because their children could (mentally) no longer stand hearing all the explosions.
For the Souls of Ukraine, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Also, Thank you for faithfully praying, supporting and being genuinely concerned for our family, Oksana’s family and especially for the souls of Ukraine during this unbelievably heart-breaking time. (A printable PDF version is available here)
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Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters, Fall of 2023
Praising the Lord for answering your Prayers for my Summer trip to Ukraine! It was a blessing to see Him open great doors for the Gospel to be proclaimed and the Seed to be planted in many hearts both young and old.
In many one on one (and one on two) visits, the Lord worked in many hearts to see 16 souls call upon the name of the Lord for Salvation as well as four straying sheep got their hearts right before Him!
On one visit, I went to speak with a Sister’s husband, but he, due to fear, never came home after work. While I waited, I witnessed to his mother who received the truth and believed the Gospel calling upon Christ for Salvation.
*** PLEASE Continue to PRAY for those UPROOTED from their homes due to Bombing or because their area is occupied! THEY are very open to listen to the Gospel and are thinking about their relationship to God!
The Lord also Blessed with opportunities to teach in many VBSs in Western Ukrainian towns where most displaced families are living. Many of these families have seen God’s Goodness through local churches helping them find housing and offering them aid or help and therefore they now allow their children to attend.
(Used a large Evangecube to explain salvation to hundreds of parents and children who received brochures and N.T.)
*This summer our son David helped his uncle Slavick (Oksana’s Brother) with many projects like repairing roofs and houses damaged due to shrapnel from bombings. He also assisted in constructing some necessary structures as they prepared the territory for the Evangelistic Camps. He really enjoyed helping in these camps which were outreaches for the many displaced Children living in and around the city of Odessa.
YOUR PRAYERS and OFFERINGS: God has used them to supply His Spiritual Army with Spiritual Literature and Strength to stand and Proclaim the Glorious Gospel of Salvation through Christ! Over the 620 days this war has lasted, we in conjunction with another faithful Missionary, Brother Mark Priem, have printed and distributed 2,500,000 plus Testimonial brochures, Chick Tracts, Gospels of John and various booklets. Please Continue to Pray for those brethren laboring faithfully despite the danger to reach out to millions of displaced lost souls. *(ALL Offerings designated for Printing Will be used to supply Spiritual Seed to sow in unreached hearts!)
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National Bible Counseling Conference in Omaha, NE was extremely informative and spiritually beneficial. We are preparing ourselves to deal with the myriad of traumas which most Ukrainians are dealing with mentally.
2023 Furlough Meetings: We have truly enjoyed our travels every weekend as we give updates at our supporting Churches. We’ve also been edified as we gave our update while participating in five great Missions Conferences where God was moving! We thank the Lord for blessing us with two new supporting Churches and are still praying for five more since ministry needs keep increasing. We are still praying the Lord will give us direction for our return to Ukraine. Please Pray with us to that end so that we can see His Will clearly!
Pray for lost Max a 35-year-old lost Ukrainian who listened very well over a cup of coffee in Oshkosh, WI.
Pray for lost Justin (36) whose life is falling apart. He came to the Missions Conference and we spoke for three hours. He came back and fellowshipped with the pastor and then the Assistant Pastor for three hours.
* Pray for my learning to speak Ukrainian (I understand most spoken Ukrainian, but cannot speak it yet!
* We do have an unspoken health need that we need Him to resolve for us! So please lift us up in Prayer!
For the Souls of Ukraine,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Please Call me (513) 969-4229! To set up a Visit to your Church! Thankful for your faithful prayers, support and genuine love for our family, Oksana’s family and especially for the souls of Ukraine! (A printable PDF version is available here)
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Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters, Ukrainian Crisis Letter January - February of 2023
Our October/November trip to
both Ukraine and Poland was fruitful with opportunities to Witness to those
displaced inside of Ukraine as well as to Refugees in Poland. Often we see
ourselves sowing the Gospel seed in hearts that have never heard before, other
times we are watering the Seed which some other Brother or Sister has already
sown in someone’s heart but Oh the times we are blessed to reap and see the Lord
do for us what Boaz did for Ruth- “And let fall also some of the handfuls of
purpose.” Ruth 2:16 It is humbling and encouraging to see God “Give the
increase” as a Soul accepts Christ! As we worked with two Ukrainian Churches in
Northern Poland, we made visits with Refugees (Sowing the Seed). The Testimony
of 64-year-old Nadya (Hope in English) was proof this trip was under His
direction as she called out for Forgiveness of sins through Christ’s
substitutionary death on the cross. As she wept in prayer, she testified, “No
one ever explained the gospel to me so clearly and explained my need for God’s
forgiveness.” Three weeks later when we returned to that Church in Poland, she
told Oksana, “If you had not come to see me, I would have never known that I was
going to heaven!” The Lord also opened the door to do two Seminars on Evangelism
and do some instructional street work with both of these Churches as they
invited both Ukrainians and Polish souls to a large Evangelization Meeting. Pray
that both of these Churches will continue to reach out to Both Ukrainian and
Polish souls!
***Ukraine’s forces are in heavy heated battles on their Eastern Front with
heavy casualties on both sides. Many of the larger cities are bombarded by
missiles and drones (with bombs) a few times every week. Sometimes they send
missiles into towns that have not been bombed before knowing that they are not
as well protected by the Antimissile defense systems.
* PLEASE PRAY Because on the Anniversary of the February 24th Invasion, many are
predicting an even stronger invasion again possibly on three fronts. Please pray
the Lord would use these Terrible events for “the furtherance of the gospel”
Phillipians 1:12-18 and the Salvation of Souls!
Praising the Lord for all of you who have sacrificed to supply for the great
Spiritual and Physical needs.
1) Praise the Lord between our Ministry and Brother Mark Priem, we have been
able to print and distribute over 1,600,000 tracts (both Testimonial and Chick
tracts), booklets and Scripture portions in 10 months.
2) Your financial gifts have supplied many Brethren with fuel to transport
Christian Aid and Evangelize as well as to Evacuate many Ukrainians from harms
way. PRAY for Eugene, Michael, Slavick, Roma and Victor.
3) A Ukrainian Army Chaplain requested us to print tracts for distributing
specifically for the Soldiers. A Supporting Church funded the Printing of 50,000
Chick Tracts - “Holy Joe” and “Holy Night” in both Ukrainian and Russian.
Many Brethren could do even more, but need more fuel and our literature/printing
fund is basically drained dry.
If the Lord puts it on your heart to Help UKRAINE
Please Make the check out to: Charity Baptist Mission, P.O. Box 692, Bristol, TN 37621-0692
Write in the memo: Mahers-Help for Ukraine
*Pastor Slavick Needs Prayer Support as he carries the heavy load of keeping
Lakeside Baptist Church encouraged and also evangelizing the Lost:
1) Finishing up their Yearly Calendar distribution of 8,500 Evangelistic
Calendars and tracts in over twelve villages.
2) Distributing Christian Aid to Refugee and low-income families while
presenting the Gospel.
WE ARE Now Setting up our 2023 Furlough Calendar to Update our Supporting
Churches. Please Call me (513) 969-4229!
{We would love to Encourage your Church and/or Participate in your Missions
Conference!}
For the Souls of Ukraine,
www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher (A printable PDF version of this letter is available here)
=====> We thank each of you and
your Churches for your faithful prayers, support and genuine concern for our
family, Oksana’s family and especially for the souls of Ukraine during this
terribly devastating time.
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MAY 2022 UKRAINIAN CRISIS UPDATE => www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters,
Over 14,000,000 people have been forced from their homes; of these 5,900,000
Refugees have fled the country! Videos/pictures show devastation and utter
destruction/leveling of homes, towns and cities, BUT Oh the heartfelt despair
and pain of their broken hearts. “...by sorrow of the heart the spirit is
broken.” Proverbs 15:13b Praising God -He promised, “The LORD is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Psalm 34:18
Recap of God’s Work throughout Paul Gray’s and my travels to: Romania, Bulgaria and Poland - Evangelizing Refugees!!!
Thank You! Your Sacrificial Gifts and Prayers resulted in a fruitful Month
showing God’s perfect timing!
1) The Lord even Blessed our trip with a $250 cheaper Humanitarian fare which
included three free bags each to carry extra supplies and tracts. The March 14th
departure allowed for our Chick tracts to arrive that morning.
2) We agreed with a printer in Romania, who printed 45,000 thousand copies of
our four most applicable Testimonial Tracts and 5,000 booklets called, “Why is
God Silent?” - Which explains God’s use of such situations to draw us to true
faith in Christ for Salvation. (The Printer first said two weeks, but after the
Lord changed his heart, he said 3-4 days!)
3) While they printed our tracts, we worked three days in Bucharest, Romania
with a Church to witness to the Refugees at the train station and to also offer
them a place to stay with meals until they get settled or transit on to other
countries.
4) Missionary Friends in Bulgaria also printed our Testimonial tracts including
a special QR Code and our Ukrainian Pastor’s Phone #. For three days we helped
visit Refugee centers distributing food and care packages with tracts and
humanitarian aid.
5) Two Printers in Odessa actually started printing again in mid-March, but had
a limited supply of paper. Missionary Mark Priem’s printer found more paper to
keep their presses running. AND the best part is the ONLY Print Orders they have
are from Missionary Mark Priem and from us. In total they have printed 400,000
brochures, including 152,000 Chick Tracts and 25,000 booklets in the last 50
days. These were sent all over for distribution inside Ukraine. On our last day
I contacted Missionary Joe West in Poland. He is now printing tracts and
booklets for our Summer trip.
6) Our Original plan was to drive Brother Paul Gray’s van, but we gave it to
Brother Michael, (A Ukrainian Evangelist friend) who really needed a van for
Delivering Aid into the war torn areas and then for Evacuating Refugees to
safety. Our Pastor Slavick brought my car out so we could take our 70,000 tracts
and Booklets to Poland and travel this summer.
7) Boxes of these tracts and booklets were sent out to Missionaries in Ireland,
Croatia, Portugal, Moldova, Romania, Italy, Czech Republic and three places in
Poland. The last service in Warsaw, Pastor Alexander (who was saved through
street ministry) offered to contact all the Russian Speaking and Polish Churches
which work with refugees to send them tracts. A box of tracts was also sent into
Kharkiv inside the Christian Aid shipped by the Polish Church with which we
worked.
8) We Passed out Gospel tracts in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. We helped
coordinate and supply tracts to three street preachers who came from North
Dakota to Evangelize w/tracts at the bus and train stations in both Krakow and
Warsaw.
• Other Brothers from the USA are planning to come in June to distribute tracts
in both Krakow and Warsaw, Poland.
9) Pray for the Many Christians who are now scattered abroad (Acts 8:4) across
Europe that God would use them to testify of His Great Salvation. One such
Sister, Marina realized that back in Ukraine she would only be busy gardening,
but now transplanted to a refugee complex in Romania, she has witnessed to 30
families and already one lady got saved!!!
10) Your Monetary Donations have been a God Send to: 1) Print Gospel Literature
(above). 2) Purchase Christian Aid to Bless and Supply for the needs of many
Ukrainian Refugees. 3) We continue sending money to faithful Pastors and
Evangelists in Ukraine who: I) Evacuate Refugees. II) 200+ Tons of Aid
transported and distributed to local Churches who then show God’s Love in action
while Evangelizing those souls suffering and seeking hope to deal with despair,
terror and incomprehensible loss. BLESSING: Many Churches began actively
Evangelizing and also Housing those displaced inside Ukraine. In the town of
Konotop they’re actually starting a new Church! Please PRAY for the Safety of
Eugene, Michael, Slavick, Roma, and Others as they Transport Aid in and Evacuate
Refugees on their return trips: (When we speak, they retell how hard it is to
find Diesel Fuel. If it is found, it costs $7.50 - $9/gallon ~ $250-$300/van
trip.)
11) Pray for the European Ukrainian/Russian Churches that they would Evangelize
and for Many new Churches Needed!
12) Praise the Lord! Oksana’s Parents are now in the USA staying with us, but
will visit their relatives and friends this summer so our whole family can work
with Refugees in Europe. {A large shopping mall just one mile from their house
was destroyed in a recent missile attack.} … Slavick’s family (Oksana’s brother)
is Purchasing and Transporting Food and other Aid to Odessa and serving Refugees
in Romania. Our son David is going there in June/July to help Slavick build a
few necessary buildings, since he plans to hold three camps in July for
Ukrainian Refugee Children. Elisabeth finished her first year of College. She’ll
visit refugee friends in Europe, work with us and be a leader at the July camps
in Romania.
Great GAINS: Many brothers tell of Souls turning to Christ for salvation! But,
WAR also causes Great LOSS of lives: 20 yr-old Nazar from our Church was
recently killed along with his uncle and ~ 250 other soldiers during an
Artillery attack. Shelling/bombing continues in Nikolaev and Odessa as Russia’s
forces would like to take all of Ukraine’s Ports.
Tentative Summer Plans for Europe: PRAY {Wisdom and Open Doors} 1) Working in
Poland with New Church Plants.
2) Evangelizing with European Missionaries -Counseling and Presenting the Gospel
to Refugees in Europe.
3) Ministering to Ukrainians in Refugee Camps in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.
=>Thank you to each of you for your faithful prayers, support and concern for
Oksana’s relatives and especially for the millions of Ukrainian souls seeking
peace in this chaos. PRAY they’ll truly find it in Christ-“he is our Peace”
Ephesians 2:14.
For the souls of Ukraine, Follow our Posts on ==>
www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher - - - Questions call me: (513)
969-4229 or mahers4jesus@gmail.com
SENDING MONEY TO HELP - Make the check-out/send to: Charity Baptist Mission, PO
Box 692
Bristol, TN 37621-0692 *Please write in the memo: Richard Maher-Help for Ukraine
[Sending Money allows us to: (1) Supply money for Christians to fuel vehicles:
for evacuating people and delivering aid or to purchase food or medicine for
those suffering in Ukraine. (2) Print and/or purchase Evangelistic literature
for distribution to the many Refugees fleeing to European Countries.]
(click here to view a printable PDF of this letter)
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UKRAINIAN CRISIS LETTER
- MARCH 2022
Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters,
- After 30 years in Missions (29 in Ukraine), I never expected such a tragic
situation would ever develop between Ukraine and Russia. This is worse than
tragic, but I cannot express it with words.
I have prayed and cried with trusted brothers laboring in Ukraine to provide aid
and minister to both saved and lost souls. (Gal. 6:10) I’m so glad that we are
still able to send money through Western Union to the nationals who are
ministering!
From the videos and pictures which Christians have sent me, it is utterly
devastating to see the destruction and how inaccurate the death tolls have been.
We thank each of you and your Churches for your faithful prayers, support and
genuine concern for our family, Oksana’s family and especially for the souls of
Ukraine during this terribly devastating time.
• I do appreciate each of you and your particular concerns (questions), which I
will attempt to answer now.
• I returned on February 19th and the war broke out on February 24th.
• Praise the Lord Oksana’s Parents and brother’s family are safe in Romania and
helping others there.
• Oksana still has many relatives still in Ukraine.
• Many of the Pastors with whom I’ve worked are still in Ukraine serving their
Churches and towns. Western regions are not being attacked as much as the
Northern, Eastern and the larger cities. Artillery attacks in Mariupol, (where I
labored in March and October of 2021) have left the city without power, water
and heat.
• Some asked: Should we gather goods to send to Ukraine? – It takes too long, or
if done quickly -It’s not cost effective.
• OR SEND MONEY TO HELP! Most efficient and effective at meeting needs!
• Sending Money allows us to: (1) Supply money for Christians to fuel vehicles:
for evacuating people or delivering aid or to purchase food or medicine for
those suffering in Ukraine. (2) Print or purchase Evangelistic literature for
distribution to the many refugees fleeing to European Countries.
I returned safely from my six week trip of evangelistic visits on February 19th
(*see below), but (1) now I and my partner Paul Gray are going back March 10th ~
April (11th) to Evangelize those Ukrainians waiting in lines at the borders and
those refugees who have fled to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, etc.
2) Pray with us and for us as we look for, print and distribute literature and
aid to help them find Christ.
3) Pray that we can supply the Brethren with good evangelistic literature and
set up distribution points!
4) Please keep these Missionaries in your prayers as they serve Ukrainians
during this Crisis: Mark Priem, Chris and Sam Rue, Dan Bardwell, KC Kline, Henry
Benach, Ron Jackson, Jonathan Skean, John O’Brien, and Ukrainian brethren.
- GIVING TO HELP UKRAINE -
Make the check out to: Charity Baptist Mission PO Box 692 Bristol, TN 37621-0692
Write in the memo: Richard Maher-Help for Ukraine
* The Lord blessed the six weeks of visits by saving five souls and by clearly
opening up the plan of salvation to many very “religious” Western Ukrainians.
Many brothers had one-on-one training as we made visits. Also, eight Churches
requested me to teach two or three hour seminars on practical evangelism.
For the souls of Ukraine,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher Follow us on -
www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters, February 2021
Urgent EVANGELIZATION Requests:
* February 13th-21st: The Ukrainian International Commission team of seven and
myself travel to Vollinsky Region along Ukraine’s borders with Belarus and
Poland. Pray the Lord will stir up and challenge his children in ~15 small
Churches. Pray especially for Holy Ghost conviction as we explain the Gospel of
Christ during in-home visits!
* Feb. 22nd- March 1st: I travel on to Chernovitsky Region to help four churches
make house to house visits. They’ve been praying fervently since the summer,
while being hindered by COVID outbreaks. Pray for God to work in lost hearts.
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January 8th-19th: When I travelled to Eastern Ukraine, the Lord answered your
prayers working on hearts along Ukraine’s front lines 5-25 miles from the war
torn city of Donetsk. Due to quarantine our meetings in all eight towns were
smaller groups from 15 to 40 people. The Lord challenged over 150 saints to
fervently serve one another and the lost through personal testimonies as well as
gospel tracts. It was also a great blessing to preach to and answer five men’s
questions at the rehabilitation center. Most visits were not one on one, but
instead varied in size from 3 to 15 people per group. Each opportunity differed
from six young soccer players to 12 young children who come weekly for VBS
followed by a bowl of soup. At the two adult feeding centers, 10 and 15 people
listened attentively as I illustrated what the gospel can do for each of us.
Even taught four small groups of English students taking the final 20 minutes to
explain the gospel in both English and Russian using the EVANGECUBE to clearly
demonstrate what “repenting and believing the gospel” of Christ means through
the captivating pictures of the Cube. Testified at a birthday party where a half
drunken coal miner came away with a new opinion about true Christianity. The
Lord blessed as two souls received Christ and over 85 lost souls heard the
gospel. The greatest news a soul can ever hear!!!
Regional Men’s Conference: After I spoke, many pastors took our testimonial
gospel tracts and prayer brochures to get their members praying earnestly for
lost loved ones, friends, neighbors and co-workers.
The Lord has opened up doors to preach and challenge local churches about each
members’ part in fulfilling Christ’s great commission.
Odessa International Fellowship invited me to encourage their international
students in English. Pray for their growth and establishment as a church and for
their outreach to Hindi Indians and Muslims!
Lakeside Baptist Church is doing very well and boldly distributed all 8,000+
Evangelistic Calendars in 11 different villages by January 4th. Pray the lost
will read the daily devotions and believe on Christ for salvation.
• Held a Christmas VBS on January 7th (the Orthodox Christmas) for over 50 lost
children and many parents.
• Faithful Sister Riya passed into glory as her aged cancer-ridden body gave out
after her family contracted COVID.
• Over 65,000 calendar tracts and 85,000 testimonial tracts went out in January.
Back to the PRINTERS
• In Sherbanka where L.B. Church has passed out calendars for over 5 years. God
burdened a local to go back to his hometown and plant a Church. Pray for Brother
Victor, their Sunday School classes and services in Sherbanka!
Prayer Requests:
1) Feruza - from Uzbekistan is a Russian speaking Muslim in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Oksana and I have been explaining the plan of Salvation to her. I was able to
send her audio explanations over VIBER. We know she listened to them, because
she came back with questions! PLEASE pray God will reveal Christ to her, so she
will understand in whom she must believe!
2) Continue to pray for two unsaved visitors at Lakeside Baptist Church - Eugene
and Dennis.
3) Pray for David’s Salvation and for direction for Elisabeth’s future.
4) Praying about our upcoming furlough starting in June of 2021.
5) Upcoming Invitations to speak are in Harkov Kiev, Sumskoy region, and
Chernigovsky region.
*** In Ukraine: Praising the Lord for our whole family (in laws and all) got
through COVID without going to the hospital!
*** In the US: My 86 year old mother (with COPD) along with my sister and
brother also recovered quickly from the virus.
Gratefully yours for souls,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth & David Maher - Missionaries to Ukraine and the
Russian speaking multitudes
*** Send ALL CORRESPONDENCE to: Berean Baptist Church, 24241 Stateline Rd.,
Lawrenceburg, IN 47021
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters, November-December 2020
November 8-12th I made a survey trip to Eastern Ukraine along our Ukrainian front lines 20-25 miles from the war torn city of Donetsk. I was blessed to be able to preach in six different towns. Five of the meetings were in small Churches started since the war began in 2014. Some of these towns were originally occupied, but the Ukrainian Army freed them from Occupation. All six of these Churches were started by a young man named Igor who came to work with us back in 1998. My partner Paul Gray and I and ordained Igor, and then I married him and his wife Faith in 1999. When they were just getting started in ministry, we helped them start a Church in a town two hours north of Lakeside Baptist which is still serving the Lord today with their own local Pastor. In 2006 they moved back to Mirnograd in the Donetsk Region to start a Church in their home town and Praise the Lord now it has grown to 6 small Churches. They also bought a house in a village and converted it into a Rehabilitation Center for rehabilitating up to 10 Alcoholics and/or Drug Addicts. Presently they have five addicts with whom I spoke one evening while I was there.
January 8-18th: Lord Willing! I will be returning to make Evangelistic visits with Igor in those six towns and will be making house to house visits in two new towns with another local preacher, Brother Michael. Please pray the Holy Ghost will convict souls of their need for Christ. We really do covet your prayers for the Holy Spirit to convict the lost souls who will be hearing the Gospel.
October’s Armenia trip was cancelled due to border disputes which led to a war breaking out between Armenia and Azerbaijan at the end of September. The war ended with Armenia losing control of some of its territory and suffering some major losses. {Our Missionary friends Tom & Linda Shreeder were able to return back to Armenia already!}
My November trip to Chernovitsky Region was postponed by three Churches experiencing Coronavirus outbreaks. Thanking God for His great mercy as He leads us through our present physical battle with what appears to be COVID. David and Elisabeth both had a slight temperature for only one day and sniffles for two or three days. Oksana and I both lost our smell and coughed for 10 days- now we are coughing only a few times a day and our smell has returned. Our real concern has been for Oksana’s parents Valeriy and Ludmilla who already have high blood pressure, heart problems and Ludmilla has diabetes. Please pray that they will beat this virus without needing to go to the overcrowded hospitals.
Since we moved from Kiev to Odessa, we’ve been able to encourage and help Lakeside Baptist Church. BUT I’ve been praying for some new open doors to work with both the local and the Odessa regional Churches. Praise the Lord! I will be preaching in a Church on December 20th and was invited to speak briefly on Soul-winning and using Gospel tracts at a regional Men’s Conference, December 12th and also at a Couples Conference Dec. 19th.
Please Pray the Lord will stir these Couples and these Pastors to get their members praying earnestly for lost loved ones, friends, neighbors and coworkers which is the thrust of our Prayer brochure and to start using Gospel tracts.
Throughout both December and January. Lakeside Baptist Church will be almost daily, while traveling to 15+ villages as they distribute the 8,500 Evangelistic Calendars. Pray for the Lord’s boldness as they go to each house and that people would receive the Calendars and believe the Word of God quoted in the daily devotions that they might believe on Christ and be saved.
PRINTING MINISTRY of Tracts and Calendars keeps growing: 70,000 4”x 5” Calendar Tracts on card stock, 120,000 Testimonial Tracts, 14,000 “Humbug” Chick tracts and 30,000 of our Evangelistic Door Hanger/Distribution Bags. {Such a blessing to see more and more Burdened Ukrainians calling and writing to request tracts to Evangelize with.}
Prayer Requests:
1) Feruza -is a Russian speaking Muslim in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oksana and I have
been explaining the plan of Salvation to her. Pray for her eyes to be opened to
receive Christ!
2) Continue to pray for two unsaved visitors at Lakeside B. Ch.- Eugene (wife
has prayed for him 10 years) & Dennis.
3) Pray for some of our aged saints at Lakeside Baptist Church who have
contracted COVID that they will recover fully.
4) Pray for David’s Salvation and for direction for Elisabeth’s future.
5) Praying about our Upcoming Furlough starting in July of 2020.
***PLEASE SEND CORRESPONDENCE to:
Berean Baptist Church, 24241 Stateliness Road, Lawrenceburg, IN 47021
Gratefully yours for souls,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Your Missionaries to Ukraine and the Russian Speaking Multitudes
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Greetings in the Precious Name of Jesus Christ, July 2020
From February 29- March 8th in the Chernovitsky Region: The International Commission Romanian team of eight Romanians and myself made in-home visits in Romanian speaking villages located along the Ukrainian/Romanian border.
I had the opportunity to present the gospel to over 100 Russian speaking lost souls in small group settings during the week. Praise the Lord, I saw two receive Christ during the visits! We finished up the week with a Sunday afternoon evangelization. Over 130 lost people came out to hear the Gospel and a 20-year-old lady came forward and prayed. It was a great week and you could see the Holy Ghost convicting souls in answer to your prayers. When I preached and challenged the church in the Sunday AM service, God stirred them, and every member took a packet of tracts and a special praying brochure to begin praying earnestly for their lost loved ones, friends, neighbors and coworkers. As soon as our Evangelization ended, the region was put under quarantine, due to the first case of COVID-19. A month later, the Pastor I worked with came down with COVID-19 and fought it through with two weeks of high temperatures.
In March: Just before the National quarantine, the Lord opened up a great opportunity to testify at the European conference of Russian speaking churches of Europe which was held near Hannover, Germany. It is amazing how many new Russian speaking churches are being planted all over Europe as Ukrainians and other Russian speakers travel to almost every country in Europe to seek higher paying jobs or to immigrate altogether. Since the quarantine: Sadly to say the COVID-19 quarantine closed everything here and cancelled three Evangelism seminars and all of our I.C. Crusades for Ukraine and even Belarus. In April, we moved from Kiev to Odessa, Ukraine to work more closely with Lakeside Baptist Church again.
Ordination Service on June 28: Brother Slavick Yatskiv was Ordained as the full-time Pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church.
Missionary Chris Rue helped us in the Ordinations since he, Paul Gray and myself had all trained these two brothers in our Joint Bible Institute back in 2002-2004.
We also Ordained Brother Nick Veselkov as Pastor of the Church which he planted in the town of “October”. Lakeside Baptist sent him out as a Missionary/Church planter in 2004. (Attempting to remove all former Soviet names, the Government recently renamed his town from “October” to the town of “Peter’s faith”.)
A
s I was praying about what the Lord would have us do next during this trying COVID-19 time:1) Pastor Andrew (just outside of Kiev) invited me to teach his church about Soul-winning and using Gospel tracts.
2) A fellow Evangelist from Chernovitsky region invited me for an Evangelistic Project to be held in November.
3) A Pastor from Southern Moldova called to encourage me about some new fruit that finally came to fruition from an I.C. Crusade we held back in 2018. A husband (who was then backslidden and now finally got right with the Lord) and his wife (who this year finally came to faith in Christ) are both getting baptized in the end of August.
4)
October 1-13th ARMENIA bound - That is Lord willing and the virus doesn’t close the door. The International Commission is planning a crusade of house to house visits in Yerevan, Armenia. Please pray the Lord will prepare hearts for this trip and use us, not only to witness to the lost, but to disciple and challenge the Christians too!!!5)
Feruza - a U.S. Muslim (from a -Stan Country) who Oksana befriended back in Cincinnati, Ohio is in great need of prayer. She seems to be finally ready to receive bible verses - Pray the Lord will work in her heart.6) Please pray for two unsaved visitors at Lakeside B.C.- Eugene (whose wife has prayed for him for over 10 years) and Dennis.
Thank you all so much for your faithfulness in both Praying and Supporting us in this very, very unusual time.
Gratefully yours for souls, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher.
Your Missionaries to Ukraine and the Russian speaking Multitudes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Ukraine
Greetings from Ukraine in the wonderful Name of
Jesus Christ, May 2019
Poland’s larger cities are now being overrun with a 10% Ukrainian workforce.
Since 2015, Poland has gradually increased from 500,000 to now offering
2,000,000 work visas. They are gladly inviting Ukrainians to temporarily occupy
their lower paying jobs and also to fill the many vacancies incurred by many
Polish people labouring in Germany and other more affluent European Union
countries. Many of these Ukrainians are part of a constantly rotating workforce
with most of them working there for 3-6 months. Presently with Ukraine’s War
situation and constant inflation, we see more and more families immigrating to
make a more prosperous life and a more stable future for their children. *Many
doors of opportunity for ministry have opened up. The Ukrainian Baptist Churches
have sent out seven Missionaries who are labouring to plant new Ukrainian
churches in many of these larger cities. From March 20-26th I was able to make a
short trip to exhort a couple of Missionaries and encourage two Ukrainian
Churches, as well as two Polish Churches.
International Commission’s (I.C.) training conference (March 27-30th) was held
just north of Budapest, Hungary. Many preachers came from Eastern European
countries seeking to develop their outreach techniques. The conference gave me
an opportunity to exhort two Hungarian Churches on March 31st.
Nick & Love Veselkov are a Church planting family which we sent out of Lakeside
Baptist Church to labour in the town of “October” which is about 1.5 hours north
of Odessa. In April I went with Brother Nick to make Gospel SEED planting
visits. The Lord opened doors and encouraged the small church there too.
May
1st, 2nd 4th & 5th were blessed visits with a small Bible Believing Church in
the city of Zhytomyr and one in the nearby Jewish town of Berdichev. 40-year-old
Alyona called upon the Lord as well as Valentina who is 89 year old.
*** May 12-19 The Ukrainian I.C. team and I will be making visits in the Ivano
Frankivsk Oblast (state) in 10+ towns and villages. This part of Western Ukraine
is both very Religious and also very “Ukrainian Speaking”. I thank the Lord that
I can understand their conversational Ukrainian, but I usually have to answer in
Russian. They all understand Russian, but prefer to speak only in Ukrainian.
{They accept foreigners who have at least learned to speak Russian}
Lakeside hosted an Easter play presented by Missionary Mark Priem’s Church from
Odessa. This was the first time Lakeside held a play for Easter and everyone
said it went very well.
Please continue to PRAY for the 8,500 people who received the Evangelistic
Calendars. Pray that the Lord would speak to their hearts through His Word,
opening their blind eyes to see their need of the Saviour.
Our Family must leave Ukraine for 90 days, so we will be in the US. We must
submit Elisabeth’s paperwork at the Ukrainian Embassy in D.C. We will also visit
the few Churches we didn’t update in 2015. If you would like us to come update
your Church over the summer, then please call us at (513) 488-1288. Pray her
paperwork questions will be resolved before we plan to return on August 20th.
To God be the Glory, Please Pray for David’s Salvation and Elisabeth’s Health!
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Greetings from Ukraine in the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ, February - 2019
We Hope and Pray the Lord is working in you to accomplish His Good Pleasure in 2019. (Phil. 2:12, 13)
Belarus visits with Bro. Chuck Milton were Blessed.
We both saw four souls receive Christ. Sunday I stirred up the Minsk Church so
that this December they’ll also be participating. I got to preach to 50 lost
students at the Seminary’s English Club. For two days I worked in a village
three hours S.E. of Minsk. One visit was particularly memorable: As I began to
speak, the elderly lady said, "I’ve seen you before.” I responded, “This is my
first trip to Belarus in my life." She said, “I saw you three days ago. I could
have drawn your picture. I didn’t see the other two fellows who are with you"
(trainees), but she said, "I definitely saw you." I asked, “What did God tell
you I was coming to visit you for?” She answered, “To explain things to me and
put me on the right path.” I responded, “Then you need to listen well, and turn
to God, believing the Gospel today.” After explaining the Gospel, she got on her
knees and called upon the Lord in repentance and faith. This was my first
instance of a clear confirmation that God prepared someone to hear me present
the Gospel to them for their Salvation. It also confirmed that the Lord surely
wanted me in Belarus that week. *This Church of over 190 souls started in 1931,
after one family received a Gospel of John from a traveling Christian. It is the
only growing village in the whole region and 95% of the village is Christian.
Then we had two more days with Bible students. Dennis and Alex gave them needed
practical time: starting a conversation, then turning it to Christ and
presenting the Gospel. Part of each visit was given to one student to involve
him in the process.
Chernovetsky Region (13 towns) & Northern Moldova (two towns): The International
Commission National Team of nine men including myself explained the Gospel to
over 620 lost souls. They actually shuffled me around to five villages where I
witnessed to 92 souls {and got to teach on Relationships in a local trade
school.}. I was in villages where the seed of the Gospel needed to be sown in
hearts. Although I only saw five receive Christ, 20+ others said they understood
and knew it’s time for them to make that decision. Please continue to pray for
these that said, I’m not quite ready yet”. **Some are already attending small
group Bible studies. JUST last week, blind Nina, 75 years old, called for Ivan
my trainee, then called on the Lord for salvation. One brother didn’t see any
get saved during 50 visits, but on Sunday two of them repented at Church. Many
others though were AMAZED to see how the Lord did Exceeding Abundantly above.
Some saw 15-20 souls saved in the towns where the Churches had already sown the
seed, watered it and continued laboring through intercession as preparation for
our visits. One village which was only full of people called “The Old Faith”,
NOW has 15 true Believers who got saved during last year’s and this year’s
Crusades. They asked for prayer as they prepare to build a “House of Prayer” in
their town.
Pray for upcoming visits: (March) in the town of “Unmovable” and (April/May) in
Zhytomyr & Khmelnytsky. March 20th - 26th trip to Poland to help a couple
Ukrainian Missionaries & the 27th - 30th I.C. Conference in Budapest. The Lisikh
family, our sent Missionaries, came back from Altai, Russia for a three month
furlough to encourage their supporting Churches. Seeing slides and hearing
testimonies was great: (bellow is their Prayer Letter.)
Lakeside’s Christmas Play worked out perfectly with 122 gifts on hand and 121
children attended.
Distributing the 8,500 Evangelistic Calendars was encouraging as people received
them with a smile and thanks. *Pray they’ll read them daily, so God can plant
His seed in their hearts through messages about Christ.
To God be the Glory, Please Pray for David’s Salvation & Elisabeth’s Health! Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
- *Please use our email Address: mahers4jesus@gmail.com
Richard Maher and Paul Gray established the Ukrainian Church which sent out
these Missionaries.
Eugene & Julie Lisikh Family - in Altai, Russia, Ministering to Mongolians and Russians in Oost Kahn, Yabogan, White Annoy and Vladimirovka-Altai (towns in Siberia just above Mongolia in Russia)
Greetings! Prayer Letter for January - 2019
Glory to the Lord for His wonderful works to the
children of men, for His mercy, grace, love and all the abundant blessings which
He has given us through Jesus Christ! We testify to you, Brothers and Sisters,
that the Lord abundantly blessed our trip to Ukraine and visits to our
supporting churches. We began our trip with a heart melting experience as the
Ukrainian border guards took us off the train and we found ourselves in a very
difficult situation. We then began to see His miracles in many ways like when He
parted the Red Sea. We thank the Lord for you, and for your sincere and generous
hospitality, help and intercessory prayer. It is so nice to know that “you have
our back”.
We are glad that through this trip God worked it out for us to be able to start
homeschooling our children. We have received abundant blessings from the Lord
through this.
Truthfully, we have great joy and peace in your love. It was very nice to visit
you in your church services (in Ukraine) praising the Lord together and to see
your faithfulness. May our God supply all your need according to his riches in
glory by Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19)
We thank the Lord for Pastor Richard Maher and his wife Sister Oksana who bought
the tickets for Brother Sergei Beck and his family to be able to come and take
our place here in Oost-Khan while we had our three month furlough in Ukraine. We
thank the Lord for Brother Sergei and his family, and for their sincere
dedication to the Lord. When I returned, I saw that God used the Beck family
here in Altai for His glory.
I would like to mention many of you, because each of you in a special way were a
blessing to us from the Lord.
On December 19th, we returned safe and sound to Altai considering all of the
danger that such a trip of four days on a train entails. Thank you for your
prayers,
Dearly beloved Brothers and Sisters. Here in Altai it is -30 to -40 degrees
Celsius (-22 to -40 Fahrenheit), but everything works for good -- all the germs
are being killed. Our local Brothers and Sisters were very happy at our return,
as were we. Honestly, we were a little tired from our trip. Currently Sister
Julie is busy homeschooling our children and making up for missed lessons. We’re
a little bit under the weather as we reacclimatize to Altai. We are also
getting back on track into the routine of our church services here in Oost-Khan,
White Annoy and every other week in Vladimirovka.
Today Brother Salavat and I drove to some other villages to visit people. It was
a joy to share the Gospel and visit our Brother and his family. We also brought
Christian calendars back with us from Ukraine, and we are distributing them here
in Altai. Please pray that the Lord would continue to burden and bless Brother
Salavat and his desire to visit his former acquaintances. If the Lord allows us
to on Christmas, which is officially celebrated here on January 7th, we will
distribute Christmas newspapers.
At the moment, the young lady from our church named Elvira is living with us.
Glory to the Lord, He is working in her heart, and it is evident how her
relationship with God has become so much better. We had a good church service
in White Annoy, however, right now Brother Sergei Ivanovich is in a sad
spiritual state. Please pray for him.
We hope to visit Yabogan. Please pray for Sister Galena from Yabogan. She
recently had an asthma attack that brought her to the brink of death. Please
also pray for the salvation of our old acquaintances who are still living in
Yabogan.
Please pray that the Lord would use us here in Altai as much as He wants, how He
wants, and where He wants. And that we would totally rely only on Him, His
amazing grace, His Presence, His guidance, so that we would decrease, and He
would increase. Please continue to pray the Lord would raise up local workers
from here in Altai.
We also now understand that we need to be prepared
for persecution, if the Lord allows, but for now all is peaceful.
May the Lord bless you! May Grace be with you! The Lisikh Family
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Faithful Prayer Warriors
and Supporting Churches, December 2018 (click
here for a printable version)
September Visits in Volinsky Region (bordering Poland & Belarus) were blessed as
the National I.C. group of five visited in six different villages. Two of us
visited all 360 houses in “Big Boondocks”. 18 years ago the Church’s reputation
was ruined by a dishonest Pastor. Nevertheless, the Lord still worked in hearts
and brought out 25 souls to the final Evangelistic service. On our visits, we
saw five souls call on the Lord for salvation, and we trained a couple of men
how to witness. The other three Brothers visited in five towns and saw 11 souls
call upon the Lord, and as they trained the locals and challenged six Churches.
#1) Preaching in Mariupol before we pass out bread to the 150 needy who came!
#2) People listening in the overflow corridor. We passed out over 700 loaves in
six different locations as we preached the Gospel! Pictured to the right: #3) On
trips we spend Friday and Sunday nights on the trains, sometimes for long hours.
Pray they will be Fruitful.
In November, Berdyansk and
Mariupol visits were very fruitful. Two of us made visits for five days in
Berdyansk where 12 souls got saved. I then spent three days visiting in Mariupol
(three needy souls who were each missing a leg) and preaching to the crowds as
we passed out bread to the needy. 32 souls were saved as four Brothers made
visits to the needy. One brother even went to “Marenke” where some shooting was
going on near the front lines.
I’m not sure when, but the Churches wants me to return to do more visits in both
Berdyansk and Mariupol. Many openly listened!!!
(
***December 9-13 Belarus
visits: I will join Brother Chuck Milton who introduced me to I.C.
(International Commission) in 2016. We’ll do one-on-one training of “How to
present the Gospel of Christ” with a group of students studying for the
Ministry. We will be visiting three different Churches in Minsk, Belarus
(***which are very closed to the spreading of the Gospel). Sunday Morning, I can
only greet the Church and give a 10 minute testimony.
*My training goals are the importance of: sharing your personal testimony, and
using tracts in Witnessing for Christ!
January 19-28th Chernovetsky Region and Northern Moldova: I.C. National Team and
I will be doing visits in 12 towns.
We praise the Lord for supplying the funds to print 40,000 (4”x6”) calendars on
card stock with a salvation message on the back and 60,000 testimonial tracts.
We’re preparing to print two more titles in Ukrainian.
December & January: Lakeside Baptist Church is witnessing in the same 15
villages as last year, as they distribute the 8,500 Evangelistic Calendars and
tract packets. *Please Pray they will read the Evangelistic Calendars daily, so
God’s seed will grow in their hearts through the messages about Christ and
Salvation.
Pray for Vimal, Carthy and three Hindu Students from Southern India. (~450
Indian Students live here in all different parts of Kiev, -which now has a
population of ~5 million.) They all learn in English at the University of
Medicine. Pray the Lord will provide tracts which will be effective to reach
them in their native language of Tamil.
To God be the Glory,
Please Continue Praying for our Children! Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David
Maher
*Please use our
Address:mahers4jesus@gmail.com
----------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, May of 2018
Feb.18-25th: The I.C. National Ukrainian team and I made visits to 14 Churches in the Chernigovsky Region (just below Russia and Belarus). In Preparation for our visits, on Sundays during the months of September - November, I travelled to seven different Churches in both the city of Chernigov and in the surrounding villages of the region to stir them up by preaching on Evangelism and Intercessory Prayer. During our February visits, the Lord worked on many hearts and also saved many souls. I made visits in two difficult villages and saw four souls receive Christ. Two Sisters, who have been praying for their lost daughters and live in other towns, had me call them to explain the Gospel by phone. As the Lord was working in one of their hearts, you could hear her sniffling and crying. In all, the people listened well. It was obvious that the Lord was working on lost hearts through your prayers.
April 7-15th: Preached in six different Churches in different towns and taught two Bible studies in a town called “Unmovable” in the Sumskoy Region. Eugene, a 26 yr. old Missionary who is trying to Revive a small declining Church, invited me there to make visits and present the Gospel. We saw four people “moved” to repentance, and although many others were close, we left it up to the Holy Spirit to convince/convict them of their sin and need of salvation. 35 yr. old Alexsander complained to his mother that he couldn’t sleep all night because of my visit. 30 yr. old Michael who got saved, works for the Government to help released prisoners acclimate. He got approval for Eugene to start Bible studies with his parolees.
April 19-24th: I held a four hour Evangelism Seminar in the Chernovetsky Region with groups from five Churches. Many were challenged to be faithful in fulfilling their Ministry of Reconciliation and very happy to receive Brochures to Evangelize with. Afterwards while making visits in two villages, the Lord worked to open the hearts of two ladies, both of whom were recovering from broken hips. One received Christ after an hour of explanation, but the 79 year old Anna listened for over 3.5 hours on three different visits and finally said, “I never knew that I needed to ask forgiveness on the basis of Jesus’ Death as the payment for my sins”. Hallelujah! God opened her eyes and heart to receive His Eternal Salvation. On this trip I also travelled into Northern Romania to challenge two Churches about Evangelizing the lost.
***June 23 - July 1st: The I.C. National Ukrainian team and I will be visiting lost souls in Mariupol, Ukraine which is nearby the War zone. We will be visiting many families who left their destroyed homes and moved to Mariupol to survive. Most of these have no work and are reaching out to the local church there to help them in any way they can. These people are very needy and desperate! PLEASE Pray the Lord will soften and prepare the hearts of the lost through prayer. Also, Pray for the Churches and the Christians we will train as we go on Soul Winning visits with them and teach them how to testify and present Christ. * Also, Please pray for the five Bible Clubs which Lakeside Baptist Church will be holding in Ukraine and one in Northern Romania. We also thank you for praying for our Family, especially for my back and hips.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Winter of 2018
We Thank the Lord for all His answers to your and our prayers in 2017!!! Looking forward to seeing His Hand move upon Lost Souls in 2018. “Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:” Isaiah 59:1 … What a Privilege we all have as vessels for our Risen Saviour to continue His life and Ministry “to seek and to save that which was lost”. Luke 19:10
Dec. 16-24th: The I.C. National Ukrainian team and I made visits in 10 Churches in Chernovitsky Region (just North of Romania). In all the Lord worked on many hearts as He saved many souls. I visited in three religious villages and saw four souls receive Christ. People listened well. It was obvious that the Lord was working on lost hearts through your prayers.
January 19-26th: I travelled to Southern Moldova: to visit and encourage the Churches there and to make visits in two towns (one is a Bulgarian town). We made many fruitful visits - even three Gypsy families listened very well. I thank the Lord for working upon hearts and for the three souls who accepted Christ. For 4 hours we explained the clear truth of Salvation by Faith Alone to a very versed, devout Orthodox man named Zahar. (He knows their religious teachings better than the priests.) He could find no argument with the scriptures- Please pray for his salvation.
February 18-25th: The I.C. National Ukrainian team and I will be making
visits in 14 Churches in Chernigovsky Region (2.5 hours north of Kiev). Please
Pray the Lord will work on many hearts in the different villages and the city of
Chernigov. I travelled to nine of these Churches over the last nine months: to
get them praying and interceding for lost souls using the Andrew Brochures and
to stir them up to fulfill their Ministry of Reconciliation.
2 Cor. 5:18-21
We could definitely use your intercessory prayers for these needs:
1) I. C. Crusades: Explaining the Gospel as we make visits witnessing to souls who people have been praying for.
2) Preaching and Teaching opportunities to stir up Ukrainian Christians to Evangelize, witness and reach out to the lost.
3) Thousands of tracts being distributed and sent out to other Churches who have a desire to reach lost souls.
4) Pray the 8,000 lost souls read their Evangelistic Calendars: that the seed of God’s Word be sown in their hearts.
5) Witnessing to foreign students - Especially for Vimal and four Hindu Students from Southern India- 200 more Indians are here from their same state which all speak a non-typical Indian language- “Tamil”. * I prayed for them and two weeks later, they bought a car with False Documents which the Police impounded one hour later on their way to the Krishna Temple where they wanted to thank Krishna for their car. They immediately came to me for help to translate from English to Russian. Recently we had a good conversation as I took them to the central Police Station to submit more documents.
6) Pray for the Lord to CALL & SEND out Ukrainian Missionaries to go into the countries which are closed to Western and Korean Missionaries.
7) Pray for the War which continues to smolder in Eastern Ukraine & our present Political Unrest and vast Corruption.
8) Our Health: Elisabeth, Oksana & Richard.
9) “Elizarovka”- Twice a month 8-12 Children gather to study the Bible in the local school, But the Director says officially the adults cannot meet there. Pray the Lord will open up the right house to buy for holding meetings in. (five churches are Evangelizing this Churchless region where people from the “Chernobyl Accident” were relocated to.)
Thankful for your Faithful Prayers and Continual Support of this His Outreach
Ministry to Ukraine.
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Summer of 2017
Praise Him! Our Lord is Faithful! Lakeside Baptist Church continues to faithfully minister.
Youth Conference: In August, 36 youth from four Churches stayed at Lakeside for constant fellowship over a four day and night period. The Lord saved six souls (two of ours and four from other churches) and mightily worked in hearts. Many testified, “God helped me concerning the music I should be listening to.” He also challenged those who had laxed in attendance, to be faithful again. Lakesides VBS outreach was attended daily by 100 children.
The Lord also used Brothers Slavic, Paul Gray and the VBS team to minister to over 95 in “Onok” and two camps in Romania with 140 children (ages 5-11years) and 120 youth (ages 12-17). The Romanians said, “These were the best camps we ever had - due to very scripturally based lessons.” Lakeside Baptist Church continues to faithfully pray for and support their two Missionary families (Eugene & Julie Lisikh and Stas & Lyudmila Molchanov) serving since 2004 in Altai, Russia. Please see the attached Missionary Prayer letter as well as Yuri & Leanne in “Onok” Western Ukraine and Nick & Love in “October” ~2.5 hours north of Lakeside.
*{Bro. Nick is pictured with van}
*We Thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to help out our local
Missionary Brother Nick in buying a dependable used van. He has five children
and also brings the believers to services. That Church has been evangelizing the
surrounding villages and they preach and pass out tracts every Saturday morning
in their open market.
**In late May, the Lord blessed us to have Pastor John and Sister Kim Niehaus come for an encouraging visit to Lakeside Baptist Church and to Kiev.
***Pray for: Alicia (18) who has lymphatic cancer. She’s maintaining her strength due to God’s People Praying and courses of B-17 plus vitamins.
Pray for open hearts as we make contacts while distributing tracts among the International and Ukrainian students in the Kiev Universities. We will be trying to reach them with tracts in their native languages.
September 23rd in “Elizarovka”- I’ll be preaching the 1st adult service. Every month 8-12 Children gather to study the Bible, but it has taken a year to gather the adults together. Now the Lord has opened up two rooms in the town hall for the meetings. Soon we hope to meet twice a month. (Brothers & Sisters from five churches have been Evangelizing this remote region where the people from the “1986 Chernobyl Accident” were relocated.)
Moldova November 5th – 12th I will be Laboring with I.C. Pray the Lord will prepare hearts as we do visits.
2017 is the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in Europe. The President’s signed a declaration which gives the Churches freedom to speak openly in schools and hold Evangelization meetings. Please pray for these open doors to present the Gospel.
Answers to Prayer!!! - Our Court hearing from the 2012 and 13 break-ins went very well. The Lord gave Grace and strength to testify. September 27th will be the next to last hearing. Thank you for Praying for our Family.
!!! Opportunities to witness to Muslims happen everywhere, but how to start? Well, September 4th - 8th we’ll be taking a Seminary course called “Encountering the World of Islam” (EWI). We’ve had a burden to witness to our Uzbekistan Muslim friends in Cincinnati, but have been praying for His wisdom how to present Christ to them.
To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher ---- *Please Note the Field Address Change on our letter head!
(Summer Altai,Russia prayer letter)
Missionaries Richard Maher & Paul Gray established the Ukrainian Church, which sent out the Eugene & Julie Lisikh Family
Missionaries in Altai,Russia Ministering to Mongolians and Russians in Oost Kahn, White Annoy and in Vladimirovka-Altai (towns in Siberia just above Mongolia in Russia)
Grace and peace unto you Brothers and Sisters. Prayer Letter for Spring 2017
We again are in need of your prayers. We believe that all the things God does, He does as an answer to the prayers of His children.
In our last letter we asked you to pray for the salvation of Zhenya Halooev. God heard our shared prayers. Zhenya accepted the Lord into his heart. Now he is struggling with trying to stop smoking. Please remember him in prayer.
Everything is well with us by the mercy of God. I conduct church services as usual. We had another evangelization this spring. We evangelized in our region, in the same villages where we had been before. There were good encounters and discussions. Last time we also asked for prayer for Boris. Now his spiritual state is much better. Of course, the process of restoration could be much less painful. He recently had an operation on his heart and on his eyes. Please continue to pray for Olessya. She sometimes gets drunk, therefore, she is ashamed to come to church. She reads the Bible at home, but this barrier is hard for her to overcome.
Sister Julie has 2-3 weeks until her due date. Please continue to remember her in prayer. Abner finished the school year with Straight A’s with the help of his mother and grandmother. Glory to the Lord, the Church has a good testimony in the school. I went to the church that Brother Stas joined in Gorno-Altaisk, and I preached there. Please continue to pray for the salvation of the unsaved spouses of Salavat, Sister Elena Ivanovna, Tanya, Aunt Galya, Boris, Zhenya and Iana. We are planning to have a men’s meeting at the end of June. Please remember it in prayer. We are planning an evangelization trip to Mongolia this summer. Also, please pray about a baptismal service. Zhenya would like to get baptized, as well as Aunt Galya from Upper Annoy.
Recently we held a church service in a nursing home with the help of our guests. Please pray for the salvation of Nina and her sons in the village of Oost Koomeer. Nina’s oldest son has epilepsy. We have the desire, if it is the Lord’s will, to visit the church in Crimea which supports and prays for us. Please pray that our family would have a Godly influence among the people of our village and our region. Please pray for our children that they would grow “in favor with God and man.” Please continue to pray for the strengthening of the local church here, that there would be youth on fire for the Lord and native preachers. Please pray for me that God would (give me) sound and spirit-filled preaching.
We are grateful to you for your help, and we desire to see all the supporting Churches next year if the Lord allows, and if He directs our way.
The Lord works through both life and work, and this is not a fast process. However, glory to the Lord, we see how He is changing His people little by little. During our 12-year ministry here in Altai, many people have heard the Gospel, and they now have the opportunity to attend a sound Bible church.
For the time being, I have stopped working with the Christian Mission OM (Operation Mobilization). Several things about them concern me – ecumenicalism which is a sister to compromise. They also have Sisters organizing their short-term mission trips. I believe that this is not according to the Scriptures. (Although, I’m glad that in Russia this mission only cooperates with Baptist churches.)
The Brothers and I have already done a lot of work on installing the siding on the church. The church auditorium is almost finished. Recently I built a large bookshelf there. Please pray that the Lord would bless us with the materials needed to finish the Sunday School room. For now, Sister Julie conducts the children’s class in the kitchen.
Glory to the Lord for His wondrous Word and for the promise of His soon return. I already want to get to Heaven as quickly as possible. While we are still here, we want to be faithful to the Lord and glorify Him with our whole heart because He is worthy. May the Lord’s perfect will be done in our lives. Hold fast to the Lord with a sincere heart.
Grace be unto you all. Amen. Your missionary family, Brother. Eugene, Sister Julie, Abner, Kassia, Hannah, Ilya and Misha
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Spring of 2017
We Thank the Lord for the opportunity to labor with International Commission in mid-western Ukraine (near Hmelnitsky where they speak a mixture of both Russian and Ukrainian). The Lord blessed and I was able to understand them well and of course they all understand Russian. I worked with a Church of about 50 members that helps poor families in the community and has an outreach for women on Wednesdays. They also have Saturday Bible lessons to reach children. After our week of visits, 10 new children began attending. We made 45 planned visits of people they had been praying for. It was very obvious that the hearts of those who someone had been praying for were much more attentive and receptive of the Gospel than the few last minute meetings where they showed much less interest. Praise the Lord! Three souls believed the Gospel and received Christ. PRAY FOR: Oleg who was waiting for the chance to Repent. Alyona who prayed and tried to get her husband Valeriy to also receive Christ. Tanya was a proud and successful dentist, until the bottle and smoking hooked her. We counseled with her twice for two hours before she finally poured out her heart trusting the Lord.
{***SPECIAL REQUEST: Alicia (18) the Pastor’s middle daughter has Lymphoma- lymphatic cancer. Her attitude is good and& she continues serving the Lord, but is losing strength. A very giving family in need of much Prayer!!!}
I was asked to participate on the Ukrainian National Coordinators group concerning Mobilizing Churches using courses like the “Kairos”- MISSIONS COURSE. Pray that the Lord will open doors in more Churches and Institutes and that He will stir the Churches burden to send Ukrainian Missionaries into Closed Eastern Countries.
God answered your prayers: I found a video course by Kirk Cameron called “The Way of the Master” in Russian. Simple enough that anyone can learn how to deal with lost souls, present Christ and Salvation. 2017 is the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in Europe. The President of Ukraine signed a declaration allowing Protestant churches the liberty to speak openly in the schools and hold large Evangelisms. Please Pray as many of the Baptist Churches are using this freedom to set-up opportunities to present the Gospel Message. Many doors are opening to work with International Students- I am ordering tracts in six languages to distribute. I’m also helping in an Evangelistic English Course: Pray for the Salvation of Dennis, Deema, Yuriy, Stephan & Kenny.
LAKESIDE BAPTIST NEWS & Prayer Requests --------------------- Pray for these OPEN DOORS --------------
In Kagul, Moldova: Bros. Slavik, Sergey and Michael had an open door to teach and testify in a Russian Speaking trade school. They’re now praying the Lord will open up the door to speak in the local Lemansky trade school.
June 11-17 FAMILY CAMP: Pray the Lord will strengthen families through applying the teaching of His Word. *Please Pray for the 10,000 souls who received Evangelistic Calendars to understand & receive Christ.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher - Your Missionaries to Ukraine
P.S. The War has really picked up again and this is putting fear into many. Pray that God would work and use this.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
December of 2016
We Praise the Lord for who He’s given us in 2016, especially the Gift of His Son
Jesus Christ our Saviour & many new & old Brothers & Sisters who are labouring
together with us to reach lost souls in Ukraine.
He gave me the opportunity to travel with International Commission to southern
Ukraine to help a Church during what was planned to be a week of visits &
meetings with people who had been prayed for & prepared to receive the Gospel of
Christ. Nothing was prepared, but the Lord used it to open my eyes to the great
need to train Ukrainian Christians how to present the Gospel and how to witness
to strangers. *Instead of making visits, I was able to preach seven times in
four Churches. The Lord also reached out to an only English speaking Jewish man
named Avee. He was very open minded as I presented the Gospel. He’ll call me
again when here- Please pray.
We are so thankful that He’s been opening doors and my eyes to needs. I had a
great week of Evangelizing with a Russian speaking Church in southern Moldova.
Their great desire (giving of themselves to God) to let Him show His goodness
and love to souls who are down and out was an eye opener for me. (They cook and
deliver hot lunches for 25+ invalids and very poor people as well as feed 20+
grade school students from poor families who come after school for lunch and
tutoring.) One thing was lacking - no training in how to present the Gospel &
witness for Christ. Many members were thankful for the five practical lessons I
was able to teach & for tracts.
For Three months now I have travelled (1:45 one way) with a 25+ group of local
Baptists from five Kiev Churches whose burden is to reach out, evangelize and
start new Churches in a region where many from Chernobyl were resettled to after
the Nuclear Meltdown in 1986. We have seen a few souls saved as we witnessed
from house to house in 4 different villages, but most of the labourers don’t
know how to present Christ or testify. {I was shocked when one woman prayed to
quit smoking & the Brother said she had repented.}
*Pray the Lord will give wisdom as I seek to find and/or develop a concise,
simple course that anyone can use to learn how to deal with lost souls and how
to present Christ & salvation. I am printing many clear Gospel tracts as tools
for the Christians at the Churches I will be training. Pray for more open doors
with new Churches.
“Kairos” means time and opportunity. Soon I’ll be helping teach this MISSIONS
COURSE in different Churches and Bible Institutes. God is stirring up a burden
for local Churches to send out Ukrainians into Closed Eastern Countries which
are still open to them as Russian speakers, but are off limits to Western
Missionaries.
Lakeside Baptist Church finished distributing the 8000 Evangelistic Calendar
packets from house to house in the same 15 villages as last year. *Please Pray
these 8000 lost souls will read the Calendars daily that the seed of God’s Word
be sown in their hearts through messages about Christ & Salvation.
The Lord Blessed to order an extra 2000 calendars for another Missionary
labouring to sow the seed of God’s Word in a new village where he desires to
work in hearts on the eastern outskirts of Kiev.
To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher - Your Missionaries to Ukraine
*** P.S. The War continues to slowly demoralize the people. All Prices have
tripled, but not their pay or pensions.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Summer of 2016
We thank the Lord for the blessed time He gave us to visit many Churches, get
encouraged & spend time with Family. We truly want to thank all of our Prayer
Partners and Faithful Supporters for your continual intercession for and support
of God’s work here in Ukraine and of our family. Through your prayers and God’s
grace, Oksana received her US Citizenship and Passport; and on August 3rd we
arrived safely back in Ukraine. We were able to get a car and are now getting
settled in Kiev (the Capital City which has a population of over four million).
We planned to rent a house just outside the NW corner, but it was sold in late
June. The Lord switched the house out for a 16th floor apartment along the busy
outer loop highway in the SW corner of Kiev.
*Please pray with us for God’s Direction of where and with whom He wants us to
labor.
We truly want His direction and peace in this most important matter. (Proverbs
3:5 and 6)
The Children are adjusting well to school at the Kiev Christian Academy, which
teaches the children of Missionaries’ in English on the field. Going from
homeschooling to a small Christian Academy in the US to now a 100+ Academy has
been quite a change, especially when it comes to homework requirements. Pray the
Children will make good friendships and that the Lord will work in their hearts-
for their growth and love of Him.
Upon arrival, we hit the ground running to make a trip to visit the church we
established in Southern Ukraine. We are so thankful to see that Lakeside Baptist
Church in Lemansky is doing well with a few new people added and some new
visitors. The only sad thing is that five families moved away to Russia to find
jobs.
The Lord blessed Lakeside’s VBS Team as they held seven different Vacation Bible
Schools, including two in the Romanian Language. In Romania 150 children came
from various families, some prestigious and rich, attended daily. After
listening attentively through a translator they later testified, “We understood
well what was being taught.” Their Church is planning to follow up with monthly
youth activities. (I worked with this Romanian Church in 1992.) The VBS Team
actually travelled to “Russia” to hold a VBS for a fellow Missionary in Crimea.
In Lakeside around 90 children attended. In “Novo Sovitskoe” over 25 came out
each day. In “Onok” 70 local children came out and in a separate VBS for the
Gypsies 40 came to hear of Christ. This year they concluded each daily lesson
with a 20 minute preaching message and saw great attentiveness, especially in
the teenagers.
Brother Oleg got a job as the P.E. teacher at the local orphanage/school for
slow learners, which is located next to Lakeside Church. He often brings the
Children to play “short field” soccer at the church. Every year the school puts
on two holiday sporting events. This past spring our Church held one for them.
They were very pleased with the Evangelistic play, refreshments and games for
the children. Now they want us to put on each event at our church. The next one
will be September 15th. Please Pray the Lord will move on hearts. The Soccer
Club will participate in another weeklong Evangelistic four-team tournament over
their Fall Break.
To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher - Your Missionaries to Ukraine
*** P.S. As for the War, it is still going on, with no end in sight. It’s not
clear as of yet (except for threats) why Russia has amassed even more troops on
its border with Ukraine, more than there were last year.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Spring of 2016
The War is beginning to heat up again. Authorities report that now more troops are amassed on the
Russian/Ukrainian border than there were last year. Please Pray for this war to end soon!
Praise the Lord for a lost Gypsy family who have been attending from a town 15 miles away.
Please Pray for the 8,150 lost souls in 15 different villages who received Evangelistic Calendars that they would read the Calendars so the seed can be sown through the daily messages about Christ.
In early July, the VBS Team will be holding its first Romanian Speaking VBS for a Church in Western Ukraine. Bro. Slavic also traveled to North Romania to set things up for the July 25-29 VBS in a Romanian town in conjuncture with a local Church. They also hope to hold a seminar to train the local church people how they can more effectively teach Sunday School lessons and how to carry on a VBS themselves.
Over the summer they will also travel to 4 different villages to hold VBSes with Russian speaking Children.
Brother Oleg has seen the Lord continue working on hearts in the Soccer Club as they study the Bible before each training session. Pray for these 2 age groups of players- that the Lord would save their young souls. Over Summer Vacation, they are planning a 4-team tournament with a weeklong Evangelistic thrust on the Bible.
Bro. Michael and Bro. Vasille are presently studying the Bible in preparation for what doors the Lord will open up for them to go through 2 Tim. 2:21. Pray the Lord will teach them and Guide them into His will.
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Furlough Blessings: It has been a great blessing & privilege to encourage 13 supporting Churches & 24 new ones to Pray for lost Souls on the Mission Field through what He’s done in Ukraine. Acts 14:26, 27. We Praise Him for His goodness: supplying every need, 6 new supporters & many new interceding Prayer partners.
We still have many more Churches to visit; Pray for God’s unction and moving on hearts! Pray also that He would raise up the rest of our needed support. *(This Fall when we move to the capitol city of Kiev with over 4 Million lost souls to Evangelize, we’ll need to print many more tracts and buy Bibles. Also renting a facility will be a large expense - unless the Lord opens up other doors or people’s homes to meet in.)
The Lord gave me a great opportunity to preach and witness to my relatives at my oldest brother’s funeral where 500 lost friends and 50 of our relatives heard the Gospel. Pray for open doors to water the Gospel Seed again.
We have been meeting with a group of Russian Speaking people – most of them are Muslims from Uzbekistan.
Our Plans: Praise the Lord! Everything looks on schedule for our return to Ukraine by the end of July. Oksana passed her test to receive US Citizenship- the Next step is taking the oath, then a US Passport! (We applied for her US Citizenship to guarantee that our family can always travel & stay together as we serve.) Please Pray with us about God’s Direction in the most important question of where and with whom He wants us to labor. We truly want His direction and peace in this matter. (Proverbs 3:5,6)
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Your Missionaries to Ukraine *Thank you for Praying for His Work there in Ukraine!
***PLEASE CONTINUE to Pray for my Pastor Charles Davis’s family on the loss of their granddaughter and especially for his son Jim & Vanessa Davis –this was their oldest daughter who died in a tragic car wreck!!! The Funeral will be held on Wednesday May 18th at 1:00 pm with many lost in attendance.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Winter of 2016
The War situation in Eastern Ukraine is like a smoking volcano – eruption is feared at any moment, since no one denies there are tanks & troops amassed with stockpiled weapons. The fighting still continues, but mainly small skirmishes with smaller villages changing hands back and forth. The Government is still drafting people and holding its position. Most truly are unsure what is going on or what to expect next, but all hope for this to end soon.
The Lord blessed as Lakeside Baptist Church prepared the 8250 Evangelistic Calendar packets, then distributed them in 15 different villages going from house to house- witnessing as they went. Many even said that they were waiting for the new calendar to come. 2 elderly ladies in 2 different villages received Christ, then on their last distribution, the Lord gave 2 more souls as they witnessed in a new town. *Someone even threw a packet away, but a Moldavian man found it, took it home & reads it daily. ***Please Pray these 8250 lost souls will read the Calendars daily so the seed of God’s Word will be sown in their hearts through messages about Christ & Salvation.
The Soccer Club grew this year with 9 players ages 12-13 and 9 more ages 9-10. Bro. Oleg married Juliana 2 years ago. She now does the Bible Study with one group while he trains the other and then the groups switch.
My heart rejoices to hear that Vadick (a 22 yr. old Prodigal) finally repented and returned home to the Father.
Continue to uphold Brothers Slavic, Sergey & Vasille as they continue leading the Church and feeding His Sheep in these difficult times. PRAY the Lord would direct and go before them as they Evangelize.
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We are presently submitting the paperwork for Oksana to receive U.S. Citizenship which became a necessity in this unstable present evil world.* Alleluia, Christ is coming soon. Are you looking forward to His return? Titus 2:13
“For they have healed the hurt of the (Ukrainian)…people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 8:11
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Summer of 2015
The War: We thank the Lord that there has been very little civil fighting going on, but we are still very alarmed by the reports that the Rebels continue stockpiling new arrivals of tanks, weapons & ammunition. Most of the people are discouraged by the constant threats of a nationwide draft and the possibility of continued fighting and or an invasion plus ~ 300% inflation. These tensions have hindered the new President’s chance to make any real changes to eliminate the widespread corruption for which the people overthrew the previous President.
Souls saved: Sister. Leanna prayed hard for her sister named Faith. We had some good opportunities to witness to her over the years, but she would always harden her heart. Finally, after 19 years she put her faith in the Saviour. Now they’re both over 70 with declining health, but rejoicing in their Lord together. After attending for 3 months, Sergey finally came to himself and looked up to the heavenly Father to become his son by receiving Christ.
VBS: Lakeside’s went very well with over 85+ in attendance every day. Brother Slavic & the VBS team travelled to “Onok” in July and saw the Lord Bless as they presented the Gospel. They traveled to Crimea (Russia) to help Missionary Tony Hess with their VBS from July 27-31. They also helped our Missionary, Bro. Nick with VBS.
NOVOSOVITSKOE is one of five remote border towns (2.5 hours from Lakeside) where Future Missionary Sergey Beck envisions starting a circuit of Bible Studies. In 2013 Oksana and 6 others held a VBS there. In August, (Praise the Lord!) He again opened the door for another VBS. For the past two years, we’ve passed out Evangelistic Calendars to each house in all five towns & every few months Brother Sergey travels there to water the seed.
*Please Pray for all the 8,000 lost souls who received the Evangelistic Calendars to read them faithfully so the seed of the Word of God can be sown through the daily evangelistic messages about Salvation through Christ. Summer Soccer Camp-(June 29-July 4) went very well with good services and good training both Bible & Soccer.
Oksana did get her Green Card!!! & thus we were able to travel to Ukraine. II John 4 was our joy as Lakeside Baptist Church had not lost a single member, but even had two new visitors. *We did a lot of praying & some probing while there, but are still asking the Lord for clear direction as to exactly where & what new work He has for us to do upon return to Ukraine next year. Our next step while here in the States is to get Oksana her U.S. Citizenship so we can travel more freely and not need to purchase visas everywhere/every time & in emergencies.
Furlough Blessings: As we updated many supporting Churches, the Lord blessed us with 2 new Churches & a great offering for our VBS Ministry. This answer to prayer provided a portable amplifying system, which saves their voices as they teach outside. Please Pray as we set up new meetings. Since we will most likely be laboring in or near a large city, ministry expenses will be greater, therefore we need the Lord to raise up 20 new Churches.
*Special Prayer Request Open Door with Russian speakers: Most are Muslims from Uzbekistan & a couple from Kazakhstan (both closed former Soviet Union countries). A large group immigrated to the U.S. and (50+) moved to Cincinnati, Ohio ~ 40 minutes from us. Our third “get acquainted meeting” is on Saturday evening (8/22/15) at their apartment complex. They have some good questions, but are still very leery. Pray that the Lord would build some bridges for us to testify of Him. Please pray for these souls (Tim, Feruza, Deelya, Zokeer, Alla etc).
Our US cell is (513) 376-0189. Please contact us if you have a Missions Conference that you would like us to attend.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Please change your e-mail address for us to: mahers4jesus@gmail.com Your Missionaries to Ukraine Thank you for Praying for His Work there in Ukraine
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Winter of 2015
“There will be no Peace” is what the [Russian backed] Rebel leader said in his last interview. They plan to keep fighting until they accomplish their cause.
(It is not completely clear exactly what their goal is… and so the “civil” fighting continues.)
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The Lord truly blessed the Church as they prepared the calendar packets & were able to distribute all 8000 Evangelistic Calendars by December 31st. (Usually it would take us until mid February.) They travelled to 11 different villages going from house to house - witnessing as they went. One elderly lady received Christ as they answered her questions. They have been bringing her to Church as often as her health allows. *Please Pray for these 8,000 lost souls to read the Calendars so the seed can be sown through the daily evangelistic messages about Christ.
Brother Oleg has seen the Lord continue working on hearts in the Soccer Club as they study the Bible before each training session. They will have a special week of Evangelistic training Sessions over Spring Break.
Brother Slavic, his wife Katya & Sis. Svetlana were able to travel to Crimea to teach a Sunday School/VBS seminar for teachers at Missionary Tony Hess’s Church. They were also able to teach the seminar at our Church.
Continue to pray for Brothers Slavic, Sergey & Vasille as they continue leading the Church and feeding Christ’s Sheep in these difficult times. (Inflation has climbed to 400% of what it was a year ago.) PRAY!!!
Furlough Blessings: The Lord has blessed us with three new supporting Churches. We’ve also been able to visit many of our local supporting Churches and able to set up meetings with many more. We’re Praising the Lord for His goodness to us & for supplying all our needs. *Realizing that Ukraine has suffered 400% inflation this past year - The Lord put it upon our hearts to put together some care packages for the hurting saints in Ukraine. Four of our supporting churches contributed peanut butter, gently used clothing (coats, hats & gloves) and a few, donated money to buy new socks & shoes. One Church is even covering the cost to ship them in bulk boxes to Ukraine.
The Lord has given some great opportunities to witness to the lost and to pass out hundreds of tracts & chick tracts at stores, in parks & other public places. Please Pray the Lord will open more doors to witness to my relatives & others. Oksana even had the opportunity to speak with and start witnessing to a muslim woman from Uzbekistan.
Our Plans: Lord Willing, we’ll be going back to Ukraine on April 17th for a couple months to: 1) Turn over Lakeside Baptist Church to our National preachers. 2) Knock, Seek and Find where the Lord would have us to begin a new work. ***Please Pray with us about God’s Direction in this most important matter. We are already praying about a couple different cities, but we want His direction and peace. (Proverbs 3:5, 6)
Our Stateside Goals: 1) for Elisabeth & David to attend a Christian School. We thank the Lord for the help they are receiving at Mt. Hope Christian Academy. 2) Getting a Green Card for Oksana became a priority especially with all the present political instability. The Lord led us to apply in the fall. Resolved a hold up which arose. Please join us in Prayer for the fast processing of her paperwork. We must have her Green Card to fly out on April 17th.
Our US cell # is (513) 376-0189. Please contact us if you have a Missions Conference that you would like us to attend.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher
Please change your e-mail address for us to: mahers4jesus@gmail.com
Your Missionaries to Ukraine *Thank you for Praying for His Work there in Ukraine!
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Fall of 2014
We truly cannot tell what this forced peace treaty will actually do for or to the country of Ukraine. There have been many losses of lives (on both sides) and of housing which have left many homeless and jobless. The Lord used this to reach souls. Many refugees escaping the fighting travelled to other cities where Christians were able to show His compassion. We had a few families stay in our town. Lakeside Baptist Church was blessed to see one man & two children receive Christ!
We thank the Lord that even though we are in the States on furlough, He continues to use His Church in Lakeside, Ukraine!!! They even had a bigger VBS this year than last year with upwards of 80+ children attending each day! On the last day when they invited the parents for cake and refreshments, 130 children and parents showed up!!!
We also thank the Lord for sending Brother Vasille to work with the youth and help out around the Church while both our family and my partner’s, Paul Gray’s family are here in the States. Vasille and his wife, Tanya have two children and will be staying in the Church’s guest room. They are truly a great Blessing to the Church, because they are both hard workers and have a “mind to work” Nehemiah 4:6.
The Lord once again blessed us with 8,000 Evangelistic Calendars to pass out for 2015. In light of Ukraine’s present turmoil, the Lord put it upon our hearts to print a small booklet entitled, “Why is God Silent? When all around us we see Trials, Wars, Famines, etc.” We would like to pass out 8,000 of these booklets along with the calendars. If you would like to sponsor printing some of these booklets, the cost is $0.08 each or 100 for $8 or 1,000 booklets for $80. (Also, we’ve already printed 10,000 tracts about the true meaning of Christmas for 2015).
Brother Slavic & the VBS team were able to travel to Crimea to help Missionary Tony Hess where 26 children attended their VBS. In “Onok” 80 children came out to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel of Christ! Please continue praying for Brothers Sergey & Slavic as they lead the Church and feed the Sheep in these difficult times.
Furlough Blessings: Praise the Lord, He’s been so good to us and supplied all our needs: One brother paid off our large plane ticket bill. My other brother loaned us a dependable car and gave me a cell phone on his plan. After living with my brother for a month, the Lord opened up the ideal apartment. We requested handicap access so that my mother (who had both her hip and knee replaced) could freely visit us. They said, “There won’t be any available until January.” Praise the Lord, within a week He opened up a 3 bdrm. with no steps, so my mom can visit and Elisabeth & David have separate rooms. The location is ideal, just 3 min. off the Interstate, 30 min. from my mom in Cincinnati, OH, 12 min. from our home Church and 10 min. from Mt. Hope Christian Academy where David & Elisabeth are getting some needed hand’s on supervision in a Christian School with a Scheduled setting.
We were able to attend a great Family Camp and a few days of Jubilee before school started on Aug. 4th. We were also able to visit and encourage 4 supporting Churches during their fall break.
Furlough Mailing Address: Richard Maher, c\o Berean Baptist Ch., 24241 Stateline Rd, Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
Our temporary US cell # is (513) 376-0189. Please contact us if you have a meeting that you would like us to attend.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher. Your Missionaries to Ukraine: mahers4jesus@gmail.com
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Summer of 2014
UKRAINE is still in distress:
We want to thank the Lord that the May 25th Presidential Elections went well- that is peaceably! We are not certain in which direction the new President; Mr. Poroshenko will lead the country. He is a very successful businessman who owns three large chocolate/candy factories, which hopefully means that he won't be looking at his office as an opportunity to get richer. It is also yet to be seen how tight he will be with the Orthodox “Church”. Please pray for his salvation & that the doors for Ministering the Gospel will stay open.
BUT We also see that RUSSIA IS STILL STIRRING UP TURMOIL & UNREST IN EASTERN UKRAINE!
Everything is being prepared to create a need for a Russian “peace making” invasion. PLEASE!!! PRAY HARD for the situation in UKRAINE. The country is still being threatened by an outside invasion. Russia has already taken over the Crimean Peninsula & would like to have a land route to access the peninsula.
It is truly incredible how much the NEWS media slants and twists things. While in a local grocery store, we were amazed to overhear the (pro-Russian) radio broadcasting anti- American propaganda about our involvement in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Sadly almost every home in the villages listens to the radio, so it is completely understandable why there is a growing Anti-American sentiment in the Southern and Eastern regions of Ukraine.
A very big “Thank You” to all who prayed for Oksana and her sinus infection! At this point all of the pain is gone- Praise the Lord!!! The Surgeon advised that we should wait and do new x-rays when we return from our upcoming Furlough.
On June 9th we'll be returning for a furlough. We hope to contact each supporting Church to schedule a visit to give an update, but if you have a special event or a Missions Conference which you would like us to attend, then please contact us soon, so we can schedule accordingly. Our contact number is (513) 488-1288.
*Keeping in mind that we will be leaving on furlough & the ongoing unrest in Ukraine, we ask you to please pray hard for Brothers Sergey and Slavic as they will be leading the Church and feeding the Sheep. We praise the Lord for Bro. Alexander who retired and is very willing to help out & available to also fill-in. The present political situation has created many differing opinions and has even led to divisions in both Churches & families. Please pray for Lakeside Baptist Church to walk and serve in unity, trusting in and looking unto Jesus. Also pray for the safety of our Church members as the Crime rate is on the rise & Inflation is rising unbelievably.
At the Leper Colony (Thursdays), the new head Doctor forbid holding services on their hospital territory, but the Lord worked out this small set-back for good as we continue meeting at a brother's house just outside the territory.
We had two more funerals recently. It is always hard to part with a faithful saint, but is often a great opportunity to proclaim the Gospel & explain what hope truly is through faith in our living Saviour.
Eccles. 7:1-5 & 1Thess. 4:13-18
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VBSs will be held in “Onok” Western Ukraine, Lakeside & Lord willing in Crimea, (Russia) again this year.
Bro. Slavic & the VBS team will continue the Gospel Flyer Evangelization in many villages in their travels.
Summer Football Camp-(June 30-July 6) will be a great week of football & Bible training. Pray for God's conviction.
To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288] Our new email address is mahers4jesus@gmail.com
*Thank you for your Prayers for safety in all this turmoil!!!
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, September of 2013
Elisabeth (our daughter!!!) followed the Lord in Believer’s Baptism on Sept. 1st along with Sis. Marina (who had an Adventist background & recently trusted Christ after studying our course on Salvation), and also Brother Slavik (who lost his arm last year when pushed under a train) & Brother George – who is our first Gypsy convert.
The Lord Saved also George’s younger Brother Valera (17) and their Sister Svetlana (13). {All 3 of them are half Gypsy and half Moldavian.} Anastasia (13) also called upon the Lord in July. Also on September 1st, the Lord saved Larissa (50) from a life of alcoholism- even her children had given up hope on her after her last drinking spell lasted for almost three months straight. (At the Tues. night Bible study she was joyfully thanking her Lord for salvation. Yuri, her X-husband who is very much of a “cool dude/bandit” even asked her for a Bible.) Also in nearby Acheretovka, Tanya (40s) was led to the Lord by one of our members. She wants to attend the Thursday meeting our church holds in her town, but her husband is very much against her faith in Christ. Recently Victoria (20) received Christ, but her live-in “husband” Alexander, who drinks and beats her often & won’t leave her and their 14 month boy alone. He’s made some terrible threats. She doesn’t have any documents, no job or relatives.
Please Pray for another Gypsy family that George & several others have been witnessing to; their names are Yanoosh and Larissa. She is recovering from a stroke, but she still came to Church along with her 3 grandchildren.
All of our Summer VBS(s) went very well as we taught them Salvation using the Wordless Book:
1. In “Onok”: 55 children (25 of them were gypsies) attend daily – some are still coming out for Sunday School.
2. In Lakeside: 80 children attended everyday –Over half of them were lost & a few are coming to Sunday School.
3. The VBS in “Orlov” was held in a different town named “NovoSavitskoe”. The turnout of 12 children was actually a pretty high percentage for this small town where the school has an attendance of only 40. People actually spread rumors that we were really there to steal the Children and sell their bodily organs. This is a very communistic/orthodox redneck village where many of the people still use horse and wagon for transportation. Since the VBS, we have been continuing Bible classes for children and adults. Oksana has been visiting and witnessing to the lady director of the town hall where we hold meetings. Presently we are looking for a house to rent, since the town hall is getting too cold to hold the meetings in. Please pray that the Lord will save these people out of spiritual darkness, and that His glory will shine in this and the surrounding villages.
4. Youth Camp went well, but many of our youth need much prayer that their hearts would see the beauty of Christ instead of the glitter of the world, so as to love Him and not the things of the world. 1 John 2:15
Pray for our Calendar distribution: Praise the Lord! This year He blessed us with 8,000 (Daily Devotional Evangelistic) calendars to distribute for 2014. We already went to Brother Nick’s town of “October”. We will soon start going from house to house in Lakeside, Kuchurgan, Pavlovka, NovoSavitskoe, (etc? Pray) until they run out.
The Lord Provided a 7 DVD Duplicator & it’s on its way across the Ocean!!! Pray for God to use this new ministry of DVD duplication for free distribution. ***We truly need God’s leading as to which Preaching Messages, Christian Testimonies and Christian Films the Lord wants to use to reach these seeking souls.
“Thank You” to all who prayed for my Gall Bladder removal. It was done here in Ukraine and the Lord blessed the surgeons and gave some good opportunities to witness for Christ. I’ve recovered from Surgery, but am still learning what I should & shouldn’t eat. To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288] ***Please note the Change in our Mailing Address - POSTAL CODE ABOVE: from 65086 to 65069
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Prayer Update for Summer of 2013
I will be having Surgery to remove my Gall Bladder tomorrow Wednesday June 5th, 2013 at 6:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. (If you get this soon enough, please pray for my surgery, but if not, then please pray for my recovery and that the Lord will use me to witness there at the hospital.)
Recently we had two drug addicts get saved - Maxeem and Igor. Both of these are sons of our faithful Sisters. These were a small confirmation to a great need for which we’ve been praying for since last year. It is beginning to look like it is the Lord’s will to open up a: (Halfway House) or
Rehabilitation Center: This is one of our BIG PRAYER REQUESTS!!! PLEASE PRAY with us about this need and that the Lord would supply the financing to begin such an endeavor. He knows!!!
Please Pray hard for Valera (~45) who was saved in prison 5 years ago and was released last year. Recently his 12 year old daughter got saved and his wife started coming with him to Church. But, sadly to say he’s gone back to drinking again and of course he quit coming to Church and has lost his job due to drinking. Both he and his prison buddy Yuri could both use spending some time away from everything and everybody until they dedicate their lives and are accustomed to society again. Another local man who supposedly got saved in prison, recently got released and came to Church for one service and then disappeared out into the world like a prodigal. Please pray for Genady.
The Jewish Evangelism Conference in Kremenchug went very well and was encouraging to me and for the 130 who attended. Continue to Pray for Israel.
Evangelizing from house to house has been going very well in towns ~1.5 hours north of us. Please pray with us for the Lord of the Harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest. “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” Mt. 9:36-38
We are also planning to help Brother Nick evangelize several of the villages around his town of “October”. He is praying for God to save souls in some of the surrounding villages, so he could preach in a circuit.
Pray for these Upcoming Events:
1.
June 10-14th - VBS in the Crimean Peninsula.
2.
July 1-5th - VBS
in “Orlov” which means Eagle. (This is one of the new towns we
Evangelized.)
3.
July 15-19th - VBS
in Western Ukraine in “Onok”
4.
July 29- August 2nd
Youth Camp will be held in Simferopol, Ukraine. Pray for God to stir and
change their hearts to love Him more than this world & all that it pretends to
offer as a replacement for Him.
5.
August 12-16th - VBS
in Lemansky.
6.
August 23-24th - our
Youth Conference. Pray for wisdom and direction as we prepare for it.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
I’ve attached a copy of the last two Prayer Letters for our Missionaries to Altai, Russia. Please pray for them!
April 2, 2013 Altai Prayer Letter
Greetings to all those who love the Lord!! We thank Him for you and your part in the Evangelization of the Altai region! We would like to once again give you an update on our activities.
This month two Brothers from Ukraine, Brother Slava Yatzkeev and Brother Vasya, have come to visit. Also from Ukraine is Brother Oleg, who came to visit in the middle of January and is still with us. Glory to the Lord for them! For us and all the local Believers, their arrival has been a joy and encouragement. With their help, we were able to do some necessary work on the church building in Oost-Khan. They also greatly helped me with some plumbing work. In Yabogan my well went dry. With Brother Oleg’s help, we dug a new well. The Brothers helped me finish the work, and now, praise Jesus, we again have running water in our home. Sisters, you already know what a blessing this is, especially if have several children like us.
As the Brothers are also preachers, this has been a breath of fresh air for our churches. Here is a schedule of our regular services each week, not including Evangelizations: {There is an 11 hour time difference from EST.
Monday: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. the Christian portable library ministry and at 3:30 p.m. church service in Vladeemeerovka at Bro. Boris’s house.
Wednesday: 5:00 p.m. church service in Yabogan.
Thursday: 12:00 p.m. church service in Belee Anooii and at 6:00 p.m. church service in Oost-Khan.
Sunday: 10:00 a.m. a church service for all members in Yabogan and at 6:00 p.m. a church service in Oost-Khan.
In January we had a successful Evangelization in the village of Oost-Koomeep. There were several meetings and a lot of witnessing.
Currently we are going house to house with packets of Christian literature which include the Gospels and a Christian calendar. We have already been through part of Yabogan and Oost-Khan. We plan to keep Evangelizing this area, as well as Belee Anooii. Right now we are printing tracts for this purpose.
On March 31st in Oost-Khan, we had a church service for all members. We brought all the church members from every village where there is a church service. The Lord’s Presence was especially felt during this service. After the message during the invitation, three people came forward and prayed for the salvation of their souls. We rejoice with and glorify the Lord!!! During the second half of the service we had the Lord’s Supper. Afterwards, there was tea and a lot of good fellowship.
Also, Andrey and Neena, a husband and wife from Oost-Koomeer, got saved during a church service in Vladeemeerovka. Please pray for them. As so often happens, the devil is trying to hinder their Spiritual growth through various life problems.
Our prayer requests:
· For the raising up of workers from among the local Believers
· For the salvation of Ezher, Zhenya, Aleksey, and Deema
· For the salvation of the youth
· For all of our church services and ministries
· For funds for car repairs (while Brother Stas is in Ukraine, the demand on our vehicle is even greater and the roads here are terrible)
· For the finishing work on the church building (we plan to make a sign in 2 languages)
· For Brother Stas and his family in Ukraine
· For my (Bro. Eugene’s) family, especially for our youngest who has been diagnosed with anemia
· For the destruction of the devil’s strongholds in the hearts of those to whom we witness.
· For strength from the Holy Spirit for the ministry
Blessed be our Lord Jesus!!! And through all things may He receive the glory and honor!! We thank you for your prayers! May God richly bless you!
Brother Eugene, Sister Julie, Abner, Cassia, Hannah and Elijah
Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Ephesians 6:23-24
May 25, 2013 Altai Prayer Letter
Greetings!
I cannot wait to share our joy with you which the Lord has blessed us with. We are able to work here by His Grace and with the help of your prayers. Glory to my Lord Jesus Christ!! We are especially grateful to all the Brothers and Sisters who regularly pray for our prayer requests for the Lord’s Work here. Jesus is building His Church here.
Last Sunday there was repentance at our church services. Recently a 45-year-old man from the village of Keerleek accepted Jesus in his heart. We were overjoyed and comforted by his repentance. He sincerely testified about the joy of his salvation. He said the devil would not allow him to come to church. He was a heavy drinker and several of his relatives had died from alcoholism. When he tried to come to church, a man met him and just gave him a bottle of alcohol. This happened on more than one occasion. He again began to drink and was unable to come to church.
Also the medicine men or shamans had tried to corrupt him. He was haunted by evil spirits. At night he was so tortured by nightmares that he tried to kill himself. However, the Lord intervened and had someone tell him that there are Believers in Oost-Khan. He managed to find us and came to the church. The church was closed, but he waited half a day until it was time for the church service to begin. He came in and listened to the Gospel. He got saved at the following church service on Sunday. When he slept in the church building, he said, "For certain, God is here. I slept quietly and was not bothered by any nightmares." Hallelujah!! We want to praise Jesus for this even more!! This man's name in Russian is Edward, but he is a native Altai. He is currently staying with us in the church. Please pray for his spiritual growth.
Praise the Lord, Deema also got saved, whom we asked prayer for in our last prayer letter.
God protected us in a small car accident. It occurred in a mountain passage when there was black ice. We will need to replace the side sliding door on our van.
Please pray for Uncle Sasha. He repented at church, but is still held in the grip of several sins. Please pray for Andrey who recently got saved. I have helped him find work, but he still needs a place to live. Please pray for Rada's salvation. Please pray for the spiritual growth of Brother Sergey and Brother Anchee, that God would give them strength to quit smoking.
Please pray for Sister Tatyana (she is spiritually sick) and for Larissa that she would return to church.
Please pray for Brother Oleg Solodeelov. He is still visiting us here. He is a great help and helps with whatever he can. He will soon be returning to Ukraine.
Please continue to pray for workers and for the vitality of the church.
We are so grateful to you, Brothers and Sisters, for your extensive help in the founding of the church here in this corner of Russia. May this all be to the Glory and Honor of the Lord!! And may the Lord bless you with even more of His mercy!!
If God calls you and your pastor supports your decision, come to the Altai Republic to minister in the other regions in this area. Believe me, there is a great need. I pray that the Lord will bless those with financial support who feel that the Lord is calling them to Altai.
By the way, the door is open for Ukrainian citizens to Evangelize Mongolia. Ukrainians do not even need an international passport to travel there.
May the Grace of our Eternal, Loving, Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Brother Eugene, Sister Julie, Abner, Cassia, Hannah and Elijah
May 25, 2013 Altai Prayer Requests
Please pray for a Ladies’ Meeting on June 6th.
Please also pray that the Lord would help us with our Summer Vacation Bible Schools.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Spring of 2013
Souls saved: February: Michael (60’s) & Victor (25+) both made professions of faith after having a long background of alcohol problems. March: After a long time of witnessing from a couple of our sisters, an elderly blind woman named Maria finally asked Christ to save her. Alona who got saved only last year decided to take in Vicka (a 19 yr. old orphan girl who was unwed and 7 months pregnant). 2 days before her delivery, she prayed for salvation. God began working on Valera (~45) who was saved in prison 5 years ago and was released last year. After coming to the end of himself (Luke 15:17), he finally came to Church and has gotten Joy & Peace. He’s been working on his prison friend Yuri too. (PRAY!) *The Lord also saved a Gypsy named Gregory from the neighboring town of Pavlevka. He’s been growing in grace & bringing 3-5 friends & relatives almost every Sunday.
Last Spring God worked a miracle in answer to prayer for Slavik. He deserted his family for 4 years, and then was pushed under a train, having his arm cut off and his neck broken. His family took him back in, God restored his health, and just recently he testified at church, “I'm glad God stopped me when I was on the wrong road. Finally, I've really come to know God, and though I lost my arm, I gained my soul!” Last fall they were married before God!
Evangelizing from house to house has been going very strong in town’s ~1.5 hours north of us. The roads to get there are terrible though, so whenever it is dry enough we end up using the tractor paths instead of the main road. After distributing all 7000 calendars, we began making Evangelistic gift bags with tracts & a New Testament. Thus far, we’ve gone door to door in 10 villages, including the hometown of Sergey Yeshan (a church member). He moved home for 2 mos. to witness to his family, & his mother & Cousin Andrew got saved. Praise God!
***We’ve found that 10 to 50 year olds everywhere are very eager to watch DVDs of Testimonies, Preaching or Christian films. Having a burden to reach these seeking souls, we see the need to begin a new ministry of DVD duplication for free distribution. Pray for us as we order a DVD Duplicator & find a cheap supplier of DVDs.
Bro. Stas, one of our two Missionaries to Siberia is back on a 6 month furlough getting encouraged & encouraging his supporting Churches here in Ukraine. Our Church was blessed to hear how that Christ is fulfilling Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” It was very encouraging to see his slide show and video clips of their ministry, especially the unswerving devotion of the believers as 4 of them followed the Lord in Believers’ Baptism in a 39 F river on a snowy day in September. (The 12 yr old girl who was baptized would have had to work at home that day, but because God sent snow, her unbelieving parents let her go.) Another Altai sister who got baptized was her town’s authority on their heathen customs. Praise God now she can point her people to Jesus Christ. The Church also rejoiced to hear how Ejeer and Adar finally got saved. (For 4 years they both had attended off and on.) Brother Slavic from our Church went for a month to help with evangelizing and preaching. God blessed the trip as they saw 5 souls call upon the Lord for Salvation during the different Church Services. Now the whole Church is rejoicing and glorifying God!!!
Pray for these Upcoming Events:
1. May 10-11th I’ll be preaching at a Jewish Evangelism Conference in Kremenchug. Pray for Israel.
2. Summer VBS will be held in Lemansky, in “Onok” & also in the Crimean Peninsula.
3. Pray for wisdom and direction in preparation for the upcoming Youth Conference.
To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
P.S. Our family truly thanks all of you who prayed for both Oksana & Elisabeth to have God’s “Peace which passeth all understanding”.
It has been hard for both of them, but God has been Good giving His Grace & Peace!
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ,{God’s Blessings on You in the New Year!} Winter of 2012
Souls saved: Sisters Katya & Valentina were asked to care for a bedridden 92 year old retired Colonel whose son is also a Colonel in Russia. When they began taking care of him, he said, “Don't talk to me about God! I don't believe in Him!” Sister Katya said, “God sent me to be your caretaker and wants you to know about Him, so I will tell you about Him!” After hearing about God for a couple months, he finally accepted Jesus as His Saviour. Katya later asked him, “Where will you be when you die?” With assurance he answered, “With God in heaven.” Alexander (an old school friend from Russia) who Sister Tanya hadn't seen in 45 years came to visit her and got saved while visiting our services. We Praise the Lord that when he returned to Russia, he found a Baptist Church there to attend. Sister Tanya later broke her knee while trying to help a drunken neighbor. While in the hospital, she led a woman with a broken ankle to Christ. They’ve been staying in contact to help her find a church.
*Remember that we asked prayer for Sergey, Alexander & Victor who recently came from the world. Well they’ve been witnessing to three of our occasional visitors, and recently the Lord answered your prayers as Oksana received Christ. Please continue to pray for her husband Alex and their friend Deema. Alexander also prayed for & witnessed to his cousin who later called him at 11:00 pm crying and said, “I just received Jesus as my Saviour!”
Water Baptisms: September 9th was a great time of rejoicing for all of us as 9 souls (two men, five ladies and two teenage girls) testified of their faith in Christ by following the Lord in Believers’ Baptism in our lake.
In Brother Nick’s town of “October”, Sister Hope who received Christ during the summer evangelization also followed the Lord’s command and was baptized in a cold artesian spring on the edge of town.
Evangelization for the New Year: The Lord helped us to distribute 3300 (Daily Devotional Evangelistic) Calendars to every home in Lakeside. We also included 2 new testimonial tracts, a 3 x 5 Calendar with a Church invitation and a Gospel booklet. We were also able to pass out 1300 Calendars in the neighboring village of Kuchergan. Please Pray with us for these lost souls to read the literature and understand their need for Christ as their Saviour. Our church will be doing a forty day fast and prayer time with different members taking different days. This year we decided to print our own bags with the Gospel message printed on them. We plan to continue passing out the rest of the 7000 calendars that the Lord blessed us with, so please pray the Lord will lead just like He “…sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Luke 10:1
In the town of “Onok”: Leanne’s ministry to the local gypsy children is going again full swing with up to 22 attending Sunday School every Sunday afternoon. Please pray for this wild group of Children to be truly saved!
Dec. 31st- Jan. 6th a Soccer Camp will be held with 15 of our 10-13 yr olds learning the true meaning of Christ’s birth as the Saviour of the world. Bro. Oleg continues Mon., Wed. & Friday afternoon devotions followed by training sessions as weather permits. Each of the 30-35 players comes to Saturday morning Bible Study followed by a training session. Continue Praying for their salvation as some are getting close.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
Special Family Request:
Friday Dec. 28th 45 minutes before Church Service we had a masked armed robber come into our Church building, burst into the second floor apartment where we live. He put a gun to Elisabeth’s head and demanded that Oksana give him money. She gave him all we had in our wallets and told him that we help people therefore we don’t have a lot of money. He took it and ran out of the building. Please Pray for our family’s safety, for both Oksana & Elisabeth to get God’s “Peace which passeth all understanding” and for the robber’s salvation.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, {Thank you for your Prayers!} June - August of 2012
“Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:” Isaiah 59:1
Souls saved: We Praise the Lord for saving both 13 yr. old Alexandra (*from Oksana’s Sun. School Class) and 12 year old Andrew during the Youth Conference in Simferopol July 30th-Aug. 3rd. 16 year old Oksana finally understood her need for Christ after reading a Chick Tract. Faith (70+) came forward to get saved on Aug. 26th (her neighbor, Sis. Marina had been dealing with her for two months). {+ Please Pray for Sister Marina!!! She is a great soul-winner, but her lost son Alosha is devil possessed. He constantly hinders her joy!}
In June Ludmilla (45) got saved. Her mother in law Galina (65) also trusted Christ for Salvation after she had had a stroke. God then raised her up, and they were both coming to Church faithfully, until August 5th when Ludmilla’s alcoholic husband Vitallick - beaten down by debts and hopelessness felt sorry for himself and committed suicide. He left her alone to deal with their debts and the tremendous job of caring for and raising their 6 children aging from 6-20. Pray for these two and for all the new converts.
Pray also for Sergey, Alexander & Victor who have just recently returned to Church from the world.
During the Evangelization in Brother Nick’s town of October, a 50+ lady named Hope received Christ. Since then, Bros. Nick & Alexander continue to make house to house follow-up visits of the new contacts.
Our 1st ever overnight Youth Conference was held from Aug. 23rd-25th. It went very well with 5+ lost youth attentively listening. One young lady from Dnepropetrovsk went forward and got saved Sunday morning right after the conference. “God’s Vision for Your Life” was the portrayed theme as we examined God’s leading and discipline in the lives of many Heroes of the faith - even from their youth up. We looked at biographical sketches of the Apostle Paul, David Livingstone, George Mueller, Adoniram Judson, Gladys Aylward & Bro. Nathan Bemis – “whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation”. Heb.13:7 The emphasis was upon devoting your life to fulfilling His will (perfect plan) for your life. Pray these 40 youth will seek and follow His vision for their life and dedicate their lives to glorifying Him.
Lakeside’s July VBS was Blessed of the Father with over 70 Children attending everyday (40+ of these were Children from unbelieving families).
VBS in Yuri & Leanne’s town of “Onok” (Western Ukraine) was blessed as 50 Children attended every day.
Summer Soccer Camps went well with 15 of our 10-13 year olds travelling south for two separate weeks. This fall Bro. Oleg continues Mon., Wed. & Friday afternoon devotions followed by training sessions. On Saturday mornings each of the 30-35 players comes to their hourly Bible Study followed by a training session.
Pray for these Upcoming Events:
1. Sept. 9th will be our next baptism – Seven Souls will be obediently following the Lord in Believers’ Baptism.
2. Bro. Paul Gray (my partner) & Bro. Slavik continue to travel from village to village hanging up flyers which clearly explain the Gospel of Christ and give our address & website to write for free correspondence courses.
3. Pray with us about holding a two day conference for families’ to get on track raising their Children for God.
The Home school year has begun with new challenges and excitement as Elisabeth begins 6th grade & David goes into 2nd grade. Pray with us that our Children would grow in the knowledge that will help them serve the Lord.
To God be the Glory,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Spring of 2012
“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:” 2 Thes. 3:1
Souls saved: We Praise the Lord for saving Costya (38, whose wife Natasha got saved two years ago and to whom we witnessed and prayed for intensely), a man named Valodya (~38) & also a woman who had lengthy resisted the Gospel, but finally got reconciled with God on her deathbed just 2 days before going to meet Him!
Special Request for: Slavik (33) who is the husband of Alona and father of two children who after 4 years of absence, recently returned to Church. Slavik had been “running with the wrong crowd” for almost ten years until in April someone pushed him under a train. He miraculously survived, but broke his neck and his whole left arm was cut off from the shoulder down. I visited him in the hospital and everyone has been praying for his salvation. He eagerly listens when he comes to Church and when we visit also. Please Pray for him and his full recovery!
Please Pray for Oksana’s Sunday School class of 11-15 yr old girls. Most of them are not saved!!!
Evangelistic Play: “The Good Shepherd and His Lost Sheep” went very well with 80+ children (40 from our Church). We also had a chance to show the play to 65 lost children from the nearby “School for slow learners”.
March Soccer Camp went very well with 15 of our 10-13 yr olds travelling to Rovno (in western Ukraine) to experience first hand how a “Christian” soccer team plays together and has their Bible time. Our team learned how to pray together as a group. Weekly Bro. Oleg holds training sessions followed by devotions on Wed. & Friday afternoons, as well as Saturday morning sessions when each of the 30-35 players comes (by age) to their groups Bible Study which is followed by a training session. Please pray for God’s conviction and their Salvation.
Bimonthly Family Fellowships are going very well. We’ve recently started teaching through a book named “Shepherding a Child’s Heart”. Everyone needs help and wise counsel to properly raise their children for God!
Quarterly Youth Conference was held at Bro. Mark Priem’s Church with a theme of “Redeeming the Time”. Many understood how short time is during a skit showing how the Communists had persecuted the Church here.
Recently, the Lord has given me the opportunity to preach in 3 other Independent Baptist Churches. It was good to see the Saints exhorted and encouraged through the Preaching of His Word.
Pray for these Upcoming Events:
1. May 25-27th Evangelization in Brother Nick’s town of October: Many Brothers from our Church will be going to help cover the whole town from house to house to find contacts for follow-up visits.
2. June 9-16th Soccer Camp: The separation from family & friends makes it the ideal situation for God to speak.
3. June 18-21st VBS in the town of “Onok” (Western Ukraine). Bro. Slavik and a group of teachers from our Church will be helping Yuri and Leanne with their VBS & evangelizing other surrounding villages.
4. July 2-14th Bro. Slavik and these teachers will also be helping with another VBS in the Crimean Peninsula. Bro. Paul will also be going along on both of these trips as they begin once again the “gospel flyer” evangelizations – travelling from village to village (phone pole to phone pole) hanging up flyers which explain the Gospel and give an address where to write for free correspondence courses. Last year they finished up the State of Odessa, and now want to spread out and do longer trips while also placing New Testaments in the Hotels they will stay in. *Please pray for God’s provision of more Chick tracts for distribution. We thank the Lord we can now print them here for only $80 per 1000 tracts and no more customs or overseas postage fees.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Winter of 2012
“Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; … for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:” Isaiah 58:14 & 59:1
Souls saved: We Praise the Lord for answered prayer! He saved our daughter Elisabeth!!! After a couple years of praying that the Lord would show Elisabeth if she was saved or not, we saw her prayers begin to change as she started admitting that she needed the Lord to save her. Then, finally after a convicting message on a Friday night, she came and said that she’d prayed and God had saved her during the closing prayer. We are so happy for her & glad to see Him changing her desires. Eena visited off and on for over a year before she realized that she needed God’s forgiveness to take her burdens away. She testified that she’d been heavily burdened for 13 years. Pray that God would save her husband Vitalick. The Lord also blessed with 2 bedside conversions as souls passed on to meet God! Are YOU prepared to meet God? “…prepare to meet thy God…” Amos 4:12
11 lost visitors. Deema (the 26 yr. old alcoholic who always comes drunk & late for services) finally came sober and even brought two of his friends, Alex & Oksana. Valodia and Tatiana need Salvation and are having some marriage problems. Igor just got out of prison and is a former (?) drug addict. *Eena’s relatives Svetlana, Nick & Eera. Alexander & Deema are both friends of our believers. We truly thank the Lord that He is bringing them in to hear His Word. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Ro 10:17 Pray for them and also for Sergey (a lost worker) who’s been doing some welding and carpentry work around the Church.
Bimonthly Family Fellowships (which are meetings for couples) are going very well. Right now, we’ve decided to teach through some books on how to properly train and raise our children for God!
English as an Evangelistic tool: My partner Paul Gray began teaching English classes for younger children both to help the children from our Church do better in school and as a means to evangelize local lost children.
Evangelization: The Lord helped us distribute 3400 (Daily Devotional Evangelistic) Calendars to every home in Lakeside. We also included a chick tract, a Church invitation and a Gospel tract of a local sister’s testimony.
Jan.3-5 we held a 3 Day VBS which went very well with an average attendance of 70 Children. Bro. Slavik our assistant Pastor wrote the lessons based on a story of Christ’s birthday being forgotten at Christmas time. It made clear our need for the Saviour to be born and how He came to save. You could see the Lord working on hearts!
Soccer Club is still growing: On Saturday Mornings we now have 30 - 35 intent listeners from ages 9-15. We have expanded to add another group of 10 from the local “School for slow learners”. They also must first attend Bible study to be able to participate in the soccer training session. *PRAY for our March week long Soccer Camp to be held in Rovno with a mature Christian soccer team. Please pray for God’s conviction and their Salvation.
Quarterly Youth Conference went very well. Brothers Mike Ireland & Perry Demopoulos both preached terrific messages and our youth group made up a great skit about the war between the flesh and the spirit.
Winter arrived in late January. Most peoples’ water pipes have frozen even 2.5-3ft. underground. With no snow cover, it’ll take a while for things to thaw out. Those who don’t have gas are never prepared for prolonged periods of freezing temperatures.
Brother Slavik’s wife had a baby girl. 3 of our National Missionaries’ wives are also expecting. Please read the attached letter.
Prayer continue to Pray for these Needs:
1. The Lord helped us find a cheap Christian printer and some Ukrainian Brothers who are willing to help us print “Jesus our Destiny” - a great Evangelistic book. Pray for God’s help to print 5000 copies for free distribution.
2. We need to Drill a well for watering the grounds and for outdoor summer showers for campers.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, April - June of 2011
“Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:” Jeremiah 32:17
Soccer Camp: went very well, SO well, that we just finished another one in mid June. This has opened a door of opportunity to have 20+ intent listeners attend a 1 hour Bible study every Friday afternoon which is then followed by an hour long soccer training session. Only three of these young (11-14 yr. old) boys are saved, so please PRAY for these precious souls to understand their true need for Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.
The Quarterly Youth Conference was held at Bro. Mark Priem’s Church on May 28th. It went very well.
Family Camp (end of June) was a great week for our families to knit closer together for these trying times ahead.
Souls saved: Two weeks before her death, the mother of Sergey our former translator finally accepted Christ after her recently saved 9 yr. old granddaughter, Anya witnessed to her. 13 yr old Oleg (who received Christ in March) is now so excited to be at Church, that he rides his bicycle 8 miles each way for Wednesday night prayer. When Valeriy (35+) was hit by a car, he thought he might die. Since he had received a Bible from us years ago, he called for some church members and told them, "I know I have a lot of sins and I have to get right with God before I die." On the next visit, he made a profession of faith, but since his health has improved, he hasn't shown much interest. Gregory, 52, (who visited services off and on over the past year and was studying our Bible course for seekers) JOYfully testified that he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior while visiting his sister in Moldova. He now comes regularly & often testifies how good God has been to him. Pray for these new Converts.
On April 29th, a woman visiting our church services told us afterwards how she had come to be with us. While walking back to her home, she had become very weary and stopped to rest at the community center. She prayed, "God if you exist, prove it to me. Give me the strength to walk home." Brother Yuri and his wife who were working there, seeing that the woman looked exhausted, invited her to rest inside. After she had rested some, they offered her a ride home and she gladly accepted. When she wanted to pay for the ride, Yuri said, "No, I did this in the name of the Lord." She began to think to herself that if he is doing this in the name of God, then I should go where God is and that is how she came to visit us for the first time. She’s come back, but is not yet saved.
Leper Colony Ministry: Pray especially for 3 lepers from Moslem backgrounds: Kolya, Eesimby & Eebrageem.
Please be in Prayer for the following upcoming events:
Annual Youth Camp to be held the week of August 1-5. Pray that their devotion & faithfulness be stirred again.
Lakeside’s VBS to be held the last week in July. Pray that the parents will let their children come and for souls to be saved.
VBS will be held in “Onok” in western Ukraine in Mid- August. Please continue to pray for Bro. Yuri & Sis. Leanne.
May 12-July 26th Deputation/Furlough: Praise the Lord for His safety & blessing as we update our supporting Churches & the 2 new Churches which have taken us on for support. We are now at the 92% level in our Support.
Praise the Lord! We only need $2500 more to purchase a good Passenger Van for our Church’s Bus Ministry. Please Pray with us that the Lord would supply for this need. Our Stateside phone # is (513) 374-1413 until July 26.
To God be the Glory, Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Winter of 2011
“… the Lord … sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Luke 10:1
Souls saved: In the past two months, three children, ages 9 and 10, from our church asked Christ to save them. Sister Maria recently visited 80 yr. old Katya (Cathy), whom I had witnessed to years ago, but she wouldn’t listen.) For years the “Jehovah's Witnesses” had her confused with their heretical booklets. Like all religions, their goal is to turn man’s attention inward, so he will try to save himself by his own good works. They try to destroy Christ’s power as God & the sufficiency of His Sacrifice on the cross, thus they rob Him of His ability to truly save a soul. Now, finally after much sickness and her inability to take care of herself, Katya was finally ready to receive Christ.
*Please pray for: Alosha (30), his wife Alona and for Deema who is only 26, but already a full-fledged alcoholic. Each has a very bad drinking problem, but each one has shown a desire to hear what the Bible has to say.
Sister Ludmilla has been witnessing to her Brother for a couple years now by telephone. He lives in Siberia, and the cost was very high to call him often, but last year the Lord moved her to take a job in Moscow. From there she has been able to call him very often. Recently, she called us to ask for a Church contact in his city. He is finally ready to receive Christ, but has a few more questions. Praise the Lord there is a Missionary Church in his city!!!
We’ve had two new families visiting over the last couple months. Sergey and Olya want to become members, but Vitalick’s family isn’t convinced that you can’t lose salvation. *We definitely could lose it if it was our Salvation, but “Thank God it is His Salvation”. We are Saved by Grace–“not of works, lest any man should boast.” Eph. 2:8,9
March 21-24 Soccer Camp: In efforts to reach the local 11-13 yr. olds, we will be holding a Spring Break Soccer camp- to teach them both the Bible and Soccer training techniques. ***Pray for these 14 lost Children.
Leper Colony Ministry: Pray especially for 3 lepers from Moslem backgrounds: Kolya, Eesimby & Eebrageem.
The Quarterly Youth Conference was held at Bro. Chris Rue’s Church on Feb 12th. The theme was “Preparing for the Good Life” which God has Chosen for us. God blessed & encouraged many of them not to settle for less.
Evangelization at Lakeside: God has been blessing our two by two door to door evangelization. We’ve had a few visitors coming as a result. This year we printed up a 4 x 6 calendar with an invitation to our Church services as well as a New Year’s greeting from our Church which tells how there is only one way to find real happiness in life, because Jesus Christ is the source of true happiness. “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” Psalm 34:8 ***We’re almost finished passing out these calendars along with some new Gospel tracts and a yearly devotional calendar in a small decorative bag -to each of the 3000+ homes in our town.
*Please pray also for the works of two national Missionaries as we help them go door to door in their towns.
“Couriers for Christ” was once again used of the Lord to supply us with 204 regular print & 180 large print Bibles. An individual also gave funds to buy 28 children's Bibles for younger aged kids. We’ve found that parents who won't come to church will often read a children's Bible to their child, and through this one or both could get saved.
To God be the Glory! Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Toll free # (513) 488-1288]
***Many Churches/individuals ask: What do you Need most (besides our prayer)? We Need a newer used van.
Praise the Lord! We only need $2500 more to purchase a good Passenger Van for our Church’s Bus Ministry. You can help by sending an offering in any amount (whatever you or your Church can give will help meet this need). Please make the Check out to: Charity Baptist Missions & In the Memo (Specify): Church Van for Ukraine.
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Fall of 2010
LOCAL & STATE ELECTIONS will be held this Sunday October 31st. Pray for our freedom to be maintained!
God has been answering your prayers! PRAISE His Holy Name!
Leper Colony Ministry in Acheretovka: Recently, in answer to your prayers, an elderly lady named Maria began listening very intently and soaking in the preaching of the Cross. Then the Lord opened her eyes to see herself and her need for Christ the Saviour - Heb 7:25. He Saved her! And now she wants to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. 2 Peter 3:18 Please continue praying for the other lepers.
Aug: Tamara (~60) also received Christ after her relative, Tanya, who is a member of our church witnessed to her many times by phone. Tamara finally came to hear more in person, and said all the smiling faces at Church touched her, & then the Word of God did its work. When leaving for home, she asked prayer for her lost relatives.
God has blessed us with other visitors over the last couple of months, especially with Alla and her son Vova (29), Larissa and her son Igor (10). They don't always come, but they do keep coming back. Pray for their salvation.
Aug 2 – 6th: The Annual Youth Conference went very well with Bro. Gerald Sutek from Romania preaching and stirring up the Youth. The conference theme was “Preparing for the Good Life” which God has Chosen for us.
Aug 22nd: Brother Slavic conducted a Baptism because Sister Natasha (30), who is pregnant wanted to follow the Lord’s Command while it was still safe for the baby and the lake water was still warm.
Sept: Sister Valya (55) who because of illness couldn't come to church for years, passed on to be with the Lord. Before her death, she requested that as many brothers and sisters who could, would come and sing at her funeral so there would be a greater witness for Jesus Christ for her lost neighbors. Many lost came & heard the Gospel.
Sept 24th: We arrived Safe & “somewhat” Sound back in Ukraine. The Lord greatly blessed our 4.5 mo. furlough.
Oct 9th: I married Bro. Michael & Sis. Tatiana. Pray for them that their Ministering will increase not decrease.
Oct 16th: We hosted The Quarterly Youth Conference with an emphatic theme of “God’s Mission for your life”. Each person chose an unknown Mission to prayerfully accomplish in God’s Plan to reach the lost with His Word.
On Deputation: Praise the Lord for His safety & blessing as we updated/presented work in 42 Churches.
He Blessed us with 5 new Churches & also helped 4 of our supporters to raise their monthly support amount!
***Many Churches/individuals ask: How can we help? What do you Need most? We Need a newer used van.
Praise the Lord! We’re now $8,200 closer to purchasing a good Passenger Van for our Church’s Bus Ministry.
You can help by sending a Check to: Charity Baptist Missions In the Memo (Specify): Church Van for Ukraine
Health Issues: Please Continue to pray the Lord would help us resolve our Family Health Issues:
· Praise the Lord! David has been doing a lot better with his digestive problems. Pray for complete healing.
· Pray for my back as I work to strengthen it again & that I will find a good Chiropractor who can help.
To God be the Glory!
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine Toll free # (513) 488-1288
The Lord’s been working in Altai, Russia where Eugene & Stac through Evangelizing have started 4 house Churches.
*If you are interested in receiving E-mail updates about our Missionaries in Altai, Siberia. Write us!
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Maher Family Prayer Letter Summer of 2010
Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.” Psalms 143:5
9 Souls Saved: 1) Elijah (8), who had been thinking for a long time about his sin and his need for the Saviour, came early one Sunday and prayed from his heart in his own words to be saved. 2) Natasha, 30, came to stay with her mother, who is a member of our church, to keep from getting the abortion her mother-in-law and husband wanted her to get. After being witnessed to by several in our church, she has now accepted Christ, and is praying for her alcoholic husband to trust Christ as well. 3) After a year, Sister Nina’s continual witness brought forth fruit as her neighbor Ira trusted the Lord. 4) After two years of faithful witnessing by two of our Sisters, blind old Zina finally got saved. 5) Sister Galya has been faithful to pray for and witness to her co-workers for years. Recently one got saved and now she is joyfully reading the Bible. 6) Bro. Paul led an 85+ old woman to the Lord. He gave her a Gospel tract. She read it aloud, & said “I’d like to pray & receive this Saviour.” *7-9)See Below.
Sister Maria has been praying God would allow her to visit and witness to her sickly elderly sister-in-law. On the second visit, she said, "Maria, leave me another book to read. I will die soon & I don't know anything about God!"
The Family Conference was a great blessing for our parents as Missionary Chris Rue taught us the practical wisdom God has given him on how to more effectively “Train up Children for the Lord”.
Leper Colony Ministry in Acheretovka: The lepers who come are religious - they "believe" in Jesus, but are still trusting in their good works to save them and not Christ’s full payment on the cross. Pray for God to give Light!
June: 2 WEEK VBS in “Onok’s” local Public School. This year God worked an even greater Miracle when the School’s Director asked them to hold 2 WEEKS of VBS at the School. The Gospel was clearly presented to an audience of 100+ students, SO Please Pray for Holy Ghost conviction on these young hearts unto Salvation.
Upcoming Events: VBS in Lakeside will be ~August 10-14.
Please pray for Bro. Nick & the VBS in the town of “October” and that the Lord would build up His work there. *7-9) After taking our New Life in Christ Bible course, Natasha received Christ & now her daughter got saved too! After evangelizing a neighboring village, a man invited Bro. Nick to return for Bible study-Now he’s received Christ.
The Annual Youth Conference will be August 2-6. Pray the Lord will stir up a Burden & a Fire for Souls.
***Our Furlough/Deputation is going well! The Lord has given us 4 new Churches!
Health Issues: Please pray the Lord would help us resolve these unexpected Health Issues:
David has some serious digestive & bowel problems. The doctor says treatment will take 3 months.
My back is not handling the traveling as well as we would like. I threw it out last fall and it hasn’t regained full strength. We thank the Lord for a good chiropractor’s: adjustments & home therapy advice.
Oksana’s Gall Stones to be dissolved. We are trying some new preparations that appear to be working.
Please Pray as we witness to relatives & the lost. Two Evangelizations will be July 17th with many lost in attendance------ That the Lord would give us Utterance, Boldness and Convict Souls!!!
Praise The Lord! Our home Church has provided us with a dependable minivan to use on furlough and a wonderful place to stay in the Church Parsonage!
To God be the Glory!
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine [Stateside cell # (513) 259-5916]
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Maher Family Prayer Letter Spring of 2010
Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2 Our Conference Theme!!!
The First Quarterly Youth Conference was Blessed abundantly as the Lord brought in 100+ from our Region and from the middle section of Ukraine as well as 5 from Bro. Paul Hamilton’s work in Moldova. We thank the Lord for what he did in the hearts of these His growing youth. Please Pray that they will stay on Fire for the Lord and continue to faithfully serve Him as they seek to know and fulfill His Perfect Will.
The Ladies Fellowships have been Blessed of the Lord! He gave Oksana wisdom to have 5 Sisters speak about how He’s been using His word to work in their lives. It went so well that no one wanted to go home.
Young Mothers’ Fellowship lasted four hours & only ended so the husbands could attend the Men’s Fell.
At the Men’s Fellowship, I challenged every Brother to Pray about what Ministry the Lord would have him fulfill in edification of our local body according to the spiritual gift given him to that end. Romans 12:3-13
Sat. Morning Preaching in the Open Markets while passing out tracts & Christian Newspapers is going well. We’re also opening a portable Christian Library for the lost to check-out Evangelistic books & films.
We want to thank you all for your prayers for Ukraine and our Ministry here at Lakeside Baptist Church!
Please continue to pray for these Upcoming Events and possible Open Doors: (2 Cor. 1:11)
A Family Conference will be on April 3rd with Missionary Chris Rue speaking to all our growing families!
A Leper Colony Ministry might be opening up in the neighboring village of Acheretovka. One of our Sisters whose husband has a mild case of leprosy has invited us to begin holding services in her house. This is actually the only leper colony in all of Ukraine, Moldova & Belarus.
Prison Ministry (Low-Security) near the town of October might open –up in May! Please pray for the Need of sponsoring this ministry and for Bro. Nick that the Lord would prepare him for this ministry. 1 Tim. 3:16
Pray for Bro. Michael and Sis. Tatiana as I counsel them in preparation for their upcoming Marriage.
***Upcoming 4.5 month Furlough:***
We are now making plans for a short Furlough from May – September.
If you would like us to visit your Church, then please let us know soon [Contact Us at: (011-38 067-488-6570) or by using SKYPE (Richard Maher- skype account: mahers2ukraine or write to us at mahers2ukraine@juno.com], so that we can schedule you in. Sorry we can’t visit all.
Also, if your Church will be having a Campmeeting, Revival or a special event that you think might be a blessing for us to attend, then please let us know the dates you will be holding your meeting so we can plan to be in your area and attend for our edification. We always like to plan attending several meetings where we can get exhorted and charged up.
Please Pray with us about these furlough details: our Meeting Schedule, witnessing to relatives & the lost in our travels and the Lord’s provision of a dependable minivan to use during our travels.
To God be the Glory! Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine
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Maher Family Prayer Letter Winter of 2010
Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Ukraine held its final Presidential Elections on Sun. Feb. 7th! One of the two candidates made an election Promise to give Official Authority to the “Orthodox Church”!
His Party just recently submitted a new law to be voted on:
Ukraine is preparing to pass a law which recognizes only one “Church”- the Orthodox Church!!!
This new law is against all “sects” (including the Baptists & Protestants). It basically forbids personal Missionary\Evangelistic work by imposing large fines on all individuals conducting such activities.
Also affected will be any work with Children. They must have legalized permission from their parents to attend Church Services, VBS or Church camps. (Ukraine is Following Russia’s lead.)
Upcoming Events: “Ye also helping together by prayer for us,…” 2 Cor. 1:11a And For UKRAINE!!!
Quarterly Youth Conference on Feb. 27th. The first Quarterly (Regional) Youth Conference will be held here at Lakeside then in rotation with both Bro. Chris Rue’s and Bro. Mark Priem’s Churches. We’ve also invited Bro Paul Hamilton’s Church and some other Churches to attend. Please Pray the Lord will work in hearts to build up, encourage and excite these youth to serve Him with more fervor in the Last Days.
Also, 18 yr. old Andrew will go to the Army this spring. Pray for him to stand strong and witness clearly.
Ladies Conference to be held in late March with Missionary guest speakers Sister Susan Hamilton and Sister Robin McCurdy who are serving Faithfully with their husbands in nearby Kishinev, Moldova.
Church Discipline Problems: Pray for more men to be saved as single ladies and young widows are being tempted to go to the world for husbands- thus disobeying God’s Word. Pray for Tatiana, Anna, Neena & Zeena.
Blessings we’ve Experienced this Winter:
Snowiest winter in 17 years that I’ve been here ~40 inches. It’s hard to believe in Global Warming.
New Missionary Joshua Brazeale (22 yrs old from California) recently arrived with his wife Adriana. She is presently learning Russian, whereas he can get by already since he’s been in different parts of Ukraine for two years. *Pray for them to see & know God’s will as to in which village God is opening the door to start a new work.
Jan. 1st New Years Service: was a great blessing. The Brothers who usually don’t preach gave 5-10 min. messages & many Sisters recited verses, poems or sang specials. This was followed by dessert & Refreshments.
“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course,
and be glorified, even as it is with you.” 2 Thes. 3:1
Also continue to pray for our Church Planting Missionaries: In Ukraine- Bro. Nick’s family in “October” & Bro. Yuri’s family in “Onok”. In Russia: Also Bro. Stas & Bro. Eugene in Altai, Siberia,
To God be the Glory! Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine
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Maher Family Prayer Letter Fall of 2009
“For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” Psalm 86:5
Dear Praying
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
3 more Souls saved:
*Michael (18), one of our helpers at the
building site called on
the Lord Sat. afternoon Aug.29th then was baptized on Sunday.
Michael brings many of his friends to visit services. Michael’s friend
*Ruslan
came on a Friday night and made a profession. The following week he brought 5 of
his 7 step-brothers and step-sisters. They were all listening and learning in
S.S. for a few weeks, but then he ran away to his Grandmother’s town and now
none of them are coming. Please pray for Ruslan! For over 5 years, Hope (60)
faithfully witnessed to two (80+) Orthodox neighbors and (Praise the Lord!) the seed finally sprouted as
*one
of the two called upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be her Personal Saviour.
6 New Converts followed the
Lord in Believers’ Baptism on Aug. 30th as we held our Baptism,
Preaching Service, Lord’s Supper and followed them with Fellowship & Dinner on
the Grounds.
Lakeside Building Project:
Praise the Lord! [We finally moved into the 2nd floor
Church Parsonage.
I’m now able to minister more effectively & oversee the building project.]
The Paint Crew - Claudia, Olga & Yuri have finished painting the Church
Office
& 4
Sunday School rooms.
Pray
the Lord will provide for these Fall Projects: Installing gutters,
downspouts and vinyl siding (5700 sq. ft. of siding). Pray for the
Salvation of Volodya, the paint crew and Yuri the welder- He is immigrating to
Russia in December & is close to Salv.
***Please
Pray for the privatization of our Church’s land.
We truly need your prayers for this difficult process.
BS at Lakeside: went very well with 50-55 Children participating everyday.
We Praise the Lord that some of this year’s visitors have been faithful in
attending Sunday School ever since the Vacation Bible School.
Both Youth Conferences:
went very well as the youth returned encouraged and excited to serve the Lord.
18 yr. old Andrew will be going into the Army for 3 yrs. Pray for him to
stand strong and witness clearly.
Brother
Slavik
is now officially
Lakeside’s Assistant Pastor! His present goals are
to develop our youth ministry & help with
discipleship. *Pray with us to know
God’s will concerning Lakeside’s future Pastor {and for the much
needed deacon(s)} and also to see His open doors for other villages and/or for
new ministries.
Lakeside Bible Institute
is up & training again with evening classes on Tue.-Thurs. & Sunday AM before
Church.
In the town of “October”: God has been
answering prayer as 15-30 Gypsy Children have been coming every Sunday.
Pray for God’s Conviction and their Salvation!!! Missionary Bro.
Nick’s family has thus far only been able to fix two rooms - due to limited
funds. His Mother-in-law gave them her used wood furnace\boiler. We gave 8
radiators, bought the pipes and paid the welder – now a little over $500 later
and he’s able to heat the house. Pray for God’s supply as they fix
up this rundown house into both a house of Prayer and living quarters. Please
Pray for: Alexander, Julie, Alexandra & Sergey (who recently got
baptized) to continue growing in Grace.
In “Onok”
Brother Yuri is continuing to hold Sunday services there. The Lord recently
added their 4th Blessing. They named him Joseph. Pray for him and
their daughter Love. She gets sick often.
Altai, Siberia:
In the village of Kozool a 49 yr. old Mongolian named Aleksey asked Christ to
save him and
immediately
desired
to follow
the Lord
in Believers’ Baptism. Pray for Ruslan & Yuri to return to Church.
To God be the Glory! Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and
David Maher – Your Missionaries to Ukraine
Urgent Prayer Request: Russia is making an Amendment to a law which will forbid personal Missionary\ Evangelistic work. Also, Ukraine is now preparing for its Jan 17th Presidential Elections!
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Dear Praying Brothers and Sisters in Christ, April - June 2006
“Blessed be the Lord God,…, who only doeth wonderful things. And blessed be his glorious name…” Psalm 72:18
STATESIDE:
The Lord has
- 1)
Blessed our travels: Over the past 13 weeks, we’ve
presented our burden for Ukraine & Altai, Siberia in 9 states [incl. for
the 1st time Wisc. & Minnes.]. We appreciate His travel
mercies: In 22,000 miles we’ve only had to change oil and do one brake job.
2) Blessed your Prayer Requests: Our schedule has been
non-stop, but we’ve seen the Lord’s hand encouraging and challenging His
people. He’s been stirring up an even greater Missions prayer burden for
lost souls through seeing the faces of Ukrainians saved through your
faithful prayers and support. 3) Blessed His Word to the
Churches: The Lord recently called a young man to
follow Him. It was such a blessing to see God’s peace come upon him
as he fully surrendered.
4) Blessed our New Meetings: We thank Him for the opportunity
to Show our Slides and/or Testify in 27
new Churches and 14 more of our Supporting Churches [incl.
Participating in 8 more Missions Conferences.] He’s given us 6 new
supporting Churches {bringing us up to the 82% level of needed
support}. Please Pray for the many Churches & individuals who are still
considering us for monthly support.
PRAY that the Lord would help us with these US Prayer Needs: We need His Blessings:
iiiiiiII In our MEETINGS & SUPPORT: We are flying back to Ukraine on August 21st and immediately have our first of 3 weddings to perform on the 26th. Until we Fly back, Pray for us as we continue our Deputation presenting our burden to still another 14 new Churches & updating 3 more of our Supporting Churches in 9 States.
SPIRITUALLY: In July “Lord Willing” we’ll visit 4 camp meetings to get ourselves built back up from our busy schedule.
PHYSICALLY: We’ll also be visiting the Dentist, Herbal Doctor & Eye Doctor for the Children’s eyeglasses.
EDUCATIONALLY: We are deciding on and ordering Elisabeth’s Home school Curriculum.
PROVISIONALLY: Need some more special offerings to help remodel our 5,700 sq.ft Lakeside Baptist Church and
Bible Institute Building. We’re are already about 35% finished, but much must be done this summer to begin holding services there. We must put a new pitched roof on and finish at least 3 of 5 Sunday School rooms.
Upon our BURDEN: For some Churches or individuals to help pray for and support our Ukrainian Missionaries who’ve gone out to the unreached Mongolians in the mountains of Altai, Siberia. [They still need $180\Family\mo.]
*If you’re Interested in supporting them & or receiving Prayer Letters, call (513)708-2603 {before Aug. 21st}.
Raising Funds: Need $6,000 more for a 20 Passenger Church Van to bring Children & people to Church & for Evangelizing the many Churchless villages. (Much needed to do practical training with our Bible Institute Students & to help them start new works.)
In Ukraine our Prayer Need is for God’s Blessing upon our:
1) Bible Institute Graduates who are Church Planting in their new works & those who are preaching in the Church.
2) Salvation Scripture Signs being glued up at every bus stop in every town in our oblast (state) of Odessa. Pray that souls would read His message of Salvation & that many would write to study the Bible by Correspondence.
In Altai, Siberia: Praise the Lord! They were able to buy a used car & small trailer for their Summer Evangelistic Outreaches to the neighboring mountain villages. Pray! Both of the “newly wed” Missionary Couples are expecting babies by years end. Also, one of their drunken neighbors has hit several of them on several occasions.
Also pray for the gospel tracts which were passed out at the areas largest sports/cultural event in Gornom Altai, Siberia.
Souls saved: By Grace through Faith in Christ - Eph. 2:8,9 “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Thank God!
· In Lakeside: 3 more called upon the Lord to be their Saviour.
· In Carpathia in the town of “Onok”: Yuri & Leanne have seen the Lord bless as 3 more boys (Vasya, Ivan & Gavrilo) received Christ as Saviour. Praise God! Their V.B.S. will be held August 1-4th. Pray!!
To God be the Glory!
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher- Your Missionaries to Ukraine