There's nothing sweeter than being home. Family, friends, your own bed, and cheeseburgers... But, being away from home allowed me to ponder upon our eternal home: God's Kingdom. It also pointed me toward the implications of missions, particularly this trip, and the goal that one day we will all bow down and worship the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Our time in Ukraine remi...

Well, although we are all packed and ready to catch the plane in just a few hours, I wanted to send you a final update on our last couple of days. On Sunday we all attended Salvation Church where both Roman and Vovo are pastors. Roman is not in Ukraine due to family matters, but Vovo kept us focussed and was a great encouragement. We really enjoyed meeting the people of S...

The follow article was written a couple of days ago - but we have been without wi-fi... ______________ It has bee a couple of days since I shared some thoughts about our time here in Rivne, so I want to keep you updated. Yesterday we took a day trip to Ostrih (pronounced Ostroh), a town outside of Rivne that is significant for both its literary and military history. It ...

Today was our last day of the conference. The attendance was a little lower today due to the fact that a wedding was taking place in one of the churches and many of the brothers needed to be available to attend. Still, the day was full of warmth, hard work and helpful reflections on our conference. The men finished up their small group studies on 2 Timothy 3 and 4 and then...

12 February 2016 7:30am (I wrote this last night, but our internet was down so I wasn't able to post) Greetings! It's 6:30pm here on Friday, our last full evening of instruction. It's been a joy to see the pastors grow and interact in their small groups. Pastor Rod has done a great job in laying the foundational principles of Simeon Trust, and the men are always fully ...

Today is Thursday, February 11, 2016, and I am waking up having had a full day of activity and ministry on Wednesday as well as a full night's sleep. God is good! [Our Hosts: Albina Peter] Yesterday, in the morning we went on a walk into downtown Rivne with our host, Albina and Tanya Evans, an American missionary from Maryland. Tanya came to serve here in Rivne seven ...

Due to the work schedule of most of the men our conference is taking place in the evenings from 5-9 p.m. Yesterday, as the conference continued, we had our first "small group" time where each of the men wrestled together with the text of 2 Timothy. It was so extremely encouraging to watch six groups of men huddled around small tables, diving into 2 Timothy tentatively, eag...

After a long 24 plus hours we finally arrived close to midnight on Monday in Rivne. Most of us rested well on the plane, given the usual traveling circumstances. Yuliya did a great job in helping us maneuver seamlessly throughout airport customs, as we were well on our way to getting picked up in under 30 minutes from when we landed in Kiev, Ukraine. Alex (or Sasha) picked...