Author Archives: Yura Popchenko

November/December 2011 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The end of the year 2011 was marked by significant progress in our Bible translation work. To start with, by God’s grace the first draft of the Gospel of Luke and eight chapters of the book of Acts are translated. Thus, 59% of the New Testament is ready in various stages. Also, we were able to print 1500 copies of the Gospel of Mark, distribute them and carry out a survey. The copies were distributed at two pastors’ conferences, in several churches, among the students of a correspondence Bible Institute, among the subscribers of a Ukrainian Christian magazine and among friends and relatives.

Family devotions in the newly printed Gospel of Mark

The results of the survey exceeded all of our expectations. First, we received a high percentage of responses from a wide variety of participants from all over Ukraine. Of these, 62% have a Bible teaching position in their churches: pastors, preachers, evangelists, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, missionaries and prison and hospital ministries. Second, the responses were very favorable: 98% of the respondents liked the translation and 87% of them are likely (with various degrees of probability) to switch to it when the whole Bible is ready. The latter number is very encouraging considering the fact that almost half of the respondents mainly use the Russian Bible, so they would be switching not just to another translation but to a different language.

You may wonder what people meant when they said they “liked” the translation. In the questionnaire, they were asked to indicate what they liked the most. The three most common answers were “good Ukrainian”, “clarity” and “readability”. Let me explain the first one to you. Prior to the country’s independence in 1992, Ukrainian was limited in use. As a result, many speakers today have a narrow vocabulary, not always being sure what pure Ukrainian is. Further, because of the failure to employ standard Ukrainian, none of the existing Ukrainian versions have set the pattern of what the Bible in this language should sound like. They lack uniformity of biblical and common words, as well as contain awkward sentence structure. These issues posed a serious challenge for me in producing a new translation in “good Ukrainian”. From the very beginning, my aim in translating the Bible was to unify Biblical terminology and to use a language form that would be both true to the standard and satisfactory to the speakers of all Ukrainian dialects. The prevailing comments in the questionnaires like “good standard Ukrainian”, “pure Ukrainian”, etc. confirm that I was able to achieve my goal with God’s help.

Two other characteristics, “clarity” and “readability”, are more reasons for rejoicing. Let me explain these as well. The advocates of dynamic-equivalence translations argue that formal-equivalence translations can not possibly be clear and natural. Being convinced that this is not so, I strove to produce a translation that would be literal, while being clear and readable. Again, the frequent remarks in the questionnaires like “completely understandable”, “very readable”, etc. confirm that the Lord allowed me to attain my goal. Many people expressed their satisfaction with the translation in various forms but these three statements stand out: “A fine translation, distinguished by accuracy, clarity and good literary style”, “Among the available Ukrainian versions, this Gospel of Mark is the most clear in reading. It is a pleasure to read it” and “(It is) a translation understandable to children” (by a mother of six). One Sunday school teacher said she was going to use this Gospel of Mark in her class. Many people were excited about this translation and wished God’s blessing on the work.

We definitely appreciate the critical comments we received. Suggestions included: using a different word for the one utilized in the text, hyphenation, punctuation, one typo, the spelling of biblical names (one of the biggest difficulties in Ukrainian) and an instance of ambiguity. A number of remarks had to do with some textual and translational differences of this translation compared with the existing ones. In many cases I was able to contact people by e-mail and explain my translation choices, as well as which underlying Greek text was used and why. My assistants and I will discuss the most common suggestions and will decide where corrections should be introduced.

As with the text, 98% of the respondents liked the design and printing quality. We took great pains with choosing the right font and were pleased with the results: quite a few people indicated that they liked the font and many of them commented on how readable it is. People also appreciated the “convenient and detailed cross references”, “appropriate and clear footnotes”, “good section headings with cross references to parallel accounts” and “convenient arrangement of the text”. I believe the time and effort we spent on the design was well worth it.

One of the most exciting results of the survey is that one person expressed a desire to assist with this project. Svetlana has an undergraduate degree in Ukrainian and a PhD in history. She is an active member of her church and teaches at a secular university. I hope that a fruitful partnership awaits us. Also, she asked for more copies of the Gospel of Mark to give to her students. Please pray that the living word of God touches their hearts and that many of them would come to the saving knowledge of Christ. Thus, we were able to achieve all three of our goals for this survey: raise awareness of this new translation, get feedback from a wider audience and find more people who are qualified to assist with the project. To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)
Life with boys is always exciting… sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. In the past few months it seems like we’ve had one calamity after another. Andriy fell off the jungle gym and cut the top of his head. Sashko got hit in the forehead with a broom handle. A quick trip to the surgeon’s office and 3 stitches later he was all patched up. Not to be outdone by his brothers, Yurko managed to get a long, nasty thorn stuck in his shin… right through his snow pants. Matviy is ‘all-boy’ and at age 9 months he gave himself a black eye, falling against a metal pole. Andriy went for ‘seconds’, taking a nose-dive off of his tricycle and busting his lip on the sidewalk (the trike did not survive the spill). The fun just never ends around here!

For a Thanksgiving project this year, I challenged the older boys to each memorize a parable. Sashko learned the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20) and Yurko memorized the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). We were very pleased at their diligence in studying such long passages and I think they were surprised at how much they could learn in just a few weeks. Music is heard almost all the time at our house. Guitar music has been predominate lately since Sashko has upgraded to a ¾ size guitar. Yurko inherited Sashko’s ½ size one and even Andriy has joined our group of guitarists with Yurko’s old ¼ size guitar. Yura leads the group on his guitar as they play together. The big boys are doing well at learning the chords for a variety of hymns and carols, while Andriy strums along, mumbling the words and trying to copying his brothers’ technique (it is just a little too cute).

Guitar quartet

Speaking of Andriy, we have a need. At age 3½, he has really outgrown his car seat; however we have not been able to find basic booster seats over here. If anyone has a booster seat that your child has outgrown and would like to ship it to us directly here in Ukraine, please contact us at ywpop@mail.ru for the Ukrainian shipping address (and to confirm that the need has not already been met). Thank you!

My new assistant on his first day of work

Prayer requests and praises:
1. Praise the Lord for a good response to the Gospel of Mark.
2. Keep praying for more laborers to help with different aspects of the translation ministry.
3. Praise the Lord, we all have enjoyed comparatively good health for the past year. Please pray for Yura’s reflux treatment to be effective.

May the Lord bless you all with a wonderful 2012. We pray for your families, churches and ministries regularly and trust that the goodness of God will be seen in your lives more than ever before in the coming year.
Your Fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko

September/October 2011 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings in Jesus’ Name from Ukraine! After finishing the final draft and spending many hours of painstaking work on the layout, the gospel of Mark is ready for printing. In an effort to ensure high quality results, we consulted with two other designers throughout the process and conducted another survey. I believe we achieved our goal in making a layout that is unique to this translation which at the same time is both very readable and pleasant to the eyes as far as fonts, their size, etc. One of the reasons for this is the fact that many Ukrainians, especially those in the villages, who really should wear glasses, do not have them. There are a few purposes of this publication: first of all, we want to raise awareness of this new translation; second, we are looking for feedback from a wider audience; and third, we would like to find more men who are qualified to assist with the project. We are planning on printing 1500 copies and distributing them among Ukrainian-speaking Christians, asking them to fill out a questionnaire. A good friend of mine with whom I studied at a Bible institute back in the early 1990s is supplying us with the mailing addresses of pastors, preachers, and students. Our publisher will be taking care of mailing out the gospels, as well as receiving and processing the questionnaires. This is a tremendous blessing as it will allow me to focus on my main calling to translate the Bible. Speaking of translation, in between working on the layout of Mark, I continued translating the gospel of Luke and by God’s grace the first draft of 20 chapters of Luke is ready.

As I near finishing the translation of this wonderful gospel, I would like to point out one more unique feature of it. It is universally recognized that salvation is the central theme of the third gospel. Moreover, Luke is the only gospel that focuses on one particular aspect of salvation – the doctrine of justification. Neither Mark nor John ever uses the words “justify” or “justified” and Matthew uses them only twice. Luke uses them nine times, in addition to giving clear pictures of God’s justification without mentioning the term. The most evident teaching of justification by faith versus justification by works is contained in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee relied on his works to obtain God’s favor and forgiveness as he enumerated his religious achievements in prayer. The publican relied on God’s unmerited mercy, and it was him, the Bible says, who “went down to his house justified rather than the other” (Luke 18:14). Justification is also beautifully pictured in the parable of the prodigal son, where this wretched sinner comes home with no merits or worth and his father puts the best robe, shoes, and a ring on him. This is what justification is: taking an unworthy sinner who belongs in the pigpen and clothing him with the robe of righteousness.

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)

Reciting at the Ukrainian “Harvest Day”

 

A dream has come true for Sashko and Yurko… they have a playhouse of their very own! Yura got the boards a while back but it wasn’t until this summer that this dream started to materialize. Yura helped the boys to prepare the materials and build one wall and then a missionary-contractor friend stayed with us for a few days to help them finish it. Countless hours had gone into sanding the rough boards, sawing, measuring, and planning, but without Daddy Yura and Mr. Yura Gula they never would have been able to put it all together. These men are both heroes to our sons. I loved the fact that Sashko and Yurko saw that passing out tracts, translating the Bible, memorizing scripture, and talking about deep, theological subjects didn’t keep these two servants of the Lord from having time to help a couple of little boys. (…“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Mt 25:40b)

Daddy helping the boys prepare the boards
Roofers at work
Yura Gula with his construction crew
Multipurpose playhouse: a workshop, a coffee shop, you name it

 

Andriy and Matviy are growing up fast and keeping us smiling with their antics. Andriy has been learning memory verses and phrases along with his big brothers, however he still gets mixed up sometimes. He knows “Jesus loves me”, “God is love”, and 1 John 4:19, repeating it after us one word at a time. A few days ago, it began to look as though he knew the verse by heart, so we let him try it on his own. Well, the word “first” really confused him, so he said, “We love Him because He first John 4:19″. The next day he confused it even worse by adding a phrase to it: “Jesus loves me because He first John 4:19″. It sure is hard to keep a straight face at times like that. Matviy loves his Johnny-jump-up that we hung in the doorway. It is impossible to watch him bouncing and squealing without laughing.

 

 

Prayer requests:
1. Pray for the soon printing and distribution of the gospel of Mark.
2. Pray for a good response and more laborers to rise up as a result of this publication.
3. Please keep praying for Yura’s health issues, especially for the reflux and his back pain.

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support that help to make this ministry possible.

Your Fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko

July/August 2011 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings from the Popchenko Family!

The past two months I have been working hard on the second and final drafts of Mark to make it ready for publishing. The main purpose of this publication is to receive feedback from a wider audience. My assistants and I spent dozens of hours discussing their criticisms and suggestions. Then, I spent even more time analyzing all of their input and introducing corrections to the text. Not infrequently, as I was doing that, I would come up with different translation decisions than those which were suggested by my assistants and I would consult again with them. So, editing a translation is a multiple stage process. At the same time, I was working with a Christian print designer on our page layout. Our goal is to make a layout peculiar to this translation which would also be very readable as far as fonts, their size, etc. In order to ensure this, my designer and I developed a few different layouts using different fonts and conducted a small poll. Based on the results, we chose a working draft and are improving it. We will be including cross references and section headings in this edition of Mark. In between working on Mark with my consultants, while waiting on their analysis, I continued translating the gospel of Luke and by God’s grace the first draft of 12 chapters of Luke is ready.

As usual, we faced opposition from the devil but this time it came from an unexpected source. The designer started working on the layout two months later than was asked, he worked sluggishly and then, right in the middle of the project, he refused to work at all. All this time he had been reassuring me that he was very interested in developing a great layout. After he quit, I arranged to have another Christian designer do it, but since he was using a different design program (more dated) it soon became evident that it had some significant limitations. So, I had to part with him also. My Christian friend suggested another designer. Hopefully, this one will be able to start working on the layout very soon and we will have no problems with him. We hope to have the gospel of Mark ready for printing in about two weeks. Please pray for that to happen.

This past June, the Russian Bible Society released the first complete dynamic equivalency Russian Bible based on the critical text (the translation theory and the Greek source text behind translations like the NIV, GNB, NLT). It caused a very hot discussion on Russian-speaking Internet. I was encouraged to see many people exposing the errors of this new translation both textual and translational. It is obvious that awareness of the issue of corrupt Bible versions is rapidly growing in post-Soviet territory. As a direct result of this discussion, I recently received two interesting communications via email. One of them was from a student of the Christian university where I taught back in April. Publication of the new Russian Bible revived his interest in textual issues which we discussed back then and he wrote me asking for literature defending the Textus Receptus. Apparently he is planning to write his thesis on the subject and I am happy to help him any way I can. The other email was from a man who came across my website in search of a current Ukrainian Bible translation based on the Textus Receptus. After some study he came to the conclusion that the Bible should be translated literally not dynamically and from the Received text not a critical text. Also, he discovered that there is no modern Ukrainian Bible that meets those requirements and he was excited to find out about my work. It is such a privileged to work on providing the pure Word of God for my own people.

About a year ago, I mentioned in our prayer letter that my old stomach problem, reflux, has returned. Since that time, I have had two treatments for it but they were not successful. I did have some relief but my main symptom (constant nausea) did not completely go away. So, when we planned our family vacation this year, we chose a place in the Carpathian Mountains where they treat different stomach problems with mineral water from local springs (bottled mineral water is filtered in the process and is not the same). After drinking the water for just one day, my nausea almost completely went away. We were able to take some of it home and I still have another 10 days to drink it. Now the question is whether the result will stay with me after I stop drinking this mineral water. Please pray for my healing from this problem.

While on vacation, we were able to distribute some gospels of John and tracts among the many vacationers. One particularly good opportunity was to place the literature on the windowsill of the pump-room where all the people came to drink mineral water. There they would find the living water which springs up into everlasting life.

‘Living water’ at the mineral water pump-room

Another effective way of witnessing was our magnetic scripture signs that we had on our van. In our back mirror we saw many, many people stop and read “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” and “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. On one occasion, a gas station attendant came up and said, “I see that you have interesting signs there”. This led to a 30-minute conversation about spiritual things. Please pray that he would repent and be saved. In the village we stayed at, we found a small Baptist church which had no pastor. Upon learning that I am a preacher, they invited me to speak and I had an opportunity to preach in both the Sunday morning and evening services.

Filling the pulpit while on vacation

 

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)

While on vacation in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine, we celebrated Andriy’s 3rd birthday with a 6-seater bicycle ride. Although his feet couldn’t reach the pedals, he enjoyed sitting between his brothers in the back seat. Sashko and Yurko got creative and began to build him a sandbox in our yard for his birthday. As with all of our boys, we ask that you join us in prayer for his relationship with God. Our supreme desire for Andriy is that he would become a child of our Heavenly Father and then dedicate his entire life to His service.

Three years old!

 

Birthday bike ride (note Matviy in the front)

Sashko and Yurko loved it in the mountains. Besides getting lessons from Daddy and Mama in badminton, ping-pong and frisbee, we took plenty of long walks in the woods (one of which took us all the way to the Romanian border!). I think the chief attraction there was the vast selection of sticks available to fit their vivid imaginations. Weed-eaters were the object of interest and so we watched (doubled-up with laughter) as the boys started the “motors” and went to work hacking down every green thing in sight. Matviy reached a number of milestones this summer with the arrival of his first tooth, receiving his first haircut (no, I didn’t cry), and taking his first long trip (8 hours with a baby in a car is a LONG time… but I must say that he did better than we had anticipated).

 

I squeezed a birthday in between all the summer doings. Yura and the boys planned a special day for me and I was reminded once again of how blessed I am. God has given me all that I ever wanted in a family and much, much more. Now all I desire is to show my thanks by helping my husband and training my sons so that they can serve God to the fullest.

Surrounded by my treasures

Thank you for all the birthday cards and kinds wishes that we received this summer. We appreciate you remembering us in this way. In the future, to expedite delivery and cut down on postage, please note our correspondence address.

Prayer requests and praises:
1. Praise the Lord for a restful family vacation.
2. Pray for the soon printing of the gospel of Mark.
3. Please keep praying for Yura’s health issues, especially for the reflux and his back pain.
4. Pray for Sashko and Yurko (and Mama!) as we start a new school year.

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support that help to make this ministry possible.

Your Fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko

May/June 2011 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings in Jesus’ Name! The translation work has been making steady progress. By the grace of God, I was able to do the first draft of 9 chapters of Luke. I must say that I have been immensely enjoying translating this unique gospel. First of all, it is the longest gospel and therefore it is the most thorough and complete. 41% of Luke’s material is unique to his gospel. For example, out of the 35 miracles recorded in the gospels, 20 are mentioned in Luke, 6 of which are not found elsewhere. So, if it was not for the third Gospel, we would have not known of the miraculous draught of fishes, the raising of widow’s son in Nain and the healing of the ten lepers. Out of 50 parables that Jesus taught, 19 are found only in Luke. If Luke had not recorded them, we would not have the parables of the Good Samaritan, the rich fool, the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son and the Pharisee and the publican, as well as the teaching of the rich man and Lazarus. Also, Luke records about 30 events in the life of Jesus which no one else does. So if we did not have Luke, we would miss the birth of John the Baptist, the birth and childhood of Jesus, Jesus’ forgiveness of a sinful woman anointing His feet, the repentance of Zacchaeus and Jesus’ appearance on the road to Emmaus.

Second, writing to Theophilus who was most likely a Gentile, Luke portrays salvation as being universal, for everyone. He traces Jesus’ genealogy to Adam, the father of all men, and focuses on Jesus’ compassionate attention to foreigners (Syrians, Romans, Greeks), showing that salvation extends to all nations. In fact, Luke sees the gospel as being not only for all nations, but for all kinds of people. No other biblical author is concerned as much with social outcasts (tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, beggars) and includes as many women or children as Luke does. An interesting observation is that Matthew and Mark never use the word “salvation” in their gospels and John uses it only once. Luke uses it five times in his gospel, plus six times in the book of Acts. He emphasizes salvation and that it is for everyone.

So, what am I trying to say? It has been a custom for many Bible printing ministries to print John (typically coupled with Romans) for evangelistic purposes. While there are good reasons for that, Luke appears to be better suited for this task nowadays. We live in a day and age in which so-called “Christian nations” are being rapidly secularized, so fewer and fewer people are familiar with basic Bible facts, the earthly life of our Lord in particular. This is even more true for unreached peoples where Bible knowledge in nonexistent. Luke understood that the knowledge of the earthly life of Christ is necessary for Christian faith (1:4) and he presents the works and teachings of Jesus that are especially important for understanding the way of salvation. Complete in its scope (from the birth of Christ to His ascension) and arranged in order, this gospel would be more readily understood by present-day readers.

Considering all these things, we decided to act on the suggestion of a friend of this ministry and publish a children’s edition of my translation of Luke with illustrations by a Ukrainian artist. This edition is designed for parents to read to their children, with pictures to help the stories come alive. So often children grow up on Bible storybooks and do not hear the ‘adult’ Bible read until later in life. Our desire is to give children an illustrated ‘real Bible’, not just a storybook. This undertaking is still in its earliest stages but we would really like to have it done by Christmas. Please pray for this project.

The past month we began to work on yet another project. We are planning in the near future to launch a Ukrainian web site dedicated to our translation. Our main objectives in doing so are to broaden Ukrainian awareness of the work and to receive feedback. Also, we are going to put the plan of salvation there – something I have never seen on a Ukrainian or Russian Christian web site. As for the feedback, we will post my translation of the gospel of Mark (since it is the shortest) and ask people to fill out an on-line questionnaire. To make this gospel ready for posting, my assistants and I have been recently working on its second draft. I am glad to announce that after a break due to her heavy teaching load, Anya has rejoined us again. Please pray that we can finish editing Mark and launch the site within the next month or two.

In June, our van was sideswiped. Just as I eased to a stop at the side of the road to let an entourage pass, I heard a loud scratching sound. Apparently the man who was driving behind me was not maintaining a safe distance. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and the van was not terribly banged up. The police arrived within minutes and the process was taken care of in record time. Now we just have to wait for court’s decision (a formality) and then for the man’s insurance company to pay for the damage. Please pray the body shop does a prompt, decent job (this is asking for a miracle).

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)

Between wrapping up the school year and taking care of summer projects, we have been keeping quite busy. Yurko and Sashko also finished their first year of violin lessons. Both boys passed their music exams, receiving the highest score of ’12′ and Sashko was invited to play for the school’s end-of-the-year concert. Andriy has made quite a name for himself by his impeccable public conduct. He is the perfect little gentleman, sitting almost motionless through 2-hour church services, soberly shaking hands with all who notice the pint-sized member of the congregation, and then quietly waiting at my side until it is time to leave. (Nobody believes me when I tell them that he is a regular little boy who likes to run and yell and play!) Matviy is 4 months old and continues to be the sweetest, happiest baby anyone could ever hope for. At mealtimes, he sits by us in his little seat, smiling at Daddy until Yura notices him and starts talking to him.

First recital

Hi, everybody!

Happy Birthday Yura and Yurko! What do you do with a Bible translator on his birthday? Get him away from his office! The six of us drove over to the town of Myrhorod on June 8th and spent a relaxing day sightseeing and visiting a horse ranch. I praise the Lord for my husband who is such a good father and provider for our family. May God bless him with health, wisdom and many more years as he continues to translate the Bible. Our second son celebrated his 7th birthday on June 17th. We had a wonderful day at the park as a family and then enjoyed some fellowship in the evening with our Christian neighbors. Posters and cards, packages from his grandparents, and a remote control boat made for quite a festive time! Since last year the boys were all in the hospital on Yurko’s birthday, Yura and I were particularly eager for this year’s birthday to be special…. and it really was. We are so thankful for to God for our son. Please join us in prayer as he continues to grow spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Our greatest desire for Yurko is that he love and serve the Lord throughout his life.

At the horse ranch

 The Birthday Boy

Kathy is home from the hospital and doing really well. She recently wrote me and asked that I thank everyone for their prayers during her illness. More than once her condition was critical, but Kathy said that God comforted her through His word mightily. Not only was her life spared, but all of the procedures were painless and, with the exception of some cramps in her leg, she has had no side effects from any of the medications. “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad” (Psalm 126:3).

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support that help to make this ministry possible.

Your Fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko

March/April 2011 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings from the Popchenko Family! We are excited to write that another landmark has been reached in my translation work: with God’s help I was able to finish translating and proofreading the first draft of the Gospel Mark. From here I will be moving on to the Gospel of Luke. At the same time, I have been discussing the Gospel of Matthew with my assistants and am very pleased with the constructive input they have been giving. Recently we have introduced an important change to our means of communication: instead of meeting personally, we now use Skype. Not only am I able to save time, money and effort on traveling, but it also allows for more frequent discussion sessions since I no longer have to wait until an assistant is able to set aside a whole day. This, in turn, furthers the progress of our work. Please continue to pray for the translation of the Bible into Ukrainian.

With some students in Donetsk

A few months ago, I was invited to speak at Donetsk Christian University in eastern Ukraine. In April, I took the overnight train and spent two days there. I had a great opportunity to give three lectures to theology students on “Two Approaches in Bible Translation”. Giving examples from different Russian Bible translations, I pointed out the fallacies of dynamic equivalency (the theory behind translations like the GNB, NLT, NIV) and argued that the belief in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Scripture strongly favors formal equivalency (the method behind literal Bible translations) since it results in translations that are faithful and transparent to the source text. Once again, it was a great encouragement for me to see from the response of the students that formal equivalency is what the average person thinks of as true translation. In fact, the founder of dynamic equivalency, Eugene Nida, himself admits that it takes time for those attending his seminars to accept his theory, both intellectually and emotionally. An exciting part of my trip was the presence among the students of a lady from a Central Asian country (a former Soviet Union republic) who participated in translating the Bible into her native language. They produced the first and only Bible in their language. In a conversation after classes, I learned that they used the Russian Bible as the source text and, for the most part, formal equivalency as the method. Back-translation of various verses of this Bible into Russian showed me some problems and I encouraged the lady to work on the revision after she finishes her theology studies in Ukraine. Please pray for the many Bible-less peoples of the world to have the Word of life made available in their native tongue.

Besides teaching, I had the privilege of preaching at the University’s chapel hour. Speaking from Colossians 1:9-10, I challenged the students to use their time in school to get to know God more deeply, since the knowledge of God and His will precedes Christian living. It is impossible to “walk worthy of the Lord” without knowing who the Lord is and it is impossible to please Him without being “filled with the knowledge of his will”. Also, the academic dean arranged for a meeting with the staff, giving me the opportunity to tell more about the project and for them to ask questions. One question was why I use the Textus Receptus as my base text and not a critical text. I was glad I did my homework years ago so that I could answer this question.

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)
Spring is here and we are busy getting our garden planted. Sashko and Yurko are thriving on all the “man’s work” that needs to be done with Daddy, and Andriy is right out there with them, hauling branches, digging holes (or trying to), and getting underfoot. School work and violin practice gets done in record time now, as the boys hurry outside to work and play.

Mixing business with business:
getting my exercise while tilling the ground
(poor boys… they are worked to death)

 

“And what would you do without my help?”
(this picture was taken the next day when it got cold)

Little Matviy is getting his share of fresh air and sunshine, too, as he naps beside us outside in his stroller. It is hard to believe he is already 2 months old! The Lord answered my prayers and gave me an ‘easy’ baby: he eats well and sleeps great (8 hours at night!), coos and smiles and makes all those cute little baby faces. His big brothers all love him and take wonderful care of him. Andriy, age 2 years and 8 months, always lets me know whenever Matviy is crying, by tugging on my arm and saying earnestly, “Mama! Wa-wee-ko! Wa-wee-ko!” (his version of Matviyko, an affectionate form of the baby’s name).

“Don’t you think I am irresistibly cute?”

Special prayer request:
My brother’s wife, Kathy, has been in the hospital on the mission field, bedridden and in serious condition, since April 22nd. At first the doctors thought it was idiopathic thrombocytpenic purpura (the condition of having an abnormally low platelet count for no known cause. Symptoms include bruising and bleeding.), but since Kathy is not responding to the standard treatment for ITP, everyone is starting to wonder if the diagnosis is correct. Please pray for her sickness to be properly diagnosed soon and treated effectively. Also, please keep Chris in your prayers as he is caring for her at the hospital around the clock.

Prayer requests and praises:
1. Praise the Lord for providing us with a good used minivan.
2. Pray for me to have wisdom and protection as I continue translating.
3. Please keep praying for my health issues.
4. Kathy’s condition is serious and we covet your prayers for her.

Our minivan

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support that help to make this ministry possible.

Your Fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko

January/February 2011 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings from the Popchenkos in Ukraine! The past few months were filled with many events in our family, two of them being especially significant: our move to a new place and the arrival of our fourth son. Matviy (mat-VEE) Yuriovich Popchenko arrived via c-section on February 28th, weighing in at 4 kilograms 100 grams (slightly over 9 lbs) and measuring 57 centimeters (22.4 inches) long – our longest baby yet. Wendy was shown the baby right away and I warmed him on my chest while the doctor stitched her up, then she got to hold and feed our son. The nurses were great, bringing Matviy to Wendy for feedings, until she was able to get around on her own and have the baby with her all the time. On the fourth day, I brought them home to three eager brothers. We praise the Lord that there were no complications and both the baby and Wendy are doing fine. Now our prayer is for Matviy’s health and for wisdom to train this little one for the Lord: that he might grow up to love, trust, and serve our great God.

Fascinated older brothers

 

We are thankful for Wendy’s mom being able to come help us for 3 ½ weeks. It was such a relief to know I didn’t have to find someone to stay with the boys while I was at the hospital, not to mention take care of food preparation. To the thrill of our boys, Grandpa Knudson also came on March 10th to visit us for a week.

Wendy’s parents with us

Three weeks before the delivery, Wendy slipped on the wet floor in our bathroom (the toilet had leaked), fell and hit her back against the bathtub. She hurt it so badly that for a day she could hardly move. The next day, she had an ultrasound done to check on the baby and to see if she had injured any internal organs but thankfully everything looked fine. We thought she would have an X-ray done after the delivery to see why her back hurt so much, but amazingly her pain went away completely after she had the baby. Thank you for praying for Wendy’s back.

Just nine days before Wendy had the baby, we moved to our new house. After looking for six weeks without success and having lost any hope of finding a suitable house for us, a realtor called and said she had a house for rent. For a couple of days we hesitated to rent it, thinking it might be too hard on Wendy because of being so close to her due date. I called her doctor to ask his opinion and he urged us to move since living in a moldy habitation could cause the baby to have allergies for the rest of his life. We are so thankful to be living in a mold free-house! Our new landlord is very accommodating and agreeable… quite a change from our former landlady. Living in her house was by far the worst situation we’ve ever been in and this was the most unpleasant move we have ever had. We are just relieved to be out of there, especially after the landlady’s parting ‘scene’ in which she accused of us ruining her house with mold (!), insisting that we remodel it. The Lord was merciful in providing us with some good Christian brothers to help us deal with this unpleasant situation as peacefully as possible. We know that many people were praying for our housing situation and we want you to know that God answered your prayers amazingly. Thank you for your intercession on our behalf.

By the grace of God, I was able to do the first draft of 11 chapters of Mark. One particular statement drew my attention for its uniqueness. In chapter 8 verse 2, Jesus says, “I have compassion on the multitude…” This is the only time when Jesus during His earthly ministry says, “I have compassion”, first person singular (it is also recorded by Matthew). There are many references to His compassion in the third person. It is said that He was moved with compassion on the leper in Mark 1:41. Seeing the multitudes scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, He was moved with compassion on them in Matthew 9:36. He had compassion on the widow of Nain whose only son died in Luke 7:13. But this is the only place that is in the first person. In all those other places, it was a human observation, that He had compassion, only because it was manifested in that He did compassionate things. In this place, it is a first-person declaration, “I have compassion.” Our Lord then is declaring that compassion is an attribute which He possesses. That sets God apart from every other false deity on the planet. Satan has no compassion, therefore he doesn’t invent deities that are compassionate. You will not find in the religions of the world any deity manufactured by Satan that is by nature compassionate. That is a distinctive attribute of the true God. The compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ is shared by the Father and the Spirit. He is the “Father of mercies and the God of all comfort”. The Holy Spirit is Himself the Comforter. What a privilege to serve this great and compassionate God!

Prayer requests and praises:
1. Praise the Lord for providing us with a suitable house…before the baby arrived.
2. Praise God for Matviy’s safe birth.
3. Pray for me to have wisdom, protection and health, as I continue translating.
4. Please keep praying for my health issues (reflux, lower back).
5. Pray for us to find a larger reliable car for our growing family.

Thank you all for your faithful prayers and financial support. May God bless your families, churches and ministries as we each labor in our corner of the harvest field.

Your fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy and Matviy

It’s a boy

Posted on by
Reply

[This post was supposed to go out yesterday but due to technical problems, it is posted only today]

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our forth son via a scheduled C-section on Monday at 2:32 pm, February 28th. The boy weighed slightly over 9 lbs and was 22.4 inches long at his birth. I was able to be with Wendy (not in a surgery room, of course) and warm up the baby on my chest right after it was born. Praise the Lord, there were no complications and both the baby and Wendy are doing fine. Next day, Wendy was able to get around on her own and is now having the baby all the time with her in her room.

The timing of the boy’s birth was just perfect. The doctor wanted to wait to do a C-section until labor starts. Last Wednesday he checked Wendy and after seing she was not ready yet he went on a business trip to another town until Sunday hoping labor would not start until the due date (February 28th). Monday morning Wendy drove to see the doctor for a check up and he said she was ready. He let her go home to wait until the labor starts. She got home and a hour later it started. So, I had my lunch, took Wendy to the hospital and an hour later was holding a precious bundle of joy. We thank all of you who prayed for the safe delivery.

 

Thinker

 

We are thankful for Wendy’s mom being able to come help us. It is such a relief to know I don’t have to find some one who could stay with the boys while I am at the hospital, not to mention food preparation. She came on the third day after we moved to our new place which took place on February 19th. We are so thankful we live in a mold free house now. After looking for six weeks without success, we thought we would never find ourselves a place. When we lost any hope of finding a suitable house for us, a Realtor called and said there is a house for rent. Even though we had already decided not to move, we went to see it anyway, being almost sure this is not the place for us. Our opinion changed when we saw it. For a couple of days we hesitated to rent it thinking it might be hard on Wendy because of being so close to delivery. I called her doctor and asked him what would be worse: for Wendy to move that close to delivery or for the baby to be born into a moldy environment. The doctor urged us to move since moldy habitation may cause the baby to have allergy for the rest of his life.

That was the worst place we have ever rented and that was the worst move we have ever had. The landlady made a big scandal accusing us of ruining her house with mold (!) and wanting us to pay for remodeling of her house (I don’t think she was unreasonable, she was plain dishonest). She brought her son with her but I had a big strong guy from our church to protect me, just in case. I am sure if it was not for him it would be pretty tough for me. To complicate the matter, a week prior to the move, the boys brought some virus home from their music lessons which I caught. So, the last week of packing I did it while being sick. Thankfully, by the time of the move I was more or less well. Anyway, it all is behind us and we have almost recovered from the emotional trauma of living in that house and moving out of it. We thank all of you who prayed for our housing.

‘I am tired of packing’

 

Sashko and Yurko helped to load and unload the truck – like real men

 

Assembling Andriyko’s crib

 

Yurko working with a power screwdriver

 

‘Hey, I am helping too’

Mystery revealed but more trouble ahead

Posted on by
Reply

Ever since we returned to Ukraine, I noticed that my health had been deteriorating. This past year I have been sick more often than usual with the escalation of non-stop health problems in the past three months. Neither the immunologist, nor the ear-nose-throat doctor could find any reason for me to have sinus and ear infections so often. As we tried to solve this riddle, the thought came that this could be related to our living conditions. As we mentioned in our latest posts, we have had a mold problem in our house. So, I went online to check the health effects of mold and this is what I found. Toxic molds can increase a person’s susceptibility to a wide variety of diseases by weakening their immune system. According to a 1999 Mayo Clinic Study, nearly all chronic sinus infections are a result of molds (to read more about it, click the links in the end of this post). This sounds like a very possible explanation of my recent health problems.

The mold all the way down through the stucco

 

The other side of the bathroom wall

 

Black mold along the floor boards in the boy’s classroom

 

Applying an anti-fungus solution

 

Our bedroom after cleaning

No matter how many times we tried get rid of the mold spots, they kept coming back. Finally, we had our Christian architect friend come and inspect the house to see what (if anything) could be done. This was his verdict. The house is completely infested with mold… the first floor having it deep in the walls. The boy’s classroom is the worse room: you can even smell the mold. After personally having the experience of fighting mold in his own apartment for two years, our friend believes that our house is not suitable for living and we need to get out as soon as possible if we want to stay healthy.

A month ago we told our landlady that we wanted to try and find a new place and began the search. A month of looking for a house within a $1000 price range has not yielded any results. For one reason or another, every house we’ve looked at has been totally unsuitable (major heating problems, too cramped, ‘smokey’, etc.) So, two days ago we told our landlady that since we were not able to find a house, we would like to stay in this one longer. First, she said that she was going to kick us out anyway and then she decided to let us stay but would raise our rent by 30%, effective February. Even though Wendy is due the end of February and moving right now is the last thing we want to do, we have decided to keep looking for a house and try to move before we have the baby. Please pray for us to find a suitable home with a reasonable landlord quickly!

On a happier note, Sashko had his 9th birthday on January 18th. We spent the day in joyful fellowship with friends who came to celebrate with us. Over the past year, Sashko has matured so much. He is a big help around the house and with the younger boys. Also, he took on two new musical instruments this year: violin and guitar. Our prayer is that Sashko would always love God and serve Him with his whole heart.

The Birthday Boy

 

Playing with the new car that pops wheelies

Health Risks from “Toxic” Mold
http://www.toxic-black-mold-info.com/moldhealth.htm

Adverse Human Health Effects Associated with Molds in the Indoor Environment
http://healthandenergy.com/health_effects_of_mold.htm

Mold (filamentous fungi)
http://healthandenergy.com/mold.htm

November/December 2010 Prayer Letter

Posted on by
Reply

Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings from the Popchenko Family! We hope you had a blessed Christmas and we pray for God’s richest blessings on each of you and for renewed strength in the Lord’s service this coming year.

Happy New Year from the Popchenkos!

As we look back at the past year, we were once again reminded of God’s faithfulness in upholding us through the hardships of life. Even though we experienced many of God’s wonderful blessings in 2010, the past year was the most difficult for us health-wise. In June, all of us got some sort of gastrointestinal infection and all except me ended up in the hospital. This past year I had another health problem added to my collection: my lower back. Then, from August to November, I had three sinus infections and two ear infections in a row, experiencing the latter problem for the first time in my life. Finally, my old stomach problems (the primary one being ‘reflux’) have returned… or perhaps they never went away since 2004. This is not mentioning our numerous colds. At the time of this writing, I am recovering from the series of sinus and ear infections, thanks to the successful treatment prescribed by my immunologist, and am at the same time treating my stomach problems. We covet your prayers for my health: I need it to complete the Ukrainian Bible.

In spite of my recent illnesses, by God’s grace I was able to finish the first draft of Matthew and to do the first draft of 5 chapters of Mark. The end of the year 2010 marked the completion of 35% of the New Testament in various stages. Some of the books are in the first draft, others are in the second draft and one book is in the final draft. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to accomplish this much! The first readers of the newly translated Gospel of Matthew were my family: we used it in our family devotions. One particular instance of our family devotions was especially interesting. When we read Matthew 25:31-46, I commented on verse 40 “…Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” I tried to explain to the boys that what we do for other Christians, we are really doing for Jesus, since all believers are His brothers. Several days later Christmas arrived. Our ‘philosopher’ Sashko was trying to understand the Christmas practice of gift giving and asked, “Why do people give presents to each other on Christmas, if this is supposed to be Jesus’ birthday?” After thinking for a moment, he said, “I know why. Because when we do something for Jesus’ brothers, we do it for Him.”

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)
The boys and I were excited to complete our first semester December 24th, being ahead in every subject! I have a feeling that this will come in handy after the baby is born and we need to be a little more flexible with our schedule. Baby Popchenko seems to be doing well and everybody is looking forward to his arrival in about two months. With all the snow we have, Sashko and Yurko have been getting plenty of exercise and fresh air as they build snow forts, ski in the nearby forest, and shovel, shovel, shovel. Andriy does his part with his tiny shovel… never happier than when he is ‘working’. Thankfully, throughout the many weeks of Yura’s sicknesses, all three boys and I have stayed amazingly healthy. We praise the Lord for sparing us and are all SO glad to have Daddy feeling better!

Celebrating with sparklers

 

New Year’s Day outing

 

Prayer requests:
1. Pray for me to have wisdom, protection and health, as I continue translating.
2. Please keep praying for my lower back and for me to regain strength after these recent illnesses.
3. Pray for us to find a larger reliable car for our growing family.
4. Pray for Wendy and the baby’s safe delivery at the end of February. Also, please pray for Wendy’s mom as she travels over to help us.

Thank you all for your faithful prayers and financial support. May the Lord bless all in 2011 as we each labor for His glory in the harvest field.

Your fellow-servants for Jesus’ sake,
Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko and Andriy Popchenko

Housing and Health Update

Posted on by
Reply

Two days after the incident with the landlady, she showed up at our house again and asked for the gas heater manual. I thought she was going to give us a hard time again, but she sounded and looked different. “I am not insisting that the problem is with the heater. And I see by your gas heater meter that you are heating the house normally.” Then she went on to admit that the house did have some mold problems before, only on the first floor. “I just have no idea what’s going on. I am concerned for my house and for you guys to live in a damp, moldy house,” and she started crying. The landlady went on to say, “Of course, I am not going to make you move out.” As I wondered what in the world had happened to her, she asked what ‘faith’ we belong to. I wondered what that had to do with the present situation. “Nothing, I just have a question for you,” and she related this story. A few months ago, one of her sons brought home (to the house next door to us) a statuette of the devil. Since then, she seemed to keep having problems. Everything went wrong, she kept having conflicts in her family, etc. She asked her son to take it back, but he wouldn’t. She is afraid to do that herself, fearing she may offend the devil and he will bring even more misfortune to her family. “I wonder if the problem with this house has anything to do with that statuette. What would you suggest that I do with it?” I told her that the devil is powerful and is looking to destroy man’s soul. Regardless of her son’s intent, it was foolish of him to flirt with the devil by bringing home a statute of him. I told her she needed to get rid of that thing. She said she was going to also ask an Orthodox priest’s opinion on the matter. Now, I don’t know about the devil making our house damp, but we see that not only did the Lord answer our prayers, but also made our landlady think about spiritual things. Please pray for more opportunities to witness to her and for her salvation.

Praise the Lord, Andriy is completely well by now and none of us got sick from him! Also, today I saw the immunologist and my immune test did not show anything seriously abnormal about my immunity. Apparently, my immunity is low, due to low activity of neutrophils (cells of the immune system). However, it will take another test or two to show whether this is my regular condition or if it is just the present condition of my immune system. The doctor prescribed seven weeks worth of treatments to boost my immune system. After I am finished, I am supposed to take another immune test. In the meanwhile, I should also see a gastroenterologist to check out my digestive system. I am slowly gaining strength every day and the doctor said it will take at least a month to get back to normal. Please, continue to pray for my complete