Housing and Health Update

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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

When it rains, it pours

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The immunologist’s simple recommendations and prescriptions, along with an immune booster shot, did the job and the very next day I began to feel better. My digestive system started working, appetite returned and I felt like my vitality began to come back. That was very timely because that day I NEEDED the energy… to deal with our unreasonable landlady who is giving us hard time again.

About a month or so ago, we noticed a wet spot on the cealing in the corner of our bedroom. I thought the roof had some leakage and asked the landlady to come and see. Her son got in the attic and said everything was dry there. She immediately “knew” what the problem was: we did not heat the house enough. How did she know? Well, in Ukraine the customer is always wrong, so it must be our fault. A few days later those spots appeared in all 4 corners of the house and they began to grow in size and get really moldy. We decided to really warm up the house, but when we turned to heat up, the spots got even wetter and wet spots appeared in other places. In some places, literally streams of water were running down the walls. Interestingly, the temperature in our house only went up 1/2 a degree that day. I told the landlady that we did just as she said and here is the result. She immediately came up with the problem: it is the gas heater we installed last winter. It can not suffciently heat the house. Thus, she began to accuse us of ruining her house. I called an architect friend, described the situation and without even seeing the leaks, he said it’s a waterproofing problem. The landlady insisted it is not: according to her, the house has always been dry and warm. In reality, as long as we have lived there, it has always been damp and cold and we have always had mold problems.

Following the suggestion of our architect-friend, we cleaned off all the mold and have been drying the walls and ceiling with a blowdryer, and appliying an anti-mold/anti-fungus solution. As of now, the walls and ceiling are practically dry. Yesterday, the landlady brought two “specialists” to prove the heater was the problem. (Now, in Ukraine it does not take any training or licensing to become a “specialist” in construction: one day you just decide you are one and.. viola! you are one.) The first guy was a heating “specialist” and he said the heater was the problem. The guy obviously had no clue what he was talking about and also looked like he was still recovering from a hangover. Then she brought another guy, a constructor “specialist”. This other guy seemed knowledgeable. He examined the house for about 30 seconds and said, “It has nothing to do with how the house is being heated or the heater. The heater is just fine. It’s not the renters’ fault. The house has a waterproofing problem.” The landlady did not like that answer. “Then”, she said, refusing to calm down, “you are simply not using your heater enough and thus are ruining my house”. Sure, we just love to live in a damp, cold, moldy house and decided not to use the heater. Because we are “ruining” her house, she told us we had to get out and remodel her house before moving out. Frankly, I wish we could move out because we don’t like the dampness and mold ourselves and were even wondering if this could be a contributing factor to my ongoing health problems, but there is no real alternative right now. She has threatened to kick us out before, but that time she calmed down. We hope she calms down again and would ask you to pray that she does. In any case, we are not planning to move out in the middle of winter, but she may try to make our life here miserable.

To make things even more difficult, this afternoon Andriy came down with a high fever. Apparently, there is a pretty bad flu going around the country and many schools are closed for quarantine. A sick child in a family increases the risk for other family members to get flu too, but with Wendy being pregnant and with me being so run-down, it presents a real danger. We are taking all the precautionary measures that we can, but understand that they don’t always work. Please, please pray for Andriyko to get well quickly and for the rest of us not to get sick!

September/October 2010 Prayer Letter

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Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings in Jesus’ Name! Translation is making steady headway. By the grace of God, I was able to do the first draft of 20 chapters of Matthew. As I worked through this gospel, I was reminded again of the numerous mistranslations that existing Ukrainian versions have. Some of them are of no doctrinal significance but some are. Here are a few examples. In Ukrainian Bibles, many people in need, like the two blind men, or the woman of Canaan whose daughter was demon possessed, or the man whose son was a lunatic (Matthew 9:27; 15:22; 17:15), ask Jesus to “grant them pardon” (as if they are some sort of criminals), instead of “have mercy” on them. Even in the Beatitudes, the merciful are blessed because they will obtain “pardon”, instead of “mercy”. For those who “labour and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28), Jesus promises to “calm them down”, instead of “give them rest”. In the Sermon on the Mount, the disciples are instructed to “not be sad” about their life, what they will eat or drink (Matthew 6:25), instead of “not taking thought” for their life. But there are more serious mistranslations. In some Ukrainian translations, men do not “put their wives away” (Matthew 1:19; 5:32; 19: 3, 9) but simply “let them go”. Many Ukrainians believe Jesus was a Nazarite because in Matthew 2:23 He is made to be one. Perhaps the most significant mistranslation in Matthew that I have come across so far is when Jesus instructs His disciples not to “say extra or unnecessary words” when they pray, instead of not using “vain repetitions” (Matthew 6:7). This is most likely a deliberate mistranslation reflecting the Greek Orthodox Church’s agenda, which uses vain repetitions extensively. The list goes on and on. Although these corruptions are not as serious as those that teach salvation by works, God’s truth is still being distorted. Please continue to pray for a faithful Ukrainian Bible to be produced.

Our church leadership decided to have a small Bible institute for preachers both of our church and of those in villages in the Kyiv area. Since most of them work full time and many have to travel quite a distance, it was arranged to meet on Saturdays once a month. I was invited to teach the preacher’s class. Besides teaching the men how to prepare a sermon, I am putting emphasis on having them preach the Gospel in regular services. Having been “underground” for so long (when the only “visitors” they had were disguised KGB agents), most Baptist churches here are still not used to presenting the plan of salvation and giving invitations in their regular services. I hope that through this preacher’s class many preachers will be compelled to do their highest duty.

Preacher’s class

This fall our men’s choir was invited to visit two village churches for what is called here “Harvest Day”. On both occasions the services were evangelistically-geared and we were glad to see many visitors. In the village of Stepove, I had the privilege of conducting the service and was able to clearly present the Gospel, pointing to the “Bread of Life” who was broken on the cross of Calvary for our sins that through Him we may have eternal life. We also did a similar service in our own church in Kyiv on October 10th. God blessed the service and we saw three professions of faith!

For many years, Bible Baptist Church of Marysville, California, has served as our sending church. This past June, their pastor resigned and a new pastor was recently called. Since we have no plans of visiting the U.S. in the near future, we will have no opportunity of meeting Pastor Brown. Therefore, we believe that it is best for us to transfer our sponsorship to a church whose pastor knows us and our ministry personally and intimately. We deeply appreciate the years of faithful support and sponsorship of Bible Baptist Church. Pastor Brad Weniger of Central Baptist Church, Woodbridge, Virginia, has a keen interest in Bible translation work and has shown his full support of our ministry time and time again. We have discussed these things with both Pastor Brown and Pastor Weniger and both agree that this step would be the most beneficial choice to take. Central Baptist has unanimously voted to become our new sending church, effective immediately. Please make note of our new sending church name and address (see our letter head).

In our last prayer letters, I asked you to pray for my health issues. Well, for the past month and a half, I have had almost non-stop problems: a sinus infection, then an ear infection, then a sinus infection again. This of course slowed down my work. At the time of this writing, I am recovering from my last sinus infection. My doctor suggested having some immunity tests done to see if there is something wrong with my immune system. After I have this done, he will see what route we should take. Please keep my health in prayer.

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)
It is has been a marathon couple of months for us! Praise the Lord, school is going well and the boys are on or ahead of schedule in every subject. A tremendous answer to prayer came in the form of a Ukrainian school teacher who is now tutoring Sashko and Yurko four days a week in three Ukrainian subjects. Olga Kostyatynivna is a lovely, Christian primary school teacher who just so happens to live right at the end of our street! The boys are doing well with their Ukrainian school work and having a tutor has made my load lighter. As far as all the tests and check-ups have shown, Baby Popchenko is growing and developing according to schedule. I am feeling well and thanking God for the energy to keep up with our current schedule.

Praises and prayer requests:
1. Pray for me to have wisdom and protection from the devil’s attacks, as I finish the first draft of Matthew.
2. Please keep praying for my lower back and recovery from recent illnesses.
3. Pray for us to find a larger reliable car for our growing family.
4. Thank you for continuing to pray for Wendy and the baby.
5. Keep praying for the health of our friend William. Even though his doctor says that he no longer has any signs of cancer, an achy numbness in his legs frequently causes him severe discomfort. The doctor says that it is a side effect of the chemotherapy, but William is concerned because by this time such symptoms should have gone away.

May God bless you for your faithful prayers and financial support. We pray regularly for your churches and ministries as well.

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

Harvest Day

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The fall season is very joyful in Ukrainian churches as they celebrate their “Harvest Day”. Living in a predominantly agricultural country, early in their history Ukrainian believers took in the simplicity of their hearts the commandment of Exodus 23:15-16, “Thou shalt keep…the feast of harvest…” and started celebrating the feast. It does not have a set date and is observed in September-October, each church deciding on the date. It is customary to decorate churches with various produce for that day and invite fellow believers from neighboring churches to the service with a dinner to follow. Americans usually compare this to their Thanksgiving Day, although the two have significant differences. Ukrainians, besides thanking God for providing their “daily bread”, spiritualize it and speak also of sowing and harvesting in spiritual realm. Thus, the subjects of the spreading the word of God, sending laborers into God’s field, bearing spiritual fruit in the Christian’s life etc. are typically addressed.

This fall our men’s choir was invited to visit a village church 120 miles from Kyiv, which for the past few years has used their Harvest Day for evangelism outreach. For the occasion, they rented a dining hall and invited all the villagers to come and hear the word of God. We were glad to see many visitors. The local pastor, a farmer himself, had been present at the evangelism in Gostra Mohila back in May, and he asked me to conduct the service. I was able to clearly present the Gospel, pointing to the “Bread of Life” who was broken on the cross of Calvary for our sins that we may have eternal life through Him. We ask you to pray for the salvation of the unsaved visitors. Villagers are very heard to reach with the Gospel but we praise God for the opportunity to till the ground of their hearts once again and sow the seed of God’s Word.

The crowds
Singing in the village of Stepove

Excited by this event, we decided to do a similar thing in our own church in Kyiv on Sunday, October10th. It had been a while since we had any kind of evangelistically-geared services in our church and we felt like we needed a revival. I presented the idea to the pastor and he asked me to organize and run the service. We had only a week and a half for preparations, but with the help of many others in our church, we were able to prepare the program, put up posters, and pass out invitations. Right up until Sunday morning, I was not sure if I would be able to come. Three days prior to that, I got a bad ear infection, was running a high fever and was on antibiotics and shots. By God’s grace, by Sunday I was feeling well enough to conduct the service, play for and sing in the choir and preach. For the theme of the service I chose “Thanking God for providing three kinds of bread: physical bread, the Word of God and Jesus, the Bread of life”. Thus, three messages were preached explaining how God revealed Himself in nature, His Word and finally in the person of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to mankind. The church was packed and we had about ten first-time unsaved visitors, besides those who have been visited us before but have not yet trusted Christ. God blessed the service and we saw three professions of faith! One of them was the daughter of a church member. We rejoice in what God is doing here and ask you pray for those who trusted Christ to grow in faith. Also, please pray for my ear infection since I am not completely recovered and today my other ear began to bother me.

Harvest Day, Kyiv 2010

 

Singing at our home church

 

Preaching on the “True Bread”
After the service

 

July/August 2010 Prayer letter

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Dear Friends and Family in Christ Jesus,

Greetings in Jesus’ Name! The past summer was the hottest summer in recorded history of Ukraine. Since Ukraine’s climate is usually moderate, the vast majority of homes do not have air conditioners. As a result, the death rate doubled during those hot months because many people simply could not endure the heat. Thankfully, the place we rent has an air conditioner in the kitchen. This is where I resorted to for my translation work since it was simply unbearable to work in my office upstairs. Granted, I could not spend as much time there as in my office, but at least I was able to continue translating. After being without my computer for two months (I thought I would never get it back from the repair shop!), I am finally able to use it again. To assist the progress, I have decided to work simultaneously on the second draft of Romans and the first draft of Matthew. So far, five chapters of Matthew are ready.

I have exciting news to share: for the first time in the history of this Bible translation project, another person besides me translated a portion of Scripture. Anya was able to translate two chapters of the Gospel of Mark and I corrected her translation of Mark chapter one. After receiving my corrections, Anya realized that there is a lot that she does not know (or is not familiar with) in the translation process. Even though I intuitively understood the issues she raised, I was unable to answer all of her questions in linguistically precise definitions. One of them was about conveying an author’s style. A little research in the matter showed that the study of Biblical authors’ style is one of the most neglected areas of Biblical studies. As a result, there seems to be no consensus as to what biblical style involves. This prompted me to do some reading on the subject. However, the literature that I have at my disposal is nowhere near enough, so books were sought out and ordered on-line and I hope that within two months they will be here. This incident reminded me that no one ever wakes up one day knowing absolutely everything about the area in which he works. The same is true about Bible translation. It is an interdisciplinary work… probably more so that any other. It requires knowledge of languages, linguistics, translation theory, exegesis, theology, history, various aspects of culture (customs, eating habits, clothing, music, etc.), agriculture, botany, zoology, architecture and so on. As for myself, I am constantly in the process of reading on various subjects pertaining to translation.

We are happy to write that two more people are joining the work. Sergiy teaches exegetics at a Bible college in Donets, Ukraine, and he has agreed to be a consultant. I have not had a chance to work with him but hope it will be a productive collaboration. Victoria is a graduate of a seminary in Belgium with a masters’ degree in theology and teaches at a Bible college in Kyiv. In July, I had an opportunity to interview her to check her Greek. She needs more experience but is willing to try to improve her level of knowledge, so I spent some time with her explaining translation principles as well as supplied her with initial literature to read. Eventually, Victoria hopes to be able to do translation work but for now I would like to use her as one of my consultants.

Not long ago a brother with Pentecostal background joined our church and he asked me to explain to him the subject of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After talking with him personally, I decided to preach a series of messages on the Holy Spirit. The commencement of the series coincided with “Trinity” – one of the three major Christian holidays observed in Ukraine by all Christians as well as being a national holiday celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. As usual, people’s interest is great and we are glad to see them grow in the knowledge of the word of God. In August, our men’s choir was invited to sing at a baptism service in the church of Dimer, a nearby town. Since churches here do not have baptisteries, baptism services are held outdoors, by rivers or lakes and include preaching and singing. This way passersby can hear the service and witness the baptism. We were glad to have unsaved people hear our gospel singing. Besides singing in the choir, I had the privilege of preaching at the service. Please pray for the salvation of the unsaved people who were present.

Singing at the baptism by the lake

 

Continuing at the church
Preaching on Believer’s Baptism

 

In our recent prayer letters, I asked you to pray for my health issues. For the past several months, I have been having lower back pain. Lately, it got so bad that sitting at my desk for two-three hours would make it uncomfortable to the point that I would need to take a break. Finally, I was able to get the answer: an MRI showed that I have two disc protrusions. My doctor prescribed some medication to reduce the inflammation, special exercises and swimming as a decompression technique. Failure to do that will lead to disc rupture. Fortunately, we have a swimming pool nearby and I plan to use it regularly. For exercises, I need to buy a piece of sports equipment. To make things even worse, in July I got a virus from my nephew which caused bronchitis and double sinusitis simultaneously that knocked me out for two weeks. The rest of the family got by comparatively easy. At the time of this writing we are on another round of colds and fevers, so please pray for our health.

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy)
Summer is past and school is back in session! Sashko is forging ahead in the third grade, while Yurko is eagerly working in his first grade books. (He is SO excited to finally be doing “real” school!) Even Andriy insists on being included, so he joins us at his little table with a coloring book and pencil. In August, we celebrated his 2nd birthday and what a little man he is becoming! He tries to keep up with his big brothers and is never happier than when they include him in their plans. We are thankful for his sunshiny personality and pray that he will shine for the Lord with a clean testimony and bold witness all of his life. I was also blessed with another birthday this summer. God has been very good to me and I thank Him for the life I have by His grace. Sashko and Yurko are enrolled in the local musical school this year which means 2 violin lessons, 1 music theory class, and 1 choir class each week. If all that were not enough to keep us busy, Yura’s cousin from the village (Sasha Savchenko, translation consultant) asked if his 16-year old son could live with us while attending a university in Kyiv. We welcomed Pasha to our home, but had to limit his stay to one semester because the next semester we have another relative coming to live with us: Baby Popchenko #4 is expected to arrive in late February or early March of next year. Everyone is looking forward to another little brother or sister to play with. Morning sickness is past (praise the Lord!) and I feel some energy returning… just in time for school. God’s timing is always right.

Diligent students
Celebrating Andriy’s Birthday at McDonald’s
I’m two now!

Prayer requests:
1. Wisdom, protection, and health for translation work.
2. General health for our family. Since our return to Ukraine, we seem to catch every virus that comes around. We try to eat as healthy as it is possible in this country and take quality vitamins but that does not seem to help a lot.
3. Yura’s back to recover quickly.
4. Baby’s development and Wendy to have strength through this pregnancy.

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

May/June 2010 Prayer Letter

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Greetings in Jesus’ Name! We have a long-awaited answer to prayer: Anya has finished writing her doctoral dissertation and is now able to start translating the gospel of Mark. She will not have any teaching responsibilities in July or August and should be able to spend a considerable amount of time translating. I supplied her with the necessary reference tools, as well as my statement on the principles of translation, so we can ensure uniformity of quality and style. I, of course, will be overseeing her work and will have the final say in any translation choices. By the grace God, I was able to finish my revision of the gospel of John and get back to work on the second draft of Romans. John is in the hands of my consultants right now and when I hear back from them, I will work on getting the final draft ready for printing. Ephesians has not yet been discussed with all of my helpers but this month I was able to meet with one of them and get a feedback from him. Please keep all of the translation team in your prayers as we translate God’s word into Ukrainian.

Last time I mentioned encountering some computer problems, related to software. Well, my problems have not stopped but only increased. Right on my birthday (what a ‘present’!) my computer crashed. Apparently, an entire batch of these laptops had faulty graphic processors and many owners experienced this problem. The good news is that Apple is going to replace the entire mother board for free. The bad news is that I have to wait a month for the part to arrive from abroad. I am so glad that we have yet another laptop which a church in Washington gave Wendy (thank you again so much!) and I was able set up all the necessary software and continue my translation work. Speaking of my birthday, I thank the Lord for allowing me to live 37 years, serving Him and working to provide Ukrainians with the Book of books.

We continue to have numerous ministry opportunities. In late April, a brother from our church approached me asking to speak to the young families and address a problem that many of them had: wives complaining about their husbands working too much and not spending time with their families. As a setting for this occasion we chose a picnic on May 1st, since it was a holiday. The guys decided to do all the cooking so our wives could rest. We had a great time together fellowshipping, eating great shish kebabs, playing games, etc. I had a wonderful opportunity to speak on the God-given responsibility of men to lead their homes in following God’s will revealed in the word of God. It was something that some of the men had not expected to hear: some of them thought I would rebuke the wives for not appreciating their husbands working so hard. Everybody was encouraged as they returned home that day.

Speaking in the open air

 

Solving the world’s problems while peeling potatoes

 

Playing volley ball afterwards

 

We thank all of you who prayed for evangelism in Gostra Mohila. After arranging for the use of a public building for the services, I began preparing for the evangelistic meeting. Coming up with a text for invitations and posters, looking for and buying follow-up literature, picking songs, writing music for our men’s choir, and singing practice kept me busy until the meeting. A week before the meeting, we drove to the village to pass out invitations to people’s homes and hang posters in public places. Along with the invitations, we put the gospel of John in every home. This way, even if people chose not to come they would still have the word of God to read. We were able to put out over 600 gospels. As the theme of the meeting, I chose “Returning to the Father’s House”, focusing on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Most of the songs our men’s choir sang, the youth’s recitation, the testimony of a deacon from our church (a true prodigal son), and, of course, the sermon were all based on that parable. We were pleased to see about 20 unsaved people show up. All of them heard a crystal clear presentation of the Gospel. At the close of the meeting, everyone received a book God’s Salvation by O. J. Smith) and a film (“God’s Story”). Also, a weekly Bible study was announced. One person, a village drunk, made a profession of faith and he has not missed one single Bible Study, coming every time more and more sober. We praise God for the opportunity of ‘glorfying His Name among the heathen’.

One of the deacons in our church had mentioned once how unevangelized the town of Yahotin is. A town of 21 thousand people, located about 60 miles from Kyiv, it has only one Baptist church of about 30 members, and it is not a soul-winning church. So we decided to ‘blitz’ it by putting gospels of John in people’s homes. One Saturday in May, we loaded our car with Ukrainian gospels and drove to Yahotin. The plan was to put the gospels in mail boxes of apartment buildings located on the first floor. Some of the buildings did not have mail boxes, so the boys and myself got our exercise, climbing the stairs of the multi-level apartment buildings to put the gospels by the doors, while Andriyko and Wendy kept us supplied with literature that they carried in the stroller. Sashko and Yurko were real troopers, keeping up with the fast pace and working hard. In just a couple of hours, we were able to put out about 700 Gospels of John with the address of a Bible correspondence course on them. (Missionary Joshua Steele in L’viv has an excellent Chronological Bible Course that he uses for both evangelistic and discipleship purposes.) Now that the seed has been sown, let’s pray for fruit in this unreached part of Ukraine.

Boys stamping and packing gospels

 

Putting the gospels in mail boxes

 

Putting the gospels in door handles

 

After the distribution, we spent some time at a local park

 

By the lake

 

Mama’s Corner (by Wendy). In June we had the worst health situation our family has ever experienced. It all started with Sashko getting some sort of gastrointestinal infection. One by one, the rest of the family got sick. All three boys ended up in the hospital for over a week (thankfully, I was able to stay with them around the clock). Sashko and Yurko were on IVs and antibiotics, Yura weathered it out at home and I came down with it last after everyone was on the mend. All this time Yura was making daily trips to the hospital to bring us food, medicine and whatever else we needed. Despite all the tests the doctors ordered, no definite diagnosis was ever pronounced. It was a scary time, but God was faithful and we thank all of you who prayed for us during these past few weeks.

It was such a pity that Yurko had to celebrate his 6th birthday in the hospital, feeling awful and hooked up to an IV, but at least we were able to have a small birthday party for him right there. He is growing up quickly, has finished his kindergarten work and is surprising us with his ability to pick out songs on the piano by ear! He puts in long days, trying to keep up with his big brother and teaching his little brother everything he knows. Sashko and Yurko’s orthopedic issues are still with us, but for now supportive shoes and exercise are all that we can really do to help. The hot summer is already here and our boys enjoy swimming in a small inflatable pool that we have in our yard.

It’s so much fun!

Praises and prayer requests:
1. Anya has finished writing her doctoral dissertation and started translating the book of Mark.
2. Pray for Anya and me to have wisdom and protection from the devil’s attacks, as we translate Romans and Mark.
3. Please, keep praying for my health (I am still experiencing some health issues).
4. Pray for the general health and protection of our family.
5. Continue to pray for the health of our friend William who has cancer.
6. Please pray for our support situation. Over the past several months we have lost almost a third of our monthly support.

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

Home again!

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Praise the Lord, we are all home from the hospital. Sashko spent a total of eleven days there, while the other boys were in the hospital with him for a week. I was able to stay with them around the clock and the four of us had a room and bathroom to ourselves (quite a luxury, by Ukrainian standards). Although the doctors ran multiple tests, no formal diagnosis was pronounced. “Intestinal infection” was the vague answer we got to our questions about this distressing illness. Whatever it was, the antibiotics, IV drips, and a combination of other medicines and supplements seemed to take care of the problem. All three boys are doing much better but are on a strict diet and the whole family will be on enzymes and probiotics for a few more weeks. Yura still has to be careful what he eats, but I am so thankful that he was able to bounce back fairly quickly. Everyday, he was running around, gathering food for us, bringing things from home, and making trips to the pharmacy. If he’d ended up in the hospital, I don’t know what we would have done. Now that everybody is on the mend, it is obviously my turn to be sick. On Monday morning, the dreaded symptoms struck and I’ve been in agony every since. By the time of this writing (Friday evening), I am starting to feel better, but would still appreciate your prayers for my full recovery.

Birthday in the hospital

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Monday night Yurko and Tuesday 4 am Andriy started having the same symptoms Sashko had had for number of days. Instead of waiting to see them getting worse we decided to take them to the hospital that morning. Wendy stayed with the boys to take care of them. The next day Yurko and Andriy felt already better and started having normal food but today Yurko and Andriy took a turn for the worse. It was such a pity since today is Yurko’s birthday and we wanted to have a small birthday party for him right in the hospital. When I arrived, Yurko hardly reacted to all the birthday greetings and presents. The doctor put him on an IV and after a short time he started feeling better so by the end of my visit he was able to enjoy his presents. After all the boys get out of the hospital, we will have a real birthday party for Yurko.

As for Sashko, he feels better but has been on an IV every day since his admission to the hospital. He definitely got the worse case. I am basically back to normal, still have some discomfort after a meal but rather than that I am fine. This is good since I have to run to the hospital every day and buy necessary medicine (in Ukraine you have to buy your own medicine if you want to be treated in the hospital), make and bring food and other things. Wendy is the only one who has not gotten the bug, or should I rather say, the symptoms.

The boys have had (and still are having) lots of test done to determine what caused this condition. Yesterday two test (for roto-virus and a bacterial infection) came back negative. Since one of the tests is not always accurate, the doctor ordered other tests. Please, pray for the speedy recovery of all our boys and strength for Wendy and me in taking care of them.

Wendy and the boys in their hospital room

 

The birthday boy on an IV

 

Yurko with his presents

The Sickness Saga continues…

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After three days of no improvement, Yura took Sashko to the hospital. They started an IV right away and a course of antibiotics. Within a short time, he felt some relief and was even able to eat a little bit of toast. We are waiting on the test results to get an official diagnosis. I went today (Sunday) to take him some bland, starter foods and visit him. Sashko only took two bites of rice, but he’s been eating toast all day and has been able to drink small quantities without pain. He still has a low fever and it looks like he’ll be in the hospital for at least a few more days.

Between around 3 am Sunday morning, this terrible sickness struck Yura. He only threw up four times, as opposed to Sashko’s days of vomiting. Diarrhea took over midmorning. Since the doctor said that in the early stages of this type of illness, absorption is necessary, Yura took a mega dose of activated charcoal. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to keep it down. I bought him another absorbent and started him on the medications that Sashko is taking at the hospital (minus the IV and antibiotics). By Sunday evening, Yura was able to eat some toast and plain mashed potatoes. He is still running a low fever and is extremely weak.

My stomach has been queasy for the past several days, but nothing unbearable. Yurko and Andriy have had some suspicious-looking bowel movements, so I’m trying to fight off this thing before it gets a strong foothold . A lady from our church is going to come over tomorrow to stay with the boys while I go take care of Sashko (the nurses are conscientious, but they can’t sit by his bed and remind him to keep drinking, offer him food every hour, etc., etc.).

Please pray for:
Sashko’s healing,
Yura’s healing before it gets so bad that he has to go to the hospital,
my healing and for strength to take care of Yura, take stuff to Sashko, and take care of the other boys,
Yurko and Andriyko not to get fully sick.

Thank you all for praying!

Sashko is sick

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Our oldest son, Sashko, has some sort of stomach virus. For the past two days, he has been vomiting, not able to retain even liquids for very long. Summer has arrived in full force, so the heat is making the situation even more critical. The medicine that usually helps him in cases like this is not staying down long enough to be effective. Please pray for Sashko’s healing and for me to have wisdom in treating him. We really don’t want to end up in the hospital on an IV (this has happened with him before). Thank you for praying for us.