Dear Brethren,
Greetings once again from Ukraine! Fall has arrived and it’s been cold and rainy for more than two weeks. We finally couldn’t stand the damp and had to turn our heater on. Our neighbors are struggling this year to harvest their potatoes as it’s been so wet. We have yet to dig our own potatoes out of the field. I’m thankful we don’t have so many this year. Since the main staple of a Ukrainian diet is potatoes and more potatoes, we were “strongly persuaded” to over-plant last year. But this time Jessie remained firm and planted about half of what we did the year before. We’ll still have enough to supply our family and some other fellow missionaries.
Well, we have some exciting news to report! The Lord has made it possible for us to return home for a six month furlough. We’ll be driving from L’viv to Poland, then flying out of Warsaw and arriving in Rochester, NY October 23rd. We are in the process of contacting all of our supporting churches in order to report on our ministry, and we’re endeavoring to make contact with new churches in order to raise some much needed support. We’ll be in the New England area until the end of December, and then we’ll head west to make our reports out there. The girls are so excited to see Grandma and their Aunties; it’s been four years since we were home for a short time when my Dad died. Other than a couple of emergencies, we have not been back to the States for deputation since 1999 when we first came to Ukraine. The Lord has met so many needs already, and answered every prayer to overcome each obstacle. We have so much to do within a six month period; we covet your prayers as we get ready to be gone from our home, and for all the preparations and work in the States!! We’ll be returning next April to be here for the upcoming Carpathian Mountain Outreach in the summer of 2008.
We want to update you on CMO 2007; we have the final figures on everything that was accomplished this year. But first, I would like to tell you about our last film showing in Rosokhach. he Lord really blessed and gave the guys on our team a great “farewell.” Rosokhach was the furthest village that we had yet been to. Jessie drove the team down a little two lane dirt road and finally arrived at the community center an hour and a half early. Before long, the hall director came in with a couple of helpers to make sure everything was ready. She was very polite and insisted on cleaning everything properly. After Jessie and Nathan finished setting up the equipment everyone sat down to wait for people. We never know if anyone will come to these films or not. The starting time had been announced for 6:00 pm, and at ten minutes till, the hall was completely empty except for our team.Finally, just a few minutes before 6:00, a few older men stepped into the room. We could hear some others standing around outside, so Josh made an announcement over the microphone. “Good evening everyone! We’re about to begin our film tonight. Please come in and find your seats.” As he continued the introduction, more and more people walked in. When we started the film there were about 25 people. And… they kept coming! By the time the film was a third of the way through, there were over 50 people in the room, and more standing outside listening. Most everyone stayed right to the end and listened attentively while Joshua preached the Gospel. He then explained about our literature, encouraging everyone to get a copy of Good and Evil and a Bible Course starter packet on their way out. We gave away all the Good and Evil’s that we had, and all but two of our starter packets. Praise the Lord!
After they left Rosokhach, Jessie dropped off Nathan, Tucker and Andrew in another village, Korosteev. Last year we were denied permission to show the film there, so this year the guys went back to pass out Good and Evil’s. They spent the night in their tents, and passed out the G&E’s the following morning, then caught a bus back to L’viv. Please continue to pray for those who heard the Gospel and/or received Bible literature. Also pray for the young men who joined our CMO team this summer: Matthias Smith, Andrew Darbyshire and Tucker Mullens. We could not have accomplished half of what we did had it not been for their help. They have now returned to the US and are continuing their ministries there.
Here are the figures from this year’s CMO outreach. We were pretty excited when we saw them; all glory goes to the Lord! All in all, we distributed 147,774 pieces of literature. The breakdown is as follows:
1105 copies of Good and Evil booklet
73,975 invitations to receive a Good and Evil booklet
66,825 invitations to the correspondence course
5,750 Gospel tracts
119 Lesson 1 starter packets from the correspondence course
We showed The Light of the World in 6 villages and in one children’s camp for a total attendance figure of 251.
As far as responses go, they are still coming in; right now we have 312 enrolled in the correspondence ministry. That’s 79 new students since we reported to you in June. It is interesting to note that 22 of them heard about the course from an existing student and were signed up using a cut-out form from the back of one of our lessons. The other 39 can safely be attributed to this summer’s activities. Currently we have had 159 requests for the Good and Evil pictorial Bible booklets.
I also forgot to mention that one of our goals this summer was to “blitz” the city of Striy with gospel literature. Striy is pretty much the last point of civilization before you begin to drive up into the mountains; the population is about 70,000. We have used it as a base many times but never handed out literature there as a team. It took us three days in humid 90 degree weather, but praise the Lord; we distributed 19,000 tracts door to door.
Even as CMO 2007 is ending, we are beginning preparations for next year’s project. If you could look at a detailed map of the Ukrainian Carpathians, you would see literally hundreds and hundreds of villages, villages that have no Gospel witness whatsoever. Even if our team only focuses on villages within a three hour drive from L’viv, it will take many years to reach them all. Having said that, the more help we have the more we can do. As always, we are appealing to men to come and labor with us in this harvest field. Since the summer of 2006, hundreds of people in the mountains have heard the Gospel. Thousands are still waiting to hear. Please check our website in the coming weeks for new information on CMO 2008. If you are interested in participating, we encourage you to contact us right away. Our web address is: Euroteamoutreach.org My personal email address is jbeal4ua@yahoo.com. Or you can call me at 585-267-5603. This will reach me at my home in L’viv, but is billed as a call to Rochester, NY.
In closing, if you would please pray specifically for our family as we get ready to travel to New York. Of course, this will be a big financial undertaking and we ask for your prayers in that area. We are also in need of a reliable vehicle to drive around the country when we visit our churches. The Lord has already blessed us with a place to stay, and we know He will continue to meet all of our needs.
We can never thank you enough for your prayers and support. May God richly bless you!
Your missionaries for Jesus’ sake,
Jessie, Teresa, Cassia, and Alexandria
