Dear Brethren,
Well, it’s another good day for writing a Beal Update, cold and white with a heavy gray sky, so weighty in places that it’s touching the ground. Not many people are stirring today in our village; they’re home curled up by the wood stove. Things won’t liven up much until later this afternoon when the school bus arrives. Then the sleds will be skimming up and down the road, little faces with bright eyes and chapped cheeks will be peering inside our front windows and the door bell will ring. “Can Cassia and Alexandria come out today?” And off they all go. Winter in the village!
We have many things to report already this year so I best get to it. First, we have two new team members that have recently joined us. Denise Hutchinson, from our home church in Rochester, NY, has been helping with our correspondence ministry for the past couple of years. As the ministry has grown, so has the requirement for someone to handle this full time. The Lord moved upon her heart to fulfill this need and our team has immediately felt their workload ease. Praise the Lord!
Denise Hutchison works on a recent mailout.
Also, Bryan Shufelt, a young man that was here for our first CMO in 2006 has returned to work with our team in order to further his missionary experience. Bryan is busy studying the language and adjusting to Ukrainian life in general. He jumped in right away and has been assisting with the correspondence course by putting together “starter packets” for new students, and packaging the full version of Good and Evil for mailing. The Lord has truly supplied needed laborers for our burgeoning correspondence ministry.
Bryan Shufelt assists with the correspondence course.
The Correspondence Bible Course (CBC) now has 343 members. These students are searching the scriptures and hungry to learn the Word of God. We recently mailed 230 letters to the students that live in L’viv and invited them to our Audio Bible Study (ABS) that follows English club every Tuesday night. Each letter contains a list of topics that will be covered in upcoming Bible Studies and will hopefully generate more interest in ABS. During the past couple of months as Joshua taught through the Gospel of John, the sessions were recorded in digital format and will soon be made available to the students on CD. In the month of March, Josh will begin teaching through the book of Romans. These lessons are really having an impact on influencing Ukrainians for Christ.
This week at ABS, Jessie preached on the authenticity of the Bible, certainly a much needed message in this culture. Although Ukrainians generally acknowledge the Bible is a “holy” book, most have no real knowledge of its divine inspiration or preservation. The students listened very attentively as Jessie recounted the story of Voltaire, the well-known French philosopher who died in 1778. Voltaire said that in 100 years from his time Christianity would be non-existence and pass into history. But only fifty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used his house and printing press to produce Bibles for the world.
Jessie teaches on the authenticity of the Bible at English/Bible Club.
Jessie will be teaching a series on “What the Bible says” about prayer, the Church, and the Deity of Christ to name a few in upcoming ABS’s. These messages will be targeted to answer specific questions that we are repeatedly asked by our CBC students. We are very excited about this ministry and can’t thank you enough for your prayers. Most of the students coming are young men and usually about ten attend. Please pray for their continued interest in God’s Word, and for their salvation.
"Some of the guys" at English Club.
Taras has really taken a liking to Jessie.
At the beginning of January we were very pleased to receive the entire shipment of 5,000 Good and Evil books… at last! We have a growing list of people who received the short version of G&E during our CMO projects and have requested a full copy. We are thrilled that we will soon be mailing over 100 books in order to fulfill these requests. The Good and Evil booklets have proven to be a very effective tool for pointing Ukrainians to Christ using the chronological OT Bible stories. (You can see more about these booklets and how we use them on our website: Euroteamoutreach.org)
Unloading 5,000 new Good and Evil booklets.
We are beginning preparations for the Carpathian Mountain Outreach 2009 in the upcoming summer! If you or a young man that you know is interested in joining our team please see: Euroteamoutreach.org You can read all about the project and download an application. Don’t wait; our cut-off date for applications is April 15th.
CMO Guys 2008
Jessie has been busy readying the van for the summer’s activities. After half a day of running around L’viv with Joshua, the Lord finally directed them to a shop that could do a diagnostic on the van! We’ve only been looking for a place like this for years!!! What an answer to prayer!! There is now only one remaining problem, it has to do with the starter. No one in L’viv can find out what’s going on and in spite of trying all kinds of new parts for “this, that, and the other thing” (as Jessie says) nothing has been solved. There is a shop in Krakow, Poland that does diagnostics specifically on starters so we may be traveling there in a couple of weeks. Please be in prayer about this. It’s no fun when you’re in a remote Ukrainian village andthe van won’t start. :>)
"Push Guys!!! Push!!!!"
Uhhh... Jessie? Jessie?!! JJJESSSSSSSIE!!!!!
Please also pray for the girl’s passports and visas. We realized a couple of weeks ago that their passports are due to expire before June. This means a trip to Kiev to the American Consulate, and then a trip out of the country for new visas. We’re trusting the Lord to provide for this.
Alexandria and Cassia, January '09.
The Lord has already shown Himself strong on our behalf this year, in oh so many ways. We thank you ever so much for your continued prayers and support. Thank you also to our new supporting church in Katy, TX, we thank the Lord for you!
Your Missionaries for Jesus’ Sake,
Jessie, Teresa, Cassia and Alexandria
