John White - Developing Church Leadership in the Russian Speaking World c/o Eric Yodis, Postal Box 3644, Donetsk 83076, UKRAINE June 2002 jwhite@alumni.princeton.edu http://www.marucheck.net/jw/
I am very thankful that God is giving me multiple ministry opportunities for the coming year. Please pray for me as I think and pray about ministering to secular and Christian university students.
As you may remember, I've already gotten involved with the Campus Crusade ministry in town, and I'm hoping for that to continue. In May, I had my first opportunity to speak in Russian freely without reading (with only one day to prepare it's a bit hard to write a full text!). So, I stumbled around a good bit, but in the end I gave a fairly effective 15 minute talk on the Biblical basis for missionaries raising support. It was a blessing to be pushed to take this step and to see that I could do it. Nevertheless, I have much more work to do in learning Russian, and I'll continue studying in the coming year.
This summer, I'll have another chance to work on my ministry skills with Campus Crusade. I'll be going on a 10 day summer project to Mariupol, a Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov where many people (especially students) go on vacation. It should be a good stretch for me, since I will need to evangelize and disciple in Russian. Pray that God will give me His heart and His words to share.
At the other end of the spectrum, I will be starting to teach at Donetsk Christian University in the Fall. The University has been going through some very hard times lately, recently losing some of its leadership and faculty. Please pray that God will use my first attempts to teach to be a blessing to the students in the wake of these problems.
Now, my first steps in teaching at the University will be mostly in English, but I am hoping that I'll be able to prepare some lectures and interact with the students in Russian. I would definitely appreciate your prayers this summer while I plan my courses. I don't know specifically what courses I'll be teaching yet, but I should be teaching one course per semester in the area of missions and/or theology. As you might imagine, these students will be very different than the secular university ones, and I'll need a lot of wisdom in order to teach and minister to these future church leaders well.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I have finally moved into my own place. This has given me great opportunities to work on my furniture and shopping vocabulary, and has given me chances to start acting as a host. I' m still not much of a cook, but I have enjoyed having students over and have been blessed by lots of good opportunities to talk and pray with them. My relationship with my Ukrainian roommate Sasha (a student very close to graduation) is going very well, too. I'd appreciate your prayers that God would really use this new apartment as a place for His ministry and a place where people could experience His rest.
In thanks for your partnership in the gospel,
John