John White - Developing Church Leadership in the Russian Speaking World DCU, Prospect Ilicha 106-A, Donetsk 83059, UKRAINE July, 2008 011-38050-567-6550 | jwhite@alumni.princeton.edu | http://www.marucheck.net/jw
It is my great pleasure and honor to announce that I am engaged to the lovely Stella Kuhtaryova! For some of you, this is hardly news. I sent out my announcement by e-mail and got responses from about 60 people! It is encouraging to know that people are excited and praying for me! Of course, a number of the people were upset that I didn't include a picture in my e-mail, so hopefully this letter will make up for my previous failure! I guess you can tell I'm excited by the number of exclamation points I'm using...I'll try to calm down and share a little bit about my bride to be...
Stella was born and raised in Makeevka (the twin city of Donetsk) and became a Christian at the age of 12, going to church with her mother and being led to the Lord by the pastor. Stella got involved in the worship team at her church and a small group Bible study, and at a young age became one of the leaders of both. Stella was encouraged by the assistant pastor of her church to apply to DCU, and after finishing a one-year certificate, Stella entered the bachelor of theology program. As she was studying, the public relations department needed help, especially in doing English translations, so Stella was offered a part-time job.
Stella was working in the PR department when I met her back in 2002. She actually wrote my first letter of invitation for a visa from DCU! When I started working in the PR department in 2003, we saw each other often, with Stella doing translations into English and me editing them. Since then, we have been through a lot together at work, and as our feelings started to grow, we decided to start dating back in April, 2007. Being from different cultures, we have had our share of misunderstandings. But, we were both committed to seek God's will for our relationship and to really strive to understand one another (we have two languages to work with, although we almost always use Russian!).
In addition to working at DCU, Stella is also studying part-time at a university in Gorlovka (about two hours from Donetsk) in a program for English teachers. This demands a lot of her time, and I have been doing the best I can to help her, where possible. Stella has just finished her third year of a four-year bachelor's program.
Stella and I plan to get married in Donetsk on August 10. We also hope that Stella will be appointed as a missionary with WorldVenture in the coming months, and we plan to go to Colorado for the interview process in late October. We would really appreciate your prayers for us as we get married, go through the appointment process, seek additional support as missionaries, and continue our work at DCU (and Stella her part-time studies). We have a lot on our plates, and need a great deal of God's grace to make it through.
If everything works out, we hope to spend more time in the States in the summer of 2009, and perhaps we can see a lot of you personally then. In the meantime, thank you so much for your prayers and support!
In Him,
John