Kyiv Countdown Aug 11 2002

Kyiv Countdown Aug 11 2002

Kyiv Countdown

from Ron & Linda Harris

August 11, 2002

19 Days!

(If you don't see an update in September... Hellllp!

It means at best Linda is having computer troubles overseas, or

at worst ... who knows!? Watch and Pray! Linda will try to at least email you)

Joy and Sadness As God’s Exciting Picture continues to be shared.

PRAISE God for the opportunity Ron & Linda had last Sunday to share briefly at both worship services at Huron Park Baptist Church, Woodstock. After four years Ron passes the baton to Wellspring associate, Ken Vandersluis. Pastor Bob McGregor provided time for a mini-overview of the Harrises future work in Kyiv. It was wonderful to bring our passion personally before the people. We have a couple of more presentations to do this week as well. Your prayers are much needed and appreciated as we push through this stressful but exciting time. The emotions of chapters closed and friends and family tears of love are more than either of us anticipated. Still, God’s hand delivering special mercies has been quite evident and so encouraging. We are certain your prayers are behind much of this blessing. Thank you so much!

(See details further down for viewing July 30th slide show or text only of World Team "RACE Report / 31 Days)

Kyiv Cake Cut in Ontario

Harris Household Upside Down

PRAISE God for grocery stores boxes. Yes, Ron’s library was the first to be packed. Potato boxes, orange, apple, and lemon boxes, and the traditional favourite, banana boxes. All are heavy duty. Packing has begun, and we should have a few more trips to the dump. A friend helped all day packing and delivering items for storage, Kyiv now, Kyiv later, for Dawna (possibly Ottawa), and for Angela in Ottawa. Other friends await our call. This move is obviously more complex than any we’ve done before but though Ron and I feel more than a little weary and “dull” at times we also feel that God is truly enabling! Angela was here today taking away more stuff and returns to truck the rest away August 26th & 27th. (That way our “stuff” gets used by a houseful of Christian young ladies while we don’t need it and if we accidentally on

purpose forget about some items, everyone is happy.) Pray TRAVELLING MERCIES for dear vivacious, organizing expert Ange!

Dawna Laurie (left); Angela Marie (right)

PRAY for space / weight efficient packing. We need to reserve space and weight on the August 30th flight for boxes we will take with us, so this part of the packing needs to be done ASAP. In process this week.

CAR SALE! PRAY for the sale of the ‘97 Ford Escort. It is advertised this week (just under 6 grand), with only three weeks to go! Ask God for a buyer to come forth. Good, fine, wonderful little car that got superbly spruced up at sacrificially low cost, thanks to the expertise and love of a faithful friend.

PRAY for Partnership Development Plan.

We, Ron & Linda, are attempting to set up a great system taught by World Team to continue to build a foundation of partners for the Ukraine ministry after they leave. Though we are confident it will happen, time constraints this month are the major concern with this happening sooner rather than later. We desire a team of promoters to continue to share the vision and provide opportunity for giving to God for this work. Ask God for wisdom and people who are excited, faithful and available for this project. Many need to be contacted, and there are hundreds who probably do not know Wellspring is expanding to Kyiv and throughout Ukraine and other Russian-speaking countries!

PRAY for completion of donor registrations with World Team.

We thank many of you for your response, and request those who have indicated intentions to join the partnership team to contact World Team. We are required to verify 100% support before leaving in 19 days. There is significant monies still to come in, and we continue to look to Him to provide. Yes we have the 100 % funding go ahead but it is not long term (even 3 years which is what it takes for one student to complete one cycle of courses/training) There are logical, reasonable, sane, biblical! reasons to expand the prayer and donor base such that no one person bears an inordinately heavy load of financial support. There are also normal reasons this has not yet happened but no reason to believe it will not. (Partnership Development item for more on that) World Team Canada Donor Registration Form : Click here

If you have 5 minutes (or less with fast computer), check SLIDE SHOW at

Linda Web Show July 02

To view slides, choose OK to Download

Some give options such as below

~ RUN from current location (takes 5 to 3 min. Don't always believe the high numbers you see)

~ Install (takes seconds)

~ When it is ready, if "disappears", is probably at bottom of your screen. (one of possibly 2 there works if you just click on it)

(No certificate but its safe . Use arrow keys to navigate or click slide)

If does not work for you or you're in a hurry, try this TEXT ONLY link instead (July 30th, 2002: World Team / R.A.C.E. Report)

PRAY for the myriad of “little decisions.”

It is incredible the number of decisions we need to make at every turn, as we work through the World Team departure checklist. Updating wills, determining forwarding address, power of attorney for this, power of attorney for that, what to keep, what to store, what to part with and what to set aside to follow us to Kyiv at a later time,

Adam, Dawna

& Angela

definitely

appreciate

your prayers

as well!

Dawna Laurie (b.'81)

Angela Marie (b. '80)

Noel Adam , b. '85 is off to

Kyivland for 1 year with us

The prayers, activity, plans,

& Kiev emails are all stirring

excitement

countering his turmoil

at leaving friends

for the unknown.

Thank you

for your concern

and prayers.

~~~

PRAY for the girls.

While Ron, Linda and Adam pack, Angela and Dawna are impacted with the reality of the move. Angela is nicely settled in the research job in Ottawa, and Dawna Laurie’s path is still unclear - at the 11th hour. Pray for God’s grace and care to keep us leaning heavily upon Him as He directs the steps of D2 (as we affectionately call her). Dawna is surrendered to God’s will, trusting Him more though feeling perplexed and “down” that her plans for art college seem to be frustrated, at least for now. (A long story). Workers at the local copy store were intensely impressed by Dawna’s work, their comments moving Ron to tears as he picked up copies.

You asked, sooooo... here they are! Our precious trio:

PRAISE God for passports and visas in hand!

We have heard many a drama of missionary visa stories! Fortunately, in God’s goodness, He has given us relief from this all-too-common anxiety.

Where will we LIVE? The American Pediatrician and his wife, Dr & Mrs. Peipon, will be stateside for two months on tour with Kyiv's extraordinary musicians (under the baton of Roger McMurrin : musicmissionkiev.org). We are told we will be at the mercy of the Peipon children as we live with them and search for a rental flat in the center of the capital city of 3 million people. Every Peipon is a delight. God IS good!!!

FINAL PRAISE. With all the pressures, challenges, squeezes, obligations, testings, trials... our weaknesses are more apparent yet His grace is wonderfully more evident. (We're all-five actually having surprising laughs though it all.) Thank you for bringing us before the Throne, and for supporting us in prayer. What an encouragement - as we do things we have never done before!

It means ... SPASEEBA! Thank you!

We cannot thank you enough for your prayer and financial support.

Enjoy being part of God’s kingdom work!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Dr. Ron Harris: Founder/ Director Wellspring of Life Biblical Counselling Service ~ wellspringoflife.com

Academic Dean Ukraine Family Institute

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Past News/Excerpts from July prayer letter (not all items listed):

Pray for us in Warrington, PA. July 18-27th. ....As part of the application process to World Team, North American candidates are required to attend RACE. Reciprocal Assessment and Candidate Evaluation is World Team's process for assessing, evaluating and selecting people for intercultural ministry. It is 10 days of learning from morning to night about World Team, personal heart issues, financial challenges, equipping and planning, and all sort of other things which you can see listed on the World Team website. (We are working with World Team Canada http://www.world-team.org but the RACE details can be seen on the US website which is http://www.worldteam.org ) World Team has 100 + 100 year history. (Check website for explanation) We are both excited and nervous about these 10 days. World Team Canada has indicated all along that they do not foresee any problems and they do believe it will be a blessing. Certainly Ron and I strongly desire all the help / direction we can get since aside from our familiarity with moving lots and over 20 years of counselling ministry which included short term missions trips, this will be a drastically new and challenging experience for us. We expect to learn some things that would have been best already implemented this year, however obviously God’s timing did not fit the WT pattern in this situation. Certainly we will put into action good RACE advice ASAP upon our return from Pennsylvania.

AMAZING! PRAISE GOD for Ron’s meeting with Adam’s high school principal and planning by phone with Adam’s teachers. Adam’s grade 12 courses are set up for his 9 months in Kyiv such that he will graduate, D.V., with his OSSD from Bluevale Collegiate Institute back in Waterloo next June. Clearly God granted favour to us in the planning. Again doors were opened for an OAC instrumental music credit supervised by Adam’s Bluevale teacher, and a credit for Adam’s Russian study as credit for a third language. There was an amazing resolution of irregularities, administrative and bureaucratic messiness, summer schedules, and seeming impossibilities. The "coincidences" of histories of the key people involved in granting or denying permission for Adam’s school courses overseas are amazing! Though the principal of Adam's school put Ron through intense scrutiny and questioning, he proved he'd done his homework and so she gave a letter of approval. Then she relaxed and shared some of her background which involved living and working overseas, having Ukrainian relatives, and ... learning Russian! We again stand awed by God’s personal care.

AMAZING! PRAISE GOD for provision for Adam’s need of a bassoon in Kyiv. Adam will be supervised, you will notice, in the senior instrumental music course. The school here has gone the second and third mile in virtually giving the bassoon to Adam for unlimited use. (He has served with the worship team in Sunday worship, for example.) Yet Adam needs to return the bassoon, and he will be bassoonless. Again, answer to prayer. God has heard our prayer. More on this later... though once again ... intriguing connections to Ukraine, music, flights from persecution and the war, and efforts to send music care packages back to the homeland were discovered in the two key people who could make (and did make ) this happen!

AWESOME ARTYOM! We are so excited about Artyom’s excellence in perception and translation of the curriculum. (By the way, he IS feeling better after his health scare. Thanks for the prayers.)

PRAISE GOD for your faithful, fruitful prayers. God is blessing behind-the-scenes labours by Linda and Ron. We have not spent time telling people the hours and hours of work invested in the launch of Ukraine Family Institute but owe you faithful prayer warriors a part in enjoying fruit! We want to be faithful to God’s call on our lives, and there has been an average of 10 hours a week since October that Ron has invested in curriculum and leadership development, with emails and periodic calls to Artyom and Mike . Countless hours beyond those dealt with other preparations (hence little time for fundraising, yet God blesses. We will have to work on that on return trips, which we now understand is fairly normal). Ron and Linda have spent about 1000 hours since October toward the launch of UFI in January. Ron says there is no way he could have managed this without Linda’s perseverance and sacrificial energy with the details of communications and administration while keeping Wellspring going. This time includes some but not all the demands of relocating 7,600 km away into a different language and culture. Mike and Artyom are also working long volunteer hours in preparations and their own fundraising for UFI. The US based IFI (International Faith Initiatives) board and Canadian World Team are chalking up hours to pull this together too. The reason you need to know this is that many of you have been praying for us for months. All of the curriculum development happens behind closed doors, and yet this last week we are at a place where Ron has completed the first 3 modules and is 75% completed the 4th module. Artyom has completed translation of the first module, and Ron has answered some 15 questions on points of translation for cultural clarity and application. Your prayers have been and are being answered. God is enabling us to overcome variant computer programs, transmission problems, and our aging and overloaded desktop computer’s untowardness, the latter seeming to be in the throes of death. (Though there is desperate need there, please do not "surprise" us in your generosity, as a new computer specifics would need to be known to accomplish the wide variety of projects & ways Ron and Linda, and now internet student Adam put it to use, and to ensure service options in Ukraine. But please do pray.) Back to our hours, greying hair, and your prayers. There is fruit! We pray that it will be fruit that remains and multiplies in the hearts of Ukrainians.

A SPECIAL REQUEST. We do need a new computer. Any and all contributions welcome of course. Wellspring’s (our) present Pentium 1 has been stretched and fixed to the limit since 1997. It is now very slow and back to freezing and crashing very frequently in spite of defragmenting/optimizing etc. There’s a list of other problems as well. (See important caution in above paragraph) "But I thought UFI took care of that?" Yes they do (Mike does as he continues to fundraise) including office supplies for Ron and the other staff. However we still have considerable work that is done at home (ie. study, courses, syllabi etc.soon from our Kiev flat) and transferred to Artyom and others in Ukraine, and to various places in Canada, as well as much email and Linda’s website building & maintaining, newsletters, financial record keeping and Adam’s schooling, etc. Working in (and loving) Corel while the rest of the world uses Microsoft is also a problem that Linda would like resolved for Ron/UFI and there is no room for that on our present computer.

TRIO SHOT! All 3 of us got immunized yesterday and today got the mandatory HIV testing (though now we discover that some disagree that it IS mandatory). Ron and I get two more doses before we leave.

DECISIONS DECISIONS. CONTAINER or LIVE LIGHT? and LURING DAWNA: Well, Ron’s library can hardly be considered light! but when you leave behind my harps (rent), Ron’s grand piano (loaned), and our other instruments which total a fortune in dollars and ministry memories and potential, there’s not much left worth the huge cost of shipping a container (full or not you pay the same). It would be cheaper to buy a few things there and live in a furnished flat. I have never really felt right about taking a bunch of stuff over there though the idea of giving to the Ukrainians what we didn’t need appealed to me greatly. Then came comments from other missionaries stirring up memories of our newlywed days when we had so little. So yesterday Ron and I started reconsidering what to take and how. Then Mike gave us various options and tips on that. Then today our daughter Angela phoned from Ottawa all excited about a home she and other girls had found to rent that is as big as this home here but is entirely unfurnished. They all want Dawna to move in with them, and of course they’d be glad to store/use our special items of furniture we’d like to keep in the family. Sooooooo ... decisions, decisions! Please pray for wisdom ... and for Dawna’s heart to soften towards Ottawa? It’s super church situation. Apparently there are many job opportunities and of course Hairdressing Schools. It is very spiritually healthy and Angela has had lots of fun and many exciting outings with the young adults ever since she arrived in this new-to-her city two months ago.

:( $ :) DO WE STILL NEED TO FUNDRAISE? Yes. Leaning on the Lord step by step, rejoicing in His goodness along the way.

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