Day Three

Praise the Lord that our counseling went well today. We spent 2 hours with the couple and they seemed to respond well to the advice we gave them.

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Today was the second day of our seminar. The Lord was gracious and everyone was able to come so the seats all were full. Sherry taught on the Role of the Wife and then PW taught on Causes of conflict and the Differences of Men and Woman. We laughed so much today that the time just flew by. One lady got so tickled with the teaching on the differences that she literally put her head down on the desk and howled. Every time she got control she would think about it again and start laughing all over. It was very funny. This group of people is very interactive so they not only laugh, they talk to you while you teach which makes it very easy to share the word. They also lean forward and take notes. All in all it has been very fruitful and fun.

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The sun is shining here today and we are hoping that the weather will improve for the rest of the week. We cannot post pictures yet since we are using a land line but as soon as we arrive in Uzghorod we will post the pictures of your brothers and sisters here in Kirovograd.

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Thanks for all the comments. It is encouraging to us. Have a blessed day.
With love, Wayne and Sherry

Day Two

Today went really well. The church we were at has about 500 members and the place was packed out. PW preached two messages in 45 minutes and it was great. A DVD of the message was recorded and we hope to bring a copy home. The first message was There Was a Man Sent from God (about John the Baptist) and the second was the Peace and Joy Principle. Wayne preached with enthusiasm and authority and used quite a bit of humor. We shared communion with our brothers and sisters here, a very special time. After communion we prayed with the church leaders for the sick. Around 50 people come forward.
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After service we went out to dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant with authentic food. Anyone want to guess what PW ordered? A pizza. Can you believe it?!
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Tomorrow will be full. We are counseling two couples then doing the seminar from 3-8 p.m. A clock with Ukrainian time can be found on the left sidebar of our blog. Thanks for praying for us!
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Love,
Pastor Wayne and Sherry

Day One

Today's seminar went well. Our day started at 7 a.m., with the seminar starting at noon. We met with the pastor and his wife before we began. There were 30 people in attendance for today's meeting. PW taught on the Purpose of Marriage and the Role of the Husband. The people were very interactive, laughing and responding to questions. They liked the idea they were getting homework in the marriage checkups. They wanted to know if they had to turn them in or keep them. We told them it was for their benefit and to use it personally as couples. We also gave them conversation starters to help them in their communication. Afterwards the responses were great. Many went to the pastor and told him he was right when he told them they would be blessed by the teaching. They can not wait until Monday and neither can we!There were several couples that the pastor said had troubled relationships and he was glad they came.
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Afterwards we went to the pastor's home for dinner and visited with him and his wife and Richard and Anya (our translator) for several hours. We are now headed to bed to rest for tomorrow's preaching at Living Hope Church.
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We are praying for you all as you worship together tomorrow!
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Wayne and Sherry

Arrival in Kirovograd

We are safe and sound in Kirovograd. Pastor Nick is precious and very hospitable. We have our own apt. with a wood burning fireplace...much to PW's delight!

It worked

Wow the Lord allowed me to get on so I can post. I want to say thank you to all of you who have commented. It blesses us no end to know that you are praying for us and that you are dropping us little notes.
It is snowing out at the moment and the sun is shining at the same time. Anya and Richard are on the way hopefully to meet us and Nick will pick us up around 11. We travel all day today so appreciate your prayers.
We are getting excited in our spirits as we pray about beginning our ministry tomorrow. It is always such an adventure to meet new people and know that even if we don't speak the same language we serve the same Lord. It is such a privilege to be able to play even a small part in helping them to grow in any way in their walk with God.
Oh and Rannie, we are also praying that the Father will allow us to come to the Phillipines some day and meet you in person. We have grown in our love for you and your church and can't wait to see what the Lord will do in the coming days. Meanwhile keep on faithfully serving our Lord.
Well must go and get into the word so we are ready for tomorrow.
Blessings to you all,
Wayne and Sherry

Arrival and Unexpected Meetings

Mom and Dad arrived safely in Ukraine around 5:30 this morning our time. The flight was very uneventful and roomy. When they arrived in Frankfurt they 'happened' to see Gordon Wright, who was also on his way to Kiev for a week of teaching. They were able to sit next to each other and visit the entire flight. How encouraging it must have been to see a fellow American believer and be able to encourage one another on the way to minister to others.
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Please continue to pray for them daily! You can see the time in Ukraine on the left sidebar of the blog. It is helpful as you pray for them to know where they are in their day.
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Jen

Favor

Unexpected surprises - that is what the Lord had up His sleeve for us today. We were headed for Chicago and heard our name over the loud speaker. When we arrived at the desk we were told they were going to have to change us to United leaving out of Washington instead of Chicago. The best part? Without us saying a word, the lady said that because of the inconvenience they were putting us in economy plus seats! That means five extra inches of leg room and wider seats! Those of you who have flown know that is like being given front row seats at an Indian's game. We are overcome with thankfulness and gratitude to the Lord for this answered prayer. Keep praying, please.
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Much love, Wayne and Sherry

Praise the Lord

We have to thank you all for praying about the airline negotiations. Lufthansa pilots and management have reached an agreement and they will not strike. So that means we will leave on schedule in the morning. Hopefully we will be able to post in Kiev and then daily while in Kirovograd, but if not we will give an update over the phone to Jen and she will post for us.
Please keep us in prayer each day. On friday we will be traveling for about 5 hours by car and they are predicting snow showers. Now here in the States that would pose no problem, but in Ukraine the roads are horrid and the idea of sliding all over the highway is not our idea of a relaxing drive. So please pray for safety for us. We will start teaching on Saturday and then it will be a marathon daily the rest of the week. We just found out our seminar will not start until 5 each day Mon - Fri and we will teach until 9:30 so it will be along day. Of course on a mission trip flexibility is the name of the game so we are prepared if things change again.
Blessings to you all,
Wayne and Sherry

6 Days to go

Well time is passing quickly and we still have so much to do. It is hard to believe that in 6 days Lord willing we will be on a plane to Europe. I love the anticipation of wondering what the Lord is going to do through our ministry on these trips. He has so faithfully provided every single need we have had so far. Our prayer is that He will also answer our prayers concerning Lufthansa pilots and management reaching agreement.
Ok, here is the current schedule which can change at any given moment on a mission trip.
Wed. March 10 - fly to Kiev arrive on the 11th.
Thurs. March 11 rest at the hotel and hopefully catch up on sleep
Friday March 12 Richard and Anya to meet us and then Nick Litvin will pick us up for the 4 or 5 hour drive to Kirovograd
Saturday March 13 Start Pastors/Wives seminar around 12
Sunday March 14 Wayne to preach
Monday - Friday Seminar each day and counseling afterwards
Saturday March 20 4 to 5 hour drive to Kiev and fly to Uzghorod Arrive around 10:30 p.m.
Sunday March 21 Wayne to preach at the Methodist church
Monday - Friday - prayer meeting at 8, breakfast at 9, Pastors/Wives seminar each day from 10 - 1:30 counseling each afternoon until 6 then Mon, Wed, Thurs...seminar at the Methodist church from 7 - 9
Tuesday evening - Pastors wives and womens leaders tea at Nehemiah....Sherry will speak
Friday evening worship time and prayer at Nehemiah
Saturday morning leave at 7:30 for Kiev
Pastor Alexander will pick us up at the airport and take us to Zhitomyr which is a 2 hour drive. We will spend the afternoon and evening with he and his wife Irina
Sunday morning - Wayne to preach at Alexanders church and then we will spend some time fellowshipping with the church and leave for the airport around 3. Hopefully get to bed early because we leave at 5:30 a.m. for home
Please pray specifically that we stay healthy, have Gods anointing in what we do and that lives are changed. Pray for our family to stay healthy and for the church to be at peace with no crisis while we are gone.
Thank you, With Love, Wayne and Sherry

A few more pictures from the Seminar

Marriage Seminar 2010

We wanted to post a few pictures from our taping of the DVD for the Ukraine. We had so much fun. We ended up with around 98 participants who were very attentive and excited to be there for the day. We laughed alot and made some new friends. The feedback on the material presented was good and the thing that blessed us the most was to hear couples talking during the breaks and talking about their own marriages. PTL.


Judy, Julie, Bruce and Kim served our guests lunch and did a great job. Thanks to you all.

New Prayer need
We just found out today Feb. 22, that Lufthansa pilots are threatening a strike if negotiations fail by March 8. We are scheduled to fly out on March 10. Please pray that details are worked out and that we can arrive safely and on time at our destination.
As soon as we have our schedule we will post it for those of you who pray for us.
Blessings, Wayne and Sherry

God is Awesome

If you remember in a previous post we had found out that our flight from Kiev to Uzghorod and back had been cancelled. Thank you to all who prayed for that to get worked out, our travel agent was able to get us another flight with a different airline and it was even less expensive. How we praise our Lord for the many answers to prayer even for simple things like this.

We have 103 signed up to be part of our audience on Sat. for the taping of our Basic Marriage Seminar. As soon as it is edited, we will be taking it to our Ukranian translators who will begin working on the script to do the voiceover in Russian. This will be a valuable resource for us to be able to give away free to Pastors from small villages who are wanting a marriage seminar. Some of these villages are so off the beaten path that it is not feasible for us to go, but we want to minister to them.

We are scheduled to leave America on March 10 and would appreciate your prayers for us as we finish up our preperations here at home. With all the snow we have had lately we have to line up men to come clear our driveway so our mothers can get in and out if if snows. We are also trying to make sure everything at CCF is lined up so Pastor Bill who works full time at a secular job does not have more on his plate than necessary.

The scripture says that the Steps of the Rigtheous are ordered by the Lord and we can surely see that is happening in our lives. We have been invited to come to Latvia, Romania and the Phillipines to do our seminars. Please pray for us to hear clearly about which ones to accept so that we are right in the center of the Lords will.

We want to encourage all of you to stay connected to the Lord in these exciting times we live in. Remember He is more concerned with relationship than religion so press into Him and seek His face not His hands.

Waiting for His soon return.
Wayne and Sherry

Basic Marriage Seminar

We would like to invite anyone who is reading this to a come to CCF on Feb 20 from 9-5 for our Basic Marriage Seminar. There is no charge and a free lunch will be provided. We will be making a DVD on this day so a volunteer audience is needed. You can sign up by calling the church at 440-285-3535.
Thanks to a grant by a generous friend, we are now able to make a DVD of our seminar to take to the Ukraine for translation into Russian. This will enable us to give the seminar to Pastors from small villages where travel for us is not possible. We have been asked by the Ukranians for years to write a book so this is the next best thing because now they can offer the seminar to the couples and engaged couples in their churches. The making of this DVD will also enable us to broaden our ministry in the Eastern Europe. We are also considering having this made into a book form to be able to pass it out when we go. The seminar is full of biblical truth on marriage and is what we teach the first time we go to an area. We may be making further DVD's of different teachings in the future.
Please keep us in prayer as we tackle this venture.
Also as we get nearer to our actual trip - March 10 - 27, the enemy likes to hit us here at home to keep us so distracted that we cannot give ourselves to study. Prayer support is so appreciated.
God Bless You all as you seek the Lord in 2010. He is the only one worth giving our lives to serve and we trust that you are one of those who are truly seeking Him. There is much work to be done in these last days.
Wayne and Sherry

Picture number one is of Jen our daughter and Sherry
Second picture: The guy on the left and the lady in red are our capable and very trusted Associate PastorBill and his wife Edie. They take great care of our congregation while we are gone. Bill is also a gifted teacher of the word. Thanks Bill. The other couple is Pastor Doug and Rhonda Osbourne from Willoughby Ohio.

God's timing

I felt a real strong prompting of the Holy Spirit to call Lufthansa and check out our tickets today and to my surprise found out that the tickets from Kiev to Uzghorod have been cancelled. So we have called our agent so she can check it out and see what is going on. Please pray that we are able to make this work since we don't want to be stranded in Kiev when we are supposed to be in Uzghorod on the 20th. Smile time......I am glad we found this out now instead of standing in the airport in a foreign country trying to get to our next destination. Anyway, just wanted to give you all an update so you can pray. Thanks. Sherry

Our precious Grandchildren and the dogs

Wayne and Sherry at Christmas

Happy New Years

We pray that 2010 will be the year that the Lord will reveal Himself to each one of you in a special way. The time is short and the Harvest is ripe and we pray that you will take the season we are in seriously. It is not the time to be padding your resting places or trying to buy the latest toys or fill your time with idleness. There are millions who have not heard the good news of the gospel so be about the Fathers business this year. Feast on the word of God, pray and listen to His still small voice and then obey. Find a missionary or two to support and give to the local rescue missions,, get involved in your local church and shine for the Lord.
All of our money is in for this trip because of your generous gifts. We hope to refresh the teachings that we have done in the past, add some new ones and be able to feed His children with fresh bread. Please pray for us as we prepare and ask the Lord to give us extended times to be able to sit at His feet and hear Him so we can share what is on His heart not only abroad but to our church family here at home.
We have heard from many of our friends in Ukraine and we want to ask you to pray especially for Valodya and Oksana. Oksanas sister and her family were brutally murdered in Nov. and they are all trying to work through the emotions that go along with this tragedy.
We will try to post a little more often as the time of our trip approaches. God bless you all.
With love,
Wayne and Sherry