HOW TIME FLIES!

We’ve been so busy! The last blog post was October 5^th?!?! So much has happened with the Church and School over the last 2 months. God has been so good to us! He’s blessed us, loved us, strengthened us and guided us through many things. I’m so thankful to be His son!

 Let’s start with the Church. Over the last 2 months we’ve had our ups and downs in life and in attendance. Twice in the last 2 months we’ve set record attendances. We’ve also had a couple of Sundays when we had 6 or 8 people. This is the life of a small and growing (spiritually and physically) Church. We’ve had some of our church family go through tragedies and major health struggles. Some of these are still on going. It is through blessings and trials that we continue to grow in Christ and becoming closer together. We had a nice gathering for my birthday at my apartment with 30 in attendance coming and going! Then we had a Thanksgiving feast last Sunday after services at my apartment with 18 people coming.

 Our Family English School continues with faithful teachers and workers teaching classes 4 days a week. We’ve also had regular fun and movie nights that are a lot of fun. People from other Christian English Schools told us we would have larger numbers to start with and that some would drop out. They also told us that we would develop a strong core group that would stay with us through thick and thin. They were right on both situations. Those that are staying with us are becoming more and more like family all the time! We have 3 classes a day with 12 classes each week.

 Time flies when I think that I have now been in Ukraine for 9 months! My original plan that I am keeping was to be in Kremenchuk for 9 months and in the USA for 3 months. I go to Kiev tomorrow afternoon and fly out to the US on Monday, December 2^nd to visit my family and friends, returning to Ukraine in March. Everything is in place. My two English teachers will take care of my classes that I have been teaching. I have written all the material necessary for the next 3 months for their classes. Artur, our faithful Ukrainian preacher, will guide the Church spiritually. He has been doing a great job for us the last 6 months!

 I will keep you updated as I am in the US. I’m going to Coppell, TX (by Dallas) first to visit my daughter Jenise and family. Then I go to York, NE to visit my son Ben and family. From there I’ll go to Bettendorf, IA to visit my daughter Janessa and family. Then I fly to WA to visit my son Butch and family. Along the way, I hope to visit several of my supporting Churches and individuals and share with them of the Lord’s work in Kremenchuk! Then I’ll come back home to Kremenchuk.

Good News! Good News!

Great things are happening in Kremenchuk! Nine months ago, we began our Church plant here in Kremenchuk. Over that 9 months the Church is growing. We have had 5 baptisms! We have found a place for our worship and English School. Our first worship service in the new building was in mid-September and now we have just finished our first week of our Family English School which we began on October 2^nd.

In our Family English School, we have conducted 12 classes over 4 days with 51 people coming to these classes! That’s 51 MORE people than we would have been able to teach the gospel to if it wasn’t for holding our family English School! More than one half of these attending are adults! We have had a wonderful fun time teaching English AND the Bible in every class! God is so good and blessed us so abundantly. We are just getting started!!

Most everyone in our congregation has helped in someway in the establishing and running of the church and school! We have such a great family atmosphere! This has been a very successful group effort. I’m so thankful to have Olya and Yulya assisting in teaching the younger classes at the school and translating for me when I need it!

Some prayer requests: Our sister Inna’s sister has a very bad health issues with cancer. We need to raise more support as our success and outreach grows. We expected growth but with growth comes unexpected expenses. Our brother Sasha R. has had some real struggles with his health and his mother recently passed away.

Thank you for your love and participation in the work of the Lord here in Kremenchuk.

In Christian love,

Doug Berry

Where We Are & Where We Are Going

We have been blessed by so many in the States and in Ukraine to help the work of the Lord here in Kremenchuk move forward! God be praised! We want to take a quick look at where we have come from to where we are. Then we will look at where we will go with the Lord’s help and those that work with us and support us in this work.

Phase 1: Establish and plant a new church of Christ in Kremenchuk. This has been clearly and successfully begun! Over the last few weeks, even with summer vacations, we have averaged 14. This last Sunday we had 15, the week before 17 – and this is with several out of town. Our contribution has been growing and steady as well. This shows a growth and maturity of the local congregation.

We have been to two Bible Camps this summer with great results and blessings. We have had 5 baptisms in the month of August. Other Bible studies are ongoing with other people as well. A final note is that we have had an online fund raiser to help Inna, the Christian mother of 5 teenager Orphans raise the money she needs to fix her roof. We raised over $1,200.00 in under 3 days for needs for the home.

Phase 2: Find and hire a native Ukrainian preacher to work with us. Artur Litvinenko joined us in the work on June 3^rd. Over the last 2 ½ months we are becoming more aware of what a jewel of a Brother in Christ we have! He handles ½ of the preaching and Bible Classes we teach along with working with the youth.

Phase 3: the establishment of a church building to also be used as an English Bible School. We have found a building that we think will fit our needs very well! This is more than what we have budgeted but we do believe that God will provide through the generous support from our Christian family of the Church in the USA. I’ll put the budget plans shortly in an email to everyone on my email list, but not here in the blog. If you want more information about these financial plans and budgets, please let me know.

There are 3 very successful English Bible Schools being run in Ukraine right now by 3 different churches of Christ. In September, myself and 2 others are going to visit 2 of these schools to see what they are doing so we can incorporate their successes into what we want to do here in Kremenchuk.

What Do You Do When You Meet an Atheist?

I’m getting to know a young man through English classes. We started talking about people having different values and I found out he was an atheist. I’m not really surprised because a lot of younger people in Ukraine have come to this same conclusion because of so many reasons. Reasons like evil and pain in the world. Reasons like so many different and confusing religions including so many different Christian types of churches.

So what do you do? I’m definitely not sure of all the answers and I haven’t gotten very far as of yet. I started by getting him to talking about his feelings and values and why he believed what he believed. I didn’t really try to answer all of his objections and reasons for being a atheist. That would have only started an argument. I don’t want to argue, I want to understand so I can find a way to show him the way to Christ. I listened to him and really tried to understand him.

One thing that I did tell him that I think got him to thinking. I told him that a lot of people see atheism as a religion! That really took him back a bit! Then I told him that the early Christians were persecuted by the Greeks and Romans because they had many Gods and Christians had only one God. They said that Christians were atheists because they believed in only one God! Hopefully this will be a place that we can go from here.

When atheists become Christians, they are usually very strong Christians because of the transformation that takes place in their lives. Please pray for my new friend (name omitted for understandable reasons). Please pray for me as I strive to show him the way to Jesus!

Mid Summer’s Night Dream

Most of June was pretty “hot” by Ukraine standards with the temperatures ranging from mid-80s to mid-90’s. When many don’t have air conditioning it is hot. Fortunately, there is an air conditioner in my apartment that works well! Now our temperatures getting back to more normal with low to mid 70s! I like this much better!

 In my last writing I told you about preparing for some street evangelization. Artur, a friend from the Bear Valley Bible Institute, Taras, and our own Sasha took twice to the streets the week of June 17^th and handed out a lot of literature and invitations. I wasn’t feeling great, so I directed from home (I’m much better now!). They said that about ½ of the people they reached out to received them well and took literature!

 Early on the morning of July 1^st, 15 of us, including 5 small children, left for the Amerikraine Bible Camp about a 4-hour bus ride southeast of Kremenchuk, along the Dnieper River. We arrived at camp 1pm. I was very pleasantly surprised to find it more of a Ukrainian resort than many “camps” I have seen in Ukraine with the facilities being very nice! We had our first meeting and devotional at 4pm with about 350+ mostly Christians from across Ukraine! There were 40+ congregations and 4 countries represented at this camp! It was amazing! One of the things that was most amazing to me was that there were over 30 Christians from the Donetsk region that is now held by the occupying forces backed by Russia! They had to go through a lot to get here and to back but they made the extra effort! They are such great people of faith and fortitude! It was such a great blessing to meet them and get to know some of them!

 The camp gets its name from Americans and Ukrainians working together to make this great family camp work! Jeff Abrams, a gospel preacher from Alabama has been the moving force behind this camp for 17 years. This is something that the Churches of Christ in Ukraine have needed for a long time – the unity and fellowship for us to know that we are a big family that can love and work together for Christ’s great cause and purpose! It was only about 4 days long, but it was so worth it! I’ll be sharing some pictures with you here in this post. You can also see many more pictures by going to my Facebook page and checking them out there.

 Artur will be taking 6 teenagers with him to another Bible Camp in western Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains. They will leave by train on Sunday afternoon, July 21^st and return on July 31^st! None of the teens that are going have yet to be baptized into Christ, so pray that this will be a very good learning and growing experience for them.

 Now that we are back, we are moving forward with evangelism which centers on outreach through street evangelism and English Clubs and Schools. More to come on the English School as time goes on. Let it be known that the Church in Kremenchuk is moving forward in a very positive way!

They were all laughing at a skit that Yulya, Olya, Sasha and I put on for the talent night called, "The Bula, Bula King!"

This is a picture taken on Tuesday, with everyone there in their camp t-shirts!

Artur, Marina and other singing a hymn that one of them wrote to the tune of the Ukrainian national anthem!

From a recent Sunday morning worship service in my apartment.

Summer Has Come on June 1^st

Summer arrives early in this part of the world – they don’t go by the solstice but from June 1 to the end of August is summer!

On Monday, June 3^rd, Artur Litvinenko arrived to begin his work with us! He stayed with me until Friday as he hunted for an apartment. He found a nice apartment on the 9^th floor in a building across the river, about 15 minutes or so from where I live. It will give him another opportunity to reach out to people in another part of the city.

We have ordered extra Bibles and evangelistic materials from EEM for outreach to the city. Artur did this kind of street evangelism often in his work in L’viv before coming here. Artur preached his first full time Sunday here and will preach the next 2 Sundays as I finish up our Bible Class on “God’s plan to save us.” Then we will switch off every 2 weeks between preaching and teaching. We’ve had 16 in attendance the last 2 Sundays.

We began mid-week Bible Class with singing, study and prayer time at 5:30 on Wednesdays. We had 11 our first night out! I was very pleased!

Other activities have been going on for me. On June 1^st, I went to the village where our Orphan family live and spent the afternoon and evening with Olya (a Christian sister and her family), Sasha (my translator Brother) and of course the family. It was very nice! One of the things I love about Ukraine, if people can, many times the meal is planned outside and is ALWAYS very good! This was a combination of 2 birthdays and 2 graduations. Another activity just happened yesterday and was the result of another birthday celebration. My next-door neighbors invited me to a village dacha (a 2^nd home in the country) to celebrate. We arrived about 2pm and were there until about 9pm. It was very relaxing, great company and a little swimming as their place (actually a fairly rich uncle’s place that they are caretakers for) is next to the Dnieper River.

We will be taking 15 people to an all Ukraine Bible Camp called Amerikraine designed to strengthen Christians.  This will be July 1-5. We all are excited about going! I’ll tell you all about it when we get back!

In Christian love, Doug

Who Held the Ropes?

by Steve Higginbotham
May 31, 2019

Who was the U.S. President that was shot on March 31, 1981? Surely, most people reading this would be able to correctly respond, "Ronald Reagan." But what if I were to ask for the name of the Washington D.C. police officer who stepped in front of President Reagan and took a bullet that was intended for the President?  Could you tell me his name?  I'm guessing that most people would not be able to recall his name.

This is just one example of countless individuals who have made notable differences in the world, but who have all but been forgotten by history. The Bible records one such example in Acts 9:23-25. The Jews in Damascus were so angry with Paul, they plotted to kill him (Acts 9:23). The Jews had all the exits to the city watched, day and night, to catch Paul. But learning of the plot, some nameless brethren let Paul down through the city wall in a large basket (Acts 9:25). Had these nameless brethren not been willing to hold the ropes for Paul, his ministry may have been snuffed out before it even started.

Then there's your story. You may never be in the limelight. Your name may never become a household name, but you can make an eternal difference in the lives of countless people. You may not be the next "apostle Paul," but you can hold the rope, can't you? May I encourage you to stop focusing on what you can't do and your limitations, and look around you and "grab a rope!"

Keep On Keeping On

Philippians 3:12-15
12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Every day is a choice to become more Christ like through the ups and downs of life. Another verse that has stayed in my heart and mind lately is Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Just some notes of some good things that have been going on here.

Ø  Our Sunday Bible Classes and Worship have gone well. We have been encouraged over the last few weeks. We’ve had a low of 8, with an average of 12 and a high this last Sunday with 16! Normally we have had a 25-minute Bible Class followed by our worship. This last Sunday we changed things up a bit with more songs in our worship. Then we had a farewell fellowship our dear Sister Sasha as she and her husband, who won a Green Card, will move to the US on May 31^st. Sasha Revakin and I were the only men present, so we took care of everything in the worship.

Ø  I’ve had the opportunity to reach out to our local Teacher’s College (there is another name for the teacher’s college, but I can’t pronounce it!) and they have reached out to me. I’m excited to be involved with them! A couple of weeks ago I was invited to go and speak to an 8^th grade and 11^th grade English classes. Then on Saturday, I was invited to go to a resort close by with them and taught a couple of English classes of 8^th graders. It was fun and a blessing! I believe this is opening great things for the future!

Ø  I’ve had opportunities to make re-acquaintances again with several people that God is already blessing! This too is opening more doors for the future! Along with this, I’ve been having more people over for home cooked meals and this is a lot of fun too. It is joy doing the work of the Lord!

Ø  On June 4^th, Artur will arrive in Kremenchuk to begin his ministry here. God has brought us together for His purpose to carry out His work in all we do!

 Thank you for your love and support through thick and thin! It’s like a marriage isn’t it? “For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part!”

ARTUR COMES TO JOIN US!

The Kremenchuk church of Christ would like to announce the hiring of Артур Литвиненко or in English Artur Litvinenko to serve as the Ukrainian preacher alongside Doug Berry, Michael Braswell and the Church in the work of the Lord in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. Artur will be joining us in Kremenchuk in early June. He is a graduate of the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Ukraine and has been working alongside 3 gospel preachers in L’viv, Ukraine this last year. We are excited to have him come and join us in this work!

The young lady in the picture is Artur's Christian girlfriend, Mariana Medvid and she also will be moving to Kremenchuk in the near future.

We are very excited to have them both come and be a part of the Church!

What Do You Do with Disappointment?

Many times, and sometimes with me, disappointment leads to discouragement and discouragement leads to quitting. Are we going to face disappointment in life? Of course! Everyone does! At one point in John 6 Jesus had a large crowd of disciples following Him and they all left except for the 12 and Jesus asked them if they would go too. Peter answered, “Where shall we go? You have the Words of Eternal Life.” What about the Garden and Jesus said, “Let this cup pass from me! But not my will but Yours be done!”

 It’s always good to report successes. I like to tell successes and I’m guessing you like to hear them. We’ve had some successes. 2 Sundays ago, we had 14 in attendance but last Sunday we had 5 – a lot of people gone for various reasons. Our Bible Club’s attendance has been disappointing for me. We’ve now gone through 2 weeks of “starting” our Bible Clubs with very small or no attendance. I’m not exactly sure why but I tend to spend time thinking about it. Even in these situations I have to decide how to respond or react. We’ve had some positives even with this – we’ve had some new people to come! We’ve had 1 good beginners Bible Club after Sunday worship where we had 7 in attendance!

What do I choose? First and foremost, I’ve been praying about all of this and the work here. Please continue to join me in prayer! I don’t have the answers, but God does! I’m striving to look at new ways to meet people and reach out to them. I refuse to go down the negative road!

We’ve had one young preacher come and spend the weekend with us and he did a nice job. Pray for Ivan. This weekend Artur L. and his fiancé Mariana from L’viv comes in today and leave Sunday night. Pray for Artur L. Next weekend we have Artur M. come in from Dnipro. Please pray for Artur M and our decision making about a Ukrainian Preacher to work with us here.

There is a LOT to be encouraged about! Satan will NOT win for “If God for us, who is against us!?” Romans 8:31.

Whit Sasser of Appleton, WI posted this. It spoke strongly to me and I wanted to share it with you.

THE WORK GOD HAS GIVEN US TO DO

The Lord has given every man his work. It is his business to do it, and the Devil's business to hinder him, if he can. As sure as God has given you a work to do, Satan will try to hinder you. He may present other things more promising. He may allure you by worldly prospects; he may assault you with slander; torment you with false accusations; set you to work to defend your character; employ pious persons to lie about you. You may have Pilate and Herod, Annas and Caiaphas against you, and Judas standing ready to sell you for 30 pieces of silver.

But, keep about your work. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the Devil's dog. Do your work. Let liars lie, let the Devil do his worst; but see to it that nothing hinders you from fulfilling the work God has given you.

He has not sent you to make money. He has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you to defend your character. He has not set you to work to contradict falsehood which Satan and his servants start to peddle. If you do these things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself, and not for the Lord.

Keep about your work. Let your aim be steady as a star. Let the world brawl and bubble. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded and neglected; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends and despised and rejected of men. But see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being, until at last you can say, "I have finished the work you gave me to do."   

Author Unknown

One Month Today!

 Yes, I’ve been in Kremenchuk one month today! Sometimes it feels like I never left and other times I realize that this first month has flown by!! Rather than try to tell you lots of events, I thought I would share a day – Wednesday to be exact. My days differ a lot, but this last Wednesday was rather busy!

 A Day in My Life

I started with the normal stuff of cleaning up and eating – can’t leave those out. I’m getting ready to go with Sasha R., he’s my translator and fellow worker here, to reach out to at least 3-4 schools and ask if I can be involved with their English programs and also invite pupils (anyone in school of 1-11 grades is a pupil) to come to my Bible Clubs starting April 13 at my apartment.

After breakfast, I’m printing 12 full page advertisement/invitations to the Bible Clubs. I met Sasha and we went just across the street to School #19 (there are about 35 schools in Kremenchuk). The director (directors have a lot of authority in their individual schools) was not available, so we made an appointment to talk to him on Thursday. We walked about a mile to school #11 (this is the school that I had worked with the most when I was in Kremenchuk before). We were able to meet with the director and she remembered me from when I was here in 2008. She was the new director then at School #11 who had told me that we couldn’t teach Bible in the school anymore. She was very polite to me and asked me if I was angry at her. I told her of course not. She was very kind and encouraging! On the way to see her as we walked through the school, I met Tonya, who had been a 9^th grade pupil when I first came to Kremenchuk in the summer of 2000. We had kept in touch on Facebook, but I didn’t know she was now teaching at the school! It was a joy and a surprise to both of us. After talking to the director, I met Natalie an old friend and English teacher at the school. She was a 2^nd year teacher when I started there in 2002 and I went to her wedding. What a joyous surprise! Such a joy to renew old acquaintances. 

Then we got on a bus (Marshutka – like a large van bus) and went to the north central part of town to school #27. I had met a few pupils from this school at an English school and I had promised them I would come to their school. The director here was very nice and friendly! She, along with the director of school #11 said that there was nothing they could do about letting me teach at all in their schools unless I got the permission from the Minister of Education in the city.

By now it’s about 10:30am and we are a “short walk” by Sasha’s standards – a long one by me to McDonalds. Sasha was hungry since he hadn’t eaten breakfast, so I took him there and fed him. I had a McFlury! Sasha helped buy time for my phone (another story for another time). We parted ways. He went home and I got on another Marshutka and went to Yulya and Sasha’s house (yes another Sasha!) We had a great home cooked meal and a very nice first Bible Study with Sasha. He’s a very smart man and is also very open.

While at their home, I got a call from Serge and he asked me to teach 2 of his classes in the evening. I agreed. I got home about 2:45pm, took a short nap and then left at 5 to go to Serge’s office and classroom to teach. I had 7 11and 12-year old boys and girls, including a set of twin girls for the first hour which was a lot of fun! I don’t think they had ever met an American before! Then I had an adult class of 8 mature adults wanting to learn English. It was a lot of fun and the class lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It was all a blast but by now, around 8pm, I’m hungry and tired. I stopped and ate at a restaurant close by and got home about 9pm. Sleep was very welcome! 

P.S. Sasha R. and I went to the Ministry of Education this morning and he gave us his blessing to do what we had planned to do if the directors of the schools agreed!! Wow, what a great blessing!

Catching Up & Looking Forward  

Catching Up:

The last time I wrote was on March 11^th. Michael left on the 12^th and got home yesterday after a few days in England and France. We all miss him! He did a great job of starting things up!

On Saturday, the 16^th, we had a fun night at my place and we had 19 people – including 6 kids I think! It was a lot of fun!!

On Sunday, the 17^th we had 13 for Class and Worship.

I decided to have my Bible Class – Series on Growing A Christian Family and my sermon – Series of Growing In Christ – translated and handed out. It was well received! I also started a new newsletter/bulletin. The newsletter was kind of rough but I think this weeks will be better!

On Monday morning I left with my friend and translator Sergey for Krakow, Poland to get my Visa. This is so I can get my Temporary Residency which is good for one year. Then I can get my Permanent Residency, which sounds a whole lot better to me! With some trials and extra costs, which we didn’t expect, we got the Visa! We returned to Kremenchuk around 4pm on Thursday. The last day and half have been real busy working on lessons, bulletin, add for future Bible Clubs and now this!

Looking Forward:

Sunday we will have a new look bulletin and outlines (you can have copies for the request!) for Sunday.

Next Sunday the 31^st, will be election day for President and many people will work extra for extra income on that day.

Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7 we will have our first young single Ukrainian man, come and be considered for the Lord’s work with us. His name is Ivan. Please pray for him and for us.  We may have a 2^nd man ready to come on the 21^st. We’ll see.

April 13^th and 14^th we will begin our Bible Clubs!! I have been working on an advertisement to take to the schools and distribute other places. 

One step at a time, right? Things are going pretty good but the busy level is about to escalate! 

God bless you always!

Love in Christ,

Doug

Busy First Week!

My flight arrived into Ukraine on time without my luggage! We had been delayed over an hour in leaving from Atlanta to Paris and so my luggage did not make it the last leg of my flight to Ukraine. Nickoli, a friend and brother met me at the airport and drove me to Kremenchuk. I hadn’t slept but an hour on the plane, so I was really tired and slept about 1 ½ hours in his back seat as we made the trip to Kremenchuk in about 4 hours.

We were greeted by 19 people over the next couple of hours at my flat! It was so wonderful to meet so many great friends again! The next couple of days are kind of a blur as I was getting over jetlag. I changed some money, did some food shopping and a few other needed things. On Thursday night we had our first singing night and had 10 people present, which is a nice start! On Friday, we met with the owners of the flat and it went great! They support us using their flat (apartment) for how we want to use it. It was a very friendly and encouraging meeting!

Sunday was a very good day but different. With our services not starting until 12:30, it was a morning of preparations and rest. We had 17 people present all together, even though 5 had to leave early for different reasons. Our neighbors across the hall, who we know, came over mid-day for a few minutes of nice visiting. Then 2 ladies, who are sisters also stopped by for about an hour. They also are old, great friends!

The hardest thing to adjust to is the money. With such a large difference in the value of the money, it’s hard to figure out how much I’m actually spending. It will be ok, I’m sure. It seems like I’m spending so much, when in fact it’s not so much at all!

I’m really never on my own because of 3 things. One, God’s great presence with Jesus and the Spirit are always with me. Second, I have so many Ukrainian friends that lovingly support me. Third, I have such easy access to my family and friends in the USA.

If you want to dial me direct, you can call +380 66 481 4586. You need all of that to call. You can download the app, Viber and contact me that way or you can use Facebook Messenger to reach me too.

God bless! I’ll talk to you soon!

Doug

6 Days!

Yes! 6 days and I will land in Ukraine about 2pm and be in Kremenchuk probably by 7pm or so!! You all have made this possible and I am so thankful to all of you for joining me in this mission and making this work come alive!

Right now, I’m sitting in my oldest son’s home (Butch – Doug Jr.) and writing this to you. Butch has gone to work, the kids are at school, except for Eli the youngest, which my daughter-in-law, Erin has taken to a Doctor’s appointment. So much has happened the last couple of weeks. I’ve sold most all my possessions that I could, have packed out my house with TONS of help from my brothers and sisters in Christ from the Ephrata church of Christ. Several also saw to it that not only was the house emptied out, but they did a tremendous job have doing most of the cleaning of the house so that I could get my deposit back. One sweet sister is still selling some of my things online for me! My family here, Butch and Erin are going to continue to sell my car. There has been so much to do, and I have had so much blessed help!

Saturday, March 2, about 1pm I fly out to Dallas where I will spend a couple of days with my oldest daughter, Jenise and family and fly out of there for Ukraine about 2pm the 4^th and arrive in Ukraine about 2pm the 5^th. It’s actually about a 16-hour trip with short layovers in Atlanta and Paris, France.

I will make a trip into Poland to get my visa (I can’t even begin to explain all the reasons behind this, but it is what I must do.) After I get my 90 day visa, then I apply for Temporary Residency which is good for one year. At the conclusion of that one year I will then be able to apply for Permanent Residency. These Residencies will allow me to come and go as I want or need to without any more visas! It is a hassle, but I think it will be worth it!

Once I’m back from getting my Visa, then I will begin my work in earnest. I will strive to pick up where Michael left of and build upon that. I will start going into the schools around the area where I live and offer my English and Bible services to those schools. I will also advertise our English Bible Clubs as free English lessons in the schools and Universities to be held at my apartment (church building for the time being). We will also advertise the English Clubs in newspapers and as World English Institute on line. We are setting ourselves up to be a contact source for the WEI.

We are striving to strengthen the Christians that we are working with and reaching out to the lost. I’m so excited to be involved with this work again!

I will be taking a lot of pictures as I go along and will post them here on my blog and I’m sure I’ll be posting them as well online. If you want, you can contact me on Facebook as Doug Berry. I’m the one wearing a blue sweater and holding my youngest granddaughter! Another way you can contact us is on the phone app: Viber. My phone number will be changing to a Ukrainian number, but if you connect right away with me on Viber you can find me at: 509-761-1375.

Ok. Bye for now! I will write a short blog, hopefully next Wednesday after I get up and around! I will be 10 hours ahead of PST, 8 from CST and 7 from EST.

God bless!

Doug

Beginning Again

In the summer of 2000 I made my first trip to Kremenchuk, Ukraine as a sponsor of 3 college girls from York College, York, NE. We were there for 6 weeks teaching Bible classes and at a Bible Camp at the Black Sea. I was invited by the Director of the School where we taught our classes to come back full time and teach Bible at their school.  After being there for 3 weeks I decided to return.

I did return for 6 years from September 2002 to the end of July 2008 to live and teach in Kremenchuk! Please go to my website to read more of the details of this work. It was some of the best years of my life!

After six years, I decided to return to the States. I have preached for 3 churches of Christ in the last 10 years, but have returned 6 times to Kremenchuk for short mission trips in the last 10 years, the last time being the summer of 2016.

I have felt a need for some time to go back and live in Kremenchuk and work there for the Lord full time. My dreams are about to be fulfilled! I am planting/starting a new church of Christ in Kremenchuk. I arrive back in Kremenchuk on March 5th and I plan for my first stay to be for about 9 months. As of now, I'm planning to be there about 9 months out of the year each year.

So, I am "Beginning Again" my life in Kremenchuk! I couldn't be more exited and happy about the opportunity that God has provided for me to go! Right now at this writing I'm just a little over a month away until my flight leaves for Ukraine.