Dear Praying supporters,                                                            

We greet you in the name of our Lord and thank you for your continued support of our ministry and your fellowship in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that through your prayers, lives are changed and the gospel reaches down into the hearts of people.

God is doing great things in lives of the people of Ukraine. I thank the Lord that His gospel is the power that changes lives. I had an opportunity to witness to a man named Sasha. He had been witnessed to before, unfortunately by other Christians who did not have very good testimonies. It left him with some very good questions, and an understanding of the kind of testimony that was needed to be worthy to be called a Christian. As we talked of Jesus Christ and the salvation that He bought for us, Sasha understood that coming to the Savior would mean a change in his life. The area that he struggles with is ‘How can I survive in this corrupt world?’ He fully understands the claims of Jesus Christ, but wanted to see if anyone could live by them. The sad part is that many do not see that to be called a Christian is to carry the name of Jesus Christ with you every where you go, and to be conscious of the fact that the lost world is looking at our lives. Regrettably Sasha’s first encounter with Christianity left him seeing disbelief from ‘believers’, as opposed to a true trust in the Savior. In Ukraine corruption is so wide spread that people are pushed into dishonesty in order to survive. In a believers life it boils down to this fact: Do I believe that Jesus can just give eternal life or do I trust Him fully with my life here on earth as well? The gospel is more then just selling insurance polices against hell (kind of spiritual fire insurance), it is about seeing that Jesus is our life (Galatians 2:20), and He can control every portion of it! Please pray for Sasha that he would come to the saving knowledge of our Lord!

I rejoice at the many people that have come to Jesus and found a new life in Him. People like Tanya, who was the local bootlegger in her village. She came to Jesus knowing that she could not support herself through her old life of sin. She saw the Savior and knew she could trust Him with her life! Pasha who was an atheist, had no father growing up, was a policeman (these are corrupt men), heard the gospel for the first time and mocked it, laughingly wanted to arrest any street preacher he heard. His heart was changed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. He finally sat down with a list of things that he would lose by coming to Jesus and the another list of what he would gain by giving his life to Christ. God’s list won! There were no promises of a better life through material blessings, all he saw was Jesus Christ, his only hope for life, and that was enough. In these last twelve years we have seen many different types of people come through the church doors, but only those who have sought a new life in Christ are the ones who stayed.

Family news: We are home on furlough for a year. This is a good time for the Ukrainian preachers to preach and take more of a leadership roll in the churches. Our desire is that the four churches would stand and do the work of the ministry without us. This will build their faith in the Lord. We have already received good reports of God’s blessing and even some challenges, but we know that God is faithful. We need to renew our visas and some of us need new passports. We are looking forward to seeing many of you and enjoying some fellowship. We also need to raise some additional support as inflation has set in at a whopping 34%. Fuel prices are reaching $6 a gallon, and milk is near $5 a gallon as well.

If you wish to have us in for a meeting it would be our great pleasure to have some fellowship with you and show what God has been doing in Ukraine.

Prayer requests:

(1)  Pray for the leaders of the churches: Gregorie, Pasha, Alek, Volida, Valentine, Edik, Maxim, Sasha, and Yura. That God would give them power as they preach, a humble heart, and greater faith for God’s glory.

(2) Pray for the churches in Kiev, Fastov, Bila Tserkov and Pytie Gorie. That God would build them up through faith and they would see an increase in souls being saved.

(3) For a man named Volida who is lost and need deliverance from Satan’s grip. He is a hermit in the village of Pytie Gorie. He has shut himself off from society, lives in house with no heat, no water, and no electricity. Our Savior has opened door for us to minister to him.

(4) For God’s power to be shown through the gospel as the churches carry on and evangelize.

(5) For traveling mercies as we will be visiting many churches.

(6) For new church plants when we return to Ukraine. 

(7) For two national missionaries our churches in Ukraine support. Stas and Zhenya are serving the Lord in a very isolated area near the Mongolian Russian boarder.

Thank you for your prayer and financial support.

Your missionaries,

The Irelands