Recently, we received an email from the director of the Kremenchuk Bible College in Ukraine. They just started their first distance learning course last month. Here is what he said:

“I want to share about our first blessings of this program. In the beginning of February our Ukrainian group of students got involved in the studies. We didn’t make a large commerce. It was an experiment, therefore there are 7 people in the group. Those are very committed and active people. At the end of February I went to Germany to Berlin. There I made presentation of the program for Russian speaking people. In Germany 15 people joined the program!. It’s indeed the only chance for them to receive education in Russian without leaving Germany. We have received some applications from Greece too. God is expanding the ministry and we are very grateful to Him and to you for that.”

Language and technology cross geographic boundaries all the time in Europe so when a school in the Ukraine offeres courses in Russian, those all the way in the UK, Portugal, Italy and other places whose primary language is Russian, can take the courses they so desire.

eDOT works in numerous languages and is looking at going into more languages such as Arabic and Farsi which are being used more and more in Europe. There are so many in Europe who want to receive Biblical education but don’t have the means to until now.

Please pray that:

• We are able to continue to raise our funds so that we can get moved to Germany and join in on the excitement of the ministry as it is building up in Europe
• For our team mates as they work on getting several more courses ready to be released to the different Bible Colleges and Seminaries that we partner with in Europe
• For others, like us, who are still raising their support to join eDOT full time. There are many of us which is good because there is still so much work to be done.

God bless!!!

From yahoo.com –> Western & Islam religions clash

This article is about a man, Abdur Rahman, who lives in Afghanistan and converted from Islam to Christianity. He is now on trial for apostasy (converting from Islam) and if convicted, will be facing the death penalty. Westerners are up in arms because of this while Muslims defend that it is a part of their faith and culture.

Personally, I am conflicted. How are we to go into a country, remove its government in which we view these laws to derive from, and say that the laws of Islam are no longer to be followed or be literally interpreted? Islam has been in this country for hundreds of years and their culture is based on it. In America, our culture and country were based on freedoms (including religion) but that is not so for Afghanistan.

Being a Christian, I am at a loss about the persecution of this man. James 1:2-3 (NIV) says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” Shouldn’t we be joyous that Abdur is facing this? I look to him and say that he must truly know God through Jesus Christ if he is not willing to give up Christ and return to Islam to avoid these proceedings. My instincts say that we must remove him from this peril but my faith says that we should stand with him in whatever fashion we can so that through it, God may be glorified.

Many of the European media have been commenting on the situation. Their cry is against the possibility of the death penalty or being institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital not against the freedom of religion. Europe itself does not see hold a high value on the freedom of religion but believes religion should be downplayed into a corner of one’s personal life but not involve one’s entire being.

Now I am not one for “religion”; the ceremonial acting out of different acts to “appease” God, but I am for knowing God in an intimate way which I have found to be through Jesus Christ which does involve one’s entire being.

So for you out there that call yourselves followers of Christ I ask: If you were Abdur, would it be a joy to be in this situation or would you reject Christ for the sake of temporal safety.

For those of you that are not followers of Christ I ask: Where do your values come from? How can you look at a culture that is different than your own and say it is “barbaric” without being hypocritical or superior?

A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a seminary class taught by her teacher, Dr. Smith. She says Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons. One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts.

Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone they disliked or someone who had made them angry in the past. Then he would allow them to throw darts at the person’s picture.

Sally’s friend drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased at the overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, but was filled with disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the students to return to their seats.

As Sally sat down, thinking about how angry she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her target, Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall. Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus.

A complete hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words, “I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” (Matthew 25:40)

No other words were necessary…the tear-filled eyes of each student focused only on the picture of Christ.

Thanks to www.mikeysFunnies.com for this story.

We are leaving Colorado today but then we head for West Virginia to speak at a Missions Conference. Please pray for safe travels and for the hearts of those at the conference. We’ll tell you more about our time here in Colorado next week. Luv ya!!!

Sorry I have not been writing as much lately but as many of you know, we are in Colorado, USA at Mission Training International going through their SPLICE program which is preparing us for our work in Europe. I am normally online for a majority of the day but here, I am only able to get on a couple of short times a day.

I just wanted to show you some of the pictures of the scenery that we have seen while we have been out here.

These were taken on the trail behind our training facility:

These were taken on a drive to and from and at Trail West Lodge (A Young Life camp I worked at a long time ago) that is in central Colorado:

On Sunday, we took the opportunity to go to an Eastern Orthodox church:

We’ll post more soon!!!

On the way home from getting some ice cream, Alex (our 5 year old) was looking up at the sky when he asked, “Is the moon part of God’s body?” A very interesting question indeed. I then started to explain how God doesn’t have a body and that He is everywhere in the universe.

Then Alex said, “Well, it looks like the moon is God’s mouth and that He is smiling at us.” It is out of the mouths of children that we can learn the most about how to view God. So next time you look up at the moon, remember that God is smiling at you right now.