Paul brings the idea a bit closer to home.  He tells it like it is.  Paul tells us that when we follow those “bodily desires” it looks like “sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”  Gal. 5:19-21

Anything here describe your life?  It does mine, and it stinks!  It reminds me of one of those survivalist shows I watched recently; three days in the wilderness with nothing to eat.  The guy comes upon the stinky, rotting carcass of a dead animal.  The big question he faces, “Do I eat it?”  No, he didn’t.  He ate the maggots instead.  That is just as disgusting and repulsive!  That’s the point.  When flesh is in control of our lives, we cannot make it better.  It will always be repulsive.  As hard as we try, we cannot make it better.

Ah, but I will improve it!  I’ll make it look better, smell better by educating myself, improving myself, overcoming that habit, going to church, singing in the choir… Comedian Brian Regan does a routine I call “The ME Monster.”  It is hilarious!  He tells the story of a man at a dinner party who dominates the discussion with tales of his accomplishments.  Look what I have done.  I can do it, self, I, look at me!  Me-Mee-MEEE-MEEEE!

How is it that Jesus has impacted countless millions of lives and our world for two thousand years?  He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant…He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death.”  How do we live like Jesus?  The flesh, my self, the carnal nature, has to go.  I can’t make it better. No matter how much I try to improve my flesh, it will always smell of ME!

I love what Andrew Murray has written,  “Jesus has taken the place of self, and it is not an impossibility to forgive as Jesus forgave.  His humility does not consist merely in thoughts or words of self-deprecation, but as Paul puts it, in a heart of humility.”1

More of Him and less of Me!  Humility, obedience, surrender to God.  These are all acts of our own will, a choice we can and must make everyday.  When we do, Jesus will take the place of ME!

• For David as he adjusts to life in Ukraine
• David needs an apartment
• A meeting place for the English movie club and parenting classes
• For God’s blessing on our home bible study which will begin soon
• Language classes to learn Ukrainian
• We need a video projector and portable sound system for the church plant, the English movie club and parenting classes.  That will cost about 1,500.00 dollars
• Our monthly financial support has dropped
• For God to open the hearts of the people we will be reaching out to
• We need more missionary help to establish the church
• I need a translator to translate for the bible studies and other classes

Josh Baldonado and our daughter, Nicole, spent the summer with us.  It was a tremendous blessing tohave them here to help in a variety of ways.  We really hated to see them leave.  Josh is a student at Calvary Chapel Bible College, at the Indianapolis campus.  Nicole is a student at the University of Indianapolis.  We are praying both of them will come back again, perhaps long term!

Now that summer is coming to a close, and David is here, we are beginning to prepare for outreaches into the city of L’viv.  We have had several people ask us about starting a Bible study.  We will start that in our home within the next month.  We have also been praying about starting an English movie club.  Some friends of ours ran an outreach like that in Kiev and they had up to 400 people attending each week.  It is free and we would provide discussion after the movie to help improve people’s English skills.  In Kiev they would offer an English language Bible study before the movie too.  We want to do the same here in L’viv.

For many years we have watched the health of families in Ukraine decline.  Divorce is very high, many homes have multiple families living in very small apartments, and parents are not always sure how to handle kids in today’s world.  I am in the process of gathering Biblical parenting information and want to provide parenting classes for families here in L’viv.  This is an area of ministry I see as vital for the future of Ukrainian families.  I can also see that the most effective means of evangelism today is through establishing and building personal relationships with people.  That is why I am excited about the English classes and parenting classes.  We will be making new friends while providing real and valuable service to people.

We have already begun praying and planning for next summer.  We have had a number of churches and individuals inquire about coming here next summer for outreach and evangelism.  I have asked David to begin working on a revised version of our Short Term Missions Training Manual.  There are many kinds of outreach we can do here.  Sports camps are always effective, English language outreach is also an avenue.  We can do street performances and there are many kinds of service projects to do.  One outreach idea I have and am praying about is having 10,000 copies of the gospel of John printed up.  Inside we would include information illustrating the difference between a personal relationship with God and dead religious habits, which do not lead to changed lives.  Over the course of the summer and with each group that comes, we can pass out 1,000 copies of John’s gospel to fill the hearts of the people of L’viv with God’s Word.

Thank you all for your prayers, emails, cards, phone calls, and support.  God is moving here in L’viv and we are excited to be a part of that.  You may be miles away, but you are a part of it too!

Prayer requests:

• For David as he adjusts to life in Ukraine
• David needs an apartment
• A meeting place for the English movie club and parenting classes
• For God’s blessing on our home bible study which will begin soon
• Language classes to learn Ukrainian
• We need a video projector and portable sound system for the church plant, the English movie club and parenting classes. That will cost about 1,500.00 dollars
• Our monthly financial support has dropped
• For God to open the hearts of the people we will be reaching out to
• We need more missionary help to establish the church
• I need a translator to translate for the bible studies and other classes

• For our daughter, Nicole as she works with the worship team this summer,  for a new worship leader.
• We need missionaries to help us!
• For God’s blessing and preparation for our fall conference.
• For God’s blessing on the worship conference in July and provision for our son Aaron to come.
• We are praying through how to start a college/young adult ministry.
• Before we left America, I started praying for God to provide us with our own building for the church.  That is a great need and we are asking God to help us with finances to buy our own place.
• That God will break the stronghold of lifeless religion so prevalent here in L’viv and western Ukraine.
• For the hearts of the people to be open and ready to hear and respond to the Gospel

Thank you all so much for your prayers, giving, cards, letters, and emails.  You are a tremendous blessing and encouragement to us!

Praying you are filled and blessed abundantly with God’s love,
Mike & Michelle