June-July 2000

As we recount the events of the recent months we recall much tension, weariness and opposition but the results of prayer and labor are certainly worth it all.
One man Leonti, who labored with us in the not too distant past, and whose daughter was a member of our church, has caused us some troubles.  We had given his daughter 50,000 "Foolish Professors" Tracts by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman to fold, which, upon completion, he dumped in the garbage bin outside his house.  He did this because the tract contained the clause "that which is born of the flesh (physical birth) is flesh."  He maintains that the water spoken of in John 3 is the word of God and not the physical birth. This conflict and embarrassment has caused his daughter Victoria to leave our church.
        Getting our van repaired has been no picnic either.  The mechanic's promise: "Oh, about a month and a half." has turned into four and still going.  But the Lord has graciously provided us another van in the meantime, a 1992 Volkswagon which we bought in May for $6,000. Pray we can sell the other one soon!
        On the outskirts of Kiev we began meeting in the house of Katerina's parents. We had hoped to put up the tent in their village but the town council is opposed at this time.  During the first meeting their son Andrew trusted Christ after the sermon.  Pray that neighbors will come to hear the gospel. In June we put the tent up in two remote villages (New Podol and Krupeachpool) with the members of our church and some brothers from the states, Dan Bardwell, Ken West and Tom Hall.  Their help has been a tremendous blessing to us.  They got a real taste of Ukraine out on that trip, being that in New Podol there's no grocery store, nor hot nor running water.  Indoor toilet...what's that? But in spite of the lack of modern convieniences we saw some 50 or more sinners come to repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
        We continued on to the town of Zamglai where, since preaching there last year in the tent, a church has evolved.  A brother from Bible Baptist Church of Kiev has been overseeing that and holding weekly services there since. This year we held a 5 day revival and saw fewer adults saved than last year but many children came out and were saved.  One businessman (Alexander) who was converted last year got up this year and basically preached to the crowd about the one who has transformed his life.
        Late July we were in the South to support Chris and Naomi Rue in the dedication of their new church building.  We put the tent up in the yard and held a children's meeting and of the 65 children who came out 25 wanted to take Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Altogether 15 adults were saved during the three evening services.  We traveled from there to the nearby city of Mykolayev (700,000 pop.) where a young pastor who has left the union churches asked us to come and help out.  This man was quite unprepared to receive us but we decided to press on in spite of the obstacles.  Because he is not registered with the city we chose to find a small town outside of Mykolayev. We found a place called Polygon and after obtaining permission from the town chairman we put up the tent in an open field.  Having no electric or benches we proceeded.  Having located some split logs and large blocks that sufficed for the seating. We preached into the eveings until their faces were no longer visible then we called it quits.  Here 30 children raised hands to be saved and on the second evening 12 adults trusted in the Lord.  We were not able to continue the meeting since the town council was trying to extort money from us which if we didn't pay by the third day they were going to send the police after us.  So we packed it up and stole away in the evening like Israel and headed back to Kiev happy with the jewels we were able to snatch from the devils crowd.
        Besides these blessings others were saved in Kiev of which time and space does not alow.  One of these was a man from the islands of Maldives a student studying medicine.  His name is Malik and Dina gave him a good wittness and he found our church and wanted to become a Christian.   His heart was flooded with joy and peace when he prayed.  He has a desire to go back to his people who are 95% Muslim and tell them about what he has found.   Pray for him as this could mean either imprisonment or death there.   Thank you for praying.

By the grace of God and your prayers we have not yet fainted.
Edward and Dina Keough