The Elliott Family

NEWSLETTER
April 1996

Who planned that furlough, anyway?

We arrived back home in cold and snowy Kherson on Februaiy 1. We
were exhausted from our "restful" furlough, and glad to get back into our
routines. We had a great time seeing family and friends and visiting
churches and eating fast food, but it was a relief to settle down in one spot.

We didn't know at the time, but when we arrived, Kherson was headed

into one of its worst winters ever. Everywhere we went it was cold. One
Sunday morning I preached at one of the new churches. The building had
no heat, and it was 10 degrees outside. As 1 preached I could see my breath.
I wondered how those people could sit and listen.
Later, I went to a meeting at one of the minister's homes. They have veiy
bad water pressure, and are often without water. Their apartment was so

cold I was shivering. When I asked how they were handling the situation, he

.y

responded with an answer that showed his godly attitude. He said that
living in such cold made them appreciate the warmth when it comes. I

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wonder how many of us would respond in the same way?

It seems that we have lots of people at our house these days. I really enjoy that. Part of the trafFic is due to
our kids' inviting all their friends over. It is a real joy to me to see how glad their friends were to see them again.
For our kids, they can easily go without TV, movies, and all the amusements of America, as long as they have
good friends. God has given us the wonderful gift of cross-cultural friendships.
We recently were invited to the home of one of the ministers. We had a great time. The kids had so much
fun and we were laughing so loud that at times we couldn't hear each other talk. When we got home, I realized
a couple of wonderful things. We were able to spend the whole evening without a translator, and were able to
create humor and communicate on both surface and deep levels. 1 also realized how relaxed our hosts were.

The wife was in her "house" dress, they used toilet paper for napkins, etc. (If we were viewed as "foreign guests"
they never would dress like that or use toilet paper at the table!) The whole evening was very casual, and for
me that was a real honor. We were not treated as guests, but as friends.

We are all doing well. The snow is gone, things are greening up,and the sun is out. And most important of
all, we feel like we've come "home."

~ Glen

Mission students

good teachers
Almost every day we hear of someone we know,
or a friend of someone we know, who has suffered

from some kind of attack or threat. Last month, Igor

Shtikhno, missions leader at the Kherson Christian

Church (KCC), had his car stolen while he was at the

missions candidate group meeting. His wife

happened to look out the window and noticed it was
gone. As Igor and another man went out to check,
the missions group, without hesitation, began to pray.
When he came back in, they prayed again. Their
prayer was that they would have the right attitude
towards possessions and that God would forgive the

Honeymoon is over
When Ukraine first gained independence, there
was a wave of openness to religion. Churches were
given back their property and others, including the
Dom Molitve in Kherson, were given land for
buildings. Now things are changing.
A Catholic church, which received back a

building the government had taken, is now fighting to

keep the building - remodeled and updated from
being confiscated once again. The KCC,which has
been meeting in rented quarters since its beginning,
has been tiying to find a piece ofland on which to
build. Their requests have been repeatedly denied by
the city government. They are now planning to make
the request to higher government levels.

thieves.

Igor eventually had to pay a ransom to get his car

back. When we found out about the arrangements,
we prayed for his safety. Igor asked that we also
pray that he would have a chance to witness to the
thieves. He did get a small chance, and gave them
some literature!

At another meeting, these new Christians

preparing to be missionaries were studying the role of

fasting and prayer. They decided to each take a day
to pray and fast. I wasn't there, so I got assigned
Sunday. It's the worst day for me to fast -- but a
great day to have ten other people praying for me! I
was impressed that they saw the need to care for each
other. There is an intense awareness of the spiritual
battle in which they are involved.

Just call her, "Julia"

Jolene has overcome another culture barrier: she

made her first pot of Ukrainian borscht (beet soup)

and it was great. She had actually learned four years
ago, but the method took half a day. She found
someone else who whips it out in an hour, and she
taught Jolene her method. We love it.

Recently, one man said that with tasting just one

spoonful he can tell if it is authentic Ukrainian
borscht. He said hers passed with flying colors.
P.S. As I'm writing, she cooking Cincinnati chili, and
that's pretty good,too!

(above): Three ^^Ukrainian" ladieo at a

party: Vika, Jolene and Tanya.

(left:) Brad getj a new lookfor jpring.
(The barber i) Luba, Jolene 'c/ language

Upcoming Events
In addition to all the usual training and teaching and preaching, we have a lot of special
events planned for the second half of'96.
June 20-22 Ukrainian / American Festival of Christian Friendship Three American churches will be sending teams to help with
this event. This year, five Kherson churches will be
involved: Kherson Christian Church, Dom Molitve, The

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Bible Church - Light of Faith, Church of Christ the Savior,

and the church meeting at TsNTI (as yet unnamed.) Gary
Johnson, of Indian Creek Christian Church in Indianapolis,
and Alexander Savchenko,from Metropol, Ukraine, will be
preaching.
June 26-July 3 Youth Camp - (Americanyouth here from June I9-July 15)
July 29-August 9 TCM Course in Kherson - Old Testament 2
August 12-26 Elliott Family Vacation!!!

August 19-September 20 Masters Degree students go to TCM in Vienna for two

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September 27-October 10 Group visits from Mt. Washington Church of Christ in

Cincinnati

October 10-November 6 ~ Ukrainian leaders visit West Coast KSP churches

October 14-24 ~ TCM Course in Kherson

November 6-20 ~ Ministers and leaders from KSP West Coast churches visit

Kherson for leadership conference

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Let thefeojt begin!

Wendy, Laura (their teacher), and Brad are

drejjed up for "Middle Agej Day," a celebration

ofthe completion of WendyJocialJtudieo unit.

Two "Ukrainian"gentlemen enjoying winter.

(You can tell they *re enjoying it by the big
jmile on theface of the one with the hat.)

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We need your prayers

Please pray for the upcoming special events, especially the Festival and Summer Camp.
Continue to pray about the building problems the churches are facing. The Dom Molitve
has the roof on their new building, but has years of work ahead of them. The other - - -. .
churches are trying to get land on which to begin to build, but the government is not
cooperating.
Pray for the mission candidate group, and especially for those families planning to relocate
to the Crimea to begin work among the Tatar people yet this year.
Pray for the Kherson Christian Church council as they deal with major decisions regarding
finances, staffing, and program development.
Pray for the Dom Molitve as the older leaders seek younger men to cariy on the work.
Pray for the door of opportunity to remain open for evangelizing in Ukraine.

After you W prayed about theoe Uotteo, why not drop a notej^fencourageme^ to the Ellioito?
Uoe the labeb on page three oroend it via e-mail(INTERNET:glen@gien.cLvrn.kherdon.tLa)

k
7707
NON-PROFIT ORG.

Clovernook Christian Church

U. S. POSTAGE

1373 W. GALBRAITH ROAD

PAID

CINCINNATI. OHIO 45231

CINCINNATI, OHIO
PERMIT NO.8178

Noiroan Weaver

Mission Services Assn.

The Elliott Family

Newsletter
April, 1996

Box 2427

Knoxville, TN 37901

JSL
Hz 1015,

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE ELLIOTTS IN KHERSON, UKRAINE

December, 1996

We want to wish you all a very Men-y Christmas and a wonderful New Year in our Lord

Jesus Christ. We are thankful to you, our many friends and family, for your kindness,
thoughtfulness, prayers and support while we are serving here in Uki'aine.
Most of the time we are all doing well. Of course, we all have our days when we get down,
which is easy to do here. The economy is getting worse and often we are affected by the
suffering of others around us. Many people cannot find work(unemployment is around
35%), and those who do work often don't get paid, and those who do get paid do not earn
enough to live on. We see people suffering from lack of adequate medical care and the
effects ofso many social ills.
Though we have adjusted well to Kherson and call this "home," we find that we miss our

"home" in the States especially at this time of the year. Though we feel very comfortable
here, it is during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that we realize how much we

miss the traditional and familiar sights (decorations), sounds(Christmas music), and tastes
(eggnog). By the way, the big cultural holiday here is New Year's, with Christmas being
mostly just a holiday for the church on January 7th. So the kids will get to celebrate two
Christmases!

Wendy and Brad are doing well in school. We all really appreciate our teacher, Laura
McKillup. Brad is INTO basketball, big time. He loves following the players, the teams,
the statistics, etc. He also likes to write his own books. Wendy is into music. She is
learning to play the guitar, the piano and drums. She also still has her creativeness and we

never know what she will dream up next. You just can't imagine how much Wendy has
grown. They are doing well with the language and have a number of Uki-ainian friends and
even venture out on their own at times.

Jolene is becoming more active in ministry here. She serves as a encourager for several
women. Her Russian is good and she gets around well, and now does most of the shopping
(which I used to do, but have less time for now). And she makes a GREAT borsch (a
traditional Ukrainian soup of beets, cabbage, and well, you name it). She is a terrific
mother and wife, but you already know that.

1 find myself mostly occupied with teaching and training church leaders and helping to start
a Bible college here. We now work with four churches in Klierson. Three of these have

begun just since we helped start the work in 1991. All the churches are growing and have
capable leaders, and we have the privilege of assisting, consulting with and training them.
We took a wonderful and long-overdue ten-day vacation to Bulgaria in August. We swam,
did hand gliding, rode go-carts, played tennis and miniature golf and ate Western style
hamburgers and rested. It was great!
Our plans for the next year include a short furlough to the States from July through
September, 1997. Our curxenLplans are to finish our work here by summer of.li).98.--A'
"tliat, ohlylhe Lord knows where we will land. Wendy will start high school the fall of 1998
(I can't believe she is that old), so this would be a good time for us to return to the States.
We love you all.
Glen, Jolene, Wendy and Bradley Elliott
P.S. We'd love to hear from you. Please take advantage of of free Christmas bonus offer of
two free mailing labels!
UKRAINE

UKRAINE

/KpaMna

VKpaMiia
325021 r. XepcoH
yji. naioHa fl. 5 kb. 208
3J1J1MOTT, raeii

325021 r. XepcoH
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Clovernook Christian Church

NON-rROFITORC.

1373 W. GALBRAITII ROAD

U. S. POSTAGE

CINCINNATI, OIIIO 45Z31

PAID
CINCINNATI. OHIO
Pf-RMIT NO.8178

D
Noiman Weaver

Mission Services Assn.

Box 2427

KnoxviUe, TN 37901