NEWS FROM THEFOOTE’S IN UKRAINE

SPRING 2011

SPRING 2011 NEWSLETTERThis letter is about our lives in Kaharlyk, Ukraine. We hope that it gives you a glimpse of how we live, what we are doing, and how you can pray for us.

Last December Liese decided to go on an elimination diet to see if there were dietary factors in the migraines that she has suffered from since she was a child. So she went off 12 foods that can be triggers for migraines (coffee, eggs, dairy, gluten, chocolate, oranges, yeast, tea, corn...) and over the last 6 months has been reintroducing them back into her diet.

Aster 3 months off of everything Liese’s migraines were much better. But she has found that dairy, eggs, and wheat are all triggers in some way and so she is back not eating them. This has meant a huge lifestyle change as eating dairy-free and gluten-free is difficult enough in the USA and very difficult here in Ukraine. It affects how we shop, how much time Liese has to spend cooking and baking, and how we can visit with people when we can’t eat any of the food they

prepare for us. But for Liese to not have 5 or 6 migraines in a month it has been worth it.

This year we planted a garden again as it gives us a lot of vegetables that are some-times hard to find, saves money on canned goods all winter (since Liese cans most everything we grow) and keeps us eating healthy food.

We’ve been slowly finishing the plaster work on our last two rooms in our house and are getting near the end of our indoor remodel.

It still takes up quite a bit of our free time and we are looking forward to being able to redirect our time and energy elsewhere.

With Liese’s diet, gardening, remodel and church ministries we’ve had a very full spring. We appreciate your prayers and ask that you continue to pray that God would fill us, and empower us. We hope that this newsletter encourages you as you read about what God is doing in Kaharlyk.

On Easter this year Danny preached the sermon and then helped out BBQing for the church picnic that we had in our church’s backyard. The weather was amazing and we all had a great time spending time together as a church. We had a few visitors come for Easter and one man came back the next week and repented and has been coming faithfully to church.

EASTER

MINISTRIESRehab Center

Danny has continued to teach a weekly bible study at the rehab center in the nearby village of Sloboda. A new group of guys came in this spring and Sasha, who had been leading for the last year, finished his commitment to the program and moved back home. Another Sasha is now leading the center. Please pray for the rehab center, for Sasha as he learns to lead and for the rest of the guys as they learn to live in God.

Worship MinistryWe’ve had a couple musicians join the worship team. Liese is now leading worship every third week and Danny plays guitar once or twice a month. We’ve been having a monthly meeting at our home where we pray and worship God together as well as discuss aspects of worship minis-try. Please pray that our team would grow in spiritual maturity as well as musical ability.

PreachingDanny continues to preach every other Sunday. Our church is currently studying through the book of Genesis.

Book ClubLiese’s book club finished reading “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands”. They all really enjoyed the book and the time spent discussing it and how the principles in the book relate to their lives and ministries. Their club even inspired people in other churches to start similar book clubs.

Men’s GroupOur men have been meeting once a month to study what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Over the last few months we’ve been talking about the marks of a disciple that Jesus spoke about in the gospel of John: abides in Jesus’ words, loves, and bears much fruit. Please pray for Wayne and Danny as they lead this group and learn how to teach the men in our church to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to pass on to others what they have learned.

Evenings for Senior CitizensOur monthly evenings for Senior Citizen’s have been going very well. We have a good team of people orga-nizing the evenings. About 15 people from our church show up to help with food preparation and clean up. We have a solid group of about 30 senior citizens who come each month. We serve them a special hot meal, provide entertainment, and osten share with them from God’s word. Lately they’ve been writing down prayer requests and our church prays for them throughout the month. Please pray for those who come to these evenings that they would know God as Savior and King.

Rehab center

Men’s Group

Evening for Seniors

Over the last couple months In Lumine Media has posted a two free pdf books on its website. One is Theological Clarity by Scott Thomas, a workbook written for studying Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem (which In Lumine published in Russian in 2009). The other is Porn-Again Christian by Mark Driscoll, a frank talk to men about porngraphy. We are planning on printing small runs of both of these books to be able to give away to churches and study groups.

In May In Lumine hired another full time employee in order to expand what we are able to do. We now have two full time Ukrainian employees which will enable us to expand our distri-bution network, sell more books, and investing in more book, audio, and video projects.

For information on how to partner with us publishing books visit www.inlumine.org.

IN LUMINE MEDIA

THE ELISHA FOUNDATIONIn May Justin and Tamara Reimer, the found-ers of The Elisha Foundation, visited us. In their words "The Elisha Foundation was founded to provide refreshment and encour-agement to families caring for people with special needs. Through our programs we seek to provide access to resource professionals, educational specialists and other valuable resources."

We held a special event at our church where Justin shared a biblical perspective on disabili-ties and practical ways that we as a church can serve families with special needs children. Our church has been reaching out to special needs children and their families in our com-munity for several years now and had tons of questions which Justin and Tamara were able to help with. It was a very informative time and a huge blessing to us.

In Ukraine there are two huge stigmas for any family with a special needs child: the stigma that comes from the Soviet State declaring that there were no special needs children, that all children were strong and physically able, and the stigma that comes from teachings in many churches that disabilities are God's punish-ment for sin or a curse.

Due to the Soviet Union's stance on disability there are very few resources avail-

able for children with disabilities or special needs although things are beginning to change. Though in our city there is almost nothing available to help children and their families, in some larger cities there are fully equipped medical centers that offer free therapy and treatment for children. Still the majority of Ukrainians don't have access to these services or programs.

Some of the ministry possibilities that we discussed with the Elisha Foundation are:

- Hosting family retreats for families with children with special needs.- Training churches in how to minister to

these families.- Bringing teams of various therapists to work with children in orphanages.

We are excited about ministering together with The Elisha Foundation and reach-ing out to children that are largely shunned or mocked by society and their fami-lies who osten live in guilt and shame.

If you are interested in this sort of ministry please contact us, and please pray for the gospel to be spread to those with disabilities and special needs in Ukraine.

Justin sharing with our church with Olya Zschech translating

NEEDS AND PRAYER REQUESTSNeeds:Our support levels are currently at about 60% of what we need to live here in Kaharlyk long-term. Inflation is hitting Ukraine very hard making things that used to be cheap for us (like groceries and gasoline) more expensive than in the US. Please pray about financially supporting us.

We are currently praying about going to the Desiring God National Confer-ence this September to represent In Lumine Media. Last year the confer-ence was a huge step forward for In Lumine and it opened up many other doors for our church (such as meeting and partnering with The Elisha Foundation). This year, as the theme of the conference is world missions, we think it would be a very strategic for us to attend. In Lumine will only be able to cover a small part of the costs of the trip so we would like to ask you to pray about helping us attend.

Prayer requests:Please pray for us that God would fill us daily with His Holy Spirit and empower us to do the work He has called us to do.

Pray for our church that it would grow in the knowledge and grace of God, we would be filled with God’s spirit to be witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, and that we would be true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Pray for Kaharlyk and the Kaharlyk region that God would open doors for us to preach the good news of salvation in Christ and that God would save many in this area.

Pray for us that God would supply all of our needs physically, spiritually, and financially.

Support can be sent to:Calvary SLO Church 4029 S. Higuera StSLO, CA 93401 *please attach a note saying “for Daniel and Annaliese Foote”

or online at www.calvaryslo.com/give

CONTACT INFOUkraine address:

Perevulok Persha Travnya #13Kaharlyk, 09200 Ukraine

www.twitter.com/dannyfootewww.footesinukraine.com