UPDATE
FROM UKRAINE - AUGUST 2002
This summer has been very eventful and filled with opportunities for
ministry. We saw God move in the lives of Ukrainians, as well as
in our own.
Our first ever English clubs went very well -
we had two different classes that met every day for two weeks.
These particular classes were for anyone over the age of 16 and we had
25-30 attend each day. The first half of the day was devoted to
English vocabulary and grammar study and the last half of the day tied
in what they had just learned to God and the Bible. A different
Bible story on the life of Christ was taught each day and there were
many good discussions started from questions that were asked. All
of the students said that they wanted to continue to study English with
us and many of them wanted to know more about the Bible. This is a
very powerful outreach tool here - we are praying for God's direction in
starting some more classes in the fall.
During our time preparing for these classes, we
met a Christian man in our village who has been leading a group of new
believers each week - he was excited to hear about why we were here - he
begged us to help him and train him. He says he knows how to lead
people to Christ and can even start Bible studies with these new
converts, but he really doesn’t know what to teach them or what to do
with them next - could we please teach him and help him.
What an incredible opportunity - pray with us about this!
FAMILY NEWS:
We are no longer in the house we told you about
in our last prayer letter - the landlord evicted us without notice.
The problems all started about the same time we were planning for these
English clubs - we truly believe that Satan played a major role in it
all. Our water well went dry and after many attempts to get it
working again, we were told by several specialists that we needed to dig
a new one. Our landlord did not agree with this, said she
wouldn’t do it and then she started causing many other problems.
After being without any water for 6 weeks and also dealing with her
accusations and threats, we were just praying for God’s deliverance!
He finally answered that prayer by having our landlord evict us!
She had the police and deputy mayor come to the house to be sure we left
right away. They could not find any wrong doing on our part, but
they did hassle us and give us a hard time and finally told us we had to
leave right then. We could have fought the whole thing, and even
won, but we really just wanted out! We had no one to help us pack
up and no where to go (this was about 10:00 at night) so we prayed and
begged God to help us!! After we made one or two phone calls, we
had two large trucks, 15 men and two storage places available to us
within the hour! It was so incredible - what a mighty God we
serve! We were able to stay with friends for a few weeks while
looking for another place, which we did find after only two weeks.
We moved in last week and are getting settled in and hoping to get back
to a "normal" routine soon!!
Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for us
during a very difficult and discouraging time - we know Satan was hard
at work, but God is greater and He won the victory! We love and
appreciate you all so much!
Shawn and Amy Sullivan
Missionaries to Ukraine
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Getting settled into our new house
- Language school starts again in September
- Ministry opportunities that have come available
NEW FIELD ADDRESS:
Per. Shiroki 1 b
Kievska oblast
Vishneve 08132
Ukraine
New Phone:
011-380-44-985-2507
Top of page
June 2002
Dear
Friends and Family,
Summer is fast approaching, spring will only be here for a few more days
- we’ve never seen green so rich or colors so bright as our first
spring here in Kiev. The capital is aptly named the "Garden
City”. Kashtan (chestnut) trees and a large variety of fruit
trees were in full bloom and have now begun to bear their fruit.
Flower vendors line the streets and bazaars. Everything is so
beautiful! We are reminded of God’s creativity and grace in all
of the variety and new growth. Thank God for His loving design!
Our first priority is still language study, but we will have the next
several weeks off - our instructor is taking some vacation time.
The timing actually works out well for us, as some opportunities for
ministry have come available. English as a second language is a
powerful tool for building relationships that lead to a gospel witness
here in Ukraine. We will be setting up an English Club right here
in our village, with the help of a short term missions group from the
States. These clubs use the Bible as a text and have proven to be
highly effective in generating an interest in spiritual matters.
Once the group from the States leaves (end of June), we will follow up
with those who would like to continue, with a Bible Study and eventually
a possible church plant. The mayor and school directors of our
village are excited that we want to do this and have invited us to use
their facilities this summer, free of charge. They have even
invited us to teach English in the public school here, on a regular
basis, and have no problem with us using the Bible to do this - we will
talk with them more about this as the school year approaches and will be
praying for God's direction in this matter.
As most of you know, we are now living in a house and will be able to
stay here for our entire first term. We were able to sign an
extended lease; this is critical in that it gives us a home to come back
to (after furlough) in a very difficult housing market. It is just
a few minutes outside the city limits of Kiev, so it is a good location.
Some repairs were necessary and we have done most of those and are
beginning to settle in. An indoor toilet was absolutely essential
and has been completed, but we still have the outhouse in the backyard.
Not really sure why!? We had a working (open) well when we first
moved in, but it has basically dried up and we have been without running
water for almost 3 weeks! We are able to draw a few buckets
of water each day from the well (just like they did in the "old
days") and then we also buy bottled water, it has been a real
experience! It's amazing what you can do when you have to!
We will have to dig a new well (which we will start on whenever the rain
stops) and then we will have to install an electric pump, which will
give us running water in the house again. Please pray about this
situation - it has been a long, hard time and we are ready to get it
over with and move on! (Also, please make a note of our new
address and phone number included at the bottom of this email).
Other than that, we are doing great. The kids are good - Cody just
completed his baseball season and Kayla was able to play soccer, so that
has kept them very busy. They are out of school for the summer and are
actually a little sad about that. They really love school and look
forward to going each day! They both did very well this year and
we are proud of their hard work and their eagerness to get involved!
Hope you all are doing well - we love and miss every one of you!
Please let us hear from you and remember to keep us in your prayers.
Thanks so much!
Shawn and Amy Sullivan
Prayer Requests:
Repairs to house - especially the water/well
system
Language School
Summer ministry opportunities - English/Bible
Clubs
NEW ADDRESS:
Zhulianskaya 19
Kievo-Svyatoshinski Region
Selo Gatnoe
Kiev 08160
Ukraine
New Phone: 011-380-44-251-0243
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of page
March 2002
Hello everyone,
Just a note to let you know that we FINALLY FOUND A HOUSE!!!! We signed
the lease last week and should be able to move the first week of April!! It is
located just outside of the city, far enough away to be "out in the
country",
but close enough to have all of the access we need. It is an older house
and
needs some work, but it has a lot of potential. The main thing we are
working on right now is an indoor toilet - most of the homes in the villages
still use outhouses, so we are having to install a toilet and a septic
system. The good news is that Shawn is able to do all of the work himself,
so we can do the complete job for just the cost of the parts, which are
pretty cheap here. He should be done with that job by this weekend and
once
that is complete, we have a few other repairs to do before moving in. It
is
a definite answer to prayer - it has everything we prayed for and a little
more - isn't that how God always works?! We will have a garage to park our
van in (that was a big concern for us - to keep our van safe - for those of
you who don't know, we had our van windows broken out on two different
occasions, right in front of our apt., so security is a major concern) and
the kids will have a safe place to play - it has a fenced in yard. They
may
finally even get to have a dog!!?? And the landlord let us sign the lease
for our entire first term, so we will be able to stay settled down in one
place until our furlough.
We just wanted to let you know that we found something and wanted to thank
you so much for all of your prayers on our behalf!! We know many of you
were
praying for us about this and we know that it wouldn't have happened without
you! Thank you so much! We will send out our new address and phone
number
once we get the phone installed - probably in the next couple of weeks. In
the meantime, you can still use the address you have now - it is a P. O. Box
and will be good for several more weeks.
Hope you all are doing well and that you have a wonderful Easter! We are
looking forward to experiencing the celebration of Easter here - it is a
major holiday for the Ukrainians - the Catholics celebrate it the same time
that we do, but the Orthodox will celebrate it on May 5th, which is the
"official" holiday for the country. So, because there is not an
Easter
celebration here until May, the American Ambassador has invited all the
American children to his home this weekend for an Easter party and egg hunt -
the kids are excited about going - should be interesting!! We will let you
know. We love and miss you all - please be sure to keep in touch!
Love,
Shawn and Amy
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Dear Praying
Friends,
The New Year’s holiday is the largest celebration of the year for the
people of Ukraine! Most spend New Year’s Eve either at home with
their families or in the town square, drinking and partying until dawn!
We had the opportunity to celebrate the New Year with some college kids
here in Kiev, but in a little different way! We had a great time
of fellowship with these young men and ladies; eating, playing games,
singing and then praying in the New Year! Then later (early next
morning), we ended our celebration with our own fireworks and a very
intense snowball fight! We had a great time! It was really
wonderful to spend some time with these young people and see their
desire to live for the Lord and do right - which is very difficult in
this culture. Most of the young people here have nothing to do for
fun (except go to the bars and nightclubs or to the opera or ballet -
not quite their style!) and they have no hope for their future.
Most of these kids go to the universities and get their degrees, they
are very well educated - most of them are fluent in 3 or 4
languages, but they can’t find any kind of job once they graduate.
If they are fortunate enough to find something, it will only pay $40-$50
a month! That is the national average! The suicide rate for
this age group is phenomenal here, one of the highest in the world!
We are really hoping to focus on this age group as part of our ministry
here. These kids are Ukraine’s future!
MINISTRY NEWS:
Language school! We are still plugging along and trying to learn
one of the most difficult languages in the world! We are making
some progress, but it is slow and sometimes very frustrating! They
say that at around six months of study some things will actually start
to “click” - so we are looking forward to that, even though it is
still a couple of months away! We have noticed that we are
understanding a little more as we listen to the people speak, so that is
pretty neat. The kids are taking Russian in school and are
learning some of the basics, but we will probably have them take lessons
with our instructor over the summer, to help them progress a little
better.
FAMILY NEWS:
Our year started out with lots of snow and fun for everyone!
The kids enjoyed sledding and playing in the snow whenever they had a
chance! Unfortunately (for them) it hasn’t snowed in almost a
month and all of the accumulated snow has melted away. It has been
a very unusual winter this year, much warmer than normal.
Kayla celebrated her 7th birthday last month with her first slumber
party! She had 6 of her friends from school over; they
stayed up all night and had a great time! She has just lost
another tooth, one of her front ones, so she now has a cute little
snaggle-toothed smile. She was sure glad to find out that the
tooth fairy does come to Ukraine, we weren’t really sure if she did or
not! :) Cody will have his 10th birthday next month - he is doing
well in school, is still involved in Boy Scouts and is looking forward
to playing baseball this spring! We will be celebrating our 17th
wedding anniversary this month - we are so thankful for another year
together, God had been so good and has provided every need.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Our language
study.
- A house to rent
- we are still living in the apartment we rented when we first arrived.
It is very small - no room for our personal household goods (which are still
in storage) and the kids have been sharing a room with only one twin
bed. We are all starting to feel a little crowded after seven
months! We’ve been looking for a long time, but it is so hard to
find something livable for a decent price. Everything rents at
outrageous prices (if you're an American)! PLEASE PRAY!! We
need a miracle! And SOON!
Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support for us since we
have been here. We wouldn’t be able to do this without you!
Like everyone, we have our good days and our bad days, but the reason we
can keep going through the bad ones is because we know we have the love
and prayers of people back home! We don’t ever take that for
granted! We love and miss each and every one of you - please write
to us sometime and let us know what is happening in your lives! We
LOVE to get e-mail! God bless you!
Shawn and Amy Sullivan
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of page
December 2001
Dear Praying
Friends,
We are definitely not in Florida anymore! The first snow fell here
in mid November.... winter has arrived! The temperatures have
already dropped into the teens and the sun is setting at around 4:00 PM.
It sure seems strange for it to be dark so early, when there is
still so much work left to do for the day!
We are looking forward to the Christmas holiday.....both of them! The
Catholics celebrate it on December 25th, but the Orthodox Church
celebrates on January 7th. One unusual Ukrainian tradition is to
put a spider and spider web on the Christmas tree for good luck. New
Year’s Day is the major holiday here this time of year and is
celebrated much like our Christmas, with Santa Claus (Ded Moroz)
delivering gifts and children going door to door for treats on that day.
Just before Thanksgiving, Shawn took a train 600 miles south to
Simferopol (in Crimea, near the Black Sea) to speak for missionary Al
King on their “Bread of Life Sunday”. There were about forty
people in attendance and two ladies trusted Christ as their Savior.
The 36 hour train ride sure was exhausting, but was very
rewarding! Praise the Lord!
Our first Thanksgiving here in Ukraine was definitely one we will
remember! We woke up that morning with no electricity! We
soon discovered that the breakers to our apartment (which are located
out near the elevator) had actually been stolen! Things like that
are not uncommon here. We were able to buy more (and some good
locks!) and Shawn had everything installed in time for us to start the
cooking! It turned out to be a nice day shared with some of our
new friends from Australia.
Our progression in the Russian language is slow, but sure. Russian
is a very difficult study, but it is beginning to make a little sense.
(I bet you didn’t know there were 20+ different ways to say “my”?)
We can see patterns starting to develop and our vocabulary is
gradually increasing. Pray for God’s grace as we continue to
study.
Cody and Kayla are doing very well; they have made many friends and are
really enjoying school! They absolutely love the snow! They
don’t ever want to come inside! Their mom and dad don’t seem
to be able to stand the cold as long as they can! That will take a
lot more practice!
We hope that you are all doing well and that you are enjoying this
holiday season! We will sure miss being there with our family and
friends during this time! But we are looking forward to our very
first "White Christmas"! Please know that we love you
all and we appreciate your faithful prayers and support for us while we
are so far from home! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a
very Happy New Year!
In His Service,
Shawn, Amy, Cody and Kayla Sullivan
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of page
October 2001
Hello,
What a week we have had this past week! We have had two major
answers to prayer this week and are very excited! First of all, we
finally found a buyer for our truck in the States! What a burden
off of our shoulders! We are so grateful that God worked
this out for us - we were starting to think we would never sell it.
The other answer to prayer is - WE FOUND A VEHICLE!!!!! Thank the
Lord!!! We found a Ford Windstar minivan and after it passed two
mechanic's checks, a complete computer diagnostic and two separate
police checks, we finalized the deal and drove it home! After
three months of walking everywhere, it will be so wonderful to be able
to drive where we need to go - especially since the weather is
starting to get colder. It couldn't have come at a better time!
Thank you so much for your prayers regarding these two things!
Everyday life is busy - we spend most of our time in language classes,
or studying for them. Daily errands still take much longer than
normal due to the language barrier, but we are learning and are becoming
a little more comfortable each day. Progress is slow, but it is sure.
The kids are really doing well. They are in school all day long,
every day, and have even become involved in some after school
activities, so they stay very busy. Their school starts it's
soccer season this week and has it's annual Fall Festival this weekend,
so we will be busy attending these with the kids. Cody is also
involved with the Boy Scouts and is looking forward to his first campout
soon. They both are adjusting very well and are enjoying everyday
life!
Shawn has started teaching English to two teenage boys, one night a week
- we are hoping that this will turn into an opportunity to share the
Gospel with them. Please pray for them, their names are Maxim and
Eugene. Our Russian language teacher, Julia, has also asked us to
help her with her English, so we are doing that as well. We have
begun to build a relationship with her and her husband, Oleg, and hope
to be able to share the Gospel with them, too. They are a young
couple; she was raised Catholic and her husband Orthodox, but neither of
them attend church. Pray for them, that God would soften their
hearts.
Thank you all for praying for us - we know that your faithful prayers
are instrumental in providing our daily and ministry needs. Pray
that as we learn the language God would open doors of opportunity for
ministry. Thank you also for your e-mails and words of
encouragement these last three months - they mean so much to us, more
than we could ever explain!
Please keep in touch and let us know what is happening in your lives!
We love you and are praying for each of you as well. Have a
great week!
Love,
Shawn and Amy
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September
2001
Dear Friends and Family,
On August 24th, Ukraine celebrated it's 10th year of independence. Most
Ukrainians say that they are no better off than they were 10 years ago,
but some have a brighter outlook. Many Ukrainians don't fully
understand what "freedom" is all about. They aren't sure
if they can trust their new "democratic republic". It is not a
lesson that is learned quickly. You can see it the people's faces
everyday on the street, most people have nothing to look forward to.
They go to work each day, if they are fortunate enough to have a job,
and still aren't sure if they will receive a paycheck at the end of the
week. They have no hope for the future and that is what we want to give
them - HOPE! Through Jesus Christ!
In order to do this, of course, we must be able to communicate with them
in the Russian language. We have started language classes and that is
our primary focus for now. It is definitely going to take quite some
time; Russian is a very difficult language, but with the Lord's help we
hope to conquer it as quickly as possible!
We have had a few of the people here ask us about teaching English. At
first we told them that we wouldn't be able to do it, but now we feel
that this may be just the opportunity we have been praying for, a way to
minister to the people even though we can't speak the language yet. We
are still praying about it and will have to make a decision soon.
Cody and Kayla started school last week. They are attending New Hope
Christian School, which is a school that was started for missionary
children here in Ukraine. It is open to any English speaking children,
so there are children from the business community attending there as
well. This year there are 125 students and some new teachers, so it
should be an exciting year! In addition to their normal curriculum, the
kids have art, music, P. E., computer and Russian classes, so they
should get a pretty well rounded education. They seem to be making the
adjustment to school very well and are making many new friends already.
Please pray that they continue to do well in school and have a positive
experience all the way around!
We would like to ask you to pray for some other things with us, as well.
We know the power of prayer and believe with God all things are
possible! We are still trying to sell our truck in the States and are
also still trying to find a vehicle here in Ukraine. Please pray!! We
are also in the process of looking for a house to rent; our lease will
be up on our current apartment at the end of the year and we need to
have something ready to move into at that time. We have found one that
we are seriously considering, we are just waiting for all of the details
to fall into place, so we will know for sure if it is the right one.
Also, please continue to pray for our language study, our adjustment to
the culture and for us to have some opportunities to minister - even
with the language barrier.
We thank each and every one of you for your many prayers for us, we know
that is what keeps us going! You all are also in our prayers, especially
during this tragic time in America! We can not even comprehend how
anyone could do something so terrible! We just pray for comfort and
healing to all those affected by this tragedy!
Shawn and Amy Sullivan
aR 144
Kiev 74
04074 UKRAINE
Phone: 011-380-44-432-4688
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August
3, 2001
Hello Everyone,
Just a quick note to let you know that our address that we sent out to
you was correct, but needs to be written differently. The
way that it was written was making it difficult for the U. S. Post
Office's machines to read and thus causing delivery to be much slower.
We asked the Post Office here in Kiev and they said that when we
receive mail from the States it should be written like it is at the end
of this email. The numbers are all the same, it is just written
more like an American address. Please be sure to make this change
in your records.
Also, when you send any mail to us (except a basic letter) it is better
to send it Priority Mail, Airmail or through UPS - regular mail takes
much longer (3-5 weeks) and tends to be rummaged through when they
notice that it is from America.
Hope that you all are doing well - we will send out our next update
soon!
Shawn and Amy Sullivan
aR 144 (write the "R" backwards)
Kiev 74
04074 UKRAINE
Phone number is the SAME: 011-380-44-432-4688
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July 26,2001
Hello,
We have been asked by several people to keep the updates coming, so here
is another one! Hope you don't get tired of hearing from us!
Most of you are asking for first impressions and funny stories.
We will do our best to share those with you when we can.
Our household shipment arrived this past Monday!! Everything made
it through customs fine - the company we used did an excellent job!
However, the driver that actually drove our things into Kiev was
stopped by police 10 different times along the route. This is
typical in Ukraine, anytime the police feel like stopping you they do,
and the only way they will let you go is if you "pay a fine" -
of course this goes in their pockets, not to any police department or
government agency. Apparently, this is perfectly legal, so it
happens a lot!
We have spent the last couple of days sorting through some of our things
- we found our special food items first!! We had stocked up on a
few things before we left and were excited to find those! For
those of you who have asked, we are trying to make a list of
things we can't get here and will let you know as soon as we figure it
all out. The kids were very excited to get some of their toys.
They hadn't seen most of them in almost two years! They have
ridden their bikes and played with their toys non-stop for the entire
week! It is almost like Christmas for them!!
We had to rent a small one room apartment for storage - the apartment we
are living in is too small for all of our things and there are no
storage rental places here, like there are in the States. You can
rent an individual metal garage (like a shed), but they are usually not
secure and are not weatherproof. The cost is about the same as a
small apartment, so we just went with that option. It is working
out well, so far.
The kids are adjusting very well! They made friends in our
apartment complex the very first week - they play out on the playground
with them almost every day. A couple of the Ukrainian children can
understand a few words of English and Cody knows a few words in Russian,
so they communicate pretty well. It was funny at first, we heard
Cody speaking to them in very broken English, like they were speaking to
him. We had to tell him not to do that, to talk to them normally
and to also try to learn some Russian words from them. We told him
to try to learn and remember at least three new words each day - he is
doing well with that so far. Kayla gets one or two, but has a tendency
to forget them later. They will be taking Russian classes in their
school, so they will learn the language just fine.
Speaking of the language, we are in the process of interviewing some
language schools to see which one we want to use. We had an
interview and trial lesson with the first one yesterday and did the same
with another today. The schools here offer the option of taking
lessons at the school or sending someone to your home - right now we are
looking into taking lessons at home. If this doesn't work out
well, we will try to arrange for something else. This is the
way most of the Americans here have learned Russian and they say it
works very well.
Please continue to pray for the vehicle situation - we haven't had a
chance to pursue this and we really need to figure it all out. It
will allow us to be able to take the kids to school and attend language
school ourselves. Due to the scheduling of these schools, we would not
be able to do both unless we had a vehicle.
That is all that is happening here, for now. We appreciate those
of you who have sent emails to us - it means more than you could ever
know! We look forward to checking our email each day! We
miss everyone and hope to hear from some of you! Until next
time.......
Shawn and Amy
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July 17, 2001
Hello everyone,
We are still alive and breathing! Things are getting a little
better - they finally turned our hot water back on, so that is a
blessing! The weather here has been unusually hot (for Kiev), it
has gotten up into the 90's the past couple of days, which makes our
apartment almost unbearable at times. Being on the 8th floor, we
tend to get a small breeze during the day but not usually at night, when
we need it the most! We did find some fans at an outdoor market
and that has helped a little, but it usually just blows the hot air
around more! We are sure looking forward to the cooler weather!!
Shawn has been working on little things here and there to make things
more comfortable; he installed a water filter for the kitchen (so now we
can drink water directly from the tap), got us a refrigerator, installed
a ceiling fan in the bedroom, fixed our phone jacks, installed a shower
curtain, towel racks and a toilet paper holder in the bathroom (now
that's important!) ! and various little things that we come across as we
are getting settled in. There are still some things we would like
to do, but we are also hoping to get into a different apartment in a few
months, so we may just wait for now.
We have spent the last week learning how to get around. We have
been walking all over town trying to find all of these things we need
(of course you can not find them all in one place, you have to go to
several different places) and have been learning how to use the buses
and subway system. The kids really enjoy the subway, some of the
stations are so massive and they have the longest escalators we have
ever seen! (They also got to experience using a bathroom at the
subway station; European bathroom; the kind where you don't sit, only
squat. They thought it was very weird). Kiev has a very
efficient public transportation system, it is just a challenge for us
because we don't know our way around and can't speak the language.
We are learning some key words and have learned to figure out on a map,
ahead of time, where we need to go and then we count the stops along the
way. It sure makes for a very long day, what would normally take
an hour or two by car, takes us about 8 hours. Especially grocery
shopping. We must be a hilarious sight, we often have many bags to
carry home and get some funny looks on the street.
A quick story about grocery shopping – we went with a
Ukrainian friend the first time, so we would know how to read the labels
of some basic items. We found out last night that one must read
the packages very carefully. They may be written in Russian,
Ukrainian, German or Polish. What initially appeared to be frozen
cod turned out to be some kind of a tubular sea worm after it was
cooked. It was hollow, very rubbery with a terrible flavor!
We found that the pizza delivery service here is quite effective in
these cases.
Another thing we are trying to get used to is the sun rising at 4:30 in
the morning and not setting until around 9:30 at night, during the
summer. It is difficult to sleep once it's up because it shines
right into our bedroom window. It is strange to have that much
daylight, the days seem so long. The kids don't want to go to bed
because “it is still light outside”. In the
winter, the days here are a little shorter than they are in the States,
so we will get to experience the other extreme soon enough.
Please continue to pray with us about getting an automobile. We
have been able to look at some used cars at the auto bazaar here, but
have only been able to go once. We need someone who speaks both
Russian and English, preferably a native Ukrainian who knows how to deal
with business matters, to go with us and that has been hard to arrange.
Once we find someone to help us, we still have to find the right vehicle
at the right price. We need God to lead us to the right person and
the right vehicle – at the right time.
We finally have a mailing address – it will be good for the
next few months. We will let you know if and when it changes.
If you have any questions about the address or our phone number you can
call Debbie at our home church, or the mission office in Texas, they
both have this information and may be able to help you. Our
address is:
04074 Ukraine
Kiev 74
aR 144 (but make the "R" backwards, like in a mirror)
Sullivan
Thanks so much for all of the e-mails you have sent our way! We
can't tell you how precious those are to us, we have read and re-read
them and even cried through some of them. PLEASE keep them coming
– we need to hear from you and know that you are praying for
us. Each day brings new challenges, some are harder than others,
but we know that we will get through them with a lot of prayer
– and God's constant help! Thanks again – we
love you all!
Shawn and Amy Sullivan
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July 2001-Arrival
Hi everyone!
We made it!!! We are safe and sound and in Kiev! We are
still trying to
figure out where to get things and how everything works, so we are not
even sure if this email will work or not. We are still
trying to work all of the bugs out. A lot of the connections and
wires are different here, so we are trying to figure out what we need to
get this all set up.
Just wanted everyone to know we are fine, we had a good trip here (even
Amy did great - those pills really work!!!) Our first flight was
delayed almost an hour, due to a small storm in Orlando, the next flight
(out of Wash. D.C.) was delayed about 2 hours, due to a storm in New
York (which for some reason delayed all departing flights for a while)
and then we almost missed the last flight due to all the previous delays
- we were the last ones on the plane - but it all worked out and we
arrived here (and all of our luggage!) pretty much on schedule. Once
in Ukraine, we had no problem at customs. We had to fill out a lot
of extra paperwork, but no one even checked any of our luggage, they
just sent us on through!!
Our missionary friend, Matt Hudson, was waiting at the airport for us
and
took us directly to the apartment he had found for us. The
landlord was
waiting there for us and we went ahead and made a 6 month contract with
him right there on the spot. Matt had already told us that he had
looked at many apartments over the last couple of weeks and this one was
the nicest that he had found. It was not exactly what we were
looking for, but will work fine for a few months. It is furnished,
has a phone (many don't) and is clean, so that is a blessing. It
has no air conditioning, so it gets pretty hot during the day (it's been
up in the 80's) and the boilers that supply the hot water to the
building are down for repairs (this happens for a month or two every
summer) so we have no hot water yet. The things you take for
granted one day, you really learn to appreciate the next!!!
We have no vehicle yet - it may be a while before we can get one. We
have to find out where to get a copy of the driving rules (in English)
and after learning them, apply for a driver's license and then we should
be able to start looking for a vehicle. We have been walking
everywhere - which of course is very good exercise, but will take some
getting used to especially when loaded down with bags and packages.
The next week or two will be spent getting settled in. We will
continue to learn where places are and where to find certain things
(which is a challenge when you don't know the language). We have
to register with the Ukrainian authorities as well as the American
Embassy as soon as possible and will have to get the kids registered for
school too. Once all of that is done, we will start working on
where and how to do our language study. We have a couple of
options that we will be looking into, we just don't know all of the
details yet.
We should be getting a mailing address sometime next week, so we will
get that to you as soon as we can. We do have a phone number -
this is how you would dial it directly from the States: 011-380-44-432-4688.
We know it is probably expensive, if you don't have a specialized
calling plan, but we would love to hear from some of you sometime.
We are 7 hours ahead of the east coast right now, 8 hours when you
have your time change in the fall. Of course e-mail is much
cheaper!!!
We will try to keep in touch and let you know how we are doing - please
keep us in your prayers. We are having to make many adjustments,
and even the little daily things seem magnified right now. The
kids are dealing with things great so far, but we adults tend take a
little more time. We know that God will take care of us and will
see us through it all, but we could sure use a few extra prayers over
the next several weeks!!! We look forward to the day when we can
actually communicate with the people, start building relationships and
start our ministry here!
We love and appreciate each and everyone of you and look forward to
hearing from you sometime!!
Shawn and Amy
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July 2001
Dear Praying Friends,
Six years ago we had never even heard of the World Baptist Fellowship or
Arlington Baptist College and had no reason to even visit Texas. But
after spending the last five years living there, we have grown to love
it and consider it our “other home”. Last month, we said
good-bye to those friends and partners in ministry, and it is doubly
painful now, as we are about to do the same here in Florida.
Before arriving in Florida, we were able to spend a week with Shawn’s
parents and grandparents in Louisiana. Both are supportive of our
ministry, but they will sure miss those grandkids! The next week
we arrived in Florida, packed up a truck and drove our household goods
to the shipping company in New Jersey. All 186 boxes were weighed
and we discovered that the weight estimate we were originally given was
2000 pounds under the actual weight, but it was all loaded into a
container and is now on its way to Kiev. It should arrive there
around the end of July, just a couple of weeks after we arrive.
Some exciting news . . . we had the privilege of leading our 6 year old
daughter, Kayla, to the Lord a couple of months ago and Shawn was able
to baptize her last week! We had been waiting to do it in our home
church’s new building, but since it’s not quite finished, we were
able to use a swimming pool! It will sure be a neat story to tell
when she is older! We are so glad that both of our children are
saved now and that He gave us the privilege to lead them both to Christ!
We truly believe that our first mission is our family, whether we
are in the States or on the field!
Our home church, West Orlando Baptist Church, had a special “send off
service” for our family last Sunday. Of course there were many
tears and sad good-byes, but it was a sweet time of fellowship and
rejoicing over what God has called us to accomplish together in Ukraine.
Please be in prayer for our pastor, Darren Strother, who left for
Cleveland, Ohio on June 25th to undergo major heart surgery.
We had our last meeting of deputation on June 3rd and have raised the
amount we will need to get started on the field! We appreciate
those of you who have committed to support us, prayerfully and
financially, and look forward to others partnering with us in the
future!
We are now a few days from departure – the moment we’ve been working
toward for almost 2 years! We will be leaving Orlando on July 5th
at 12:20 PM for the first leg of a 15 hour flight! Pray for the
peace of God in our hearts and safe delivery to Kiev the next day.
Pray also that we will find suitable housing, will progress
quickly in language study and be able to enroll our children in school
for the fall.
Thank you all for your faithfulness in prayers and support! We
would not have gotten this far without you! Each of you are an
important part of what the Lord will do through us in Ukraine. God
bless you all as we serve Him together! Our next letter will be
from Kiev, Ukraine!!!
In His Service,
Shawn, Amy, Cody and Kayla
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May 2001
Dear Praying Friends,
Reality sure has a way of sobering your thoughts. Our
long-range planning and “to-do” lists have become significantly
shorter. There are only eight meetings left on our calendar, our airline
tickets are in hand, and we received three year visas in our passports
last week. Our last meeting is in Florida on June 3rd. The following
week, Shawn will drive a truck with all of our household goods to New
Jersey, to be shipped to Ukraine. They should arrive in Kiev around
mid-July. Almost all of our needed support has come in and most of our
expected transportation/set-up expenses have been provided as well.
Praise God and thank you all! Our tickets are
dated July 5th to fly to Vienna, Austria, and then on to Kiev. We
have made arrangements with a missionary friend in Kiev to meet us with
a truck at the airport. He will also arrange for us to have a furnished
temporary apartment, until we can find a permanent residence on our own.
We have also identified several promising language school prospects and
schools for our children. Pray for us as we make
our last pass through Texas and say goodbye to many close friends. We
will also be saying goodbye to our families while we are in Louisiana
and Florida. This is the hard part! Painful . . . no other way to
say it. Pray also that God would provide a buyer
for our vehicle and cargo trailer. If you know anyone who might
be interested in purchasing either of these items (2000 Dodge Durango
and a 6x10 two door trailer), please contact us through e-mail or on our
cell phone at 407-497-7947 as soon as possible. Thank you all for your
faithfulness, prayers and support. We could not have gotten this far
without you! God bless you as we continue to serve Him together.
In His Service,
Shawn, Amy, Cody and Kayla
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April
2001
Dear Praying Friends,
Every second counts! Like the final moments of a playoff game,
these last days of deputation are a time to pull out all of the stops,
pray like never before and trust like never before! God has used
our supporting churches to provide over 90% of our projected support,
more than 500 Russian Bibles, several thousand New Testaments, gospel
tracts, tools and other resources for the field. Now with less
than three months of scheduled meetings remaining, we will trust the
Lord, make our final preparations, and ask if you would prayerfully
consider partnering with us on a monthly basis and for assistance in
getting to the field.
This has been the fastest, busiest and most exciting 18 months of our
lives! We have learned more about God, about people, and about
faith during this process than any other time in our lives. It has
been an experience we will never forget! Please pray for us as we
continue to work on final preparations; there are many details to
remember and work out.
We love and appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you all
for your prayers, your love and your support. May God bless you
richly.
In His Service,
Shawn, Amy, Cody and Kayla
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