Please Come Again!

July/August  2025

Dear friends,

I am writing this on July 4, Independence Day in America. Franklin D. Roosevelt, once said, “Freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” Spiritually speaking, in Ephesians 3:12 Paul writes, “In Christ, and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Freedom is super important both in this world and in our faith in Christ!

In my opinion, America was built on the sacrifice of many people through the years, and Christianity has been at the center of many people’s beliefs within our country. My biological father died in Vietnam, so we could have freedom. My adopted father also went to Vietnam and came back injured, also for our freedom. They tried to achieve and maintain our freedom as a county and society. One of those freedoms people died for was so we could have religious freedom and that freedom to worship Jesus Christ has seen millions of Americans turn to our Lord as Savior. Our culture has also given me to ability to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in America and Ukraine. I feel extremely blessed and privilieged to be able to have to ability to serve along side of you to make things better in this country and world and help people to turn to God.

Ukraine is also trying to achieve freedom and after 3.5 years of war, the sacrifice has been high with death and injuries of about a thousand or more men per day. Men lose their lives, wives lose their husbands, children lose their fathers – it is a great price Ukraine is paying for freedom, which seems elusive at the moment. But our ministry partners, like you, are trying our best to provide the hope and love of Christ to this lost and hurting nation.

Within this prayer letter (July/August) and maybe the next prayer letter (September), I will highlighting New Life Church in Kharkiv. We partner with this church with all of their children’s summer outreach activities to many villages and towns within the war zone. For the past four summers, this church has gone from village to village putting on children’s summer programs and giving kids a reprieve from the horrors of this war. But don’t be mislead – these children are hurting. The effects of war on kids are real, so we must keep them in our prayers.

New Life Church tirelessly serves families and children. Here are a few words from pastor Vlad Kalin:

“Dear friends in America, than you for partnering with us in our ministry to children. Every summer, we travel to many locations with a team from our church to put on a children’s program with worship, skits, we feed families, play games, provide candy for the children, and share the gospel. Without your help, we are able to make these events happen, so thank you very much!

Holding celebrations in our villages are very important, because children can depart the on-going events of the wars, socialize with other children, and just be kids for awhile. We do everything very professionally, strategically, and intentionally by focusing on making every child feel wanted, loved and cared for by us, in the name of Jesus. We are very blessed by these events because everyone is joyful and happy – our team, the parents, and of course, the children! We hear the same message every where we go, ‘Please visit us again; we are very grateful and really need these events for our kids.’ Needless to say, we always see it as a pleasure to visit these beautiful children. There is so much love … and friendly chaos with kids running around and screaming for joy everywhere! It isn’t easy to always manage everyone, but it is well worth the effort. With the very difficult circumstances of this war, every child is struggling with something, but we see that all the children are growing up and surrounded by loving mom’s - you can feel that in every cell of your body. Thank you for partnering with us and keep praying for us, please!” – Pastor Vlad

Friends, I also thank you for supporting New Life Church in their efforts to love children and share the Good News of Jesus Christ. For many children and families, that is all that they have left. As for our ministry, we are down about $18,000 from this time last year, so please pray for our ministry too. You are all a gift from God to my family and Ukraine!

In Jesus’ love,

Ron