June 10, 2011
For more than a year, David and Galina Binkley have been teaching WEI students in Nikolaev. This year, they invited us to join them in a WEI teaching campaign. On June 10, Charles Chandler, Jon Rawlings, Mike Soto, and I landed in Kiev and were welcomed by David and Galina at the airport. After a rough, eight-hour van ride, we checked into our hotel in Nikolaev around midnight. On Sunday, we worshiped with the wonderful little church in Nikolaev and enjoyed food-fellowship afterwards.
On Monday morning, we launched one of the most meaningful short-term mission efforts I have experienced. David and Galina had recruited about twenty-four high-quality students. Three of them had PhD’s, and seven had, or were about to earn, Masters Degrees. These students ranged in age from seventeen to forty-five.
We arose at 5 o’clock each morning, ate breakfast at the hotel, and walked uphill a mile and a half to the Culture Center where the church meets. There, in the room next to the church office, we taught our students from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.daily, with a two-hour lunch break.
On Friday, June 24, Natasha Mishchenko, a pediatrician and teacher, was baptized into Christ after studying with Charles Chandler for two weeks.
Most of the students worked hard to finish the course within three weeks. My student, Larisa Golovko, spent four hours a day preparing for class even though she had a fulltime job. As a result, she made marvelous progress in her knowledge of English and the Bible.
On Friday morning, July 1, about thirty students, teachers, and friends gathered for the graduation ceremony. Kesha Golovina said as he received his diploma, “This study has changed my thinking about Christianity. For the first time, I have seen what real Christianity is like.”
At least six students were getting close to committing their lives to Christ. Pray that God will bless David and Galina with a fruitful harvest.
