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Missionary Team Serving at
People's City Mission
We invite you to be involved with our 1st International Missionary team! Olga and Tanya are here for 10 months evangelizing, teaching, and serving the guests of the Mission as well as getting involved in the community. They will be learning how a homeless shelter operates so that upon their return they will be able to share their experiences with the leaders in the Eastern Ukraine in hopes the first homeless shelter will be started in their city. Here are their stories in their own words:
Tanya (pictured left): My name is Tanya. I am happy that the Lord is my Savior and that He found me and my mother on the road! There is no mistake, it is true. We were like sheep wondering in this world without even knowing that there is a good Shepherd, that our empty hearts can be filled by His love. My mom was a teacher and I was eleven years old school girl. Difficult age, isn't it? One day we were going to our grandmother and missed the bus. It seemed like an accident, but our Lord had a wonderful plan. We were standing at the bus stop when the white van appeared on the road. We stopped it. There was an American missionary in it. We met him and my mother invited him to our school. He agreed and in a week he came with an interpreter. That was my first time when I heard about Jesus and His love to this world! The man kept coming and we started the Bible lessons first at school, then in our apartment. A lot of children and their parents in our village heard about Jesus and some accepted Him. The Lord touched my heart in the church, where I saw Him in other believers through their love attitude to me. We started coming to the church where I was baptized. All these years God was with me, changing my character and blessing so much. He granted me with the opportunity to study at the University for free, He blessed me with a wonderful job. I am an economist. God is so good and I am happy that He uses me in children's ministry in my family-church. I am a Sunday school teacher for children of 5-7 years old. The Lord gives us opportunities to have summer camps and it is a great opportunity to tell little children about Jesus Christ. I am also glad that He uses me as an interpreter when missionaries come to the Ukraine. I pray the Lord will bless your churches and your country for willingness to come here and tell people about Jesus our Savior! Thank you.
Olga (pictured right):
My parents grew up during Communist time and they were taught that there is no God. And of course that's how they brought me up. I don't remember myself thinking about God in my childhood or adolescence. I was sure that believers were uneducated or retrogrades - I'd never met one till 20 years old. While studying at the university I decided to participate in one student exchange program which was started by American missionary (we didn't know that at that time), later I found out that Americans who were coming were believers but I was already interested in the program so I didn't care much. But that was the beginning of God's work in my life. People began to pray for me. That was the year when I met Christians (real ones, who didn't only speak but lived what they were saying) for the first time, read the Bible for the first time, sang Christian songs for the first time, prayed for the first time. I learned & experienced that God of the universe loves me very much - that was so amazing! At the end of the year I accepted Jesus as my Savoir. Later He has called me to work with children and youth and use my knowledge of English for Him in many different ways. I try to be open for the Lord any time He thinks He can use me. Sometimes it's hard as you have to give up something but it's always such a privilege to be used by my Lord!
Please feel free to invite Tanya and Olga to your church or Bible Study group. They will be happy to share about how God is working in the Ukraine. If you feel led to get involved here is what you can do!
1. Please pray for them. They're sacrificing their families and jobs back home.
2. They need to raise $6,000 ($2,000 round trip plane tickets and about $200/month for any extra expenses associated with their stay). You can mail your check to: People's City Mission
C/O Sasha Vodolazskiy
P.O. Box 80636
Lincoln, NE 68501
Please make your check payable to People's City Mission. On the memo please write: "PCM Missionary Fund". All donations are tax deductible and you will be mailed a tax deductible receipt.
3. We are looking for host families! Currently they are staying at the here at the Mission and room and board is included. If you would like to open your home and develop a closer relationship with Olga and Tanya please feel free to contact Sasha Vodolazskiy at sashav@peoplescitymission.org |
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Our Own John Harris "Volunteering"
As Staff we have many oportunities to serve our guests in other ways - not just by doing the job we were hired to do! We can jump in and serve when their is a need! You too can serve our guests by being a volunteer here at the Mission. There are SO many different ways you can be used to serve our guests and fill a need! John Harris, our Church Relations Director, is shown serving salad and fruit during one of our meal times. Read this following letter we recently received from Aaron, who volunteered in our kitchen under the direction of Edna Pickett, our Food Service Manager.
Dear Ms. Pickett,
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to volunteer at People's City Mission in the kitchen. The experience was well worth the time and I learned a lot from it. I enjoyed being able to take the time to help those in need and to assist in the Mission's goal of reaching to those in need of material things, as well as and more importantly, God. I was glad to see how the Mission did this in a way to allow those in need a job that also helped others in need.
While working in the kitchen I got to meet some new people I probably would have never met had I not come to volunteer there, and I got to share some of their experiences they had while working there and before working there. I was also able to talk with some of the people who were living there and had come to work, and I did enjoy talking to them and hearing their stories.
The main reason that I had come down there to volunteer was to fulfill a community service requirement to get credit. We had been talking in class about the importance of community service and how it helps to make our society better, and after working in the kitchen, I got a better idea of how much it really did help the community. Again I have to say it really did impact me to see how many people were out of jobs and such, and I'm really glad to have volunteered at the City Mission.
Sincerely,
Aaron
If you are interested in being a volunteer, please call Nora or Molly here at the Mission at 475-1303! |
2009 Freedom Cup
July 3-5
3v3 Soccer Tournament to Benefit The Homeless
At Abbott Sports Complex
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Our Rain Barrel Program is in full swing!
If you would like to order your very own rain barrel and help conserve water, provide jobs, feed the homeless, AND save money all at the same time call Pam at
475-1303 ext. 119!
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Thanks so much for your support. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during these difficult financial times.
Sincerely,
The Staff of People's City Mission |
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