Beal's Prayer ltr July 08
July 11, 2008 | Posted by: Jessie
Dear Brethren,
Greetings from Ukraine! Finally, we are back home and "settled" in… I think! Thank you so much for your many prayers regarding our border crossing, we experienced only some minor inconveniences and very little trouble with our documents. The Ukrainian officials never mentioned our out-of-date van registration, praise the Lord!
Speaking of the van, it is now registered and all the documents current. Since it had not been necessary to register the van since our move to the village, the van was still registered in the city of L'viv. Upon our return from the States, we became aware that we needed to register it in the small town of Zhovkva, as our village is located within that region. (This would be comparable to counties in the US.) Well, every time we do something like this over here we are amazed at the red tape (hence money!) that we have to go through in order to complete what inevitably becomes a lengthy, draining process. You see, in order to register the van in Zhovkva, we had to first "unregister" the van in L’viv to the tune of $600. Yes, that's right; we had to pick ourselves up off the floor too. And, we were told that it could have been more, but we were very fortunate to "know" someone that worked in "DMV" who was able to help us out. After an additional $500 or so in order to put the van back into registration in Zhovkva, our van is finally legal again.
Many of you already know about our heater situation that also "welcomed" us home. :>) It seems that even though Jessie very carefully drained all the piping before we left for America, there was still condensation that formed in some of the valves and our hot water heater was damaged beyond repair. To shorten what is a very long story, in the process of purchasing and installing the new water heater, we were informed that our heating system was never properly installed to begin with. We are going to have to redo our entire heating system throughout the house OR, be completely without heat this winter. The purchase of the new water heater, plus the recently incurred van expenses has very much depleted us. Praise the Lord, many of our supporting churches have responded to our need! Thank you ever so much to those churches that have already helped us with this expense and thank you in advance to those that have committed to helping. After much prayer, the Lord has directed us to a "maester" that comes highly recommended and seems to be very professional. He has given us an estimate of $6,000 to replace all the piping and add six much needed batteries in some of the rooms that are especially cold; our bedrooms upstairs average about 40 degrees in the winter. Most of the cost will be for materials as the prices here continue to skyrocket and the dollar falls. Please pray with us that everything will be done properly this time around! And please pray that those that have committed to help will be able to do so in the near future. We need to start this work in just two weeks as this will be the only time this summer that the "maester" is free. This will also ensure that everything is finished and thoroughly tested before the cold weather sets in. We have been praying for quite awhile that the Lord would show us why our house is so cold and it seems that this is a direct answer to our prayers.
CMO has officially begun and it's off to a great start! Before the guys got here Jessie, Joshua and Nathan went on a week-end survey trip to the Sambir region. It's a new area for us, a two-three hour drive and definitely more remote. That first weekend they were able to make contact with village heads for 38 villages, praise the Lord. This gives us a good number of villages in which we can attempt to show The Light of the World. The guys arrived a week later, at this time there are six young men, and we're expecting one more to join us later in the summer.
Wednesday, June 18th the Steele family and friend Mindy Mullins, Nathan Day, all six guys and our chalk art instructor, Christie Ballmann "moved in" to our house for a week of chalk art training. The guys pitched their tents in our backyard (not sure what the neighbors thought of that one!), the ladies took over the upstairs and Jess and I boarded up in our room, heh, just kidding! We had a great time, LOTS of cleaning; (chalk dust gets EVERYWHERE!!!) I have a new understanding of Ecclesiastes 3:20 "…all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again…" :>) Before long the team was inhaling large amounts of chalk as they drew trees, rocks, mountains, and people, all major components of most chalk drawings. Christie did an awesome job teaching! And this year, Cassia was able to join the class. She did great for her first time at drawing; we’re excited to see how the Lord uses this in her future!
The weekend afforded everyone a break from "chalking." Jessie and I spent Saturday stocking up on groceries for "round two" of chalk training while the team headed to the mountains on a train. They spent Saturday and Sunday distributing Good and Evil booklets and invitations to the next film showing. All in all they hiked about 15 miles. By the time Jessie met them Sunday afternoon, the van was a welcome sight!
Everyone piled in and drove to Strilki, where they were scheduled to show The Light of the World at 5 pm. They set up all the equipment in Strilki's community center and waited for the villagers to come. There seemed to be an unusually large volume of people walking past the building, but none of them were coming in. Finally they asked someone where everyone was going. It turned out that the championship game of the local soccer league was going on, and our film showing was scheduled right in the middle of it. If you’ve ever been anywhere in Europe you know that a soccer game is pretty much like the World Series and Super Bowl rolled into one (even if it's just the village!) so of course, no one showed up to see the film--- our second no-show in three years. We plan to return to Strilki later this summer when we don’t have to compete with a soccer game!
The team was scheduled to resume chalk training at our house on Monday evening but due to a severe storm in the region, our entire village was without electricity. Of course for us, that also means no water, hence, showers, clean dishes and even "flushing" becomes quite a challenge… especially for 18 people! Needless to say, we told the team to stay put in L'viv until our electric was restored.
Praise the Lord, by Wednesday we were ready to go. We were up at 5am every morning to start the day's cooking but it was well worth the effort. The team said they ate like kings, of course after a steady diet of Ramen noodles in the mountains young men will eat just about anything! :>) If I had to choose an overall theme for the guys this year I think it would have to be Ecclesiastes 2:25, "For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?" :>)
Saturday, Christie Ballman was still with us so instead of heading to the mountains as usual, we decided to go downtown and do some chalk art and street preaching. Christie did three drawings and we had a good crowd for each one, at one time, there were over 50 that stopped and listened to the gospel, and many took literature.
Sunday, Jessie drove the team to the village of Ctrelbychi where they had previously scheduled to show The Light of the World. In spite of encountering another village soccer game 25 people came to see the film and all of them stayed the entire time. After the preaching, their response was very positive, everyone went forward to receive a copy of Good and Evil, and, everyone took starter packets for our correspondence course. The people were also very excited to receive Bibles for their town library.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers for our family and for CMO! Please pray especially for our van, it's taking an exceptional beating this year up in the Sambirski region; the more remote the area, the more inaccessible the roads. And, parts are getting increasingly difficult to find for a 1991 vehicle.
Please pray also for:
-The team's safety and protection during our time here, both on a spiritual and physical level.
-The guys will be able to put their newfound ability from the chalk art course to work for the Lord.
-The village film showings coming up, that the Lord would prepare the hearts of the people.
-Those that have heard the gospel, that God’s word would work in their hearts.
-That God will continue to open doors for us here so that all we do will bring results for the glory of God.
God bless you for your faithfulness to us! Be sure to look over our website for pictures of each village, chalk art week, and more in-depth stories at: Euroteamoutreach.org
Your missionaries for His Sake,
Jessie, Teresa, Cassia and Alexandria
Beal's Prayer Ltr. 04-19-08
April 22, 2008 | Posted by: Jessie
Dear Brethren,
I can hardly believe it is almost time to return to Ukraine! We are counting the days (we fly out of JFK April 24th!) and the girls are rehearsing over and over all the people they "can't wait to see" and things they "just can't wait to do"! We are so excited to get back and settle in our village before the Carpathian Mountain Project begins. We've been told that the mice have taken over our house but other than that it is in good shape.
Since leaving Rochester in January we have journeyed over 15,000 miles, we have been in or traveled through 36 states, reunited with family, fellowshipped with our dearest friends, and presented the ministry in 23 churches. We can’t praise the Lord enough for His mercy throughout our travels. As demanding and chaotic as our lives have been during the last several months, the Lord has more than made up for it with "showers of blessings" on our family. Many thanks again to all of you that helped to make our lives a whole lot easier while here in the States.
Well, as I said our hearts are intent upon returning to Ukraine, there is much to pray about and much to be busy about. First, upon our arrival in Warsaw we will need to have several repairs done on the van. We just barely made it to the airport to come home back in October! The van has been parked at a friend's house outside of Warsaw and awaits our arrival. The Lord has already blessed tremendously and supplied the finances necessary (many thanks to our new supporting church in Texas!!!) to do all the repairs and some much needed maintenance that otherwise would have been put off for another time. Please pray that this work will be done honestly and WELL, and that parts will be available so the work can be done in a timely manner.
We also want to request prayer for our border crossing from Poland into Ukraine. Because Jessie's visa expired while we were in the States, our van registration also expired. We attempted to remedy this situation BEFORE we went back, but there was just no way of getting everything taken care of. Please pray the border officials will simply issue us some type of temporary registration and let us go through. (As a side note: no worries for Jessie's visa, it’s already renewed for five years, praise the Lord!)
Once we make it to L'viv I'm afraid we may have a few things to contend with in our house beside little creeping visitors! :>) Please pray that all our systems (water pump, electricity, heaters, gas etc.) will still be up and running, or at least that we'll be able to get them up and running in very short order.
As we reported in our last letter, we are still in need of a ministry center in L'viv. The apartment that we are renting now is no longer suitable (due to increasing rent) and Nathan is currently undergoing the real-estate rat race as he hunts for an apartment that will meet our requirements for Bible studies, our ever growing correspondence ministry and CMO housing.
Since returning to the US, and especially since beginning our travels in January our family has experienced a great deal of sickness. We so want to be healthy on our return flight!!! Please pray for our health and the strength and wisdom to deal with getting back into Ukraine.
Lastly, please continue to pray for dear friends and neighbors that live in our village. We're praying that our absence won't hinder ministry amongst them— hopefully they've missed us! :>) And also please pray for the mountain ministry this year, there is still much to accomplish. Praise the Lord; we have six young men that have committed to coming this year!
The Lord gave us a special blessing this evening; we were invited to have dinner at a Ukrainian couple's house. Actually, Victor's wife Owstra is Latvian, she fixed us a wonderful meal and we talked and talked about the many Slavik peoples, particularly the differences and peculiarities between American and Ukrainian culture. Halfway through the evening Victor mentioned that their neighbors living across the street are also Ukrainian AND from L’viv! So, in true Ukrainian spontaneity, Owstra called and Roman and Oksana came right over to meet us. After talking for awhile about L'viv and how it's grown, Jessie mentioned that we now live in the village of Citiheeve. Roman, looking completely astonished, sat straight up and with absolute correct pronunciation said, "You live in Ci-TI-heeve??" (Even Ukrainians living in L'viv have no idea where our little village is, and most don't pronounce it like the people that actually live there.) When we heard Roman say "Ci-TI-heeve" like a native it was akin to a sonic boom in our ears! It turned out that Roman was born and raised in a very small village just two miles from where we live. We began talking about all the little villages in our area, calling them all by name. It was SO EXCITING!! What an example of the Lord preparing our hearts to go back! As if we weren't already biting at the bit to get back to Ukraine, the Lord intensified our desire ten times more!!!
In conclusion, we have to say again: EVERY church that we were able to be in was such a blessing to us! We have been humbled again by God's mercy, by the love of God's people, and by God's incredible provision. We can never thank you all enough. You have encouraged us in the ministry, you have made us want to go back and do more to serve the Lord, to proclaim His truth, and to represent Him and all of you in Ukraine. We are overwhelmingly blessed and privileged to be your missionaries.
Our next letter will come to you from UKRAINE!!!!! :>) :>) :>)
You're Missionaries for Jesus Sake,
Jessie, Teresa, Cassia and Alexandria
Prayer Letter - January 2008
January 24, 2008 | Posted by: Jessie
Dear Brethren,
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice." That is what keeps going through my mind when I think of our time back in the States. God has given us such a time of rejoicing amongst family and friends. We were able to spend Christmas with my mother and all three of my sisters, that is actually the first Christmas that all of us have been together since I was a baby. It was a great time, especially for Cassia and Alexandria. They have seldom been with so many family members at one time.
We arrived in Rochester, NY in October and were overwhelmed at the welcome from our home church and so many of our dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord provided so amazingly for us… an apartment, furnishings, stocked cupboards, a vehicle to drive and the list goes on and on. The Lord knew much better than we did that we needed a break from the field, and we have been so ministered to, so completely taken care of and blessed that we are just humbled and awed by His absolute provision. We could never begin to mention everyone that God has used during the past few months so we’d like to say a collective "Thank you!!!" from the bottom of our hearts to so many that have been a special blessing to our family.
Just a week after we flew into Rochester, we traveled down to Tennessee for two meetings. We were still getting over jet-lag, adjusting to American culture and I have to admit we were all more than a little homesick for L’viv. Well, the Lord had even prepared for that eventuality and had several people in place to ease our homesickness and help us transition back to life in the US. In the first church that we pulled into we met a pastor and his wife that had ministered in Belarus for eight years. It was like home away from home, we talked about Slavik foods, people and culture for two days, what a blessing it was to us! The next day we were able to stop in Nashville and meet up with Brea and Lindsey Blessing, they are the daughters of missionary friends in Ukraine. Brea and Lindsey grew up in L’viv and are favorite friends of Cassia and Alexandria. It was great to stop for an hour, have a Starbucks with them and do some reminiscing. Then we were on to Baltimore where we spent the night and saw Jason Moore, the brother that first pastored the Ukrainian church in L’viv where we attend. The Lord showered us with friends from back home during that first couple of weeks and they all helped us adjust to being back so much.
We’ve been in many churches since then, from Staten Island to Texas and all have been a tremendous blessing. We are so excited to see the Lord raise up such a huge response to the presentation of the Carpathian mountain ministry. Everyone has been excited about what we're doing and of course that has been such an incredible encouragement for us. We already have three confirmations from men that have committed to joining our 2008 team. And, we have had 94 information packet downloads from our website! There is also a possibility of some church groups coming over this summer to help evangelize in the mountains. The more people we have, the more we can do, praise the Lord!
Joshua is in L'viv holding down the fort. We now have 381 people enrolled in the Correspondence Bible Course. The responses have slowed since the summer but still continue to come in, now it's primarily by word of mouth. The Thursday evening Bible studies are going well, Josh reports that one of the ladies that began attending back in October was recently saved! She is really excited and already asking how she can serve the Lord.
We have a prayer request for our ministry center. The landlady is going trying to raise our rent from $300 to $400 per month. We are hoping to counter offer with $350 and sign a shorter contract so that we can begin to look for another apartment to meet in. We really need a good location where we can continue to hold Bible studies, store literature and house the correspondence ministry. Housing in L'viv is at a premium, very hard to find and the prices continue to escalate. Please pray for God to open up a good apartment with a good landlord.
Also, we have yet to officially welcome our newest "permanent" team member! Her name is Rebekah Praise Steele, born last week and weighing in at 8 lbs. "Aunt Teresa and Uncle Jessie" can hardly wait to get back there and introduce ourselves! :>) Congratulations Josh and Kelsie!
About two weeks ago, we had a meeting in Colorado not far from where Nathan Day lives. Nathan was still home for the holidays so we were able to stay with his family and fellowship for a couple of days. Nathan is the oldest of eight and we had a great time getting to know everyone. It was also a blessing to have him with us in church Sunday when we presented the ministry.
Just this past Sunday we had a meeting in the Fort Worth area at Fairpark Baptist Church. Four of our 2006 team members are from Fairpark and it was so good to see them, and also spend a little time with Joshua Steele's parents and family. All the guys are "featured" at some point in the presentation and it was really fun reliving a bit of their mountain experiences.
On a more serious note, we need to report a tragedy that occurred in Ukraine this past month. You may remember us writing about missionary Brian Higgins. Jessie and Brian worked together for several years to build a church in L'viv. Brian very suddenly collapsed and died due to a weakened muscle in his heart. He was a vital part of the missionary community and will be sorely missed by all in L'viv. Please pray especially for Brian's wife Tanya, and for his four children. Please pray also for Brian's church, they will continue under the direction of missionary Dan Bardwell.
We would also ask that you continue to pray for us as we travel and present the ministry. We will soon be heading further west into Nevada and California. Please pray also for the Lord's continued protection over our house in L'viv and also our van that is awaiting our return in Poland.
It has been wonderful to be home with friends and family. Many thanks again to all of you that have made our time in the States so special. To those of you that we haven't seen yet, consider yourselves warned! :>) We're on our way!!!
Your Missionaries for His Sake,
Jessie, Teresa, Cassia and Alexandria
Prayer Letter - September 2007
September 19, 2007 | Posted by: Jessie
Dear Brethren,
Greetings once again from Ukraine! Fall has arrived and it’s been cold and rainy for more than two weeks. We finally couldn’t stand the damp and had to turn our heater on. Our neighbors are struggling this year to harvest their potatoes as it’s been so wet. We have yet to dig our own potatoes out of the field. I’m thankful we don’t have so many this year. Since the main staple of a Ukrainian diet is potatoes and more potatoes, we were “strongly persuaded” to over-plant last year. But this time Jessie remained firm and planted about half of what we did the year before. We’ll still have enough to supply our family and some other fellow missionaries.
Well, we have some exciting news to report! The Lord has made it possible for us to return home for a six month furlough. We’ll be driving from L’viv to Poland, then flying out of Warsaw and arriving in Rochester, NY October 23rd. We are in the process of contacting all of our supporting churches in order to report on our ministry, and we’re endeavoring to make contact with new churches in order to raise some much needed support. We’ll be in the New England area until the end of December, and then we’ll head west to make our reports out there. The girls are so excited to see Grandma and their Aunties; it’s been four years since we were home for a short time when my Dad died. Other than a couple of emergencies, we have not been back to the States for deputation since 1999 when we first came to Ukraine. The Lord has met so many needs already, and answered every prayer to overcome each obstacle. We have so much to do within a six month period; we covet your prayers as we get ready to be gone from our home, and for all the preparations and work in the States!! We’ll be returning next April to be here for the upcoming Carpathian Mountain Outreach in the summer of 2008.
We want to update you on CMO 2007; we have the final figures on everything that was accomplished this year. But first, I would like to tell you about our last film showing in Rosokhach. he Lord really blessed and gave the guys on our team a great “farewell.” Rosokhach was the furthest village that we had yet been to. Jessie drove the team down a little two lane dirt road and finally arrived at the community center an hour and a half early. Before long, the hall director came in with a couple of helpers to make sure everything was ready. She was very polite and insisted on cleaning everything properly. After Jessie and Nathan finished setting up the equipment everyone sat down to wait for people. We never know if anyone will come to these films or not. The starting time had been announced for 6:00 pm, and at ten minutes till, the hall was completely empty except for our team.Finally, just a few minutes before 6:00, a few older men stepped into the room. We could hear some others standing around outside, so Josh made an announcement over the microphone. "Good evening everyone! We're about to begin our film tonight. Please come in and find your seats." As he continued the introduction, more and more people walked in. When we started the film there were about 25 people. And… they kept coming! By the time the film was a third of the way through, there were over 50 people in the room, and more standing outside listening. Most everyone stayed right to the end and listened attentively while Joshua preached the Gospel. He then explained about our literature, encouraging everyone to get a copy of Good and Evil and a Bible Course starter packet on their way out. We gave away all the Good and Evil's that we had, and all but two of our starter packets. Praise the Lord!
After they left Rosokhach, Jessie dropped off Nathan, Tucker and Andrew in another village, Korosteev. Last year we were denied permission to show the film there, so this year the guys went back to pass out Good and Evil's. They spent the night in their tents, and passed out the G&E's the following morning, then caught a bus back to L'viv. Please continue to pray for those who heard the Gospel and/or received Bible literature. Also pray for the young men who joined our CMO team this summer: Matthias Smith, Andrew Darbyshire and Tucker Mullens. We could not have accomplished half of what we did had it not been for their help. They have now returned to the US and are continuing their ministries there.
Here are the figures from this year’s CMO outreach. We were pretty excited when we saw them; all glory goes to the Lord! All in all, we distributed 147,774 pieces of literature. The breakdown is as follows:
1105 copies of Good and Evil booklet
73,975 invitations to receive a Good and Evil booklet
66,825 invitations to the correspondence course
5,750 Gospel tracts
119 Lesson 1 starter packets from the correspondence course
We showed The Light of the World in 6 villages and in one children's camp for a total attendance figure of 251.
As far as responses go, they are still coming in; right now we have 312 enrolled in the correspondence ministry. That’s 79 new students since we reported to you in June. It is interesting to note that 22 of them heard about the course from an existing student and were signed up using a cut-out form from the back of one of our lessons. The other 39 can safely be attributed to this summer's activities. Currently we have had 159 requests for the Good and Evil pictorial Bible booklets.
I also forgot to mention that one of our goals this summer was to “blitz” the city of Striy with gospel literature. Striy is pretty much the last point of civilization before you begin to drive up into the mountains; the population is about 70,000. We have used it as a base many times but never handed out literature there as a team. It took us three days in humid 90 degree weather, but praise the Lord; we distributed 19,000 tracts door to door.
Even as CMO 2007 is ending, we are beginning preparations for next year’s project. If you could look at a detailed map of the Ukrainian Carpathians, you would see literally hundreds and hundreds of villages, villages that have no Gospel witness whatsoever. Even if our team only focuses on villages within a three hour drive from L’viv, it will take many years to reach them all. Having said that, the more help we have the more we can do. As always, we are appealing to men to come and labor with us in this harvest field. Since the summer of 2006, hundreds of people in the mountains have heard the Gospel. Thousands are still waiting to hear. Please check our website in the coming weeks for new information on CMO 2008. If you are interested in participating, we encourage you to contact us right away. Our web address is: Euroteamoutreach.org My personal email address is jbeal4ua@yahoo.com. Or you can call me at 585-267-5603. This will reach me at my home in L’viv, but is billed as a call to Rochester, NY.
In closing, if you would please pray specifically for our family as we get ready to travel to New York. Of course, this will be a big financial undertaking and we ask for your prayers in that area. We are also in need of a reliable vehicle to drive around the country when we visit our churches. The Lord has already blessed us with a place to stay, and we know He will continue to meet all of our needs.
We can never thank you enough for your prayers and support. May God richly bless you!
Your missionaries for Jesus’ sake,
Jessie, Teresa, Cassia, and Alexandria
