Dear Praying Friends and Family,I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord. We want to thank you all for your prayers and support. It has been a blessing to see what the Lord has done over the last two months and we are excited to see what He is going to do with us during this furlough.
Good News From Far and Near Countries: Change, relocation, and reverse culture shock left our souls a bit thirsty. Proverbs 25:25 says, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” We had some great news from two far countries! I guess that equates to a big gulp! The first bit of news came from Peru where my brother has been for several years. Micah is my half-brother, but we hardly know each other because we did not grow up together. He has PTSD from his time serving as a sniper in the Army Rangers. He did three or four tours and his life fell to pieces. There is not enough space in this letter for all the details. Micah and I came in contact with each other five or six years ago through the internet. He battles alcoholism and didn’t really believe in God. Our exchanges were… “interesting.” In short, he was trying to “take it like a man” and “pay for his own sins.” I searched for a missionary nearby that could help him. Pastor Bevans Welder told me of a missionary in Peru named Joe Hembrough who himself is a veteran. He began talking with Micah and was able to put him in contact with a national pastor who gave him some work. Everyone prayed. Brother Hembrough and I spoke about how to help Micah, seeing he really needs help of every kind, but of first importance was salvation. Brother Joe told me his opinion… “He’s either going to self-destruct and die or find God.” I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear from Micah in late December. He called to tell me that alone, homeless, during a downpour, on his knees in the cold and mud he prayed and received Christ! He said that as he was agonizing with the Lord in prayer, that the Lord put a blanket of warmth around him. He said, “He hugged me and made me warm…literally!”
Please pray for him. I am going to try to get down there to Peru if the Lord allows and help him get back to the USA where he can get into a church and get some help.         
A year ago I mentioned one visitor who came to our services while we were broadcasting during the quarantine. Her name is Xenia, a close friend of Sister Sveta who trusted Christ about two years ago. Sveta has been praying and witnessing to Xenia ever since she got saved. She came to church just that one time and listened closely to the message during quarantine but didn’t receive Christ. Here we are a year later and the Lord has answered our prayers and Xenia came to church again. Brother Aleksei told me that she responded to the invitation to receive Christ a few Sundays ago!          We are also thankful to see fruit here in the USA. Pastor Greer of Branch Hill Baptist Church gave me the opportunity to preach while he was out of town. It was my privilege to see a young man respond to the invitation for salvation that morning. I fully realize that he came ready to be saved due to the prayers and personal work of Pastor Greer and his people. However, it really did my heart good to see someone “walk the aisles” and gives me hope that this is a foretaste of what is to come while here on furlough.       
  The Lord has added more reasons to rejoice to see my younger sons getting a burden for their new friends here in the neighborhood where we live. Christopher asked me to teach him how to win people to Christ and has been listening very well and memorizing Scripture. All my younger sons have been praying every night for their friends to get saved. Please join them in prayer for Uriah, Noah, Malachi, and Jacob.
The Rest of the News: The majority of our time since landing has been spent just trying to acclimate to the USA again and stabilize. Housing, transportation, insurance, delays due to covid, driver’s licenses, etc… have taken a lot of time. Getting my office and our home school up and running took more time than expected in this Covid atmosphere.
Helping my teenagers transition to American life was not something I thought about when I surrendered to the call of being a missionary. It is as if all the things teenagers do during their high school years in America have landed on us all at one time! We are very thankful that Miriam has already found work. The Lord has brought her through some things and she has gotten to the place where she wants to serve the Lord in Ukraine. A year ago she told the Lord, “Anywhere BUT Ukraine.” She is teaching English to foreign students with an online company and wants to be self-supporting by the time we return to Ukraine.
Benjamin and Samuel are still looking for work which is hard seeing they still don’t have their driver’s licenses. We couldn’t afford sending them both to driving school so I have been taking the time to teach them myself. They are very close to being ready to take the test and I’ll be close to needing medication of some kind!
Meetings: The Lord has given me plenty of opportunities to preach even though our ministry presentation is not yet ready. There are literally thousands of pictures to wade through and a lot of blessings to catalog and figure out what stays and what goes! Lord willing, it will be ready very soon. Please pray that the Lord will bless the presentation to be a blessing to the saints.       
  I have begun scheduling meetings and look forward to seeing you all sometime soon. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a specific date. My number is 513-376-1011. If not, you should be hearing from me in the near future!
Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:10