March – April 2022 - The Rue Family

Dear Praying Friends and Family,
The Thought of Heaven: The past two months have been an emotional rollercoaster. One moment we are glad, encouraged, and hopeful; the next we are full of heaviness and sorrow. Taking a step back and looking at what God has done, and is doing, in Ukraine helps us to continue constant in the Lord. I often breathe a prayer of thanksgiving to God that our church and its members are still standing fast. Many of the women and small children have left. They are now refugees in Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia. We stay in contact with them and do what we can to encourage them to serve the Lord with what talents they have where the Lord has put them. Others stayed in Ukraine with their families to help. Several of the men from our church have enlisted to defend Ukraine from Russia. They are still holding Sunday morning church services, praying, witnessing, and helping those in need. I realize that several missionaries have had to watch as their churches were scattered, and, as one brother said, “they have said they are never returning to Ukraine.” I’m so thankful that we’ve not been required of the Lord to swallow that bitter pill.

The Lord has encouraged us with the statistics that have filtered in over the past month regarding the video presentation I had the privilege to give for use on Pastor Joel Logan’s website targeting Russian and Ukrainian-speaking people with the Gospel. Somehow they have the ability to know how many people have watched the videos all the way through and how many people have watched them for 30 seconds or more. So far, over 8.5 million people have watched the videos all the way through, with over 16 million people watching it for 30 seconds or more. The presentation in Russian is as clear and thorough as we could make it to lead someone to Christ! The Lord has done exceeding abundantly above all I could ever ask! They have received many testimonies of people who have prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. The thought of what the Lord has done, and is doing, with this has made the thought of heaven much sweeter!

Ukraine Relief: We have been simply amazed at the outpouring of generosity of Bible Believing churches in the USA for Ukraine. So far, we have been able to get over $40,000 in aid to people inside Ukraine who need it, some desperately. These funds have been channeled to those in need through vetted, Bible-believing men who have proven themselves faithful over the years. Our relief program had small beginnings. I simply worked with our men and instructed them to help those closest to them, because the Lord said, “Love thy neighbor…” I told them to start with the poorest in the church and then enable those who didn’t need help to help their neighbors and family members both saved and lost. Every form of aid was to be given out with the message of the Gospel in spoken and printed form along with a message from American churches, “This help is from Bible believing churches in America who love them and are praying for them.”

These funds have provided various things such as food, clothing, medicines, surgeries, bandages, body armor, and transportation for women and children to safety. From my end here in the US there has been a constant challenge of working with the banking system and dealing with bureaucracy to get these funds inside Ukraine. On their end in Ukraine there has been the challenge of receiving these funds, rationing, curfews, and limited cash in the banks. They have to drive over two hours just to make a withdraw from the bank going through multiple military checkpoints and buying supplies trying to make it back home before curfew begins. Think about that and thank God the next time you make an easy cash withdraw from a nearby ATM.

At the present time I have to rely on trusted individuals to move money. However, we are currently working on trying to get everything set up to move money through our local church’s bank account. Our church has already been able to help several national pastors who do not have any documented proof of their status as ministers to receive aid for their churches from various humanitarian organizations. I’m so glad I spent all those hours with a lawyer years ago setting this up for our church to be a blessing to others. At the time it seemed very tedious, but what a blessing it has been over the years to many missionaries and ministries in Ukraine. The first stage of our ministry yielded over ten people receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior! These were the family members and neighbors of our church members who were dealt with personally, one on one. We have prayed for some of them for over ten years to be saved!

We were contacted by several national pastors and evangelists whose families and ministries needed help. We sent several thousand dollars to men who needed to get their families to safety while they did personal work along the western border of Ukraine. We sent funds to men from our church serving in the military who needed supplies. One brother from our church, Kolya, who is an officer, was able to lead one of his subordinates to Christ. He was so excited to do so. He wrote me and said, “Pastor, God has me here for a reason. Thank you for teaching me sound doctrine!” We’ve also helped another brother, Slava, who is manufacturing homemade, steel reinforced vests for civilians and transporting them to safety.

We prayed and discussed ways to help those in desperate need in other areas. Our region has been bombed several times and there was an attempt to take control of our town by pro-Russian separatists from Trans-Nistria. Several vans of weapons and terrorists drove into our town and opened fire on the military enlistment center. The attackers were neutralized and the weapons were confiscated. There has been relative peace in our town ever since. However, there is a build-up of several thousand pro-Russians close to our town in Trans-Nistria, whose border is just twenty miles from my house. Men from our church are stationed there on the border to protect our town. Please pray for their safety. While we are enjoying relative peace in our town we have received requests from refugees for help from the city Mykolaiv. This has given Brother Alexei a burden to help them there with supplies and providing transportation to those trying to escape the rockets that have increased lately. It looks like Mykolaiv could be the next Mariupol. So, Alexei pledged to sell his car and use the money towards a passenger van to transport supplies and people to safety. Other men from our church who are serving in the army gave money as well. One young man gave $1,000. With these funds and the funds from US churches, we are looking and praying for the Lord to direct us to the right vehicle to use for His glory.

On The Road Again: While preparing for taxes for 2021 we calculated our miles travelled to meetings. The total came to be very close to 25,000 miles! Twice we were almost hit head on by drunk drivers! When I think about the miles we’ve travelled in our lives just to preach in both Ukraine and the USA I’m reminded of the statistics of accidents and fatalities. It is truly the gracious hand of God that has kept us safe. We hit the road again late February and spent the past two months updating supporting churches and presenting our ministry in new ones in Texas, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, and Kentucky. The meetings have been a blessing and we’re very thankful that we have fruit in some churches along the way in the form of rededicated lives to Christ, a renewed burden for missions, and we even had a young woman named Molly walk the isle to get saved in Brother Schaffer’s church in Iowa. We are also very thankful for the new churches that have taken us on for support and for the funds raised for our ministry including the Ukrainian relief fund.

Rue Crew Review: Our last prayer letter was so long that we could not give a personal update. The big news in January was that our son, Benjamin, was finally married to his fiancé, Faith, and they are now blissfully living in their long-awaited “La-La Land of Love!” We are very thankful that they were married according to the word of God and are growing at the Anchor Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio. We have been working at improving our family’s health during furlough. Each member of our family has some kind of health issue of whatever degree with Naomi and I being the worse for wear. I will spare you the details but please be in prayer about some tests on my heart coming up. Also, please pray for Naomi who has been dealing with thyroid issues for years now. Our other issues are slowly improving. We feel much better and stronger, getting ready for our next term of service in Ukraine….one more round! We still have several open channels to help people inside Ukraine. Not only are people being helped but it provides a great witness and open door to sow the seed of the Gospel. If you would like to help please send a check to our mission board with the words “Rue/Ukraine” on the memo line. My number is (513) 376-1011 if you have any questions. 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

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