Dear Praying Friends and Family,I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and awaiting His soon return. The best way to begin this letter is to just say, “God is good!” Our spirits and souls are being refreshed by the Lord and His people on furlough…in spite of wear and tear on our bodies from all the driving Update From Ukraine: My assistant, Alexei Kalinin, has been doing a good job filling in my absence. It is a blessing that we can have conversations about the work and discuss future plans and ministry issues. The Covid restrictions are loosening up and the Lord has put it in his heart to spend some time reaching the surrounding villages and towns with the Gospel. They are also getting ready for our yearly Children’s Bible Club. He also had to conduct his first funeral for a long-time member of our church, Sofia Pavlovna. She was a sweet and dear saint who suffered from what looked like Alzheimer’s disease. For over five years, our church, out of their own pockets, took care of her out of love for her and the Lord Jesus. Christian charity is so much more reliable than socialized medicine!

Building Project Update: The past two months have kept us busy in Ohio and Kentucky where we have been encouraged that the Lord is working in and through us for His glory both here and in Ukraine. We stood amazed during a church’s missions conference as they spontaneously took up an offering for our building project. We have been praying, working, and saving for this project for over three years now and we are almost ready to start. I hope we can break ground this year while the weather is warm. We now have 32K of the 40K needed to begin the main phase.

Deputation/Furlough Objectives: We are often asked the question, “When are you going to return to Ukraine?” I do not have a return date set yet, but what I do have is a list of objectives to accomplish. First, we plan to visit all of our supporting churches and update them on the work and our future plans. We have some supporters that we have not seen in over ten years, some fifteen, and we don’t know when we will get a chance to visit again after we return to the field. Second, we need to raise additional support. We lost support over the past eight years and need to replace it. We were informed by one of our best individual supporters that they are giving us notice to replace their support while we are stateside because they are now in retirement and can no longer help like they did in the past. These dear saints have supported our work for over twenty years and have saved me at least a half a year of deputation work. It is going to take quite a few new churches to replace their support. Lord willing we plan to do most of our deputation work in the Texas and NY areas since we only have three supporting churches in both those states combined. Lastly, we have several projects that need funding, the most important being: 1) return trip costs and; 2) a vehicle for use in Ukraine. We thank the Lord for the generosity of one dear church who took care of our return trip costs and also gave quite a bit towards the purchase of a vehicle when we get there.

Future Deputation/Furlough Travels: We are currently preparing for our trip to the North West states to report to our supporters there and also visit some new churches along the way. This trip will take us all the way through the first part of September. Please pray that the Lord would give us souls and use us to encourage the saints. Also, please pray for our safety and that we can find places to sleep between meetings. We also plan to travel from Seattle, WA to Pensacola, FL to take in at least one Blowout while we are in the USA. Please pray for that long trip as well. I really appreciate your prayers for us and all the help we have received along the way in the Lord’s work. We are still working on scheduling meetings. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a specific date. My number is 513-376-1011.

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