This week's prayer requests

Our container in Kiev is still being held because the port is demanding storage charges. However, we have just learned there is a new law that prevents such charges for containers of humanitarian aid. Svetlana, who is clearing the container for Christian Hope Church is confident we will get the container without additional funds. Please continue to pray to that end.

• Fund-raising efforts are underway for the next container, to be shipped to New Life Drug Rehab Centre, St. Petersburg. Please pray that enough funds are raised that we can ship by the summer. The warehouse is filling up!

• Children's Hope Orphanage, Kiev, is undergoing a major structural re-organization (both physically and administratively), due to government regulations. This is good, but expensive. Please pray for those involved and that funds become available to complete required renovations before fall.
  

This week's prayer requests

Doug and his wife Gloria returned early this week from the Leadership Conference Team in Crimea. Ron and Heather return at week's end. Pray for their safe return and that the team's teaching and fellowship will have lasting impact.

• The recent container is in Kiev and is due to be released shortly. Pray that all goes well and that the contents are distributed to just the right people who need each item.

• In Crimea, Doug and Gloria visited two small drug rehab houses. Alcoholism and addiction are major problems. Most of the leaders of local churches and those leading the rehab ministries are themselves recovered addicts. Give thanks to God for his saving grace and pray for these vital ministries.

Online Suicide Chat Rooms in Russia

In Russia 15 to 20 teenagers commit suicide monthly. Surprisingly enough, a few of them do this secretly. All over Russia there are hundreds of websites that will gladly help you to lay hands on yourself. At first glance they seem to be nothing but somebody’s stupid game: more than a thousand peers of 11 to 25 years old spend hours discussing several ways to suicide themselves. This, however, is not a game: all these people are dead serious. More...

This Week's Prayer Requests

From Marilyn...

While Doug is in Ukraine for the Leadership conference, he has asked me to monitor the blog. Thank you for your prayers.

Pray for Doug and Gloria, Ron and Heather and David Distaulo as they are in Ukraine and travelling to Saki for the Leadership conference. Pray that their words would be annointed to encourage the many pastors in attendance. Pray also for Andrei Shander and Andrei Shaitar as they translate for the team.

Pray for operations at the Canadian office as we run short staffed during this time.

Pray for the summer camps coming up for the Together Camping Ministry in Minsk, Belarus. Many children want to go to camp this summer and have a life changing experience with Jesus there. Pray for sponsorship for the children who cannot afford to go.

Spring Leadership Team Ministry

For the past several years, MPI has facilitated a leadership seminar for pastors and workers with our partners in Ukraine. One or two experienced Canadian pastors have been invited to lend a hand and to experience first-hand what God is doing in Ukraine, the Bible-belt of the former Soviet Union (the vast majority of missionaries and church planters throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States are Ukrainian). Since the collapse of Communism more than 15 years ago, there has been a church planting frenzy. Under new, young leadership, the church emerged from seventy plus years of oppression and did what it naturally does - grow. These evangelists and churches are passionate about their love and service for God. But, there are few resources and little training.

MPI recognized the need and opportunity to address these needs and to assist the young church in a new way. Because of relationships established in the early years of freedom, MPI is trusted and welcome to provide leadership training and ministry to nation-wide fellowships. Doing so also provides a wonderful way to acquaint Canadian churches and pastors with the Ukrainian church. Without exception, those who have gone with MPI to assist at these conferences have returned home determined to do more to help the Ukrainian church at this strategic time.

This year, about 120 pastors and workers from all over Ukraine will be convening at a resort (in the off-season, so rates are reasonable) in Crimea for several days of teaching and fellowship. We have shipped some humanitarian aid ahead and are carrying with us as much as we can. We anticipate that everyone will get some items of clothing for themselves and/or their families. MPI has also purchased enough copies of a pastors manual for each participant to receive one. Last year there was great excitement as each person sought out the suit jacket that fit him and picked up his books. We anticipate the same response this year.

The Conference takes place April 15-18 and there will be further ministry in Crimea on the following weekend. Please remember us in prayer!

This week's prayer requests

This week, Ron, Heather and Doug, along with Pastor David DiStaulo and Doug's wife, Gloria leave for the Leadership Conference to be held in Saki, Crimea. Please pray for safe travel, health and a great conference!

• April and May are our Food Campaign months. With the newsletter just out, we are already receiving a good response. Since the campaign's success determines if we can meet our commitments to help feed the kids at Children's Hope Orphanage and provide food subsidies to Mercy Ministry recipients, please pray for the Campaign's success.

• Efforts to secure funds for our next container, hopefully to be shipped mid-year, are now underway. Pray for the provision of those funds - about $5000 to send about a quarter million dollars worth of aid to New Life Drug Rehab Centre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
  

Is God to Blame?

The title of this entry is the title of a book by Gregory Boyd, published by Inter-Varsity. The introductory chapter is published in Mission Frontiers Magazine (well worth reading!). The book challenges the theology that says all things, both good and bad, come from God: if something bad happens to you, you must receive it as from God and try to figure out the lesson God intends you to learn. Instead of this fatalistic perspective, Boyd asserts a Christological understanding of God. That is, Jesus is the fullest revelation of God that we have, and whenever he met suffering people, he helped them.

Working in missions, one is constantly confronted with the problem of suffering. Its as simple as this: where you are born will largely determine how long you will live, and how healthily. North American popular theology likes to say that God has a wonderful plan for your life. Easy to say when you have everything! Think about it: God created humankind, and until say, the last 100 years or so, infant mortality was high, maternal mortality was high, childhood diseases took at least one child from most families, and the average life expectancy was somewhere in the 40s. And those conditions still exist in many parts of the world. So, yes, God loves us, but that love is not simply expressed in solving all our problems and making life as comfortable as possible.

Boyd is on to something. Jesus came to a suffering world and suffered with us. God neither sends evil or ignores the human plight. The calamity on creation that sin wreaks is still with us. Jesus shows that that is not God's desire. His presence is remedial and redemptive. But, we still live in that broken world. Believers are called to live out the life of Jesus - to be agents of redemption and restoration. Christian faith is not about living in comfort and blessing (although God graciously gives those) but to find and help suffering people. We may not be able to help everybody, but we can help some. God deserve the credit, not the blame!