Brothers and sisters, greetings from the Ivanyenko family!
We sincerely thank everyone for your prayers and support. The family and I really felt God’s
hands holding us up from the very beginning.
They finally restored our
electricity and Internet and we can give you a bit of a report.
Thank the Lord that we
don’t need any condolences here; all are alive and well, only our property
suffered. However, our neighbors
suffered much more (three houses down from us a 23-year-old died, sadly).
To the many or you who
called or sent us texts and the like – thank you so much. Even if we didn’t
answer, it was nice to feel your care and concern.
In our church, almost no
one’s house flooded, thank God. At our house, the stream our back yard flooded
to 2.5 meters. In 2002, when there
was a cyclone in Novorossiysk, we weren’t affected at all! That’s how it is with our God!
It was scary for Tanya and myself,
Masha, and our guests when the water in our yard swelled to180cm within the
space of an hour. It’s in such
circumstances, when everything seems to be at a loss, and the elderly neighbors
on the right are knocking on the wall in the darkness while the neighbor on the
left is stranded on the roof screaming “save me, call the emergency services,
I’m being washed away”, that everything begins to rush. We ran around, helping those we could
help, and woke up the other neighbors so that they wouldn’t drown in their
sleep (it’s impossible to write down everything that happened!) Then we
suddenly came to our senses, stood together and prayed for all the people in
distress and that God would give us wisdom. God gave a special measure of courage to my girls (Tima is
in the army right now and Kostik went to visit friends). We called some brothers from the church
and the quickly arrived. At that
time we had guests: Jane from Montana (from a C&MA church, she came to
Mountain Springs to serve at camp and help at an English Club). It
must be said that Jane is simply an extremist: thanks to her, we have photos of
the start of our flood and some of the aftermath (which she was very active in
helping us clean up). Tanya and I thank God for her and her
dedication, and think of her as a daughter, and we thank God for her.
That
same evening, missionaries from Sevastopol who serve abroad arrived (I agreed
to take them to visit three different churches). Valera threw himself into helping, and we got the girls out
of the house through the window.
By the way, I couldn’t understand why God willed for them to come at a
time like this to talk about missions and look for partners in service while
there was such a stir, but it really wasn’t up to them at all. I thought, I’ve had a terrible flood,
the house is dirty, it’s total chaos, and all the believers are busy praying
and making shelters for the flood victims etc.
But then God gave me a word and I
understood. When I had imagined
missionaries, I thought about what I’d read from Matthew 24 and Daniel
11:32-33. I saw that we finally really
understand for ourselves where it’s written “17 A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to
pack” (Matt. 24:17). And from the
word we see that against the background of political, economic, ecological and
religious turmoil and the darkness surrounding a church active in ministry,
that in spite of evil and all else international ministries will become
stronger.
Daniel said, “People who
worship God will be strong and act”.
The Lord has given me confidence to say that in the body of Christ,
everyone has their own calling. Some
serves the poor, some serve relatives and friends, some are called to serve
within the church, and we praise God for it. And even right now in this time of turmoil, God is calling
some to serve those who are perishing in different countries. He said (make no mistake) that there would
always be miracles, even at a little church; unexpected donors will be found who
will be partners of international missions.
It
was amazing that during this time, as the result of visiting those three small
churches, they raised $3600. They
were keenly interested, and they took down the address and there has been a
short-term mission. And this against the backdrop of devastation and our own pressing
needs! Hallelujah to our God! HERE’S
MATTHEW 24:14 IN ACTION! I THINK
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON GOD TAUGHT ME THAT DAY!
With
regard to our property, in the house there was about 25-30cm of water, and in
the kitchen about 80cm. 35
meters of fence on three sides were destroyed as if they had never been
built. Some of the furniture was damaged
— couches etc. Tanya’s laptop, the refrigerator, the washing machine,
appliances and my 2002 Nissan were under water (the Nissan was under right up
to the antenna). Happily, the
refrigerator works, the appliances were successfully dried out, and the washing
machine is still drying out. We’ve
decided to sell the Nissan because the electronic components can’t be
repaired. It was very good to see
that from seven in the morning, while the neighbor was clutching his head,
there were about 18 people working on our property until that same evening, and
again the next day. I want to thank our pastor Dmitri Lyuba and his wife
Natasha for organizing everything.
They cleared out about a ton of silt, lumber, roofing tiles, boards and
the like. They also helped both my
neighbors, whose houses are lower than ours and who had worse flood damage. It was really wonderful that it was help
from the church, so that our neighbors now know more about who we are, and are
thankful for it.
But
the worst damage is in another town.
By some counts, already more than 3000 people died, and the smell on the
streets is nauseating. Many
believers lost property. Bishop
Alexander Anatolevich Sakharov organized volunteer work from different
churches. Only the ECMS sent more
than 100 people at one time. Here
is his email: a_saharov@inbox.ru.
Bishop
Sakharov’s and the president of ECMS Kornev have a list of the believers who
suffered losses. Now we are planning
on forming an ECMS church base called “Bell Toll”, in collaboration with the
local government in the town, as a center for physical, material, and spiritual
help that will being operations in about a year. I think the best thing for the
“staff” to do now is to systematically serve the needy. We’d be happy to welcome any help in that town,
especially organized help.
I
hardly feel comfortable showing my own photos of our damage against the
backdrop of the grief in another town.
If you would like to cooperate with this committee or center, it would
be wonderful.
HOWEVER,
DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, ALONG WITH THE EMERGENCY HELP PLEASE, DON’T FORGET
ABOUT OUR BLESSED MISSION AND THE TRUTH WRITTEN IN MATTHEW 24:14, ESPECIALLY
THOSE MINISTERY PROJECTS THAT YOU’RE ALREADY COMMITTED TO!
Thank
you for your cooperation and may God bless you!
Tanya
and Ilya Ivanyenko
 |
| Ilya's a funny guy |
That's all for now guys! It's a million degrees here with no means of escape, but thankfully a watermelon stand popped up overnight at the neighbors place, so I'm off to get a melon and stick it in the fridge for later.
Пока ребята, Russian Jane
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