Ukrainian Pastor Tours the States
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For the past few years, Steve has assisted one of our Ukrainian pastor friends (Nicholay Mironenko) in trying to get his brother to the US to visit some Ukrainian churches as well as to visit with our missions students. Each attempt was met with some type of hurdle.

The purpose in getting this brother to the States is not to have him re-locate to the US, but to strengthen him and his Ukrainian work as well as to edify the Ukrainian churches here in the US which are connected with him.

Finally, after several tries, Steve and Nicholay were instrumental in getting Pastor Vasil Mironenko [see photo above] into the US for a ministry tour. The US State Department granted permission for Vasil's visit. They did not merely provide him with a one-entry visa, but a FIVE-YEAR, multi-entry visa!

Nicholay and his Slavic church host our Summer Institute for Missionary Orientation each year in a cross-cultural worship experience.

In November, we (Steve & Joy) took our children and most of our Penn View missions students to a special service where Pastor Vasil was among the speakers. The congregation was made up of Ukrainians, Slavic people, Americans (our group), plus a friend of ours from South Africa! What a variety of nations were represented in that meeting. That is what the grace of God can do for mankind!

The service was almost FOUR (yes, 4!) HOURS long! The reason for this was the fact that during the service four different church leaders spoke and were followed by English translation. One of the speakers was an elderly man who had escaped from the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald during World War II!

Following the lengthy --albeit culturally enlightening-- service, we had a time of eating a variety of ethnic Ukrainian and Slavic quisine. The food and the fellowship were so enriching. ...And it was great to finally meet our brother in the Lord --Vasil!

Vasil is now back in Ukraine rejuvenated and encouraged to advance the local churches in his own country.


[l-r: Vasil, Steve, Nicholay]