RETURN TO UKRAINE...RETURN TO FRIENDS

(Vlad and Bill Dorman pray with a crippled man at the Donyetsk train station.)

One of the delights of returning to an area around the world is seeing long time friends and co-laborers. I have had the opportunity; the blessing; to work alongside these guys in Ukraine and learn what it means to serve the Lord with JOY.Uri is from THE CHURCH of GOOD CHANGES in Mariopol...a city on the Sea of Azov in southeast Ukraine. Uri and his wife, Tanya, were alcoholics and drug addicts, when they gave their lives over to the Lord Jesus. Now Uri is the MOST ENCOURAGING Christian you’ll ever meet, because of the CHANGE God brought about in hs family...Once they were hopeless drunks, looking for their next fix...now witnesses of the POWER of Jesus to restore life and hope.

I don’t think I will EVER meet a man who has taught me more than Vlad about keeping the message of Christ SIMPLE and PURE. Vlad is from NEW LIFE CHURCH in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. He was also held down for years by hard living and bad choices...the same old tools of our enemy...drugs...vodka...partying. Then one day he had his ‘Damascus Road’ experience and things have never been the same. I’ve traveled around the world with Vlad...in prisons, on trains and bizarre busses. I’ve been in freezing markets in Moscow and with glue sniffing street kids in Africa. I’ve seen him lead migrant workers, on Orange County busses, to the Lord.

Today I get to see Uri and Vlad...now that’s a reunion to look forward to.