Nutter Butters!

Nutter Butters!...Rolos!...Thin Mints! Who says Americans don’t do bribes? As one of my CMF colleagues put it, “It really is pathetic how Pavlovian they think we are.”

So what AM I talking about? Well, we just returned from a combined CMF staff conference and SHARE educational conference on Lake Balaton in Hungary, and those Americans sure know how to entice those of us serving overseas to show up for their seminars. I guess they were afraid the topics themselves wouldn’t be interesting enough for us to attend, so they SHAMELESSLY bribed us with goodies from the States. I have to confess, it worked for me :-)

Normally, our family attends the SHARE conference in Hungary every other year in order for the older four children to take the Iowa test and for Tim and I to learn more about how to supplement the Ukrainian national schools with English so that the kids can keep up with their American counterparts in the U.S. SHARE always brings great speakers to encourage us as parents and ministers of the gospel and the conference is also a great opportunity to meet missionaries from all over Eastern Europe. (They really didn’t need to bribe us with the sweets, but we appreciated them nevertheless!) This year, I believe there were 15 different countries represented, from Macedonia to Sweden, Albania to Turkey. It is always a blessing to hear how God is working in so many different places through so many different ways. We truly serve a creative and awesome Lord!

This year, we also convinced the rest of our CMF teammates to join us at the conference and we all arrived a day early in order to conduct team business. Throughout the week, we continued to use our free time for dealing with CMF issues and just spending time together as a team. Although combining the two conferences created an extremely full schedule, it was a great way to accomplish a lot, making the most of our time and money. In addition, the SHARE folks have a complete children’s program from newborns through the teens, so our children were well cared for while we tended to business. This year was especially pertinent for us as we prepare to enroll the children in school while we are on our furlough. The seminars on cultural transitions were extremely helpful as we ready for that next stage. Overall, it was a very fruitful and fun time for all.

Here we are with other CMF colleagues.

(Our teammate, June, volunteered as nurse and children’s worker while we were in session. She is not pictured.)

Please pray for Tim and I as we help ready the children to re-enter the U.S. Naomi and Lincoln have never been in a U.S. school and it has been 6 years for Daniel and Oxana. Pray that the things we learned at this conference will help us guide our children more effectively to make a positive transition.

In other news, as we finish up the hockey season and look ahead to baseball, Tim has had some exciting ministry opportunities open up completely unexpectedly. While he is still exploring all the ramifications of the news, we are excited to hear that the Ministry of Sport is planning to begin a baseball program at the sports institute here in L’viv and they want Tim’s help training the new coaches. The man in charge of the baseball program heads up the basketball program and our teammate, Dustin (the one on the far left in the above picture) is a basketball guy. As he looks ahead to possible student ministry here in L’viv, this may just be the open door he needs to work with students. As I mentioned earlier, this is a VERY new opportunity and we don’t know how it is going to play out, but it could just be the open door Dustin, or perhaps, Tim can utilize to reach more students with the gospel. We are excited! Please pray for Tim this Friday-Sunday as he travels to Rivne, Ukraine for a baseball training program. He will be meeting the L’viv college coaches and making important connections as well. Pray that the Lord will show us how to use this opportunity to advance His kingdom here in L’viv.

As we head into our final 4 months before furlough, we will continue to stay involved in our one-to-one relationships and our group Bible studies, but we will be passing off most of our other responsibilities to our Ukrainian friends. Please pray for smooth transitions of these responsibilities and wisdom for Tim and I to know when to pass the baton.

On the adoption front, we just continue to wait for an appointment from the adoption center for an interview. At this interview, we will either be approved as adoptive parents or rejected. After the interview, we will be assigned a court date to legalize the adoption of Markian and Josiah. We are unsure how long this will take, but believe that everything should be done on the Ukrainian side by the end of April. At that point we will submit documents to the U.S. government for approval to immigrate Markian and Josiah (we have already received pre-approval). Please continue to pray that we will find favor with the adoption center and the family court. We are asking the Lord to clear the pathway for a smooth completion of all the necessary paperwork by the end of May.

Thank you for standing in the gap with us in prayer. We appreciate so much your faithful support!

In Him,

Heather for the Ukrainian Millers.

Valentine's Day Greeting

***This should have been posted February 13, 2008

Hello One and All,

We wish you all a very warm and chocolatey Valentine’s Day tomorrow and pray that God’s love would fill you up in a special way on this Day of Love. We also thought we’d take the opportunity to fill you in on all the Miller happenings the last few months. You should be getting a newsletter mailed to you soon, but here is a preview of what’s inside as well as “exclusive” news that didn’t make it to press time J

First of all, please be in prayer for Tim and I as we will be sharing with a group of college students on the 14th about dating and relationships. We share a lot from our own experiences as well as what God’s Word has to say on the subject of romance and we are praying that those in attendance would have open hearts and minds to the challenge of purity we will lay before them.

Secondly, we will also be counseling both of our engaged couples (Masha and Vova/ Katya and Andrei) this weekend. Seems like both grooms-to-be managed to get time away from work to be with their sweethearts this weekend and we count it a privilege that they desire to prepare for their future life together with us as part of their short time together. Please be praying for their continued growth as they work through budgeting issues as well as conflict resolution issues.

Thirdly, we are thick in the adoption process for Markian and Josiah and would covet your prayers at this time. When we last wrote and when the newsletter went to press, the adoption center was still closed and we were somewhere around #450 on the waiting list to submit our documents. We received a notice from the American Embassy in mid-January letting us know that the center was opening up again on February 4th (which we had heard before), but Tim decided to call and find out if the center would be working off the same list as before, or if a new system had been put in place with the recent change in leadership there. When the lady on the phone heard our story, she told Tim that something didn’t sound right with that and she would call the center and ask a few questions. When she called back several days later, she let us know that her contact at the center did acknowledge that an “unofficial” line was in fact being used this summer, but that they had indeed implemented a new system to process applications. This woman kindly set up an appointment for us with the new director of the center for January 31st and we were thrilled!

To make an incredibly long story short (if you want the longer version, just e-mail and I’ll give you the rest of the story), we were told that because the boys were under our guardianship, we would not have to wait in line to submit our documents. However, because of the months wasted waiting, some of our documents had to be renewed, which we have been in the process of doing these past couple of weeks. As of today, all of our documents are fresh and ready to be submitted. Tim will travel to Kyiv this Monday to hand in our application to adopt Josiah and Markian. Praise the Lord!

At that point, we will wait to be granted an interview for final approval as adoptive parents from the Ukrainian government and then be assigned a court date to have the adoption legalized. That generally takes 4-6 weeks. After that is completed, then we will begin the joyful adventure of getting the U.S. immigration documents for the boys in order so we can travel to the U.S. with them for our furlough starting this July.

As you can see, we still have a way to go in this process and we would ask that you continue to pray for good favor with the adoption center, the judge who will finalize this adoption, and with U.S. immigration as well. Perhaps a prayer for extra patience and mental stability would be helpful as well J

On the home front, everyone is healthy and we are enjoying an incredibly mild winter here in L’viv. The schools have been quarantined for the past two weeks, much to the children’s delight, but it appears that they will return on Monday. I have to confess I will be glad to get back into a normal routine again. Daniel is just bummed that his homeschooling had to continue even though the other kids were off the hook.

So once again we wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day and lots of hot chocolate for those of you getting pounded by all those horrible winter storms we keep reading about on the internet. Stay warm and safe!

Blessings to you all,

Heather for the Miller 8

December Update

Dear Friends,

It has been a long time since we last wrote, but we wanted to update you on several activities we have recently been involved with and let you know how you can be praying for us.

At present, we have lots of pots in the fire, so to speak, and we are looking forward to the Christmas holidays that begin for us in 2 weeks. However, before I start counting my naps before they begin, let me fill you in on what is happening on the ministry front. First of all, Tim will be helping lead a conference this weekend for about 50 of our church members. This conference is geared toward our lay leaders as well as emerging leaders in the congregation and we are looking forward to see how God will move and work in those attending. As well, Thursday night, Tim will be speaking at a college/career group and the Sunday following the conference he will be preaching the Sunday morning service. Please pray that the Lord will sustain Tim physically and spiritually throughout the four days.

We also recently celebrated the engagement of two of our dear friends and sisters in the Lord. Katya, the children’s piano teacher (and pianist on the Vivaldi CD many of you have) will be getting married this May to a young man from Kyiv. Also, Mahsa (the gal who lived with us for two years and now helps me with the little ones while I homeschool Daniel) will also be tying the knot this summer to a wonderful man from Kharkiv. Tim and I will be doing some long-distance marital preparation classes with both couples as well as spending time with them together whenever the grooms-to-be are in town. It is with bittersweet excitement that we anticipate the union of these two couples, as it will mean saying goodbye to some very dear friends. Please pray for Katya and Andrei and Masha and Volodia as they prepare to unite their lives in a few short months.

Tim continues to meet weekly with Zoryan as he prepares to take over the responsibilities of the discipleship groups next year, as well as his weekly meetings with the leadership team at church. We are excited about the direction Hosanna Church is headed and continue to see much fruitful ministry happening there. Please pray that Zoryan would continue to mature and grow in the Lord as he readies to shoulder significantly more responsibilities at the church next year.

God’s Love, our recent church plant is doing well and beginning to see new converts as their influence grows in the local school and neighborhood. Ruslan is doing a fine job leading his small congregation and we count it a privilege to function in a supportive for them. We periodically get together in an advisory role with various members of their church and Tim will be spending a number of Sundays there over the next few months to lend his support to the work that is happening there. Because they meet in the afternoons, Tim will be able to attend their services as well as Hosanna’s. Please pray for continued fruitfulness of Hosanna’s daughter church, God’s Love.

On the home front, we are at present all healthy and pressing forward to finish out the last two weeks of the fall semester well. Unfortunately, our adoption of Markian and Josiah is at a stand-still as we wait for the adoption center to again begin taking dossiers for prospective parents. We have recently been informed that they will re-open February 4th and the news is not very encouraging regarding how many children will be allowed to be adopted by Americans. Please pray for a timely adoption of Markian and Josiah.

On a final note, we wish all of you a very blessed Christmas and happy new year. May the joy and peace of Jesus fill your hearts and lives, spilling out to those around you, everywhere you go.

God bless,

Heather for the Millers

ELECTIONS

Dear Friends,

Once again Ukrainians will go to the polls this Sunday in order to elect a new parliament. Unlike in America, Ukrainian are asked to vote for certain political parties and not individuals. The result of that is that every party receiving at least 3% of the popular vote is allocated seats in the 450-member parliament, based on their showing in the election.

If you recall the Orange Revolution that took place in 2004 may remember that Ukraine's presidential election results were challenged by mass demonstrations and eventually overturned due to fraud. The ultimate winner, Victor Yuschenko, was also poisoned during the campaign and controversy still surrounds that incident. Unfortunately, he has been unable to make much of any change here in Ukraine and has squandered multiple opportunities to move Ukraine forward towards a free and democratic society.

The current Prime Minister, Victor Yanukovich, was the president's opposition during the presidential election and is a major player in this election as well. The other major player in this election is Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and opposition leader. Along with these three major groups, there are several other smaller parties that are hoping to be represented in the parliament, but prelimary polls suggest there are big questions as to that becoming reality.

So what does that mean for us? We don't really know. It could possibly affect our adoption of Markian and Josiah, if there are major changes in the makeup of government, as new people may be appointed to take over that governmental department (this has happened several times in recent history). It also could affect our status here as religious workers, as one of the parties has expressed a desire to restore the power of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Frankly, we don't expect that that would happen but we are aware of the fact that we live here as guests of the Ukrainian government.

For Ukraine as a whole, this may be a turning point in many spheres. For example, there are definite differences between parties as to which direction they look to for support and identity. One to the West, the other to Russia. In the area of corruption, we have seen over the past few years that some parties take a harder line with corrupt officials than others. It could also affect the ability of individuals to own land. Currently, land ownership is strictly controlled by the government and limited to small plots around your building.

These are just some examples of areas that may be affected by the election. Here is how you can be praying:

--that the elections would be peaceful, free, and fair

--that the future government would place the people's interests above their own

--that the elected parliament would press towards a corrupt-free society

--that the elected leaders would have the courage to stand for truth and justice

Thank you so much for lifting these needs up before our Sovereign King, who, after all, is on the throne.

We Survived Camp!

Yes, indeed, we have returned from camp, caught up on the laundry, and seen our short-term team off. It was a wild time, full of challenge, excitement, some frustration, and lots of laughs.

Here are some of the highlights:

After a grueling 24 hour trip to Ukraine, our team of 6 traveled from Kyiv to L'viv via train, spent one night in L'viv and then boarded the train again for another overnight trip to Odessa. In Odessa, we clambered aboard a hot and overcrowded bus for the 4 hour trip to our "baza" right on the Black Sea.

Here, team member Leah wakes up after catching up on a few winks along the way.

Once at the campground, everyone was assigned rooms and divided up into teams of 10-12 people...here is Tim's group.

During the week, we enjoyed morning devotions together, free time on the beach, English lessons, time in youth-oriented seminars, mealtimes, games, lectures, and discussion groups. We also had lots of skits to keep the atmosphere light and Leah also danced a beautiful ballet routine and team member Chris shared her testimony during the week. Another team member that joined us from Kyiv, Jeff, also shared about character while demonstrating his karate technique. Everything was very well-received by the campers.

1) Karate instruction on the beach. 2)Andrei and Zoryan doing a skit. 3) Team member Chris winning the arm wresting championship for girls. 4) Team member Bruce conducting an English lesson for beginners.

Of course, the ultimate highlight of the week was watching the Holy Spirit move in the hearts of our guest campers. As the week progressed it was a privilege to know God allowed us to have a hand in reconciling five of His children to Himself. Ira, Marianna, Christina, Alina, and Yulia all publicly confessed Christ as Lord and we look forward to watching them grow in their new faith over the coming years.

Marianna getting ready for a competition.

So here is how you can pray:

Please pray for our new church plant as they hold their first church service this coming Sunday, August 26th. We trust that many people from the camp will continue to investigate what it means to follow Christ through this church, God's Love.

Continue to lift up these 5 new believers as they encounter opposition to their new faith and that they would rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to provide the strength they need to overcome any obstacles the enemy throws in their path.

Tim will be assigning new small groups this year, developing more leaders and encouraging them as they guide their groups through studies of God's Word. Pray that he would have wisdom as he delegates more and more of his oversight job to other leaders in preparation to passing this particular baton off to a new "runner".

Our family would also covet your prayers as we enter into another academic year. Naomi will be attending a new school this year, so please pray for an extra measure of grace to be added unto her as she makes this transition.

Also, our adoption process seems to have hit yet another snag. We are asking the Lord to show us how to peacefully, respectfully, and lawfully handle the beaurocracy of the Adoption Center of Ukraine. Seemingly still riddled with corruption, it can be difficult to discern where legitimate fees end and where bribery begins.

Most of all, we ask that you would pray that our lives and ministry would reflect the glory of God and that His love would shine through in everything we do.

Thank you all for your prayers and love.

Heather for the Millers

Short-term Team Arrival

Dear Friends,

Tim and Daniel left tonight on the overnight train to Kyiv. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 our short-term team of 6 arrives from Ranier View Christian Church in Tacoma, WA. After spending the day in Kyiv, everyone will board the Kyiv-Lviv train to head back this direction for two days of camp preparation and a bit of sightseeing in Lviv.

Friday night we will all board the train to Odessa for our evangelistic youth camp in support of our new church plant. We have a full camp and had to turn away about 40 people due to lack of space at the campground. Interest for these camps remains high among young people, and we are praying for a fruitful time of building relationships with folks seeking to become followers of Christ.

Our team of 6 from the States (Bruce, Chris, Ethan, Grace, Trish, and Leah) will be helping with our English classes in the morning and giving their testimonies at the evening sessions. We are also excited to be joined by two more helpers from abroad. Anya (my disciple from Kyiv) has been studying for her PhD at OSU in Corvallis, OR, but has returned to Ukraine for the summer with her fiance, Jeff. Anya will be translating for the Americans as they give their testimonies in the evenings and both of them will also be helping with the English classes in the morning. As well, Jeff has agreed to offer karate instruction to interested campers (he is a private instructor in the U.S.) and we believe this will be a great contribution to our camp.

All in all, we are expecting our God to do great things for His kingdom and trust that we will be effective vessels for His work.

Here is how you can pray:

1) A safe trip and good health for everyone. After a long flight and two train trips, we will also have a 2 1/2 hour bus ride before we reach camp. We ask that the Lord would safeguard everyone's health and we would be able and ready to serve our Ukrainian guests at the camp.

2) We are asking the Holy Spirit to even now be opening the hearts of our guests as they encounter Christianity at a whole new level. We pray that all of us as hosts would be conduits for the love and light of Jesus to His children.

3) We are believing God to provide us with opportunity to build relationships with many new folks and that they would respond to His invitation to follow Him.

4) Please lift up Ruslan, the preaching pastor of this camp. This will be Ruslan's first time preaching for an entire camp and he is also responsible for following up any new believers when we all return to L'viv. Please pray for his stamina and discernment as he preaches the Word of Truth each night.

5) Safety on the beach. The beaches on the Black Sea have no lifeguards on duty, and thankfully, we have had uneventful camps year after year. That said, we would still pray for the Lord's protection for all of our campers as they play in the surf and bask in the sun.

Thank you for your prayers and we look forward to updating you upon our return in a couple of weeks. Camp runs through August 12th and we say good-bye to the last of our short-termers on August 17th.

God bless,

Heather for the Miller 8