I don't know how many times in the last week I have read the phrase "In light of the tragedy in New York."  It seems our entire outlook on the future has been changed by this one act of terror.  It is a sobering reminder how desperately the world needs the heart of the Gospel: love of God and love of neighbor.  And it is a reminder how these two must never be separated, for it is supposedly love of God which inspired those who flew the planes in New York and Washington.  It is love of God which supposedly inspires the acts of terror and counter acts of terror in Israel and Palestine.  It is love of God which supposedly inspires Protestants and Catholics to kill each other in Ireland,or Muslims and Hindis to kill each other in India. But when love of God is proclaimed, but then not lived out in love of neighbor, I think we can justly suspect that love of God has merely been used as a cover up for depravity, whether in the lives of others, or our own.  Let us pray for our enemies, for those who despitefully use us, that war may be avoided and pray especially for the love of God in Christ to be lived out in our ministries and our lives.

So, it is in somewhat of a somber mood I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This year, 2001, has been a busy one with many new ministry opportunities in ourUkraine/Southern Russia/Moldova district of the Russia United Methodist Church.

Administrative

The Russia Annual Conference will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary next year in Moscow.  It is hard to believe that almost a decade has already passed in this post Cold War phase of United Methodist ministry to the former Soviet Union.  As the Conference grows bigger, plans are being made on how to further organize the work in this vast region of 11 time zones, spanning virtually half the world.

At the Northern European Central Conference (NECC) this year, a regional/legislative body of the UMC corresponding to the Jurisdictional Conferences in the United States, a resolution was passed allowing the formation of new annual conferences out of the existing territory of the Russia Annual Conference.  The implication for our district could be the possibility of a separate Ukrainian Annual Conference in the event growth in our district would warrant the formation.  We are now working steadily on registering the UMC in Ukraine. Registration requires our new churches to be registered as local churches, while our existing churches need to be re-registered, in order that all churches will have the same ustav or constitution under Ukrainian law. Once this is accomplished with a minimum of seven churches, we can register the denomination as a whole in Ukraine.

In February, we had a meeting in Kiev of all our pastors with a Ukrainian lawyer specializing in religious law to get the process underway.  Additionally at the NECC, we authorized the opening of UM work in the country of Moldova, due to our church and four bible fellowships there.  Moldova is a small country on the border of Ukraine,a former republic of the Soviet Union, and has a sizeable Russian and Ukrainian speaking population.

In addition to being a delegate from Russia I was honored to serve as secretary of the NECC. But why would an English speaker be chosen?  With the addition of the Baltic States and Russia to the Northern European Central Conference, the conference has delegates from seven annual conferences speaking nine different languages.  For standardization of communication, English has become the language of use in the conference, so a native speaker is needed to compile the minutes and check over official documents.  Being the secretary was challenging, but made easy by the fact that I had two Nordic language assistants, my wife Helen and our good friend Henrik Fransson, a pastor from Sweden.  This year we unanimously re-elected our own Bishop Ruediger Minor as Bishop for the Eurasia Episcopal area (the former Soviet Union) on the first round and a new bishop for the Nordic/Baltic States Episcopal area, Øystein Olsen, taking 11 rounds of voting.

New Churches and Bible Fellowships

At annual conference in May of this year we had a good report as our pastor, Vladimir Konovetz, newly assigned last year to Krasnodar to start a church, had two new churches to present to the annual conference, one in Krasnodar and one in Sochi.  These cities are both in the north Caucuses area of Russia.  Several new Bible fellowships have emerged in Moldova since last annual conference.  We also had a delegate from Bila Tserkva, a city 100km south of Kiev. Pennsylvanian UM churches have being conducting humanitarian aid projects there for the past seven years, including sponsoring the construction of a school for children with cerebral palsy. The people there who have worked closely with the UM teams from PA have decided to start a Bible Fellowship which will begin meeting from the first of October.  Kiev now has a Bible fellowship and future United Methodist church, started with the efforts of Ruth and Andreas Froesch, missionaries from Switzerland appointed to Kiev last year.  Another delegate was from an existing independent church in Chernivtsi, a city in southwestern Ukraine.  The pastor of this church, Alexander, is along time friend of Ruth and Andreas Froesch. Over twenty years ago, he was in prison for refusing to fight in Afghanistan because of his Christian faith.  Long before they knew they would be called to ministry in Ukraine, Andreas and Ruth corresponded with Alexander after receiving his address from a Christian mission.  Years later, after Alexander's release from prison and becoming a pastor, they met in Ukraine and Alexander became acquainted with the UM church. His church has been actively participating with us over the last year and will be recommended for acceptance into the annual conference next year.  God is always before us, preparing the way for ministry.

Church Visits

Our church visits in 2001 have concentrated on our new churches, or potential new churches.  One of our more interesting trips was our trip to Western Ukraine where we spent Easter with the UM church in Uzhgorod.  This church is the only Methodist church in Ukraine which dates from the Soviet times.  It is not part of our annual Conference, but part of the Hungarian Annual Conference in the South and Central European Central Conference. This church was restarted in 1960's having been originally founded by Czech and American Methodists in the 1920's.  If you think Easter services can sometimes go on a little long, just think of Uzhgorod, where in a 48 hour period surrounding Easter the church held 12 hours of services! I preached four times while having prepared for preaching once. If you come to Uzhgorod, you will preach, too. As John Wesley told his pastors, always be prepared to share the Good News. We planned for the summer youth camp there, (the connectional system at work, even across Episcopal boundaries!) then traveled on to our potential UM church in Chernivtsi.  We made this journey by car, a first for us, but well worth it as we got to see some of the most picturesque scenery in Ukraine.

Street Children Ministry

Our street children ministry in Kievbegan in February.  Due to city regulations, our original plan to provide medical assistance to homeless children and their families living in the train station did not work out.  We were able to start a free lunch program in a local park with the assistance of the Salvation Army.  Due to limited resources, we began serving aonce a week hot lunch with games and a bible lesson following.  The program is under the direction of Andreas and Ruth Froesch and a couple from the Salvation Army, Sergey and Olga.  Though our schedule prohibits Helen and I being there every week, but have been able to attend two or three times.  Pray for this ministry as it has been temporarily interrupted again due to discussions with the city government.

Youth Camp 2001

One of the highlights of the year has been the districtyouth camp held in the western Ukrainian town of Uzhgorod in the foothills of the beautiful Carpathian Mountains.  We had 90 teenagers from ages 12-16 along with 30 adults.  They came from all over Ukraineand southern Russia.  The youth from Stavropolin Russia had to spend 4 nights on the train to reach Uzhgorod!  They thought this was great fun but their youth leaders told a somewhat different story. Many of the teens who attended had never left their home town, never ridden on a train, and had never seen mountains before.  We continued our theme from last year of educating the teens to say no to drugs and alcohol and added a seminar of tolerance towards those of other races, nationalities or language groups, all from a Christian perspective. We were ably led in this area by two guests from the Board of Church and Society, Shenandoah Gale (back from leading in last year's camp) and Ken Fealing.

This type of seminar is very important in a region where people have gone to war over determining what will be the national language. At our camp were youth who spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Zacarpatian (A language very close to Russian and Ukrainian spoken around Uzhgorod) and Roma (a language spoken by the people traditionally known as Gypsies) though all knew Russian.  Some of the comments I heard during the camp:  A camper from the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine: "I always heard western Ukrainians were kinda mean and didn't like us Russian speakers.  But now I am having fun speaking Ukrainian to all my new friends here!"  A camper who lives near the border of Moldova: "In our school, we always called the dorky people 'Moldovan'.  But now that I know kids from Moldova, our group has pledged not to do that anymore."  Right before our eyes we witnessed how Christ's love can break down the walls created by prejudice, nationalism and misunderstanding due to language.  Here is a comment from a newsletter by Eduard Xeguy, a Russian pastor, newly in charge of Church Development for the Russia Annual Conference and who served as "camp pastor." He led the youth in Bible study each day: "My favorite trip so far was to Uzhgorod, Ukraine where I participated as pastor of the camp in the youth retreat 'Revival of Hope'. I was so blessed through what I have seen kids do. I have more hope in the future of our country when I see how kids love God and love each other. Then how they cried at the closing time because they did not want to go home but to stay more with each other in the camp. It broke my heart. Also, I fell in love with Ukrainian language. It is so beautiful in speaking and in singing!  I want to learn more of it. It is very similar to Russian."

Personal Life

This year so far has been a very busy one personally for Helen and me.  Helen's mother, along with having Alzheimer's, was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes.  Fortunately, this kind of cancer is the easiest kind to cure and she has responded very well to treatment with very little side effects from the chemotherapy. The doctors warned us that the treatment could accelerate her Alzheimer's but this has not happened so far. In fact, she is doing even better after the chemo series.

My father has reached the point where he can no longer live at home alone.  He probably had a stroke or series of mini-strokes in early July. We have just been to the US in order to move him into an assisted living home.  He will be 88 in December.  He naturally resisted the move as no one wants to give up their independence, but so far, he likes his new place of residence and reports "I have a hard time keeping up with all the activities they have."  We will have to return to the US twice again this fall to complete straightening up his affairs.  Please pray for both Helen and I as we try to be faithful to our family responsibilities and our work here in Ukraine.

We have received many cards and letters from you throughout the year and appreciate the time and effort involved in the sending.  We have been trying at least to answer those who sent birthday cards with a personal letter, but if you have not received ananswer from us, know that we give you a "Bolshoye Spaciba," a Big Thank You for your thinking and praying for us.

Prayer Requests:

• Street Children Ministry
• Medical Fund to be re-supplied
• New Church Development in our District
• Our pastors and their families

C Bogom (be with God),

Bill and Helen Lovelace