We won't get all of our news into
this edition, so we'll probably have
another newsletter follow in a few
weeks. News items from the Nordic /
Baltic / Eastern European areas are
always very exciting.
Natasha
Weatherhead
Good News! Natasha Weatherhead,
our newest staff employee has
received her visa to work at our
United States
Home Office in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Natasha is
from
Belarus and lives in
Barbados. She has volunteered her
Russian skills for several years
now but we need her help
very much with translation and help
with organizing our work. Not
knowing how long before she would
receive her admittance documents to
the USA, my wife and I visited with
her in
Barbados in January to train
her in some of our telecommuting
procedures. More on Natasha in an
article block below.
I was hoping to travel through
Scandinavia in early April, but
because of extra demands with my
other responsibilities and greatly
reduced travel options over the
Easter holiday period, I decided to
postpone this trip to later May and
combine it with another journey I
was going to make later in
June/July. It will be a
comprehensive trip visiting several
new people asking for visits in
Sweden, Denmark and
Finland, plus all of our
friends, members and Good News
readers along our route. We
also have an applicant to the
Ambassador Bible Center we would
like to interview in
Norway as well. We travel by
train which is very efficient and
economical.
Johnnie Lambert, our associate
pastor, has been in
Tartu, Estonia for the past
month. He has written a report
below.
One of our big projects this
past month has been to transport
nearly half a ton of literature we
have printed in
Ukraine to our office in
Tartu. It is not an easy step, but
we believe that we figured out a way
to get it from a
Christian Mission in
Western Ukraine to the
Smiltene Baptist Church in
Latvia. From there it's only
90 more miles to Tartu. That will
get it inside the
European Union. This shipment
includes booklets,
Bible Study Courses in
Russian plus an inventory of two
booklets in the
Swedish language.
Since you all rely on the
Internet to contact us (that's how
you're reading this eNews), you may
want to view the latest version our
Virtual
Christian Magazine at
www.vcmagazine.org The
March edition form contains short
Internet-style articles about
responsibility, forgiveness, peace,
Rahab and grace. From this edition
you can easily go back to archives
of previous editions. February's
edition had intriguing articles
about Darwinism, how to cope with
trials of life, God's help and much
more.
As mentioned we will another
eNews come out shortly as we will
have news about the
Fall Festival in Estonia
again this fall.
You can
view this newsletter plus all the
previous ones on the Web at
http://kubik.org/ucgee. If
you had this newsletter forwarded to
you, you can order your own automatic
subscription on that page. Let us hear
from you. We always enjoy hearing from
our readers.
In Christ's service,
Victor Kubik
Senior Pastor
From Johnnie Lambert: Frosty Dark Days in
Tartu, Estonia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tartu, Estonia
Arriving in Tartu after a trip of two
plus days, the weather has been quite cold
and there is a lot of snow. The snow
transitioned into ice on the sidewalks as
people walked on it and the sun heated it
enough to facilitate the packing process.
Having had my second knee replacement 10
Dec., I have tried to avoid walking outside
very much.
I just relaxed and spent some personal time my
first weekend (6 Feb.)here. On 13 Feb.,
Artur Aleksandrov met me at the bus station
at 6:30, and we took the bus to Valga where
one of the Schultzs will meet us and drive
us to Smiltene for Sabbath Services. We are
looking forward to seeing all the members
there and spending the Sabbath together. On
20 Feb., we held Sabbath Services at our
apartment in Tartu.
On 16 Feb., Artur and I visited Valdur Vesingi at the
Tartu Prison. Valdur continues to do
excellent translation of booklets for us.
Judy Sieker and Carolyn Barker are in the
process of publishing Jesus Christ:
The Real Story, and The Road
To Eternal Life which Valdur
translated. Toomas Schvak did his usual
excellent job of editing.
As noted in beginning of this
newsletter, she has now been granted
admittance to the United States, but because
of delays for several months we were
wondering if it would indeed happen.
In January we still didn't know how
long it would be until she would arrive, so
my wife Beverly and I travelled to Barbados
to acquaint and train her for various
aspects of the job, mainly data entry that
she could do remotely from Barbados.
While in Barbados we also had the
opportunity to visit and speak to the
enthusiastic Bridgetown congregation. We
were hospitably received by the Barbadians,
particularly the Stephen and Jan Crosby
family who had us over for dinner with other
brethren Friday evening. Part of our Sunday
was an excursion of the beautiful Caribbean
island.
Now we look forward to Natasha's
arrival to the United States!
Featured Booklet this Month --The Book of
Revelation Unveiled. Now in Russian!
Always one of our more popular booklets,
The Book of Revelation Unveiled extends
the Gospel Message into the future and shows how
the Kingdom of God will eventually come.
The booklet shows how one CAN
understand the Book of Revelation, the
Church in Prophecy, the Day of the Lord and
much more.
Revelation's main prophetic message is
unveiled primarily through seven sets of
symbols sketched on a scroll fastened with
seven successive seals. Jesus Christ breaks
the seals and opens the scroll before John's
eyes. John sees and describes the symbols of
the vision, each having a specific prophetic
significance.
The booklet is available in English
by clicking on the link above. It's
available in Russian, too, but you have to
write to one of our addresses at the bottom
of this newsletter.
Heroes of Faith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At our last autumn's Feast of Tabernacles
in Estonia, we devoted an evening to Christians
who lived in oppressive and persecuted
conditions telling us their
stories. What
an interesting and inspiring evening! People
from Estonia, Latvia, Finland (formerly from
refugee camps in Thailand), East Germany,
Zimbabwe told stories about what it was like
living in difficult circumstances. The stories
were courageous, emotional and made us all
thankful for God's protection and continued
security of our lives.
You can read an accountingby Karen Allwine, one of the American
visitors to the Festival on the Island of
Saaremaa. On the left is a photo of Margaret
Doh and her husband Klogay who now live in
Kemi, Finland. They lived almost all their
lives as Karen refugees in a camp in
Thailand. Five years ago they found asylum
in Finland. We were very happy to have them
visit us. There are two others families in
Norway who were not able to come this past
year, but hopefully will this coming fall in
Estonia.
John Wennström of
Oslo, Norway talks about his new life
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
United
Church of God member John Wennström
of Oslo, Norway talks about his new life in
the Church in the January 2010 issue of the
United News.
See it here NOW!
My wife Beverly and I met John in Oslo about two years
ago. He was baptized at our Summer
Gathering in Sweden in July 2008.
Always one of our more popular booklets,
stories. What
an interesting and inspiring evening! People
from Estonia, Latvia, Finland (formerly from
refugee camps in Thailand), East Germany,
Zimbabwe told stories about what it was like
living in difficult circumstances. The stories
were courageous, emotional and made us all
thankful for God's protection and continued
security of our lives.
United
Church of God member John Wennström
of Oslo, Norway talks about his new life in
the Church in the January 2010 issue of the
United News.
