Dear Prayer Partners:

Happy Thanksgiving!  This greeting may be a couple of days late, but the sentiment is still the same!  I thank the Lord for each of you who pray for me, who make this medical ministry in Ukraine possible.  Many of you support me on a monthly basis, and others have given financial gifts. Thank you for such a sacrifice that shows your love for God and for the needy.  All of that enables me to serve our wonderful Lord by caring for the medical needs of Ukrainians who have minimal or no access to health care. Praise the Lord for many opportunities to share with patients the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ!  I also praise God for 6 weeks without vertigo. Wow, that has been a fantastic blessing!  That is the longest I have gone without an episode in 10 years.

Please pray with me for Peter Rodoslavov right now.  Peter is a senior pastor in Odessa, who has made possible all the ABWE ministries in this area, and who started our association of independent Baptist churches that now has 37,000 people involved.  Peter was diagnosed with metastatic cancer of the small intestine earlier this year.  He is now in California visiting friends, and we just heard today that he became very ill.  Please pray for God's will in his life and for his wife Tamara who is with him.

Thank you for praying for the medical team the first two weeks of November.  God wonderfully blessed in sending over 600 patients our way.  At least one patient trusted Jesus as personal Savior.  Every morning we started the clinic day with prayer together, and most days an evangelist preached a short message.  Through the day I had many opportunities to share the gospel and to refer patients to Ukrainian leaders of local churches.  In some villages we held clinic in a real church building, others had converted private homes into "prayer houses", and other places we used the local village auditorium.  We held clinics for the first time in 3 villages.  Builik was really a small town of 15,000 people. We saw about 120 patients there in one lo-oo-ong day.  Pastor Sasha was thrilled with the number of new contacts who had never before visited their church.  Pastor Volodya of Makarovo had developed a friendship with the pastor of a church in Krasnoznamenka, where they have been begging for a clinic for several years.  This pastor could not thank us enough for the help to his ministry as the clinic attracted many new people. Grace Baptist Church of Odessa started a ministry in Ilinka several years ago with one of their deacons Vlad.  He was ordained as pastor of the Ilinka church earlier this year.  Vlad has been a driver for my clinic team for several years and has done a great job of interacting with the patients about their spiritual needs. What a blessing to partner with him in a clinic at his church!  Over 50 patients came. Nastya is a young lady with many problems and questions.  It was very challenging to try to answer her questions, but she seems interested in the gospel and promised to read Scripture. Pray for Vlad as he follows up with her, that he may lead her to salvation.

Usually a medical team does not have time to go to Shamanovka, so this was a special blessing. Two ladies came from a nearby village, at the invitation of relatives.  Nina was so excited to hear about the free gift of salvation that God had made available to her!  She does not have a Bible.  Lonya and I both talked to her and decided to take the Bible to her home later. Her friend begged me to come hold a clinic in their village, where she says so many people cannot go to a doctor or buy medicines.  Pray for this village of Stepnoe, as Lonya is praying about starting an outreach there.

Pastor Anatoliy has been praying about holding services in Victorivka, but did not have contacts there. Several patients came to the Limaniy clinic from that village and promised to come to church later.  Last week Anatoliy had a great conversation with the new mayor of the two villages.  This man had heard about the clinics and was very impressed with that kind of help to the community.  He offered Anatoliy the use of the village auditorium in Victorivka for a Christmas service! 

Dr. Oakman, the ophthalmologist, usually does not have time to make house calls, but we were able to visit a few people in Kubanka.  This really touched Lena's heart. She has visited our services many times, but got offended at someone so stopped coming.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict Lena of her sin and draw her to salvation.  We also visited Irina in a rundown hovel, where her drunken husband interfered with our attempts to help her.  Irina's blood pressure was 260/130!  Pray that the medicine will help her, and that she will start coming to clinic and to services.  Also in Kubanka, Zoya,, Maria and Anya have been visiting Sunday services regularly and enjoying "The Story of Hope". Pray for their salvation!

The last two weeks I have taught the lessons in Kubanka and Shamanovka on my own in Russian, as Pastor Lonya was not available. It is exciting to see our disciples grasp the significance of Biblical principles in "The Way to Joy".  One of our first contacts in Shamanovka was with Roma, a young man troubled by the suicide of his father.  He made a profession of faith, but later quit coming to Bible studies because of heckling by his sisters and neighbors.  His mom says he wants to come back but is ashamed.  Pray that God will help him to overcome this shame and return to Christ.

Thank you again for your prayers for all the village clinics!  Pray for others to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.  Also pray for Holly and myself as we lead the effort to begin a pro-life pregnancy care center in Odessa. The next meeting will be Dec 18 so please pray for wisdom for our steering committee as we seek God's direction for the next steps in this process.

Leaning on The Rock,

Miriam

Phil. 1:3-6

http://www.ukrainemedical.abwe.org/

Sincerely,

Miriam R. Wheeler, MD

ABWE--Odessa, Ukraine

Vonage internet phone: 864-248-4845