Dear Prayer Partners:

Greetings from Greenville, SC! I am in the USA for 2 months to get a new visa and to visit a few of my supporting churches. I did receive the letters of invitation from Kiev that are necessary to apply for a religious visa. Hopefully, this will resolve the visa/registration problems of the past year. My ABWE teammates in Odessa have all successfully registered their new religious visas for one year. Thank you for praying about this pressing need! I will be submitting my visa application to the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, DC, this week.

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psalm 95:1-2

What a blessing to be home for Thanksgiving for the first time in several years. I have so much for which to praise the Lord. God has given me the riches of His grace through salvation in Jesus Christ (Eph 1). He provided me with a supportive Christian family. He protected my dad's life with a bout of bladder cancer and a fire at his apartment building this year. The Lord has called me to a wonderful and challenging ministry in Ukraine. There He has cared for me by Pastor Lonya and Luba treating me like their own family and helping me and teaching me in so many ways! God continues to be my rock during the episodes of spinning dizziness of vertigo. He enables the medical ministry in Ukraine through the faithful support of many churches and individuals. Praise the Lord for His goodness!

Bible Center Church of Charleston, WV, sent a Global Outreach Team in October who saw over 250 patients from 10 different villages in 5 days. Two dentists pulled scores of teeth. One of them also played the violin for our worship times! An orthopedist made many arthritic patients happy with the pain relief of joint injections. A family nurse practitioner helped me care for all the medical problems. Two nurses assisted the dentists and registered all the patients. Children's pastor Richard Thompson and his wife Michelle became experts at "crowd control"! They had some wonderful opportunities to share the gospel with patients throughout the day and do a children's program in the afternoons. One young lady did trust Christ as her Savior in Sahanskoye.

We started the week in Sahanskoye at their Zhatva celebration on Sunday. Four of the GO team members got stuck in the mud! The missionary transporting them found out how treacherous the village roads can be in our rainy fall weather. With typical Ukrainian ingenuity, another car bringing guests to Zhatva had tow rope. Lonya jumped in my Honda CRV and pulled the van out of the mud. We arrived late for the service, but people were still gathering and they were still setting up benches outside as there was not room inside for the crowd. We all shivered through the service, but rejoiced in God's goodness to bring these groups together from America, Odessa, and villages around Sahanskoye.

This was the first time the village of Limaniy had had an American medical team. The people were amazed that medical and dental care were provided without charge and without pain! We were grateful that the sun came out on Friday, as we needed to have the pharmacy outside, and the orthopedist saw patients in the garage. A wonderful close to the week of ministry was a praise service outside the prayer house, where Pastor Anatoliy asked all the GO team members to share their testimonies. What an encouragement to this fledgling church!

In Kubanka, the dentists had the main room of the prayer house, while the pharmacy was in the garage, the FNP and orthopedist shared the kitchen, and I saw patients in a small room next to the garage and across from the pigpen. The children from our Sunday School were fascinated by everything, and kept coming to ask me questions after the Thompsons' children's program. Lonya and I made a few home visits on our way to Shamanovka to see if anyone wanted to come to the dentist. Only one man braved the bad roads to make the trek to Kubanka. Even in my Honda CRV, we were still sliding from side to side on these curving dirt tracks now a muddy bog. Pray for Gregory, this man who has been struggling with an alcohol problem, but is showing sincere interest in spiritual things.

We had the regular clinic in Shamanovka in November. Lonya and I both had some excellent conversations about salvation with patients. Roman returned to get his Bible--the 17-year-old man whose father had committed suicide. Lonya invited several to come to a Bible study the following Wednesday. Praise the Lord that seven adults attended! Roman and his mom came, Grisha, Sasha and his wife. Pray that their eyes will be opened to the truth of God's Word. Lonya and I have been starting to use ABWE's new evangelistic tool "The Story of Hope", which has just been translated into Russian. This is a chronological study of the story of redemption as God planned salvation for man from the day of creation through the coming of Jesus Christ.

My last clinic before leaving Ukraine was in Makarovo. We transported a group of patients from Berdinovo to the clinic. Pastor Lonya led in a time of worship before I began seeing patients. Tears came to my eyes as we sang together "How Great Thou Art" in Russian. What joy to see these folks focus on God's Word and hope for their salvation! I believe several of them are trusting Christ alone. Please keep praying for someone to start a regular Bible study in this needy village, to follow up on these seeds of faith. After clinic we traveled to another village to see Angela, my paraplegic friend, and her family. Angela had called me a few days earlier to ask me to visit her mother who was very ill. I'm not sure there is much medically that can be done for her mom. I was encouraged that Angela requested a book to read. It is so hard for her as she is stuck in one room in their house all winter. Please pray for this family who has heard about God's love for them so many times.

Thank you again for praying for the needs in Ukraine. Please continue to pray for me to be a worthy ambassador of our King of Kings. May the Lord fill your heart with thanksgiving this week!

Schedule:
Nov 29    Grace Baptist Church, Chattanooga, TN
Dec 6      Kennerly Road Baptist Church, Irmo, SC
Dec 13      Bible Center Church, Charleston, WV

Leaning on The Rock,
Miriam
Psalm 62:5-8