More than all we ask or imagine

Prayer Update from the Cherenkovs

Dear Friends, greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20)!

We are deeply grateful for your friendship and prayers for our family during this transitional period in our lives and ministry with Mission Eurasia.

In the last letter we wrote from Ukraine, we asked you to pray for our flight to the US and for housing arrangements so that we could settle into a new place. We are so grateful to God and to you for answers to both of those needs!

Immediately after we arrived in the US, you also helped to meet our needs by attending our welcoming party and providing such generous gifts. Your kind and generous response to the needs of our family and ministry was such a pleasant surprise to us, as well as to many of our friends, and we are immensely grateful for this.

Today, we echo the Apostle Paul’s words about God and what we are experiencing in our lives: He is “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

We are writing this letter from the small Mennonite town of Hillsboro, Kansas, where we will live for the next year. As you know, we received a work visa for two years and we hope to use this time for additional training, ministry involvement, and further growth with Mission Eurasia. As we settle down, I will be serving our Wheaton and Kyiv Field Ministries offices, coordinating projects in the former USSR, developing new contacts and partnerships, helping Mission Eurasia’s President Sergey Rakhuba in his travels, and organizing a number of events. In addition,  Tabor College, a local college in Hillsboro, has kindly offered me the title of visiting professor and I hope to prepare some lectures and seminars on church history and missions in the former USSR to present there. Praise God for these new opportunities!

We greatly appreciate the hospitality and help of our local friends. Three of our children are already attending a local public school. There are wonderful, friendly, and hospitable churches in Hillsboro and we hope to develop relationships with them and learn from them.

God is perfectly providing everything we need and is sending us many friends. This has been the biggest surprise for our family—finding out how many friends in Christ we have around the world. We thank God for you, your friendship, and support.

·      I would also like to ask for your prayers for our family, that God would keep them safe during my frequent travels. Please pray that Nina and our children would successfully learn English and adapt to our new cultural environment so that we can all prepare ourselves for the next phase of ministry with Mission Eurasia.

Again, please accept our heartfelt appreciation for your participation and partnership in the ministry of Mission Eurasia and God’s mission in Eurasia!

Praise God, “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!”

With deepest appreciation,

Michael, Nina, Caroline, Vasilisa, Michelle, Sara Stephanie