First Prison Seminar in Ukraine

The Kiev prison authorities and the Vinnitska leaders, who attended the April 2008 trip to USA, granted us permission to do the first seminar in the Litin(central Ukraine)Prison beginning Monday, April 6. The Litin Prison is on the west side of Litin, just a stone's throw from Pavel Pochapsky's church. The prison officials did not grant our request to hold the seminar in the standard format, but restricted our time to two hours a day. They are allowing extra time on weekends to allow us to complete the 32 hours of the Basic Seminar within two weeks.

Thirty seven men came to attend the training, although three left early on, taking their workbooks.

About 10 days before the start of the training, the Litin Prison authorities informed Sasha Shevchenko that they would let us work with 4 men. Pavel told him to tell the prison authorities in Vinnitsa that we are canceling the seminar and going to the Zhitomir(western Ukraine) oblast, where we have an open invitation to begin from the colonel who made the trip to America. At this news, Pavel told me they did a quick about face and even put up advertisements in the prison for men to attend. Praise the Lord for the 37 who came the first day.

Sasha Shevchenko is well known and respected at this prison, so he made the initial greetings. He then introduced me, and I talked about the history of the training, sharing about Bill Gothard's devotion to young people and criminal gangs in Chicago. I let the men know that only recently has the training been used in prisons in America and in other countries. One prisoner, Sasha, stood up and proclaimed, "Crime is the response of normal people to abnormal societal conditions!" Several prisoners grunted their approval. He then said, "We prisoners are mostly Orthodox and care nothing for your protestant teachings." I said, "Thanks for your comments and statements, because they allow me to underscore a couple important facts. First, we only allow people to attend voluntarily, and if that is not the case we need to know about it immediately. Are you all volunteers?" They all quickly assured me they were. "Secondly, this is a fully non-denominational program, enjoyed the world over by all Christian denominations. You will notice that all of the sessions are characterized by a deep love and respect for Jesus Christ as Lord and for the scriptures as God's inspired Word. I presume there are no problems here with those values, which are shared by all Christians." All were in agreement, and the vast majority very respectful toward us, so we began the training. A couple of rebels demonstratively kept their workbooks closed, but when Bill began to share about the causes of conflicts, they quickly began to write and made up for lost time. It seemed to me that all were scribbling quite furiously to keep up with the lessons.

I was very pleased with the first session, and I pray the remaining sessions will be revealing and helpful to all of them.

Unfortunately, I was granted permission to be there only on the first day. I had hoped to be there for questions and answers on following days. However, Dima is very well versed in the principles and will do that job well, if we will keep him in our prayers. He will also give us a full report on the ministry of these two weeks.

Thank you to all who prayed. Jeff Franks

Sunday

Today was communion Sunday. That happens here on the first Sunday of every month and thus the service is always fuller than other Sundays. The youth choir sang and did such a beautiful job. Leah, our 22 year old daughter is in this group.

After showering this morning I discovered a deeply embedded tick below my right shoulder. Jeff and I rather tore him apart trying to get him out, but he just wouldn't budge. We decided to deal with it after church. Jeff, being concerned about Lyme's disease got up from services and called the doctor. They wanted us to come right in so our service was cut short. The doctor said that Lyme's disease is not a problem in Ukraine, but he had to cut the little bugger out with a knife and tweezers. He did give me a small shot to deaden the spot. So, a little excitement for the day. Since I was only in the garden the day before you can be sure I'm going to check myself better each night.

Jeff left for Vinnitsa after we returned home and will set up video equipment in the morning and introduce the seminar. That will start at 10 a.m. our time. Please be in prayer for this important event. Jeff asked me to pray for the attendees, that God would select the ones who need to be there. Pray also for the equipment that all would go well in the set up. I know God has a great purpose in bringing all this about and we are excited to see how he will use this seminar. Lives will be changed and heaven will rejoice.

Prison Ministry Practice Run

Today Jeff set up and tested all the equipment for Monday's prison seminar. This is an area where things can easily go wrong so he wanted to make sure he had that end of things all running smoothly. Please pray for this seminar which will start on Monday morning at 10 a.m. Will let you know how it went.

Prison Ministry Beaurocracy

Today Jeff has gone to Kiev to do documents that allow him to go into the prisons of one oblast (state). On Monday Jeff, along with Pavel Pochopsky and some Ukrainian men will go into a prison in Central Ukraine to start an evangelical seminar called the "Institute in Basic Life Principles." Jeff is simply there to facilitate the beginning of this program. It will be run by Ukrainian pastors and missionaries as it should be.

This time last year Jeff took a delegation of high-ranking prison officials to America so they could see first hand the benefits of this program in reducing the rate of recidivism (return rate to prison). The whole process has been a lot of bureaucracy and required diligence for all those working to make this come about, but now the day is arriving for it to begin. Please be in prayer for this first seminar to start on Monday, April 7th. The far-reaching ramifications for Ukraine are truly a big step in God's Kingdom.

Prison Ministry in Ukraine

Last week Jeff was in Vinnitsa, a city in central Ukraine about setting up the first seminar for prison ministry. The Lord blessed with successful meetings and they will start this endeavor in early April. Please be in prayer for this: for the prisoners, the officials, the men leading the seminar and for the equipment. This being the first seminar to be done in Ukraine will be very important for it to go well as it will set a precedent for moving ahead into other prisons. May God be honored.

Prison Ministry In Ukraine

Not long ago Jeff received the go-ahead from the head of Ukraine prisons to write up a proposal for starting ministry in some of the Ukraine prisons. Therefore, today he has gone to the central Ukrainian town of Vinnitsa to meet with prison officials there to arrange for setting up meeting and seminars in their prison. This is a prison where our BMA missionary Pavel Pachopsky has people who have worked and are ready to expand work in the prisons.

Last April Jeff took a delegation of Ukrainian prison wardens to America so they could see first hand how ministry in prisons can reduce the rate of resitivism of prisoners. This is a great opportunity that could have immence impact on the whole country in time. The head of Ukraine prisons even suggested that they put the prison guards through this Christian training as well. We stand amazed at the open doors, but still ask that you pray about this so problems will not beset and close doors.