Dear Beloved
Friends in Jesus Christ,
Precious Grace to
you and Peace through Our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Anointed, and from our Father who sent Him. May His
richest blessings be on you as you abide in the vine.
We thank God for you, we pray for His will to be done
in your life.
God is Faithful!
Yes! We recently celebrated our7th anniversary here in
the former Soviet Union (CIS). Yes,
can you believe we have been here seven years? We
can't, but here we are. All we can do is praise God
and be thankful, knowing it is all of grace. He has
certainly done great things, and we are glad. I can
still remember the days when I said, "What in the
world am I doing here, am I crazy!?!?" Well I am
crazy about Jesus, and for Him I will go anywhere (I
think). Our worst fears are in the past now and the
times of fruit have come, and we can only thank God
for the glorious opportunity He has given us.
When I realized it
was our anniversary I was in Kiev, the capitol;
teaching, preaching and doing the works of Jesus. In
fact we were right on the central square, and God was
moving powerfully as He so often does. As always we
were amazed at what He was doing through us. I would
rather be where God is than fulfilling even my fondest
dreams.
When our ministry
was in it's early stages the Lord gave us the
scripture that Jesus quoted in Luke 4:18. "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." I
cannot recall if I told you or not that when we
received this word I told the Lord I would take it as
a true word for us if he healed a physically blind
person. He healed a blind woman at the very next
meeting! What a confirmation. So wherever we go, Luke
4:18 is our pattern. It was certainly true on our
missions anniversary as we watched God sovereignly
move on people, healing their bodies and their hearts,
setting them free, adopting them into His family. This
God we serve is a wonderful, tender, loving,
benevolent, Father. He also happens to be GOD, and the
King of the Universe, there is none like Him.
On all our ministry
trips we take a team with us. Those we are discipling
and training. This time they were feeling kind of
useless as God was just sovereignly doing everything
except the preaching of the Word; but they said they
did not mind, because they had such a great time
seeing God work. Besides the meetings, the thing I
liked, was the wonderful loving fellowship between the
team members. It is beyond words to tell how precious
it is to see these people whom God has rescued out of
all kinds of darkness, now loving Jesus and one
another in such a sweet wonderful way. The fruit of
the Spirit is love. Without me you can do- NOTHING!
Well, 7 years- it
has flown by. This only indicates to me that the Lord
is coming back sooner than we think. It seems like
only yesterday we were trying to get ready to embark
on this great adventure, not knowing what lay ahead,
but certain of our call. In all honesty the only
doubts I had was about our ability to do anything
substantial. I had this gnawing fear we would just
come over and accomplish nothing. But, GOD. God just
seemed to be doing things wherever we went. It often
seemed to me that we just happened to be present, and
God did all the work. Most of our strength was spent
on overcoming obstacles and solving problems, and yet
we have seen much fruit. Not that we were not trying
to do something; we brought ourselves to the brink of
burnout and beyond many times, only the Lord
sustaining us. While we were still trying to figure
things out, the wonderful Holy Spirit was doing
wonderful things. Jesus said "I am the vine, you
are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him,
the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you
can do nothing." John 15:5 We didn't know that
"abide in me" can be interpreted, "hang
on, it's gonna be a wild ride."
FRUIT
There are so many
testimonies I am itching to tell you. We are looking
at so many changed lives. We now see a small multitude
that has grown up in Christ around us. Of course there
have been some failures, but there are so many
successes. Should I tell you about the guys who were
in the Mafia (local gangsters and racketeers) who are
now serving Jesus; or the plain middle-aged folks who
were just trying to survive, completely without hope,
whose hope is now firmly anchored within the veil; or
the Lesbians who now love Jesus with all their hearts
(little did we imagine the magnitude of this problem
here); or the lifetime criminals who now hold jobs and
live lives of service to others; or the Jews who did
not even know there was a Messiah, who now know their
Messiah; or the upwardly mobile, who crashed and
burned, but Heaven's search and rescue found them. Or
should I tell of the sick who have been healed, the
Satanists and alcoholics and drug addicts who have
been saved, sanctified and delivered, the rejects of
society who have found a place of love and acceptance;
or the young people and the old people, the normal
people and the not so normal people, the beautiful and
the wretched, the good and the very bad, and on and
on. "God has made known his salvation: his
righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of
the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his
truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God." Psa
98:2,3 Especially appropriate since the name of
Ukraine can be interpreted, "the ends of the
earth" and the Lord has been saving so many of
the house of Israel through our work here. I tell the
folks here that both of these are signs that we are in
the very last days.
God has His own
Plan... Little did we know when we came here that the
Lord would have us touching so many areas. In my heart
I just wanted to evangelize, but having been taught
that the best evangelism is church planting, I
envisioned planting churches as fast as we could. God
had his own plan though. He has been unveiling it over
time. He actually gave us the first installment in
1982, when He showed me the great changes that would
take place in the Soviet Empire. At that time he
revealed to me that massive changes were coming. He
revealed that there would be a sudden freedom, that
the back of the Soviet power would be broken, that the
Gospel would suddenly have free course here, and that
the needs would be very, very great. He gave me
special insight into what some of the greatest needs
would be, salvation, healing, emotional healing tied
to forgiveness, church renewal and adjusting to new
economic conditions that would come about and cause
great stress and confusion. Each of these things was
to turn out to be keys to whole areas of ministry and
continue to be so.
xxx Multiply! xxx
Right on the
airplane as our family flew to Moscow seven years ago,
He spoke to me and said that, he wanted me to
"make disciples". I responded with my
church-growth training. "Yes Lord, I know that
church-planting is of course the best method of
evangelism, so I can make disciples while I plant lots
of churches." He responded by saying, "I
said, "I will build my church...", I am
telling you to make disciples." So right from the
start in the town of Kostroma, Russia we began to try
to make disciples. I say try, because making disciples
of Jesus Christ can take place at many different
levels. But we did have an effect on many lives as we
taught in the church and Bible school, took them on
ministry trips and spent endless hours around our tiny
kitchen table, on frozen trolley buses, in crowded
subways, walking icy streets, visiting dark stuffy
apartments sitting around more tiny tables eating and
drinking things we never conceived of (nor would we
want to) all the while telling about Jesus and his
word and how to walk with Him and serve Him and have
fellowship with Him. Making those "who were
without hope and without God in the world" true
disciples of Jesus Christ. Glory to God! Thanks be to
God who has revealed this great salvation.
Just last night I
had the privilege of hearing one of my favorites as he
preached his first public sermon. It was powerful, my
wife cried through the whole message. I can still
remember him coming up out of the water s of baptism
rejoicing and shouting, and jumping up and down. Now
he heads up our ministry to the poor. I believe that
God will use many like him to affect this whole
nation, raising up great churches and ministries and
doing far more than we ever could. God showed me that
the only way we could affect this whole nation with
the Gospel is to multiply. We have seen the failure of
many novices who were given positions of
responsibility by those who did not take the time to
train the spiritual children God had given them. Now
after several years and seeing the fruit, we are more
committed than ever to making disciples. Recently a
number of men have come to me and shared that they
know they were spared from falling by being discipled.
God knows the end from the beginning!
What will break
first, your head or the enemies resistance???
After our time in
Kostroma the Lord directed us to come to Kharkov,
Ukraine, which has been our base of operations. It
would be impossible to recount how incredibly
difficult it was to break into this city, with all the
heartache and tribulation that had to be endured to
accomplish the Lord's glorious purpose here. Right at
the start He said, He had many people in this city,
and not to let anything deter us, that He would be
with us and keep us. As Paul said, "For, when we
were come into Macedonia (Kharkov), our flesh had no
rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were
fighting's, within were fears." 2 Cor 7:5 David
said, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous:
but the LORD delivereth him out of them all." Psa
34:19 we look back now over seven years, and
especially the last six and a half, which is when the
serious difficulties started, and I wonder how we made
it. Well nothing but the grace of God. And not only
did we survive, The Lord has done marvelous things.
But there has been a price to pay that we could not
have imagined, but we are now glad we agreed to, not
knowing, but trusting God. As Paul said again,
"But in all things approving ourselves as the
ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in
necessities, in distresses, ... In tumults, in labors,
... in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by
longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love
unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God,
by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and
on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and
good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown,
and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as
chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things. 2 Cor 6:4 -10
This is how it all
began, with the call to come, then the call to
disciple, then the call to Kharkov. Then the Lord has
added layer upon layer of ministry, taking us from
faith to faith, and glory to glory. He has added
church renewal, villages, the Jews, the poor, the
homeless, and more. There is no room to relate all
this in one letter.
Now we know what God
can do. We are filled with an understanding that it is
His power and grace that accomplishes everything. Our
part is to be willing and obedient vessels through
which He can work. This brings His kingdom purposes
and will into being. God truly does make something out
of nothing. We believe with all our hearts that He has
an even better things in store. They have already
begun. We feel we are only beginning to learn to work
with Him and Love Him in a more mature way than ever,
so we are filled with a wonderful anticipation for the
coming days. This is no to say we do not see trouble
coming. We do. Lots of it for the whole world. But we
see this as an opportunity for God's power and grace
to work bringing Salvation to the ends of the earth
and the house of Israel. Halleluiah!!! Yes LORD!!! We
feel that being here seven years is somewhat of a
milestone and that we are facing a significant
increase in the next seven, if the Lord delays his
coming.
Joanichka (the way
you say Joanie in the local vernacular, if you like
her) Joanie wanted to share these thoughts.
I have found a home
and my people. All my Christian life I wanted to be
around folks like me who loved Jesus and loved telling
others about Him. I have found that place, and have
found those people. People are so open here and want
to hear about God and so easily come to Christ. I like
that! I wouldn't trade it for all the 'world with it's
lusts thereof'.
Looking around at
church I see that my family has expanded greatly. I
and my children all share Dad. I feel like Sarah
married to Abraham, but unlike them we get to see
before our eyes the fulfillment of God's promise to us
so many years ago (1979 to be exact). It gives me
great satisfaction to have obeyed!
The sense I get from
the Lord is not to be satisfied til' I see all of the
Ukraine saved! (If you didn't know Ukraine is the
fastest growing Christian nation in all of Europe.) I
really believe ( and so do many others) I will see
that in my lifetime and I will gladly give my whole
lifetime to see it! It is like sitting on top of a
nation pregnant with souls about to explode into
birth!
It is exciting to be
alive, in the center of God's will, right where you
belong in the prophetic timetable and especially IN
THE HARVEST.
The Lord not long
ago reminded me of prophecies He spoke to me right in
biology class as a 15yr old girl- all those words are
coming to pass! God is so good and so faithful.
Reminds me of the words to a song I wrote:
"nothing I have done has merited me, but all that
I can sing, is what you have done for me...". I
sense the best is yet to come.
One thing I forgot
to mention was the incredible job Joanie has done over
these years as she has endured very difficult and
stressful circumstances while she has prepared who
knows how many thousands of meals and turned out more
thousands of cups of tea and coffee, and treats
creating the hospitable atmosphere that has made so
much of our discipleship possible. Sometimes I think
it was more her hospitality than anything that gave
the church it's start. Not to mention caring for our
family, home-schooling the children, caring for the
poor, and filling so many gaps in the church, and of
course her first love- evangelizing. Awesome.
Spa-see-bo'
(contracted form of "God save you", the
Russian word for thanks)
Well, in closing I
want to give our deepest heartfelt thanks, and say
"Spa-see-bo'" to you who have prayed for us
and you who have helped us financially over the years.
We know we could not have done it without your help.
We especially want to thank you who have contributed
regularly over the years. You have played a key role
in bringing many, many people into the kingdom of God.
You will also share in preparing and sending a whole
company of pastors, evangelists, prophets, teachers,
men and women of God who will bring forth much, much
fruit to the Glory of God, and Our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know that some of you have sacrificed so this
gospel can be preached, so we are both honored and
sensitive to the responsibility that this carries.
We are looking
forward with great anticipation to the next seven
years to see what God will do. We know there are
troubles coming on the world, and we know there will
be great Glory on the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are ready to Go Forth with all our hearts for the
King of Kings. Even now the Lord is giving us new
strategies, better understanding and a firmer resolve
than ever before. Above all else we sense a new level
of love and grace from the Lord for ourselves for
others. In some ways we feel we have only begun to
fight, yet sensing more deeply than ever our profound
dependence on the Lord and His grace. Yet He is
constantly encouraging us that He is with us. To those
who want to share in this work with us by praying
regularly and giving regularly or occasionally, we
want to thank you in advance, and encourage you to do
so. We have a bigger vision than ever and a bigger
team, with a bigger operation to support, so we really
do appreciate the help and we will put your investment
to work for the Kingdom of God and the salvation of
precious souls.
With much Love to
you in our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Bill
And Joanie Lynch
PS As I wrote this
my so John's bass guitar was stolen while he and the
worship team were praying for people at a
conference in Kiev where they are leading the worship.
Please pray for him, this is high price to pay for a
young man just beginning in ministry. It was a one of
a kind, hand made, custom, fretless, given to him by
his uncle. Even if he had the money he could not buy
one like it.
Bill and Joanie
Lynch can be reached by e-mail at:
gospel@kharkov.ua
bill.lynch@go-forth.net
Donations and correspondence can be sent to:
Go Forth Ministries
PO Box 26863
Salt Lake City, UT 84126
(801) 972-0420
Bill and Joanie Lynch
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