Here is an update on our BBB initiative (Books, Billboard, BBQ):
We printed 3000 books for distribution in Ukraine. So far around 400 of these have been distributed.
Billboards were put up for one month.
The response to the billboards was not what was expected. They also learned that the title of the book was not helpful. The book’s title is Building Blocks for raising Godly children. When translated, Godly was a word that translates more to pious. This sounded scary for unchurched people. We plan to change the title for the next printing of the book in Ukraine to Building Blocks for Raising Children. Content will stay the same, but title will be more appealing.
They changed strategies and put up flyers/posters in areas where parents are – parks, schools, etc. This got a better response.
Churches are using this book for parenting small groups. The plan is to go through it with church people first and then invite their unchurched friends to go through it with them. Mothers are really enjoying studying with the book. The challenge is to get dads to be engaged as well.
A couple of churches have been given grills. They are using them to invite people to stay around after church to build community and get connected.
We had a couple of meetings in Ukraine sharing the book. One was with a group of parents that were invited to meet the author and the other was with a group of Children’s Ministries leaders as a resource for parents in their churches. Both were very well received.
Traveling to Ukraine is an amazing experience. We have so many friends there and our time is a time of reconnection, encouragement and celebration. Traveling during a war adds challenges with travel and concerns over missile and drone attacks. We often get asked, “Aren’t you scared traveling to Ukraine during the war?” It is hard to feel scared when our friends must live with the impacts of war daily. We can handle two weeks of dealing with air raids and inconveniences. The hardest part of the trip is trying to recap all that we have experienced and tell the story in a way for others to get a little feel for the experiences we have had. When I try to recap, I try to come up with words or phrases that capture a part of our experience and organize our recap that way rather than just a day-by-day recap of our adventures. So here we go:
Next Steps
Over the past 6 years of our ministry, we have spent much of our time doing conferences with pastors and their wives. These have been great opportunities for us to get to know these pastors and their spouses and invest in them and their development. We have taught with four basic themes: To Dream, To Define, To Develop and To Do. As we have worked with these leaders, we have seen them grow and seen the impact of what they have learned in their churches and ministries.
One of the biggest things that we have seen an impact on is their ability to dream God-sized dreams and begin working to make their dreams a reality. One of the dreams that was spawned in our trainings was the vision of reaching 100,000 people for Jesus by starting 1000 new churches with 7000 new leaders by 2036. Truly a God-sized dream. We have been part of helping to train some of those new leaders, but it is a bigger task than what we can do. So, on this trip we heard about the next steps to make this dream a reality. They are starting a leader school to help identify and prepare leaders across Ukraine for the 7000 new leaders needed, and a Church Planting Academy that will be part of training the 1000 new pastors needed to plant these churches. They will hold these academies in cities across Ukraine. This fall when we return, they will start their first academy and much of the training will be part of what we have been teaching these past 6 years. It is so exciting to see a dream begin to accomplish with the actions of those you have invested in.
Strengthening Relationships
One of the joys of each trip is the time we can spend strengthening relationships with people we have worked with over the years. We get to see friends from previous visits and learn about how God is working in their lives and what has been happening in their churches. We have seen some of these pastors grow into bigger roles within the Baptist Union and now are leading other pastors and expanding their impact. Even though we do not see these friends very often, when we can reconnect, it feels like we have been together all the time. Unfortunately, there is never enough time to see everyone we would like to but we are thankful for opportunities like the Cherkasy Pastor’s conference that we were able to attend and speak at that allowed us to see and talk to many friends this trip.
Visiting Churches
One of the highlights of every trip is the time we can spend visiting churches of the pastors that we have worked with at our events. On this trip we were able to visit 6 churches in Odessa, one in Zolotonosha and one in Kyiv. It is so fun to meet the pastors in their churches and to hear their vision for their church and to talk about the challenges they face and the things that they are working on. It is one thing to talk about these things in a gathering, but it brings it all to life when you sit in their church and see their actual reality that they are working with. You see the neighborhoods, their facilities and meet some of their teams. These pastors have big dreams, and it is fun to be a part of helping them in a small way accomplish their dream.
Next Generation
Over the past couple of years, we have become more involved in the youth ministries of Ukraine. We were able to speak at a Children’s Ministries leaders training in a new region for us Chernihiv. Beth was able to speak, and I had an opportunity to share my book as a resource to help families. We distributed 120 books for small groups in churches across the region. We also had the opportunity to share at a parent meeting in Odessa where we answered questions about my parenting book and give copies of my book to parents.
We also had the privilege of attending a Youth leaders training event. We got to spend time with the leaders of Youth Ministries for the Baptist Union and hear his dreams; ministry plans and ways that we could help him train up new leaders for youth ministries. One of his goals is to create a League of Leaders training that will be offered at cities across Ukraine to train up new leaders working in youth ministries. When we return in the fall we are planning to do training sessions for the leaders of each of the groups.
Family
One of the reasons that we keep going back to Ukraine is that it is like family for us. We have developed relationships with so many people it feels like we are returning home with each trip and reconnecting with our family members. One of those relationships is our partner Vasily Furta and his family. This trip we had more time than normal to spend at his home and be with his wife Alla and their children. We had great meals together and time to walk to the market for a treat and play games together.
We also feel like family when we get to spend time at the offices of the Baptist Union and reconnect with many of the leaders at the daily Bible reading and prayer and visiting with them in their offices.
I hope this update has given you a little feel of our experiences over that past two weeks. We are thankful for all of your prayers and for following us along on our Instagram and facebook posts. We felt your prayers and we know that God had his hand of protection over us. This summer we will continue to look for partners and churches in the US who would like to be part of building a relationship with a church and pastor in Ukraine. This war is hard time for Ukraine and the pastors we work with. They could use additional prayer support and new relationships to encourage and support them in their ministries.
If you or your church would like to talk about what this would look like, please reach out to me a rick.post@potentialendeavors.com
It is hard to believe that 2024 is coming to an end and we are beginning to plan for 2025. Our ministry year has been amazing. We have been able to travel to Ukraine twice this year and we have been able to see God working there through the challenges of the war. We have had amazing gatherings with pastors and leaders from across Ukraine and been able to spend time with them to encourage, listen and invest in their leadership and marriages. One of the highlights of this past year was being able to translate and publish my book, Building Blocks for Raising Godly Children, in Ukrainian and share it with people across Ukraine. Seeing pictures of groups using my book for small group discussions has been a heartwarming feeling.
As we began to dream and pray about our plans for 2025 and talk with our partners in Ukraine, we are excited to see how God is bringing together some exciting opportunities for this next year. We are once again planning to travel to Ukraine twice next year with trips in May and October. We are excited about our partnership with our Ukrainian partners to assist with an outreach initiative to reach unchurched people across Ukraine. Here is what they are doing:
They are creating billboards that will be placed in larger cities across Ukraine showing my book with a slogan that says: Gift of Wisdom for Parents – Get a book as a Gift. It will include a number to call to request the book. When they call, my book Building Blocks for Raising Godly Children will be sent to them and then the contact information will be sent to a church in that city. The church will then connect with those individuals and try to build relationships and invite them to their church. In addition, for each church that agrees to be part of the project, our partners will send them a BBQ Grill and money to buy meat in order to invite the people who they have connected with to a outdoor cook out where they can meet and connect.
For our trip in May, we will be doing a retreat for the regional leaders of church planting from across Ukraine and their spouses and then do some visits to cities where the book was highly requested and do some meet the author gatherings with the churches. In the fall we are planning to do a gathering for all church planters from across Ukraine as well as other smaller meetings.
Here is where we need your help! We need to raise the support to help with this initiative.
Purchasing books to give away. Goal is to give at least 3000 books – $3000
Gifting a church a BBQ and Food – 100 churches – $50,000
Church Planting Retreat – 50 couples – $10,000
Would you pray about helping in any of the following ways:
Pay for 100 books $100
Sponsor a church BBQ $500
Sponsor a Church Planter couple to attend retreat $200
You could do one or multiples of any of these things. All money raised will go to pay for our Ukraine ministry expenses. You can donate at our website, https://potentialendeavors.com/donate or through Venmo at @PotentialEndeavors or by check.
If you would be interested in establishing a relationship with a church in Ukraine and get updates on how these projects are going, please contact me at rick.post@potentialendeavors.com.
Also if you would like a copy of my book in English to use in your small groups, they are available at https://bandrpostresources.com or on Amazon. We are also available for parenting conferences based on the book if you are interested. Just contact me at my email above.
How do you capture two weeks of amazing experiences? This trip was really about four things:
Offering Encouragement
We heard over and over from people how much our visits during the war mean to them. They say constantly that it is such an encouragement that we come while they are experiencing war. We also found that many of the people we talked with one on one were so thankful for the encouragement and an opportunity to talk about their challenges and struggles.
Training Leaders
This is one of the things we spend the most time doing on our trips. However, you never know what impact your training has. This trip we had the opportunity to hear from several people who shared the impact our training has had on them and how they have used what we have trained on. We heard how our training materials are being used by the leaders as they train others themselves.
Motivating Change
Making changes is the hardest part. You can agree with what we teach on, but ultimately the people have to apply what they learn and make changes if they want see results. On this trip we heard from many individuals that have applied what they have learned and have seen results. They know that I am going to come back in the future and ask them what they have done with what they have learned.
Inspiring Dreams
This is probably the things we hear them most. That after our trainings they have gone and tried to dream and hear from God what God-sized dreams they have. We heard from Olga how we have helped her accomplish her dream of providing a training resource for families with our new book. We heard from Ruslan who created a dream for Synergy and church planting after one of our meetings. From Olga that has seen her dream of a Children’s Ministries conference be accomplished from our help. In fact, we heard from many people that we should write our next book on dreams.
Here is a little more detail on what we did on each day of the trip.
On our first Monday in Ukraine, we got off the train from Poland and went right to a Women’s Ministries leaders conference where I led two sessions on my book and parenting. The session went well, but it is not a great idea to start training on the first day you arrive – the jetlag hit me hard in the evening session. The two days together went amazing and all the books we had at the event went. The last night we had a question-and-answer session, and the women talked about my book and how much they were enjoying it and how they were making plans to share with the women in their small groups at their churches.
On Wednesday we drove from Lviv to Kyiv where we did a couple of videos at the Baptist Union offices and then on Thursday we met with the leaders of The Temple of Peace, which is a church in downtown Kyiv. It had been one year since we had met for the first time, and they shared what they have been doing this past year and the changes that they have made. It was exciting to see how God was working and that they had grown by over 30% over the past year.
On Friday we drove to Cherkasy where we had several meetings at our favorite coffee shop in Cherkasy and then went to New Life Church where we had a gathering to share my book with people from all over the region. We had close to 100 people attend and we were able to see many old friends, including the host family that Beth had stayed with over 30 years ago. New Life is always a special place for us as this was where our Ukraine ministry began. It was a special evening! They also recorded our training so we have a You Tube version that we can share with others.
On Saturday we were in Buzevka at the home of our partner Vasily Furta. I had a speaking session in Uman for the M4 church planting organization and Beth met with Alla and the pastors wives prayer group she leads. They had a special time together and all want to share our book with the women in their churches. In the afternoon we had coffee with Vasily Olynuk and his wife. Vasily was the leader in the Baptist Union when Love Life for Ukraine started. Always a special time of sharing together. We also had the privilege to have coffee at the new home of Lyuda and Sashsa. Lyuda is our translator, and we had a special time seeing their new home.
On Sunday we drove to Cherniyiv region and attend the Bread of Life church with pastor Bogdon. Bogdon had attend one of our training retreats in April and after leaving he went back to his church and build an addition to his church for Children’s Ministries. He was so challenge in our meetings that he took what he learned and put into action. I preached the message, and Beth went in and observed their program. Afterwards we had a lunch in their home and shared together. It was a special time!
Monday was a travel day as we drove back to Lviv area for our church planters conference. We had 20 couples for 3 days. This was the last of three sessions together. It was fun to see how God was working and how the connections have built over the last year that we have been meeting. Hopefully on future trips in Ukraine we will have the privilege to visit many of their churches and homes as well.
On Thursday we wrapped up the church planters conference and drove to Rivne for the Children’s Ministries Leaders Training. There were 80 leaders from representing all regions of Ukraine except for occupied territories. This conference is always special for Beth as Children’s Ministries is her passion. She did a training session on Friday morning. She covered leadership foundations and shared some practical ways to share salvation message to kids. She did amazing as always! In the evening, I shared my book with the leaders and gave them all a copy. Olga the leader always does such an awesome job of creating an event that makes all participants feel appreciated and valued while also training and inspiring them.
On Saturday we attended a conference in Lviv called …. Vasily was speaking in a workshop and doing an online sharing session, and we had to walk around the booths of ministries working in Ukraine. In was fun connecting with many people that we have interacted with over the years who were there sharing in their ministry booths.
On Sunday we caught the train and headed to Poland to begin the trip home.
I could write so much more but wanted to share with you a summary to give you a little taste of what we experienced on our trip. Thank you for your prayers and financial support that has supported us in our ministry. We came home with a few special requests for support so we are praying for how we can help provide resources for these requests. We are hoping to raise an additional $8500 by the end of the year to help provide for these needs. If you are interested in learning more about these needs, please reach out to me at my email rick.post@potentialendeavors.com or my cell at 651-329-6033.
This October we are heading back to Ukraine for another trip. Going to Ukraine is always something we look forward to as we have built so many great relationships and have so many friends there. Every trip is filled with excitement but there are also many fears and worries that we bring with us as well. Will we be safe with the war? Will all of our travels go smoothly? Will people be able to attend our meetings? Are the materials we developed the right content? Will we have enough resources for all of the events and travel costs of the trip? This year we have an added challenge, that we will be doing something we have never done before.
Last winter, we were asked by READ Ministries to help find parenting materials that could be translated into Ukrainian and made available to help parents raise their children. They wanted something practical and not like a textbook. We looked around and had trouble finding what we felt they were looking for, so we decided to write a parenting book ourselves based on what we learned in raising our own three children. We talked to our kids and asked them about their memories of childhood and what we did well and did not do as well to help them be the people and parents they are today.
We published the book in July titled “Building Blocks for Raising Godly Children”. It has been translated in Ukrainian and it is being published there now. READ Ministries provided resources to pay for the translation and initial publishing and now we are going to be presenting this book to several gatherings of church leaders in October. We will be sharing with the leaders of Women’s Ministries and Children’s Ministries from across Ukraine, with a group of church planters and their spouses and at a regional gathering in Cherkasy at New Life Church for pastors and family ministries leaders. We will be sharing the book and how they can use it to help parents in their churches, but also how to use it to reach families in their communities.
We are excited about sharing this book, but we are also nervous. Will the content be helpful? Will it be used? Are we really qualified to be able to teach this? We know that this is something that is needed, but we are not experts or academically trained in this. But we have learned from our past work that when we are the most nervous and anxious it is because the devil does not want us to be doing what we are doing. We are trusting God for His wisdom and guidance and walking through the doors that are opened for us. We must always remember that we are called to do what we can and trust God to do what only He can do.
Raising families is hard in normal situations, but then you add the challenges of dealing with the war, it is even more difficult. Please pray for us as we prepare for these meetings that God will provide us with the content that He wants us to cover, that it will be received well and used by those we present to.
Every trip takes resources for us to do what we have felt God directing us to do. Here is an overview of the resources needed for this trip:
Children’s Ministries Training Retreat $10,000
Church Planters Training Retreat $ 8,000
Printing of additional books $ 3,750
Regional Training Event in Cherkasy $ 1,000
Travel Costs $ 5,000
Total Need $27,750
If you would like to partner with us in supporting these ministries, you can make donations at our website – potentialendeavors.com/donate
Or you can send checks to:
Potential Endeavors
840 Aspen Circle
Little Canada, MN 55109
If you have questions or would like to have us meet with your church leaders about how to get involved, you can reach me at rick.post@potentialendavors.com
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of my book – Building Block to Raising Godly Children, you can purchase at bandrpostresources.com
If you are interested in having a parenting event based on the book at your church, please send me an email and we can talk more about it.
We are home from Ukraine! So much happened in the two weeks we were there. We had a time of connecting with old friends and hearing about their ministries, meeting new leaders and learning about their work and time spent investing in pastors and leaders in the church. When I think about this trip, there are three words that capture best what this trip was all about. Those words are trauma, encouragement, and impact.
TRAUMA
Visting Ukraine, you see the impact of 10+ years of war and the escalation that has happened in the last two years. You experience the air raids, and you get a taste of what the people have to live with every day. You drive through the villages and cities, and you see the cemeteries filled with Ukrainian flags honoring the graves of fallen heroes. The people are tired of war and the impact on their lives. They have lost so many family members and friends, and they don’t know when the hostilities will end.
We had the privilege on this trip to learn more about the Chaplin ministries of the Baptist Union. We learned about the work being done to support the soldiers and their families and the ministry work of caring for the families of the fallen heroes. We attended a church service where there were 100 women who had lost a husband, father, or son.
The church provides a place where these families can come together, grieve, and process the impacts on their lives. They provide needed assistance and help in dealing with the trauma that has impacted their lives. They share their stories together and help each other keep the memories of their heroes alive.
We heard about the trips to the frontlines to provide food, care, and encouragement to the troops as well as the work in visiting hospitals to provide aid and care to the soldiers recovering from wounds caused by the war.
This picture is a craft completed by a wounded soldier to provide activities to help them as they recover and adjust to their new reality.
We learned about groups that are providing trauma care training to leaders and families impacted by this war. The need for this training and assistance is great now and will only grow as the war continues and as people work to try and rebuild their lives when the war is over.
ENCOURAGEMENT
One of the biggest impacts we make with our visits is to be an encouragement to those we interact with. Ukrainians are so thankful for all the help and support that have been given to them and they are so encouraged when we come and visit with a war going on. Our visits let them know that they are not forgotten and that they are important to us. Much of our time is spent listening to their stories and hearing how the war has impacted them. We listen to their needs and challenges and try to find words to comfort, support and encourage them to stay strong in the face of all the challenges they are going through. But in spite of the difficulties and how tired they are, they have a burning desire to see their country be victorious and to fight for the freedoms and opportunities that have.
At one of our lunches, we heard the story of one of the pastors who had lived in Bakhmut before the war and had to leave as the Russians attacked the city.
They showed us pictures of their newly constructed home that had been destroyed by a tank and they lost everything they owned. They shared how as a displaced person they struggled to find a place to fit in and that now they are starting a church that is reaching young adults who want to learn English and technical skills. While loving this ministry, their heart still beats to one day return to their hometown and help rebuild their city and home and create a church to help their fellow displaced people re-establish their lives.
IMPACT
When we started our ministry seven years ago, we had a mission to help pastors and churches develop their potential and to help them reach their communities for Jesus. Over the years we have worked with many pastors and churches, and we have had the privilege of going back year after year and seeing the impact these pastors are making in their communities. While who we work with has changed over the years, our focus has not changed. We continue to teach three basic concepts:
To dream God-sized dreams
To develop teams to help in their ministry
To create churches that are “Come and See” places where people and see Jesus and learn what it means to have a relationship with him.
On this trip we were able to continue the training that we are doing with church planters, and we were able to hear some of the stories of how our training has made an impact. Here are some of the stories we heard:
Over the last seven years, one church has had three meeting places. They keep growing and need more space to welcome all those that want to attend. Thanks to gifts from our partners, they were able to finish their newest meeting space just before Easter and it was full their first Sunday. Now they are talking about what they are going to do to make more room.
Last October, we met with a church and spent two days working with them on how to help them reach more people for Jesus. After our visit they worked on making changes. We met with them on this trip, and they shared all the things they have done and that since making changes, which included counting attendance at every gathering, they have seen a 33% growth in attenders over the last six months.
In our church planter training, each pastor shared what has been happening at their churches since our last meeting. We heard stories of baptisms, new believers and new attenders. There are still many challenges, but they are seeing some impact. We heard one story about a Muslim student who started visited their church. He had lots of questions and they tried to answer his questions and make him feel welcome. After a few months, he started a relationship with Jesus and was baptized. Now he is bringing his Muslim friends to the church.
These are just a few of the stories we heard. I could fill up more pages, but this gives you a feel for what we experienced. We are thankful for the prayers and support of so many as we traveled and worked in Ukraine. If you have questions about our trip or our ministry, we would be happy to set up a time to talk or meet. We are blessed to be able to travel and do ministry in Ukraine, but we could not do it without our partners.
If you would like to learn more about how you could be one of our partners and help pastors in Ukraine as they plant new churches and reach their communities for Jesus, we would love to talk with you. You can connect with me at rick.post@potentialendeavors.com .
If you would like to donate, you can make a donation by clicking this link https://potentialendeavors.com/donate which will take you to our website or you can give through Venmo. Our Venmo ID is @PotentialEndeavors.
We head to Ukraine soon. Please pray for us. Conditions in Ukraine are difficult. The war continues. Tens of thousands of people have died and been wounded. Millions have been displaced and have either moved out of Ukraine or to a different location. People are tired and exhausted, and no end is in sight. As I write this, missile attacks are intensifying and the challenges across the country seem worse.
You may ask, so why are we going to Ukraine during these times? We feel that God wants us to be there to encourage the pastors and church leaders we work with. While the war continues, the spiritual and physical needs of the people continue to grow. The need to hear about the hope offered through a relationship with Jesus is greater than ever. The need to train, encourage and resource new pastors and start new churches is continuing. The pastors we work with are feeling the pressures of the demand. They are tired! They need help and resources to help them do ministry.
The war is causing many to experience trauma. Pastors need training in how to help those who have experienced trauma and to help share the good news of Jesus to the suffer from the effects of trauma. Families are dealing with the loss of family members and friends. Learning to deal with the impacts of injuries caused by the war. Having to start over after losing everything due to the bombings, attacks and ongoing war.
We go not to solve all these needs, but to offer our encouragement. To listen to the needs. To pray for the workers. To provide rest and resources to help in a small way. As we go pray for us. Pray for the following:
That we will be an encouragement to those we meet and interact with.
That we will provide materials and resources that will help these pastors and leaders in the work they are doing in their communities.
For safety as we travel across Ukraine and that the people coming to our meetings will be safe and that they will find our time together to be a time and rest and restoration.
For resources needed to help fund new churches and pastors. From equipment needs, to space rental to just helping with living expenses for the pastors.
One story to share with you. One pastor that we have worked with over the past six years is Yan from Korsun Ukraine.
Pastor Yan has a heart for reaching his community for Jesus. When he started his church, he was in a small building that was full. He knew he needed more space, so they found a building in the center of town with the potential for growth. They began renovating it. They had one meeting room which they outgrew, and they have now just finished renovating a second room with more space. Every time they open a new space, God brings new people. This church is caring for the needs of their community. They are reaching the people that no one cares for, and people are finding Jesus.
If you would like to provide resources to help these pastors, you can give online at http://potentialendeavors.com/donate. We accept all forms of payment – credit card, Venmo, checks or paypal.
If you would like to receive our newsletter and get a detailed overview of our trip and what we will be doing each day so that you can pray along with us, send me your email at rick.post@potentialendeavors.com.
If you are interested in learning more about how you or your church could sponsor a new church and its pastor, reach out to me at rick.post@potentialendeavors.com.
It is Giving Tuesday. This is the day when organizations across America ask people to donate to support their ministry or cause. Potential Endeavors is also asking you to consider supporting our ministry. I know that there are many good organizations doing great things asking you to support them. I don’t know what the criteria is you consider when trying to decide which one to give to and which one to pass on, but here is our pitch.
Why should you support Potential Endeavors?
You care about Ukraine and its future.
You want to see people find a relationship with Jesus Christ.
You love children and you want to see them reached through their local church.
You care about pastors and want to provide a time for them to invest in their marriage, ministry, and themselves through a time of retreat and refreshment.
You believe that Jesus is the hope for the world and want to see him shared in as many churches as possible.
You are passionate about church planting and starting new churches.
You believe in us and know that God is using us to accomplish His purposes.
There are many reasons above. If one of them resonated with you, pray about how God wants to use your resources and about how much you should give to Potential Endeavors. Whether you give or not, please pray for our ministry and that God will use us and provide for the resources needed to accomplish His plans.
Having just returned from Ukraine, we have learned that there are things that are impacting the priorities of Potential Endeavors. These factors are:
Because of the war and how the evangelical church provided for the needs of the people impacted by the war and the soldiers of Ukraine, the respect for the evangelical church in Ukraine has never been higher.
The children of Ukraine are the ones who are most impacted by the realities of war. They have lost parents, relatives, and their ability to just be kids. They question what future they will have because of the war.
People are searching for answers. What is their future? Why is there war? Where is God in all this? Because of what the church has done to help, people are turning to the church to find hope through Jesus Christ.
Because of these three realities, our priorities are focused on three things:
Help start new churches through helping to develop pastors to lead these churches that are desperately needed.
Provide training and resources to Children’s Ministry leaders to help them bring the day camp experience for kids into the church every Sunday.
Help the churches and pastors that we have worked with who are doing ministry and reaching their communities for Jesus to expand their facilities and make more room for more people to attend.
We will accomplish these priorities in the following way:
Offer training retreats to new pastors and their spouses. We had our first retreat last October and will do two more in 2024. We cover all costs for these retreats to provide and opportunity for these families to rest, be encouraged and trained for their future ministry.
Provide training events for leaders of children’s ministries across all the regions of Ukraine. We cover all costs for these events. We held one retreat in October of 2023, and we will offer another one in fall of 2024. We will do additional trainings in regions during our other trips.
Travel to Ukraine 3 times in 2024. We will provide training, meet with pastors and their spouses to encourage them. This will include trips closer to the areas that have been most heavily impacted by the war.
Provide resources to churches and pastors that we have worked with to help them reach more of their communities for Jesus through expanded facilities and resources for aid to those impacted by the war.
In addition, we will continue to look for partners who would like to support these new pastors and their churches for a 5-year period. This will be to provide funds for start up costs as well as resources to provide an income for the pastors so that they can focus all their energy on their church ministry.
This fund raiser is to help raise the resources to do this ministry in 2024.
We just got home from Ukraine and had an amazing trip! Our time there always goes fast, and we are going non-stop. These experiences are always hard to capture and put into words to share with others about what we have experienced, but I will try my best.
Our trip in May was recapped but summarizing “But God”. We heard about the impact of the war and the challenges that people faced, but God always showed up in a powerful way. To capture this trip in a title it would be “God is Working”! The spirit in the people we met with this trip has changed. There was a reality that the war was going to be with them for a long time and that they must get on with life the best that they can. There are still humanitarian needs, but the spiritual needs are what the groups we are working with are trying to address. Because of the war, and the impact it has had on so many lives, almost everyone knows somebody who has been killed or injured in the war. Many people are asking “Where is God in this?” Young leaders have sensed a calling from God to start churches and minister to their friends who face being called to fight and wonder what their future is. There is a new energy around the need to reach people for Jesus and to work together to accomplish this mission.
Our trip had five main objectives. First was the training of new church planters. We had a conference with 21 couples who are in the process of starting churches. We talked about dreaming God-sized dreams, how to develop a vision for their church and how to create churches that are “Come and See” places where people can find Jesus. This time was the first of three gatherings we will have with these couples. We spend time learning their stories and try to encourage and help them in their work. Beth had the opportunity to meet separately with the wives and talk about the joys and challenges of being a church planters’ wife. By the end of our time together, we always feel like we have found 42 new friends to pray for and support.
I also had the opportunity to share at a gathering of church planting teams at a M4 church planting workshop. I taught on how to create values for your church. It was fun to see these teams working on their visions together.
Our second objective was participating at a retreat for leaders of Children’s Ministries from 22 regions across Ukraine. Over 100 leaders gathered to learn, be encouraged, and work together to make children’s ministries more impactful in churches across Ukraine. The children often experience the most trauma from the effects of war and the leaders want churches that are places were kids can come and find peace, rest, joy and Jesus. Beth was able to speak at the conference and get to know many of the leaders. Potential Endeavors provides the resources to pay for this retreat and enable these leaders to get a rest from the stresses of their jobs. We heard many stories after the conference that leaders were burned out and thinking of leaving the ministry, but after this retreat they have felt renewed and energized for the future.
One of move moving parts of the conference was a message shared by Roman. He was one of the leaders of the committee who planned this retreat but was also in the military. Three weeks before the retreat, he was killed in the war. Just before his death, he shared this message with the leader of Children’s Ministries:
Olya, Hello! I wanted to write you some of my thoughts on children’s and teen ministry! Just a thought…might by useful. Thought to myself that we as children’s ministers should think strategically about what’s ahead! And there are a large number of children who lost their father. A mass of sons whose fathers won’t teach how to be a man, and daughters who will seek attention from men from an early adolescence, simply because they didn’t get that attention from their father (because he is gone early) We need to prepare ministers – men who will be ready to take responsibility to teach boys to be a man who loves, respects, knows and can do something with this hands, who will be a leader in the family, who will then teach his children… And leaders who are women who can teach girls not to lose themselves, nor to lose themselves in the search for attention. Otherwise we will lose two generations. Thinking what is needed… start preparing for “rebuilding the country” only in our understanding. There is so much work it is scary, but we have to do it, and I think it is time to prepare…”
Our third objective was working with the Temple of Peace church in Kyiv. This church is in the center of Kyiv and is a beautiful church. Its leaders want it to grow and asked us to come and work with them to help it develop a plan on how to reach its community for Jesus. We had two days of meetings, and we are excited to see how God will use this time to help them make the changes they need to make.
Our fourth objective was to connect with pastors that we have worked with over the years. We try to follow up with them and see how they are doing. Every trip we try to visit one of these churches on a Sunday and see their church in action. This trip we were able to visit the House of Salvation in Korsun. The pastor is Yan and his wife is Lyuda. Yan and Lyuda were in our first training group 5 years ago. I remembered the dreams he had back then and it fun to see their dreams becoming a reality. Their church has grown from 30 people to over 100 people and they are out of room. The Sunday we visited the room was full and people were standing along the walls. After the service, Yan showed us the new room they are making to expand their seating capacity. This will make room for 150 chairs. They also have space in their building to build an even bigger room as they keep growing. Yan shared the need to raise $20,000 to complete the project. This is to buy the chairs, flooring, ceiling and a second entrance. They want to complete this by the end of the year to have room for Christmas services.
In addition, the church has added space to provide rooms for addiction recovery. This is part of Yan’s dreams to make an impact in their community. If you would like to help with funds for this church, you can donate to our donate page and just note Yan on the donation and all funds given will go to help complete this building project.
Our fifth and final objective of this trip was to meet and listen to as many ministry leaders as possible. We like to hear their stories and see how God is working. This is a time to encourage them, thank them for their work and listen to their needs. We never know how God will use these meetings, but we also try to stay open and listen to God’s promptings if there is a something that God wants us to help with.
We are so thankful for the opportunity to be used in Ukraine. We heard over and over how thankful people were that we were visiting and how much they are encouraged by our visits and from the prayers and support that they receive from people in the United States. One thing we heard on this trip was the need to go closer to the war zone to meet and encourage the ministry leaders who continue to work in these areas. The work in the war zones is needed, but few are visiting to encourage and support them. We are praying that God will guide and direct us in this area when we visit again in the spring.
We are thankful for all of you who have supported us in our ministry. We could not do what we do without the financial and prayer support that we receive. We are going to be doing a fund raiser this fall for our ministry expenses. We have plans for 3 trips to Ukraine next year to continue our work with church planters, children’s ministry leaders and Temple of Peace church, plus to hold meetings in the war zones of Ukraine. If you would like to support our ministry, donations can be made to our website at:
If you would like to meet to discuss being involved in partnering with a church planter and helping to support them financially, we would be happy to meet or have a call. Just send a note to rick.post@potentialendeavors.com.
In two weeks, we will be in Poland getting ready to head back into Ukraine. As we have shared with people about going to Ukraine, probably the question we get asked the most is “Are you afraid to travel to Ukraine? To be totally honest, we have no fears about traveling to Ukraine! Let me tell you why!
I know the news is full of stories of missile strikes, bombings and war, but Ukraine is a large country, and the war is in the east and south, areas that we will not be traveling to. Will we see evidence of the war as we drive in the country? Yes, but we will not be in the area where the battle is the most intense.
First, when we are in Ukraine, we are with our friends. We trust them and know that they would not put us in places of danger. They worry more about our safety than about their own safety and well-being.
Second, while there is always a chance that a missile could strike where we are located, however Ukraine is a large country and the odds of being hit by a missile where we are staying is about the same chance of being in a car crash as we drive the freeway in Minnesota.
Third, and this is the biggest reason we are not afraid, we know that we are traveling to Ukraine to do the work that God has called us to do. We will be working with church planters, children’s ministry leaders and church leaders to encourage them, teach them and help them in their calling to reach people for Jesus. Everything is in God’s hands, and we trust that God will protect us and guide us each step of the way.
As it says in Psalms 139:16:
Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
We would appreciate your prayers while we travel. Prayers for safety and impact. That God would use us to help and encourage the leaders that we will be working with.
We are still looking for partners who would like to help us with the costs of our ministry. On this trip we have paid for two conferences. One for church planters and their spouses and one for the Children’s Ministry leaders across all regions of Ukraine. Plus, we have our travel costs.
