With the year end coming, I wanted to share with you about Potential Endeavors and the impact we are making in Ukraine and ask you to prayerfully consider partnering with us. By partnering, you are helping us raise the funds needed to cover our expenses for this year and help us prepare for ministry in 2026.
We will be doing a fund raiser over the next six weeks to raise this money. We have a goal to raise $15,000 by the end of the year. We have a donor who has committed to matching the first $5000 of donations from the start of the fund raiser until year end.
Donations can be made at Venmo using ID @potentialendeavors, on our website with credit card or paypal at potentialendeavors.com/donate or by check. These can be made payable to Potential Endeavors and mailed to 840 Aspen Circle, Little Canada, MN 55109.
This past year we have been able to make a big impact with the gifts given from our partners. Here is an overview of how your gifts have been used:
We traveled twice to Ukraine to encourage and train pastors and church leaders. In May, we:
- Hosted a training conference for church planting leaders and their spouses.
- Spoke at a Children’s Ministry Leaders training in Chernihiv.
- Spoke at a parenting meeting discussing my book Building Blocks for Raising Godly Children
- Spoke at a pastors’ conference in Cherkasy Region
- Preached at 2 churches for Sunday services.
- Had meeting with church leaders to help church in its growth plans.
- Met with leaders of the Baptist Union
In September, we:
- Provided resources and spoke at a marriage retreat for pastors of the Kyiv Region.
- Spoke at two churches for their Sunday services.
- Met with leaders of the Baptist Union
- Provided funding and spoke at a Leadership Conference for all of Ukraine. Over 300 pastors and church leaders attended.
- Provided funds for the first Church Planting Academy training and spoke at it. 20 leaders were attending to prepare them to plant a new church.
- Met with church leaders from a church in Zolotonosha.
- Led and provided resources for a pastors and spouses training event in Cherkasy Region. This group will meet with us over the next 3 years on each visit to Ukraine.
- Provided funds to pay for the Children’s Ministry Leaders Conference in October.
The other big event this year was the Books, Billboard and BBQ initiative. We partnered with church leaders in Ukraine to use my book as a resource to help connect unchurched parents to the local church. We offered a free copy of my book and a BBQ grill for the church with money for food to host parenting small groups in churches. Unchurched parents are invited to come together and use my book as a study guide. We tried several different tools to make connections. We tried billboards at first but found that there was greater success using posters in areas visited more often by parents.
For the first half of the year, we gave out 6000 books and 30 grills that were used for small groups. In the fall, we produced posters that were distributed to churches across Ukraine that offered a free copy of my book and created a connected with a local church. We printed an additional 3000 copies of the book to be used this fall and will print more as needed. Funding for these groups was given by our partners.
We have seen great impact from these small groups, especially among the women whose husbands are in the military to provide encouragement and support as they are raising their children alone.
As we look forward to 2026, we are again planning to travel to Ukraine at least 2 times. We know we will be meetings with pastors and church leaders in Cherkasy and Kyiv regions, and we know that our time will fill up with how God wants us to use our time as we get closer to our visits.
Thank you to those who have partnered with us to make these activities possible. Thank you for the prayers that we felt as we traveled to Ukraine and the safety we had as we traveled across a country dealing with a war.
These are difficult times for Ukraine. The war and bombings continue. Men are in a state of fear as the military is looking for men to draft into the war service. Bombings disrupt sleep, school and normalcy, yet the people persevere. The church continues to grow, and people are serving others and people are finding Jesus.
One other request that we have received is to raise funds to buy a Bible for pastors. The Ukrainian Study Bible, which was called the Bible of Victory, has become a national treasure! The idea of the Ukrainian Study Bible appeared a long time ago, but began to be realized in 2014. The following year, Crossway granted permission to translate the ESV Study Bible auxiliary material into Ukrainian. And the printing was carried out in 2024.
Since the independence of Ukraine, Ukrainians themselves have contributed to many translations from English to Russian. And during this period, the publication of the Ukrainian Study Bible did not take place.
The choice of the ESV Study Bible is not accidental – it is one of the best editions today. 95 specialists from different countries were involved in writing. Auxiliary material with 25,000 comments, a voluminous introduction to each Book of the Bible, 50 articles, 200 maps and 200 tables. Such extensive material provides an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the biblical text and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the Books of the Bible.
The Bible is called the Book of Victory, because the publishing was preparing and was made during the war. And it inspires our people with faith in victory in this war and that this victory will come from God!
These Bibles cost approximately $75 per Bible. We share this opportunity to help cover the costs of as many Bibles as we can purchase to be given as gifts for pastors and as a way to say thank you for your ministry. It you would like to provide money for one or more Bibles, just note on the donations “BIBLES”.
Watch our stories on Instagram and Facebook as we will share about our fundraisers and ways that you can make an impact.