During January and February, Mike went to Belaya Tserkov (which means “White Church“) Ukraine, to teach for Doug Emr, a missionary serving with BIMI. 

Doug has a unique 5 year program that is designed for church planters.  The young men and their wives sign a contract that they will move to a new location and start a new church, as part of  their schooling/training.  Most of the students are married, and the wives are encouraged to attend classes also. 

Mike taught a survey of the Pentateuch,  in 2 -  2 week sessions, 4 hours a day.  The students were quite receptive to instruction and their responses to the teaching of Scripture was encouraging. 

He stayed with a Ukrainian family, who know very little English.  However, since Polish is in the same language family

as Ukrainian they were able to communicate most things adequately.  There are some words which have a VERY different meaning.  The word for a store in Polish is a “sklep,“ but in Russian “sklep” means a crypt or mausoleum. 

The greatest compliment and proof of the value of the course is that the sermons by students which followed the course were based in the Pentateuch, not by requirement but by student choice.  Indeed that is the goal of our ministries (2 Tim 2:2). 

Students respond to the course in a questionnaire at the end.  One student, whose opinion of the value of the OT changed very much,  states, “I did not think that the OT had any connection with a Christian life.”  The wife of a student, who suffered the death of her father

Text Box: while Mike was there, stated that the course help her so much by expanding her understanding of God and His love. Another student, who is pastor of a church commented that the course allowed him to reevaluate “traditional views” in the light of Scripture. These countries are very tradition bound, so much of the interpretation of Scripture is also confined to set patterns. Teaching involves challenging the ideas of men with, “What saith the Scripture?” Text Box: Ukraine: “What saith the Scripture?” Text Box: Mike Petersen family in Central Europe Text Box: The Petersen Update Text Box: Mission Board: International Baptist Missions 2150 E. Southern Ave. Tempe, AZ 85282 602-838-5430 Home Church: Temple Baptist Church 37253 Clinton Ave. Dade City, FL 33525 352-567-9444 Polish address: Ul. Wiazowska 75 05-420 Jozefow k/Otwocka Polska Web Site: http://home1.gte.net/mjpeter Email: mjpeter@gte.net

We need an additional  $250/ month support in order to meet our budget. Please pray that the Lord would provide.
Text Box: Text Box: Volume 7 Issue 1 Text Box: March 2000 Text Box: Last Sunday, Mike preached at the church in Anin and afterwards Jan Tolwinski commented on how much Mike’s Polish has improved! Keep praying about this, please. Thanks so much! We are getting much closer to getting into the building at Gora Kalwaria. Lord willing, we will be able to update you much more extensively in the next prayer letter. Text Box: Little By Little…. Text Box: If you are not on our email prayer letter list, please write and ask to be added so you can better keep up with us. It is much easier to keep current with email.