Hey! My name is Evan Valarik. Thanks for checkin out my blog!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYER AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT! PLEASE DO NOT GIVE FINANCIALLY BASED ON FEELINGS OR OBLIGATION BUT GIVE ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU HEAR THE LORD TELLING YOU TO GIVE. AND PRAYER IS SO IMPORTANT! I APPRECIATE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR PRAYERS!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Missionary Life

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

                I would first like to thank those of you who are supporting me in your daily prayer time.  Your prayer is greatly appreciated.  Without prayer Gods work would not be going forward as smooth as it is.  Also I would like to thank those of you who are obeying Gods leading in your life by giving financially to His work going on here in Kyrgyzstan.  I am able to take part in activities and trips, and I am able to help people in need because of your faithful giving.  Thank you all so much for your faithfulness in finances and prayer! 
                I would also like to apologize for not updating you all on what’s going on for a little too long.  From now on I will try to find some time in my schedule to write you guys more often.  With that being said, let me tell you about what has been going on here!
                I have been here since March 22, and it has been absolutely incredible every day since arriving.  I am busy doing different things every day.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings I go to Russian lessons for an hour and a half.  Monday night is prayer night at the church.  Tuesday mornings are a day where I work on different things for the church, like finding information on persecuted areas around Central Asia.  Tuesday afternoon is men’s Bible study time.  Wednesday afternoons and evenings I use for work times and also for meeting up with locals that are my age and just hangin’ out and discipling.  On Thursday mornings we have team prayer time with the core team of missionaries here. The team consists of Pastor Paul Billings and his wife Melanie.  They have 5 children.  Pastor Jed Gourley and his wife Renee.  They have 4 children.  Melanie and Renee are sisters and their mother is Pamela Markey who was my teacher for the Missionary Training Program at the Bible College in Hungary.  Then there is Zhenya and Tracy Kucherov.  Tracy is an American woman who is married to Zhenya who is a Ukrainian man.  Then there is Olya Lutsenko and Anya Trofimova. They are from Ukraine as well.  The missionary team that is here is quite possibly one of the greatest missionary teams currently serving in the world!  They are amazing people, all with their own incredible gifts and skills, yet they all work so well together to make an incredible missionary team.  It is truly an honor to be serving here with them! Then on Thursday night we have our Koinonia service.  Friday afternoons I use for either preparing for my English lesson that I teach on Saturdays at the church, or hangin out with more people.  Saturdays as I said I teach an English class for intermediate to advanced speakers.  Then at 5:00 every Saturday evening we meet at the church and then go out into a particular village or community to evangelize.  This is one of my favorite things to do! And it would be awesome to see some of you guys start to do this.  We have experienced some awesome fruit from this!  It’s such a good way to meet the community and tell people about the love of Christ.  Every Saturday we meet and go out in pairs of two through the different communities and either talk to people walking by or knock on peoples doors.  It is so awesome!  The conversations God opens to us are so awesome and encouraging!  Yes it is a little scary at times because about 90% of the people we talk to are Muslim, but we know God is with us and His will will be accomplished no matter what!
                   Also a little over one week ago we had a three person team from the Bible college in Hungary come for a 10 day outreach.  We didn’t do anything very special, but we did really enjoy having some extra hands to help with the work that is going on here.  The girls on the team painted a mural on one of the walls in our courtyard next to the playground.  The one guy on the team named Collin helped Pastor Paul and I sand and stain a bunch of boards to make benches for our Easter service.  One of the days, all of the girls went to an orphanage and us guys stayed behind and did some more work at the church.  Also while they were here with us we had some really good times of prayer for the city of Bishkek.  And to end the 10 days we went hiking in the majestic Tien Shan mountain range on a trail called Ala Archa (
Ала Арча), then later that night sat down and had a delicious meal with the main course being dog!  It was a really great time!
                  This past Sunday in all of the former Soviet countries Easter was celebrated.  I’m really not sure why they celebrate it in a different month than us, but it was a really awesome day for the church here.  Like I mentioned above, every Saturday we go into a particular neighborhood of Bishkek and do evangelism and talk to people about the Gospel and invite people to check out our church to learn more about Jesus and what the Bible says about Jesus and eternal life.  This past Saturday, however, we walked around the little village right where the church is on the outskirts of the city, inviting people to our Easter service.  On Sunday morning we were all hoping that God would bring some of the people that we spoke to, to hear the message of the Gospel.   And as I was playing drums during the worship service, I noticed one man that we had invited.  It was so encouraging and I praise the Lord that He brought those whose hearts were ready, even if it was just one man.  After the church service we had a huge Easter celebration in our courtyard for everyone to stay and fellowship.  Some of the guys from the church made a traditional rice dish called plove, so that more people would stay and talk.  In Kyrgyzstan, if you have a large amount of delicious food, people will be drawn together!  Also, to prepare for all of the people that we needed to accommodate, Pastor Paul and I built eight benches for people to sit while they ate.
                     The last topic I want to let you know about is a very important one.  From June 25th – July 1st Jeremy Camp is supposed to be coming here to play a concert in the Center Square of Bishkek!  I’m talkin’ about a huge Christian concert happening in the massive Center Square of a 90+% city!  That is an incredible opportunity that God may be providing us with.  Before we bring him here however we need the officials of the country and the city to approve this.  So we need your prayer! Please!
                       Also, if Jeremy does get approved to come we will desperately need help with sound and set up over here, and my brother Taylor was asked by the missionaries here to come and give a hand if he can.  He said he would love use the skill that Christ has given him to help with this.  However, he can’t afford to buy a plane ticket all on his own.  So if he is to come here and help with this incredible event where he is sorely needed, he will need some help from faithful believers.  By praying for this concert and through giving some financial support to get Taylor here, you could be helping to pave the way for one the greatest moments in Christian missions history in this region of the world!  I would really like to encourage you to pray about what the Lord is leading you to do! 
                       Thank you all so much for your support! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.  I miss you all very much, but I have joy knowing that I am serving the Lord in a foreign land, and also because I know that God has me right where He wants me!

For His glory!
Evan

I WILL BE POSTING PICTURES OF THE THINGS I SPOKE ABOUT HOPEFULLY TODAY!

2 comments:

  1. we are so proud of you Evan, thank you for being willing to be used by Jesus!
    xoxoxo
    Mom and Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. Praise God, Evan! We are holding you and the entire mission team in prayer daily! For His glory!!

    Dad

    ReplyDelete