Cross Culture, Inc. Update June 23, 2020

Hello Cross Culture family,

Greetings from Franklin, TN. We hope and pray that you and your family are doing well. We wanted to let you know that we return to Ukraine on July 12th. Upon our return, we will have to quarantine at home for two weeks. We must begin the process of renewing our Temporary Resident Permits by the end of July. Our plan is to remain in Ukraine until December 18th.

During the past three months all our meetings have been online. It is not the optimal situation for group meetings, but we are thankful for the technology that enables us to continue teaching and interacting with our groups.

Due to Covid-19 church closures, we have not been able to visit churches to raise much needed funds to complete our budget for 2020. We will begin our “$30,000 in 30 Days” Facebook Fundraising event soon. Please prayerfully consider donating and also passing on the information to your Facebook friends by sharing the Cross Culture posts during this month.

Thanks for being part of our ministry support family. Please keep us in your prayers as you remain in ours.

Grace and peace,

Kenny Payne, Director Cross Culture Inc.

Cross Culture, Inc. Update May 21, 2020

As the US begins to re-open in phases after the quarantine, I am planning our speaking and fundraising schedule. The two large conferences I was scheduled to teach at are both canceled for this year. I am beginning to talk with churches about scheduling visits for the early summer. If you would like me to visit your church family, please message me.

Ukraine extended their Covid-19 Quarantine through at least June 22, 2020 with some important changes: public transportation will reopen (with passenger limits) by the end of this week, also public spaces and gatherings can resume under very limited conditions (one person for each 10 square meters, nothing larger than 50 people). As of today, there have been just under 20,000 cases and 600 deaths from the Coronavirus in Ukraine.

We are still meeting on a weekly basis with small groups in Ukraine. One unexpected result of the move to online meetings has been an increase in new visitors! It seems that easy commute to online meetings is just what some people find attractive.

We are all well and looking forward to finding our new rhythm in life and ministry. We are thankful for your continued support and are praying for you and your family. Your gifts are still changing the lives of people in Ukraine!

CCI Update: Good Friday, April 10, 2020

Coronavirus, War, Two Deaths, and… HOPE!

On Ash Wednesday I was traveling to Ukraine, there were people everywhere with ashes on their foreheads. “We come from dust and we are returning to dust.” In the pre-Coronavirus world we believed this only in individual cases, the world was too large and busy to be dust.

Like everyone else in the world our lives and ministry have changed considerably in the past month. Kenny returned from Ukraine two days before air travel was suspended. All our small group meetings have been moved online to help slow the spread of the virus.

This week our church family from Gorlovka suffered two deaths: Anna Ivanovna, an elderly woman who has been homebound for several years, and Miroslava, a young woman who grew up in our church family. Anna lived a long life and died “full of years,” while Miroslava was in her mid-twenties, an apparent casualty of the ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine. I don’t personally remember a Holy Week so full of tragic news…

And yet the first Holy Week was just such a week. It began with such promise on Palm Sunday when Jesus was welcomed to Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” It ended with a crowd shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!” It is only in hindsight that we call today “Good Friday.” The first disciples simply thought their world had ended!

But they were wrong. They failed to understand the ways that Jesus prepared them for this difficult moment. Although they were warned several times of the events of the week in Jerusalem, they could not imagine a suffering and dying Messiah even though Isaiah plainly said, “By his wounds we are healed.” It took the events of Resurrection Sunday (Easter) to put things into proper focus. Jesus’ death was a tragedy, but it was a tragedy designed to lead to triumph. You can literally see hope rising as the truth of the resurrection of Jesus began to dawn on them!

As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday, let us never forget that life triumphs over death because of the grace of the risen Savior. Because of Jesus we have hope!

Cross Culture Update – March 19, 2020

Ukraine has been very proactive in trying to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. Their daily limiting of meetings and activities caused me to reach the decision that I needed to return to the US in order not to be separated from my family for an extended period of time beyond what we had planned. On Saturday evening I arrived home to Franklin, TN. I am under a two week “at home” quarantine.

We are moving our ministry presence online in order to keep our groups meeting together and to provide encouragement to them. On Tuesday (3/17) we had an online meeting of our University Ministry group of International students. I continued teaching on the Lord’s prayer. It was a great meeting and the Zoom platform worked well. We have our weekend small groups scheduled to meet via Zoom as well. Please keep the students and others in Ukraine in your prayers.

The ladies in Gorlovka are also doing well, though they have both the Coronavirus and the ongoing war with daily shelling to deal with. Please keep them in your prayers as well.

Thanks for being partners in our ministry!

Update March 11. 2020

I have been on the ground in Kyiv for two weeks and have been quite busy meeting with our small groups. It is such an honor to be involved in the lives of so many young people who are seeking to integrate their faith into their daily lives. One of the blessings I receive is praying for them and seeing God working in and through their lives. It is also encouraging to read the gospels with them and see them interacting with the teachings of Jesus! Please keep me and these students in your prayers.

It was announced today that beginning tomorrow (March 12, 2020) “Ukraine will close all its educational institutions – including nurseries, schools and universities – and ban mass gatherings of more than 200 people.” This is a preventative measure as there is only registered case of the infection in Ukraine. Currently it seems that we will still be able to host small groups each week.

Thanks for being a ministry partner with us, and please keep our work in your daily prayers.

Grace and peace,

Kenny Payne

P.S. The photos are of Nadya “reading” the Bible and small group meetings.

CCI Update January 9, 2020

We arrived in Franklin, Tennessee on December 19, 2019 to spend the Christmas Holidays with our family and begin our fundraising visits in January. The day after Christmas I (Kenny) had a stroke while playing basketball with Dima, Braden and Braxton. After receiving tPA (a super clot buster), and spending a couple of days in the hospital, I was released to go home to recover. I am continuing to regain my strength and it seems that I have recovered 100% of my functioning, although my blood pressure has not yet returned to normal. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me, God really worked powerfully to save and heal me! Please continue to pray for me and our family.

If you are in the South Alabama area, I will be teaching two adult classes at the Gulf 2020 Youth Event at the Wharf in Orange Beach on January 18th. I will also be at the Robertsdale Church of Christ on Sunday evening, January 19th.

Thanks for being such faithful ministry partners with us, we are grateful for your prayers and support.

Hello Cross Culture family,

Thanks for being part of our ministry support family. Please keep us in your prayers as you remain in ours.

Grace and peace,

Kenny Payne, Director Cross Culture Inc.

Update December 10, 2019

This past weekend we had Christmas Parties for our various small groups. There was a lot of good food (Thanks, Lora!), many smiling faces, joyful Christmas Carols, and fun in the photo booth!

God has blessed us with lots of students to share the love of Jesus with. Thanks to our generous ministry partners who make it possible for us to live and work in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Update November 27, 2019

Lora recently said to me, “You need to share with our support family the variety of places you are currently teaching, it is like Paul’s ministry of teaching everywhere he had the opportunity.”

With a class at Evangel Theological Seminary (the students were from a State University who take part of their coursework at the seminary), I shared how the Scriptures are a powerful resource for understanding and changing our lives. These students work in church and ministry settings, in addiction recovery groups, and with soldiers and other individuals with PTSD due to the war in Eastern Ukraine.

With students at Grinchenko University I am sharing spiritual practices like gratitude, generosity, love for friends and enemies, and the joy that comes from following Jesus.

With international students and others who are away from home, we are creating a “spiritual family” through sharing meals, studying Scripture, and praying together in our University Ministry small group at ICA Kyiv.

With the “Gorlovka Ladies” we are reading through the Book of Revelation as they are living through the apocalypse of daily war in Eastern Ukraine.

With both our college and our young adult small groups we are building networks of support, encouragement, prayer and study as these young adults grow in their faith.

Our ability to say “yes” to requests and opportunities to teach in such diverse settings is made possible by your prayers and financial support. We are grateful for such faithful ministry partners.

Update November 18, 2019

Last week I began teaching about Thanksgiving and Gratitude at Grinchenko University, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our International University Ministry at ICA, and I am thankful for having a group of college students who allow me to play basketball with them. We are also thankful that you support our minstry so that we can work with disciples and seekers in Kyiv, Ukraine.

November 2, 2019

In a recent class at Grinchenko University a young woman asked me, “Do you believe in life after death? And why?” I was curious about her reason for asking, so before answering, I asked why this question was important to her. She said her grandmother died recently and that she wants to see her grandmother again. When the hope of the gospel intersects with hope in a human heart, wonderful things can happen. Knowing that seeds of hope could grow in her heart, I spoke of Jesus conquering death through his resurrection and giving life everlasting to those who desire it. Looking around at other students, I could see that they, too, were hoping that there is more to life than just getting old and dying.

Thank you for being part of our ministry family and making it possible for us to be in Kyiv, Ukraine to share hope and life with young people! Please pray that the seeds of hope we sow will grow in young hearts and create people of great faith.

Update September 14, 2019

Fall weather arrived today, and the fall semester is in full swing. In the past two weeks I have visited seven classes and interacted with almost 100 students and 6 teachers. Next week I will teach a class on Christian Worldview for about 20 graduate students at Evangel Theological Seminary. Please keep our work with students in your prayers.

We host two small group meetings at our apartment each week and both groups are reading through the gospels, focusing on prayer and what Jesus wants to do in and through our lives. These groups are composed of people who have been walking with Jesus for years, and people who are learning about Jesus for the first time. No matter where people are on their faith journey, we want to help them fall more in love with Jesus.

I am helping lead a campus ministry small group that meets on Tuesday nights for international and Ukrainian students who speak English. Lora has prepared great meals for the past two weeks and the international students are loving her cooking! It is very interesting to have people from at least three continents (Europe, North America, and Africa) and multiple countries eating and studying Scripture around the same table.

The “Gorlovka ladies” are doing well and continue to meet each week as a church family. The war is ongoing, though not much news gets reported about it anymore. These ladies, and our neighbors in Gorlovka, continue to live in the uncertainty of a war-torn area. Please continue praying for peace!

We are so thankful for your partnership that makes it possible to us to live and work in Kiev. Please keep our family and our work in your prayers.

Grace and peace,

Kenny Payne

Update August 21, 2019

Thanks to everyone who donated to our fundraising project “$30,000 in 30 Days.” God blessed us, through your generosity, with $27,500, leaving us only $2,500 to raise in some other way. We are so grateful to everyone who decided to partner with us through giving and prayer!

We returned to Kyiv on August 1st and plan to be here until December 18th. We have been meeting with both our college age group on Friday nights and our young adult group on Sunday nights. In addition, we have been spending time with individuals and families, sharing meals, reconnecting and enjoying the last bit of summer.

We have submitted our paperwork for our temporary resident permit renewal and are waiting for them to be issued, hopefully in the next few weeks. As always there have been a few “repair projects” at the apartment – seems like they always come in bunches, usually around the time we arrive back in Kyiv!

I will be teaching Christian Worldview this fall at Evangel Theological Seminary and conversational English classes at Grinchenko University starting in September.

We are gearing up for a full and exciting fall! We are thankful to have such great ministry partners, and we are praying that your fall will also be enjoyable and fruitful as God continues to bless your life.

Grace and peace

Kenny Payne