Dear TeamSim friends:

The December 2011 team just returned from Simferopol a few days ago. What a blessing the trip was. My wife, Linda, joined me for the first time in this ministry. Along with Donelson Chuirch of Christ member Christy Blazer. Our 3-man team joined with some of our Ukrainian team members Anastasia (Nastya) Skovorodnykova, Sasha Lifentseva, Masha Yermochenkova, Violetta Alimova, and our dear friend and lead mentor Arthur Kazaryan. 

TeamSim - December 2011 (L-R: Nastya S., Joel, Linda, Sasha,
Christy, Masha, and Arthur Kazaryan.

Together we hosted as many as 42 orphaned children at the Simferopol City Children's Home (Gorodskoi Detskyi Dom) directed Mrs. Yelena Nabiyevna. We met each afternoon for a little over 2 hours. We taught lessons about the transforming power of God’s grace and love through Romans 12:2. We also played games and worked on crafts together.

Violetta with her kids

Stuck on the elevator

One of my "1's"

Nastya with some little ones.

We were blessed to see many of the same children that we have come to know and love at the children’s home. Hugs were being given everywhere as the unconditional love of Christ overflowed onto the children and staff from our team and mentors.

Linda and Arthur with their group

In addition we spent several hours visiting some of our past team members, Anya Goliakova and Viktoria Vdovychencko, who are now on staff at the Simferopol Central Internacht for Girls. The government-run boarding school is for orphaned, abandoned and at-risk girls ages 5-17. We were able to meet with the director and secure an invitation to work with the children in that facility. Please keep Anya and Vika in your prayers. Weekly suicide attempt is a common event there. Anya and Vika have a monumental task in showing these girls their value in Christ. It was a blessing to pray over them as a team.

L-R: Linda, Joel, Anya G, Christy, Arthur, Vika

One highlight for me personally was hearing from my old friend Igor. He was 14 when we first met at Camp Satera in Alushta. He was incorrigible. Over the next few years, we worked at the Gvardiskoi Village orphanage where he lived. I saw a growing and maturing in Igor. He is now living and attending trade school in Kherson. He regularly talks with Nastya by phone. Ironically he often encourages her when she is struggling by telling her God will handle it. I was so blessed to talk with him by phone. Fatyma Alimova showed me a recent photo on her cell phone. He looks so grown up at 18. God has his hands on him.

Return trip planned: In June 2012 I’ll be leading a team to return to Simferopol to continue and expand the ministry there. The tentative plan is to depart in early June for a trip lasting 15 days. The team will plan to minister to children in two facilities: The Gorodskoi Children’s Home (Detskyi Dom) and the Central Internacht. The team recruiting goal is 6 team members with 6-8 mentors.

Basics:
Team recruiting goal: 6 members (US); 6-8 Mentors (UKR)
Tentative dates: June 5-19
Approx. Funding needed: $3200 (per person)
Funding deadlines:

- Initial deposit ($250) Jan 15

- 50% - March 15

- 100% - April 15

Please begin prayerfully considering joining the team. The deadline for joining is January 15. Team training begins Janauary 15.

Please contact me for more detailed information. We’ll hold an informational meeting in late December or early January of which I’ll communicate the exact date soon. In teh meantime. feel free to contact me anytime by phone, text, or email.

You CAN make a difference in the life of an abandoned or at-risk child, today. Join us. Change the way you see and think.

In Him.
Joel
Joel Butts
Orphan outreach ministry volunteer
and partner with Donelson Church of Christ
and YouthReach International

prophet1961@bellsouth.net
615-429-3320

Websites:
http://www.donelsonchurch.org
http://www.youthreach.org

Thoughts on Forgiveness

Originally posted on August 3, 2009 as  "Like a Misty Dawn"

"Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you,..." Colossians 3:13 

So what can be said about forgiveness? It is such a gray subject. It is often difficult to see how some actions can be forgiven. Accidents, mistakes, blunders, and sometimes bad choices, even stupidity is at the top of my list of easy things to forgive. 

Betrayal, cruelty, deception, and coercion (among other things) … Those are the things that are at the top of my other list… the list of things more difficult to forgive.

All in all, I find it pretty easy to forgive. Although, I admit that I have a grudge or two that I continue to work on. Sometimes forgiving is as easy as forgetting…sometimes.

We all have histories that need forgiving; skeletons that need forgetting. We’ve all been blind-sided by events that left us staggering back on our heels nearly tumbling over in disbelief.

On those days, truth comes at us like a misty dawn and reveals what was covered by darkness and grayness of the night before, retreating in the growing light of a new day. It is a painful day; sometimes a cruel day. Hurt like none we can ever imagine. We bleed like we’ve never bled or thought that we ever could. 

With the day comes a "gut-punch" leaving us dizzy and wretching. Sometimes the day brings so much anger we see stars appear and burst like bubbles before our eyes leaving our heads pounding, our stomachs turned upside-down, and our ears deafened by the roaring of our blood boiling.

So what can be said about forgiveness? Is it given flippantly without care or concern? Sometimes it is. Sometimes we hide behind forgiveness because it’s more difficult to confront those who left us burning in a heap after the crash.

Forgiveness, though it can be offered freely, still has a cost. In order to receive it, it requires one thing. It requires that we change.

Forgiveness leads to restoration. But for restoration to complete itself there must be accountability. There is a blessing in the asking... both for those asking and those being asked.

To be truly forgiven and to live in a restored relationship we must ask. It requires us to turnaround. It requires us change the very way we think, see, and treat others.

One more time… It requires changing the very way we think, see, and treat others.

After all, what good is forgiveness if there isn’t change? I can do the same thing over and over again without consequence. And yes, I can forgive the same person again and again, and again. I’ll continue forgiving “Seventy times seven” times. That’s four hundred and ninety times, in fact.

We can forgive. We can be forgiven. That’s easy. What’s hard is paying the price. When we are treated badly by others, we don’t like it. Here’s a newsflash…God doesn’t like it either! But he forgives us anyway. The only thing required of us is change.

Like a day that begins with a misty dawn that changes into a new day, undefined by the grayness of the night before. It can be something new all of its own; separate from it’s relationship to the night...full of light and life.

Update - 8/23/2011

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, 

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….

Romans 12:2. 

Dear friends and family,

Joel & Linda Butts

I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones well. I am writing for two reasons. First, I want to say “thank you” for supporting me and each member of Team Simferopol prayerfully and financially as we worked through YouthReach International to reach out and minister to orphans and at-risk children in Ukraine this past summer. The team’s performance was outstanding. All of our effort to prepare spiritually, mentally, physically and financially was returned to us in excess. I want to remind you that by supporting us you are blessed and storing up treasure.

Our Ukrainian 12-3-1 Mentors join us in-country. They play a vital role in continuing life-giving relationships with the kids during camp. We became an unstoppable force in reaching children and others for Christ. This became apparent when, sadly, one of our mentors suffered the sudden and tragic loss of her father during camp.

Violetta Alimova’s father suffered a sudden and massive heart attack and died. We sent her home to be with her family. The team and all the kids truly missed her presence. But, it provided an opportunity to minister to her grieving family and show them the love of Christ. You see she is Crimean-Tatar. They are a traditionally Muslim ethnic minority indigenous to Crimea. Despite the loss of Violetta from our team, we remained flexible and accomplished our mission.

Many of the kids at the children’s home blessed us by sharing their stories of how they came to the orphan’s home with their mentors. One girl acknowledged God’s provision by saying, “I am glad to be at this home. I thank God that he provided a safe place for me to live by bringing me here. My parents put me in danger because of the way they lived. Now I am safe.”

Fatyma tells how she had kids gathered around her as she shared Christ's story.

Several children shared with us how their lives were impacted through Bible lessons and our “Guardrails” curriculum. We taught them that through God’s example, we should place barriers in between us and the things that cause us to sin. One child said that through her favorite lesson that she learned she should not compromise her values under peer pressure. She said, “I will put up personal guardrails to prevent bad decisions in my life from now on.” 

One of our kids, Aida, tells about her camp experience.

Second, I want to tell you about an opportunity to help and continue your support.

I’m leading a team back to Simferopol, Ukraine this December for a Winter Camp at the same children’s home. Our team will be representing Donelson Church of Christ and YouthReach International to many of the same children we’ve been blessed to know and love. Please be prayerful as we prepare and raise the needed funding.

Our mission will be to:

•          Sharing and showing the love of Christ and teaching them about the love of God with nearly 50 children at Christmas time.
•           Foster and nurture existing loving and caring mentoring relationships between the team, our 12-3-1 Mentors and the children living at the home
•          Teaching them about the transforming power of the Holy Spirit through Romans 12:2. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….
•           Providing Christmas gift packages of toys, goodies, and personal items

I’m overjoyed that my wife, Linda, will be going. This will be her first time to visit Ukraine. She’ll be experiencing jet lag and many new cultural differences. She has lots of experience in children’s ministry and education. I can’t wait to see her in action and see how these kids touch her heart. I know she’s going to fall in love with these kids the way I have.

Christy Blazer, a fellow member at Donelson Church of Christ is also joining us this year. She is member at Donelson Church of Christ and an experienced social worker with a heart for children’s ministry.

How you can help: We are investing $275 (min.) of our personal funds toward the cost of our trip. But, we need your help. Each of us must raise $3350 for the cost of the trip. Funds cover travel, room and board. Also, each team member is must raise funds to support our team’s 12-3-1 mentors (included in our trip cost).

Funding Deadlines: $1675 (50%) due September 30; another $1675 (00%) due by October 31 (totaling $3350).

•          To support our trip costs: Make a check payable to YouthReach International. Write the name of the person you wish to support in the memo line. If you would like to give to the team to be divided equally, write “General Team Fund” in the memo line.
•           To support a child at camp: Make this check payable to Donelson Church of Christ. We are asking individuals, families, classes or study groups to support each of our 50 children at winter camp for just $20/child. Your tax-deductible donation will cover art/craft supplies as well as a Christmas gift bag for each child.

Give your check to any team member or mail it to: Joel Butts at 2221 June Drive, Nashville TN, 37214.

Remember your donation is tax-deductible. Our secure funding website for online donations will be available soon.

Peace and Grace,

Joel & Linda Butts

Weekly Update

This week Linda and I are getting started with planing our next trip to Ukraine. We're considering borrowing curriculum from our church's summer camp curriculum - Transformers. It's based on the verse from Romans 12:2 


"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."


We're having  A few folks over  at our house tomorrow evening (Monday, 8/8) to talk about the lessons and talk to some folks interested in going. 


Soon we'll also begin our funding efforts. I know the conditions in the economy are presenting challenges for everyone. It's very difficult to decide how to use the funds you have set aside for giving. If you have given to this outreach ministry in the past, bless you and thank you. If you can help us this time, bless you and thank you for helping. If you are tapped out? It's OK, you're blessed and released. But, please bless us with your prayers.


Meanwhile, We have to get going on passports. Linda has to submit for one and I need mine replaced. Hopefully, we can get them back before to long so when the time comes to purchase airline tickets we'll have what we need.


Our team mentors are gearing up as well. A few of our mentors are attending the History-Makers conference in Donetsk later this month (http://www.history-makers.org). History Makers works with emerging Christian leaders in order to impact the kingdom both for today and  tomorrow by investing in their training. Nastya S. and Sasha L. are participating in the conference. Anya G. is also going and participating as a member of the worship team. Our team coordinator, Arthur Kazaryan, is also going as a presenter. Please keep all of them in your prayers.


That's all for now.


Peace and Grace,
Joel