News at ABWE
Fire in Ukraine
Update—Thursday, July 28, 2005
The Church Ministries Institute building in Odessa, Ukraine, which suffered a severe fire on April 30, still needs much work both inside and out in order to become a usable facility once again. Approximately six meters have been amputated off the right side of the building, losing two offices and the dining room on the first floor, the MK classroom, library and Christian Education supply rooms in the basement and four dorm rooms on the top floor.
Pray for the government documentation and the funds that are still needed to make the building usable once again. Classes will continue this fall in a temporary location at a local church facility.
John Taylor, President of the CMI, recently attended ABWE’s Missionary Enrichment Conference and was interviewed in the Thursday morning ABWE Live session. He commented, “Right before the fire I had just written an article for our student body, and I asked the question, ‘Where is the CMI located?’ I explained to them that the CMI is not a building, it’s about people, about training Christian leaders in Eurasia. We had already been making plans about moving the dormitory to another location to make more classrooms, and then the fire happened and we lost our dormitory.”
When asked about future plans for rebuilding, adding on, or building a new dormitory, John replied, “We really don’t have all the answers yet. We’re raising funds in two phases. The first is just handling the emergency. We just know we need to do some things by fall to keep the program going—temporary locations and equipment for staff offices and classroom space. We have a need to get into a temporary facility. We need to handle some documentation to keep us going into the fall. At that point we will continue to determine what it takes to rebuild.”
The ABWE team of missionaries in Ukraine is grateful for all who have donated toward the CMI fire relief project. Donations may be made online or by sending a check to ABWE marked “CMI Fire.”
Contact:
Mission Relations
missionrelations@abwe.org