Keiv, Ukraine
Purin Outreach
March 6 - 12, 2001

By Rabbi Eric Carlson

Shalom Mishpochah (Family)! Barb and I want to immediately thank you for all your prayer support during our mission trip to Kiev, Ukraine and to Pastor Bob Collins and the World Outreach Worship Center who financially sponsored us! We felt your covering and knew that no weapon formed against us would stand as so many of you were standing in the gap for us! Amen! Sid Roth, founder of Messianic Vision in Brunswick Ga. was the sponsor of the Purim Jewish Festival Outreach. Barb and I (Representing and sponsored by the World Outreach Worship Center) were prayer intercessors, support team, and servants as we learned immensely from this missions trip and received many impartations. The Holy Spirit is moving greatly in Kiev and there were innumerable healings, salvations, and miracles during this outreach. The heavens are open over Kiev and there is a great spiritual outpouring upon Jew and Gentile in Kiev. The Messianic congregation, headed by Messianic Rabbi Boris Grisenko, fully grasped the "One New Man" of Ephesians chapter two and is reaping the harvest (Jew and Gentile) in Ukraine. This Jewish revival is changing the face of Israel as these Messianic Jews are making Aliya (Hebrew for rising up, return to) to Israel and taking with them Holy Spirit revival and the "Truth" of Messiah Yeshua to Israeli Jews, fulfilling Biblical prophecy that the Messiah would return when they (Israel) say "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Mathew 23:39)

We arrived in Kiev after an all night flying from Atlanta, Ga. on Tuesday, March 7th, 2001 around 4p.m. We checked into our hotel and immediately left for an intercessors prayer meeting hosted by Rabbi Boris and his congregation. There were over 300 prayer warriors in attendance and the Spirit of the Lord was present as they sought the face of God. Their prayers, rising up in different languages and tongues was a cacophony of heavenly sounds, a symphony of praise and worship as they interceded for and stood in the gap for their Jewish and Gentile body of believers and the world body in Messiah. After praying for some time, their voices, cries, and supplications merged together into an unworldly thunderous and crescendoing sound that in some ways resembled the "Great Blast" of the shofar. Barb and I were almost unable to stand and trembled at the "New Sound" that we were hearing. Could this be the beginning of a "New Sound" of the "One New Man"? It is almost impossible to capture in words what we experienced and felt that night.

Eric blows the Shofar at the Menorah memorial at Babi Yar

Our next meeting on Wednesday night was with Pastor Sunday, a Nigerian born Pastor of the Word of Faith Church in Russia and Ukraine. This meeting was with almost 3,000 leaders of this 20,000 member strong church spread throughout the former Soviet Union. Sid brought the message of "One New Man", Jew and Gentile together in Messiah, to this group of congregational leaders who immediately received the message and agreed to reach out to the Jews and work towards "One New Man". It was a blessing to see that there was no racism involved in having an African Pastor shepherd a flock of over 20,000 Caucasian Ukrainians and Russians. God's eyes are truly kaleidoscope. The next meeting we attended was on Thursday night and this body was also lead by an African Pastor from Nigeria, Pastor Henry who's congregation is hungry for God's presence and hungrily consumed the message of "One New Man". A testimony of their desire and understanding of "One New Man" was in their response to the blowing of the Shofar in their congregations. Their responses were overwhelming and exciting as curses where broken, healings took place, and freedom broke loose as demons fled before the sound of the Shofar!

Barb dances the Hava Nagila during the Purim Outreach

The Purim weekend we spent at Rabbi Boris's Messianic congregation as we celebrated Purim (The Book of Esther in the Bible) and reached thousands of Jews with the truth of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. There was an unbelievable outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the joyous and happy praise, worship, and dance before the God of Israel. This God party was lead by the Holy Spirit and there were many healings and miracles that took place during this time of rejoicing and celebrating. Joy is listed 190 times in the Bible and Rejoice 129 times while somber is only mentioned 29 times. This Chassidic Jewish style of joyful Messianic Jewish Praise and Worship is redefining our concept and paradigms of praise and worship. God tells us throughout the bible to have the "Joy of the Lord" and this Messianic congregation in Kiev is doing it and being blessed mightily as testified by the many healings and miracles that took place during this joyous praise and worship! We were blessed and "Drunk in the Holy Spirit" as we ourselves rejoiced in the Lord. If you've been set free through the saving grace of Messiah Yeshua, every day should be filled with joy and happiness! This is not "renewal" or any other "move", rather it is the pure and simple "joy" of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I believe we are witnessing the seed of true "World Revival" as these worshipers and prayer warriors are clothing themselves in the "One New Man" and provoking the Jew to jealousy as Paul spoke about in Romans Chapter 11. He stated that if the Jews being cut off from the Jewish root of the Jewish Olive tree meant the salvation for the Gentiles, what will their being grafted back in mean? It will be "life for the dead"! World Revival! We not only witnessed it in Kiev, Ukraine, we are also experiencing it ourselves in our own Shabbat services and outreaches at the World Outreach Worship Center! God has planted Holy Fires of restoration and revival around the world in places such as Boris's congregation in Kiev, in Newport News, Va. and too many others to mention here. Soon, very soon, the Holy Spirit will blow a mighty whirlwind and fan these flames into a raging world wide, all consuming, Fire of Revival that will usher in the return of Messiah Yeshua, whose arrival will be announced in the heavens by the greatest Angelic blast of the grandest Shofar ever heard!

Messianic Rabbi Boris Grisenko, Leader of the Messianic Congregation in Kiev

We also visited Babi Yar, an area of ravines that at the time of Nazi occupation during World War II was a rural wooded area outside of Kiev. Upon the Nazi invasion and occupation of Ukraine and western Russia in September 1941, Jews from Kiev (35,000 initially murdered on 29 and 30 September, 1941) were marched to these ravines that the Nazis had dug out and enlarged. Stripped naked, lined up on the edge of these ravines, and shot to death; men, women, children, and babies were murdered for being Jewish. Although Jews were the primary target of this hate, the killing was expanded to include a small number of Gypsies, Slovakians, Russians, and others deemed non-Aryan and undesirable by the Nazi's. Before the wars end, over 100,000 were killed here and buried in these ravines. The Soviets after the war tried to cover up this area of heinous crimes against humanity by building over the top of some of the ravines and placing a dam at others and attempting to make a lake. The dam burst and bones washed up in 1963. Jews who would attempt to meet in the years after the war at Babi Yar and pray on the anniversary of the tragic start of this black period of history would be beaten, arrested, and shot until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989-1990. Two memorials, a menorah and a statue commemorating this great loss were placed at what remains of the site in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This was a somber part of our time in Kiev and was a reminder of what God is telling us in the book of Jeremiah that first will come fishermen then will come hunters! We must fish as hard and long as possible before the hunters come as the word of God tells us! Psalms 30:11 tells us that He turns our mourning into dancing, removed our sackcloth and clothed us in joy! Hallelujah! Praise be to God and His glorious kingdom for all eternity! Amen! Kiev, situated on the Dnieper River with a population of 3.5-4 million people is being flooded with living water, an upwelling of Spiritual re-birth, quenching their thirst and desire for Messiah Yeshua after 70 years of spiritual drought caused by the oppression of Communism.

God is moving in the Ukraine and sowing the seeds of revival,
time is running short!