LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- An American missions leader has combined with a UK broadcaster who loves to run marathons, to help a handicapped children's center in Ukraine.

Jeff Thompson, President of Eastern Europe Outreach in Murrieta, CA, who has recently published a book called Leaving the American Sector, has joined forces with Peter Wooding, senior news editor for UCB UK radio and television and director of ASSIST Europe, who has just run the Los Angeles Marathon to aid the childrens' home in Ukraine.

Peter Wooding with Jeff Thompson and Dan Wooding after the Safe Worlds IPTV interview.

In an interview for Safe Worlds IPTV, Thompson and Wooding told international journalist and broadcaster Dan Wooding about their unique partnership. Peter Wooding told his father why he ran the LA Marathon to raise funds for the Hearts of Love Konotop Handicapped Children’s Centre in Ukraine.

Thompson told Dan Wooding: "Many years ago I left the American Sector which is a sign that is actually on the Berlin Wall in the city of Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie all along the wall in four different languages -- Russian, German, English and French – which says that you’re now leaving the American Sector. I moved to Austria and then later to Berlin 1978 during the height of Communism in the Cold War. Of course later Ronald Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and said, ' Mr. Gorbachev, tear this wall down.' So we moved over there and began smuggling Bibles behind the Iron curtain."

Thompson said he often meets other parents on his son’s soccer team and they can’t believe that story. "It seems like a long time ago now. You know in missions that’s where my teeth were cut that’s where I learned about the faithfulness of men and women who were suffering for their faith."

"I didn’t know what I was doing, but you know God was faithful. We landed there in Berlin, our two older children were born there, and it’s a very grey, drab place. A lot of Americans felt oppression there because that wall was around you with the guard towers all around you. We would hide bibles underneath the baby carriage of our daughter when she was born.

"We had campers we had we had cars. For many times many months in Berlin we had a little Peugeot station wagon and I’d take the cushion out of the back seat and fill it with God’s Word and then zip that thing closed. It wasn’t a highly technological hiding place but then we’d put Lindsay, our little daughter under a year old right on top and drive across that border and pray. Or I’d take the door panels off and I’d hide them in the door panels and pray to the Lord which door panel should I remove. Sometimes He’d say the driver’s panel -- I would just sense that maybe this was the thing to do on that border Checkpoint Charlie and they would search the other one. They’d take the panel off the other door, the passenger door, but not the driver's side door or they’d search the front seat and not the back."

Did he ever get caught?

"I did get caught; yeah, I did get caught. That was a scary experience; it’s chapter one in the book. I lived to tell about it so that’s a good thing.

"It was actually in East Germany, they accused me of smuggling Cocaine and said I’d be there at least eight years. It was very scary; I wish I could say that I was just full of faith, but I was scared, I was very scared.

"You realize that that point that your embassy can’t do anything to help you besides the fact that we didn’t have any diplomatic relations to speak of with the Eastern Sector there.

So how did he get out of the country?

"They held me for eleven hours total, about seven hours of interrogation with two different interrogation teams of east German secret police. Of course they developed a portfolio of a file a dossier on me that they developed in the years following. The Stasi state security. I have my Stasi file today, and by the way, I desperately desire to turn that into a book and kind of a spy story. I don’t know how, but 263 pages were in their archive about our activities our ministry!

"But I was scared during that time. In fact, at one point just prior to the first interrogation my knees were literally knocking together. But I’m thrilled with the book because I felt like it has really captured the essence that God has been glorified Pastor Chuck Smith (of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa) wrote a recommendation in there. . I’ve been told by many people that they were so excited they couldn’t put it down. So I feel like the Lord has blessed that."

Wooding introduced his youngest son, Peter, who came to the Lord at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and eventually joined Youth with a Mission and continues broadcasting on UCB UK, United Christian Broadcasters in the United Kingdom.

"I’m thrilled that Peter is also the director of ASSIST Europe and Peter you did your first trip to Russia. You took a team to Beslan where more than three-hundred people were killed during a terrible hostage crisis. That must have been quite an experience. How did you get involved with going to Beslan?" Wooding asked

"I was watching the terrible television footage when the massacre happened, terrible siege and just taken on board directing assist Europe at the time and it was just a prompting in me that this is our first project. This is what we need to do go and help these people. So I decided that we would go on the first anniversary of the siege that happened in Beslan," said Peter.

"So we worked with a local Pentecostal church in the area and we actually went to the school on the anniversary where all the world press were there. I’ve never experienced anything like the deep sorrow there to see how they’ve left the school just as it was with bullet holes everywhere. We went into the gymnasium, we prayed there, lit a candle and just wanted to stand with the local Christian community that had been such a light in such a dark situation."

What did it do to Peter to suddenly feel their pain?

"It was hard not to feel overwhelmed. I know we spent a good few hours at that school that day as it was the first anniversary. I’ll never forget just to stop me being overwhelmed I thought well I’m here to reach out. And I remember a young father, I’m sure he was a father, just squatted in the corner -- I’ve never seen someone weep so much and I couldn’t speak in his language and I just went and put my arm round his shoulder. He was a tough looking Russian young man and he just embraced me and just sobbed on my shoulder and I felt I’ve come all this way with this team, if I’ve come just to comfort this person it’s made it all worth while and I think that helped me to feel like there was something I could do: I was there for a reason not to just feel overwhelmed as much of our team did. I really felt it was appropriate to stand as a group with the local pastors and link hands together at the school and just pray for God’s light to come through the situation. That really bonded us together. I think the local pastors were so encouraged for us to be there...just to know that we’d come not to do some great program or bring lots of resources but it was just appropriate at that time just to stand with these people."

Jeff Thompson told Wooding that a short time after the event happened he also visited Beslan.

"Something that I think stuck with me was this overwhelming sense of evil that had happened had taken place. The people’s grieving and suffering, you could do nothing really for them. I visited many families and spent time with them. Of course out there at the graveyard as well that was built or developed you see the grandmothers and mothers out there crying over their loved ones. You just say, ' Well, Lord how can I be your hands, your feet in this place?' "

Peter Wooding described the situation experienced by the Totiev family.

"The Totiev family are two brothers that are Baptist ministers out there. Jeff may know the exact figures, but I think they lost at least seven of their children. I remember being at the cemetery on the day of the anniversary where they unveiled this beautiful statue of a mother holding children and it was just so overwhelming -- one by one they read out the names of all those that had died and then they said Totiev, Totiev, Totiev and listed all the names of the Totiev children and I was able to go to the graveside of all these children.

"They put photographs of these children on their tombstones which makes it even more moving and I just went and prayed for one of the Totiev brothers and people just kept going and comforting him. But the incredible thing is that they turned it around and used that opportunity to be such a witness in the community. They didn’t let it overwhelm them and they were some of the first people to turn around and say 'we need to forgive these people,' so God used them tremendously in a really terrible situation."

Thompson told Wooding how he and Peter got together.

"We met at the International Congress for the family in Warsaw, Poland and just talked about outreach and helping different folks and Peter showed an interest I remember in the special needs children of a particular small town a in Ukraine called Konotop. So we talked about that and how they could get involved in helping there. One thing led to another and (the next thing I knew) I was sleeping in Peter’s home (in Wales)."

Peter Wooding is a long distance runner and has done many, many marathons. He talked about the reason he did the recent LA marathon.

Peter Wooding with his LA Marathon Medal.

"This was my twelfth marathon and I just love doing the Los Angeles Marathon -- it’s just such a fascinating route. They describe it as the people’s marathon. It may not have all the top elite marathon runners in the world but it has the sort of normal people who just want to give it a go and it’s just an incredible atmosphere. On your bib number they put your name so Americans are so good at encouragement so all along the route they’re saying 'go Peter you can do it.' It was just a great atmosphere I was really doing well until about mile nineteen they changed the route so a lot of it is downhill now. But about mile nineteen I hit what they describe as 'the wall' in a marathon where you just hit that pain barrier, you think you can’t go any longer. One of the things that really kept me going was I visualized what we’re going to be doing with this special needs center in Ukraine -- we’re hoping to start building a playground for these children -- and I just visualized the look on these kids faces when they get this playground when we go and minister to these kids as we’re going to be doing this Summer that really kind of inspired me to keep going. Then just crossing the finishing line it’s an amazing experience. You feel so much pain, but soon as they put that medal on you, you just feel elation."

Thompson commented that there was probably no better purpose than to run the LA marathon to help some special needs children who have no other source of help.

"To come over to America, fly over from England the day before and spend twenty-six miles out there on the pavement for these kids it’s a lot better than being an Elvis impersonator pushing a cart! So I respect Peter very much and the group coming over from England.

"There is a group of women who have cerebral palsy-affected children who could not find any relief through government programs so they banded together and said if we could renovate this building buy this broken down little building in our town we could help each other. We could take care of each other’s children so some of us could work and provide for our family and children.

"So we stepped in as Eastern European Outreach and that’s a project we want to help out and support. But it’s a bigger project than we’re able to support. When Peter heard about it he said well what could we do for them and we began to brainstorm perhaps a playground or something for the children to stimulate their mental activity and to establish a safe place for them. So there’s a little home a little building in this little town of Konotop Eastern Ukraine about four hours from Kiev the capital and the team from England is going to go and build a playground for these kids and assist these mothers who are already actively fundraising, doing their best to take care of these children."

Thompson said Konotop is on the border between Russia and Ukraine where they speak a mixture of Russian, Ukrainian and a form slang for which there is a special name.

"I don’t understand any of it actually," he said. "It’s not a place tourists will ever go to so nightlife is nonexistent. I don’t think they have any restaurants either. But they’re going to stay in an apartment and they’re going to work with these kids and these families every day. They’re also going to do an assessment for us -- they’re going to visit special needs families in this town and find out what is needed in terms of wheelchairs, walkers for children, medication, they'll just do some assessments and see where they’re at, what resources are available, and how we can help in the future. So we’re really hoping to find many sponsors who would like to jump on board and through our website www.eeo.org  they can do that. They can find a special report about Konotop and how they can sponsor that project."

Peter Wooding said he'll be leading the team.

''We’re putting together the team as we speak -- members of my church, possibly a church in Manchester,(England) is going to be involved. So, I’m really looking forward to being out there and just seeing how we can serve these people."

To find out more, to support the project or even maybe go on the trip visit the project website at www.assisteurope.net  

"They can find out how to donate to the project themselves and also get our latest newsletters and updates," said Peter.

Dan Wooding wanted to know Thompson's assessment of what is going on in Russia?

"The Russian people are happy with what’s going on in Russia. They have a stable economy, stable government. They don’t trust democracy and the uncertainty of democracy I’d say. Let’s face it ,we had a presidential election where a president was elected by less than two-hundred votes. Well that instability is fearful for them. They know what that means. They have suffered under the consequences of that in past years. So they are let’s say at peace with having a strong government and a strong role again in the society. So when we hear Putin is saber rattling about America’s politics that plays very well at home with the Russian people. They’re not anti-American, but they do receive a lot of anti-American information I their press."

Wooding commented: "In many cases the older Russian church, the unregistered Baptists had tremendous trouble dealing with freedom. The only way they survived was with a very strict way of doing things and all of a sudden modern music came in and kids with long hair."

He asked Thompson: "Has the church in Russia been able to adapt to freedom or is it still struggling?"

"The newer churches of course they have adapted. Their whole purpose was to reach today’s generation and younger people. The older churches have had a very hard time just as you could say maybe through God using Pastor Chuck and Calvary Chapel and the Jesus Movement older churches at that time weren’t willing to take in these young people and let them come in. Well the same is true in Russia. The older church is grasping for ways to adapt to a changing situation. But politically, spiritually, the visa situation is difficult on the country. The access to orphanages, prisons, hospitals, and schools is basically being restricted by the Russian government."

Is that because they feel they’re being humiliated that they have to have these places?

"I don’t know. There’s some politics behind it. They’re afraid of privately financed NGO’s coming in and exerting political influence. In other words they would have to determine who is a Christian group, just religiously involved, and who is a Christian group but politically involved. They don’t want to take that chance, so I think it’s all politics actually behind the scenes limiting any political involvement so we don’t have another Orange Revolution like took place in Ukraine. You don’t want that happening in Russia."

Wooding asked Peter how did he feel when he first went to Russia? Was it scary, what was his reaction to it?

"It was pretty tense when we went to Beslan. I think because it was the first anniversary there was a lot of security. We got questioned about why we were there so that was quite an intense time, but the people were just wonderful very welcoming hospitable people."

Wooding asked Thompson why readers should buy his book Leaving The American Sector?

"Well I think it’s a story of a common young person going over into missions into the unknown and seeing God work; and it will be encouraging to their children and also to them as well especially anybody in our generation that remembers the Cold War, Ronald Reagan, the Berlin Wall. So that’s a good reason to buy it right there."

Why did Peter think people should get behind the project to help the special needs orphanage center in Ukraine?

"I think as Jeff has shared this is a project that really needs a lot more support and needs people to help these people that are so marginalized that perhaps face rejection and it’s a huge need, and I’m sure it is something that is so much on God’s heart to really touch these precious children’s lives and their families."

Thompson was asked why should people care about Eastern Europe?

"Because I think Eastern Europe is strategic in that people still have an interest in spiritual things not like here (where) you have the opportunity still until today in Ukraine and Russia to share the Gospel. Churches are not being closed; people should go and see what God is doing. By the way if they do pick up a book the proceeds from the book are going to help children like those in Konotop, Ukraine special needs kids so that’s an important aspect. Missions is a great adventure not to be feared and today you can buy a ticket on the internet and you’re in Moscow tomorrow."

You can find out more about the work of eastern European Outreach at www.eeo.org . If you want to know more about the ministry Peter is involved with it’s called ASSIST Europe at www.assisteurope.net .

You can find out more about the LA Marathon and why Peter ran it at www.assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08020186.htm . There is also a picture there of the Konotop Center the team will visit this summer.

**ANS would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.

** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael's involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- Michael Ireland Media Missionary (MIMM) -- of ACT International at: Artists in Christian Testimony (ACT) International.