Meet Cheryl Warner
Tell us a bit about your current and past ministries you have been involved in.
Charley and I started working in theological education by extension in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1987 and moved to Odessa, Ukraine, in 1991 to teach at Odessa Theological Seminary, the first Protestant seminary in the USSR. The Soviet Union was dissolved later that year, and many Western missionaries started coming. We joined Barnabas International in 1992 and branched out into missionary care. Ukraine is now sending missionaries around the world, and we are helping Ukrainian churches establish care for these workers. With a Ukrainian team, we helped plan and lead a retreat for Ukrainian missionaries that just took place in Poland in February. I lead a Bible study for women from Irpin Bible Church that currently meets on Zoom. The Psalms have pointed us to God as our refuge and hope in wartime.
What has been your connection to Calvary over the years?
Calvary has supported our ministry since we first went to the field in 1987. My cousin, Bruce Anthony, was chairman of the Missions Commission at that time and introduced us to Calvary. Thank you for your long-term financial and prayer support! Our visit with you last June was a great encouragement to us. We were displaced from our home in Irpin, Ukraine, shortly before the Russian invasion a year ago. Calvary has responded to the crisis in Ukraine with compassion and practical help. Thank you for the generous offering you gave to support the volunteer centers of Irpin Bible Church, which are helping meet the material and spiritual needs of local people.
Share a core childhood memory and a bit about your younger years and places you’ve lived.
My dad, musician Dick Anthony (now with the Lord), sang his own composition, “Available,” at the end of his concerts. We did family concert tours together during the summers of my middle school and high school years, and I heard this song every night. “Available for God to use me, available if God should choose me. Should it be here or there, it doesn’t matter where . . . ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyb2ZnVxjMQ
When I considered whether God was calling me to marry Charley and go as a missionary to the Soviet Union, the foundation of growing up in a ministry family that said yes to God’s call helped me say yes. I was born in Illinois and grew up in California, Florida, and Texas, where my parents served in music ministry in various churches and in Christian radio and television. As a missionary in my adult life, we have always been focused on what is now the former Soviet Union, based first in the UK and then in Odessa, Ukraine; Vienna, Austria; and more recently Irpin, Ukraine. Our home base in the US is Wheaton, Illinois.
Favorite Bible verse?
1 Thessalonians 3:5: “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” I pray this for myself and for missionaries I care for, that we would experience a deep heart knowledge of God’s love and then persevere in our calling out of that place of being loved.
How does your faith inform your work?
Living cross-culturally for most of my adult life and worshiping in other languages has given me a broader view of the worldwide church and a passion to see God’s glory proclaimed among the nations. As painful as it is to see the suffering of the Ukrainian people I love, I also see the church there working hard to provide aid and bring the gospel to hurting people. People are open to the gospel, many are coming to saving faith in Christ, and believers are experiencing God’s faithfulness in hard times.
In the book of Revelation, John describes this captivating scene: “I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. . . . He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. . . . For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes’” (Revelation 7:9, 14, 17). Keeping this big picture in mind helps me to trust that even when life is hard and nations are in turmoil, God is on the throne and he is fulfilling his purposes among the nations. He is our Shepherd now, and through all eternity.
Describe yourself in 5 adjectives.
Beloved, redeemed, called, sent, comforted.
What are three of your favorite foods?
The perfect trio: English breakfast tea with milk, served with toast and raspberry jam.
Share one thing that you love to do that you get to do nearly every day.
I love to read good books, especially memoirs, biographies, fiction with interesting characters, and devotional books. I like to read books my four adult daughters are reading, which sparks some good conversations. Bonus points go to books that make me laugh out loud.
What is one important skill every person should master?
First, listening to the voice of our Shepherd: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Then listening to others. Inviting someone to tell her story, asking good questions, and listening with empathy shows love and helps build a trusting relationship.
What are 3 things you highly value?
Natural beauty with quiet. Being known and loved. Music.
What are you praying about?
We are praying for our daughter Melissa, who will begin her missionary service with OMF International in July. She is a licensed professional counselor and registered play therapist, and after studying the Thai language she will work as a counselor for children of missionaries at the Cornerstone Counseling Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
We want to return to live in Irpin, Ukraine, in July, Lord willing. I pray that there will be no further attacks on Irpin or the Kyiv region, that the war in Ukraine will end, and that many people in Ukraine and Russia will come to Christ.
Meet Josie Lloyd
Tell us a bit about your current and past ministries you have been involved in:
My husband and I currently serve with Childhood Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) in Soldotna, Alaska. Which includes Good News Clubs, making meals and having practices for with our CEF teens, teen trainings, occasional village trips, making cookies for village trips, Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) training camp in Early June, making some more cookies and hosting a back yard Bible Club and then Camp Good News at the end of the summer.
We are also involved in our local church and have been involved in hosting small group, children and youth ministries and serving on our Missions team.
Before CEF, we served with Missionary Aviation Repair Center (MARC). My husband, Harlan is still able to help fly for various village flights throughout the year. Whether is it is for Bible camps or a CEF village trips.
What has been your connection to Calvary over the years?
We moved to Rochester when I was 7 years old and I attended Calvary with my family until I got married in 2006. Highlights of church life were my own years participating in youth group, helping with Jr high ministries in my college years and going on short term mission trips to Dominican Republic.
Share a core childhood memory and a bit about your younger years and places you’ve lived.
I was born in Joliet, Illinois and moved to Rochester in 1992. Some of my favorite childhood memories were in Michigan when we would visit family every Summer. I loved this time as my Dad was off from work and my mom enjoyed being with her family in her home state. We had hours of fun outside with my cousins and siblings swimming, having bonfires going to Lake Michigan and hearing stories of days gone by from my grandparents.
Growing up my favorite day of the week was Sunday as we went to church and then hung out as a family making food together, playing games or watching a movie. In my high school days this included the addition of brother-in-laws and cute little nephews! Sundays were my carrot to get through the week as a teenager. So thankful for my parents love and the friendships within our family being so strong. We treasured all being together this last fall with a “few” more additions to the family!
Describe your average day.
- 7am: Little voices start filling the air
- 7:30am: kids eat breakfast
- 8am: diaper changes/kids get ready for the day
- 9am: morning chores
- Homeschool/ practice instruments for older four kids and playtime for younger three
- 10am: nap time for baby
- 12pm: Lunch
- 1pm: play time/ school- or- Good News Club/music lessons (depending on what day of the week)
- 2pm: naps
- Finish homeschool/tidy house-make dinner
- 6pm:dinner time
- Cleanup/ free time for kids/ “tidy up”
- 8:30pm: Family Bible time and prayer before kids go to bed
- 9-10pm: Time to catch up on things or spend time with my husband talking about the day or the week ahead.
- And then Sleep! Which occasionally is sprinkled with tending to the needs of kids, but thankful for a better season of sleep right now :
Favorite Bible Verse
One of my favorites is Romans 12:12:
Be joyful in Hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Always a good reminder to renew my thoughts and how to fix my heart upon truth and give my worries to the Lord.
What are three of your favorite foods?
Coffee, tacos (moose or halibut) and apples. If coffee doesn’t count then I would choose freshly baked bread. 😉
Share one thing that you love to do that you get to do nearly every day.
Spending time with my husband and children!
How can people best pray for your family?
We would appreciate prayers for our marriage that we would truly reflect the love of Christ. For wisdom as we parent and train our 7 children, that our children would have soft hearts unto the Lord and that our family would have wisdom to know how to best serve the Lord and truly be a light in our community and state.
