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

Jeff Thompson, President of Eastern European 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.

EEO, which has a rich 18-year history of serving orphans and prisoners in Russia, was hit particularly hard Wednesday, April 9 when Director Jeff Thompson, who has spearheaded EEO’s Russia efforts, was denied entry into the country upon arrival at Moscow’s Domodevodo Airport.

“This was completely unexpected. I am still in shock,” he said.
 
Jeff was first denied entry into Russia under communism. From 1984 to 1989 he was considered "an enemy of the State" and refused a visa to the Soviet Union. His book, Leaving The American Sector, re-tells his exciting story of smuggling bibles behind the Iron Curtain. 

This recent development, however, came as a complete surprise. 

As a young democracy with a growing economy emerging from the ex-soviet, now Russian empire, … the country of Ukraine has faced its share of growing pains in the last two years.  The twin evils of political instability and high inflation continue to plague this region referred to as the breadbasket of Europe.