We’re grateful to the Lord for you and your willingness to pray with us and facilitate the ministry of spreading the Gospel along with Ukrainian Christian mission Hope to People.

I have set the LORD
always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken

Psalms 16:8

Daily New Testament Podcasts

Mikhail Kucherenko, pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in Vladivostok, keeps making the podcasts for daily reading of the Bible for both believers and non-believers.

Over 1000 Russian-speaking listeners in Russia, USA, Belarus, Ukraine, Mongolia, Germany are very excited to receive these podcasts as they expressed their positive feedbacks about them. There are already an audio formats of the Gospels: Matthew and Luke; the Epistles of Peter, Jude, James, and to Hebrews, as well as the work on Revelation is being completed.

Baptism of Iranian Christians

Please keep praying for the Persian Church, as well as for the believing Iranian refugees who were forced to leave for other countries. Recently, the new converts were baptized in one of the young Farsi-speaking churches outside of Iran. Several families desired to invalidate their former non-christian marriage and to be officiated by church and pastor in the name of the Lord Jesus, as well as to dedicate their children through a prayer since all these activities are strictly prohibited in their home country. These people need to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to that end, they need someone who understands their language and culture and will be able to disciple them. In fact, there is a serious lack of mature Persian Christian leaders.

Ministry in East Asia

Please pray for our minister who serves the unreached people in East Asia. Without going into details, he was unexpectedly denied of a one-year visa. As the family members have had to extend their visas every month for some time and had a lot of stamps, they ran out of pages in their passports. As a result, it turned out recently that they need to get the new passports. However, the family won’t be able to do it without leaving the country for their homeland, because the procedure for sending requests and documents between embassies to obtain passports from abroad takes much longer than the last visa extension period. If they do not leave the territory of the country in time, they will face deportation. So, the thing is that the missionaries will politely be thrusted out of the country. Please pray for the necessary funds still to be raised for the coerced round-trip tickets, so they will be able to return to their ministry.

Festive Evangelism at Mission Frontlines

We give thanks to God and rejoice about the Christmas visits by our ministers to the homes of people from non-Christian peoples and cultures in Armenia, Uzbekistan, and the Crimean Peninsula. Thanks to everyone who took part in fundraising for minor gifts that went along with the evangelism! Please continue to pray for people who do not yet know Christ, and who live in difficult everyday circumstances.

Participation in the Project SALT

The Lord blessed us with familiarity and the beginning of a common ministry with brothers from Washington, USA, who are eager to bring glory to God through the training and equipping of pastors who will plant the sound Bible churches throughout Eurasia, starting from Ukraine. In particular, the founder of the ministry, Timofey Dovgalyuk, is trying his best to organize the recently launched training for Russian-speaking ministers via Zoom. Pastor, Gregory Gibson, is teaching them a two-hour class on Fridays, which will last for 8 weeks. Our employee, Vyacheslav Arterchuk, is taking a role of an administrator during the training to serve the 180 ministers who signed up for this course. Please pray for the growth of churches capable of planting more and more churches both in your country and beyond!

However, I Consider My Life Worth Nothing to Me…

Under this motto, the 25th mission conference was held in Rivne. From November 29 to December 6, a lot of Christians had an opportunity to focus on the Bible verse of the conference which is found in Acts 20:24. All participants had a good time together while listening to testimonies of the missionaries, having corporate worship, sitting under the preaching of God’s Word, and lifting up the prayers for the needs of others. As the conference drew to a close, the members of our church had a chance to refresh the pledges of faith for the next year by turning their cards in. A three-hour outdoor quest was arranged for the children, during which they were able to get a taste of a country closed to the Gospel. The little participants tried to share the gospel with “strangers,” have witnessed brutality and rough treatment of believers, spent some time at the service of underground church, tried to smuggle “forbidden” Bibles, experienced a betrayal by a “false Christian,” and were thrown into a prison. The children also got to know real Christians from the Middle East, learned the national dance and tasted delicious pilaf. And of course, they were greatly impressed by such experience.

Exhibition of Paintings “The Life of Jesus” in Schools

On the occasion of the International Day of the Bible, by the grace of God, on November 24, an exhibition of paintings by famous artists about the Life of Jesus was held in the communal institution “Klevan Special School 1 I-III Grades” of the Rivne Regional Council (for children with visual impairments). The exhibition was attended by students from grades 1 to 10, as well as their teachers. Spiritual literature was also distributed (Bibles for children, coloring books, the magazine “Word to the Teacher”, etc.). And in December, a similar exhibition was held in the Rivne Ukrainian gymnasium. Pray that the sown Word in the hearts of the listeners will give abundant fruit of repentance.

Magazine “Word to the Teacher”

2020 ended with the final meeting of the editorial board of the journal. We’re thankful to God that all the scheduled issues came out on time, despite the pandemic and unfavorable circumstances. Six years ago, the Lord sent us faithful friends in the person of the Eastern European Humanitarian Mission, thanks to which it once again became possible to print four issues of the “Word to the Teacher” magazine, united by the common theme “Christian virtues.” Important achievements in 2020 were the updating of the magazine’s website, carried out by SoftSprint, and participation in the All-Ukrainian marathon “Christian Ethics – Has the Right to Exist!”

Christian Floor Hockey Team SKY

During this season, a lot of competitions were held for our teams. Thank God that we can share the Word of God and the Good News with the teens through the floor hockey! We praise the Lord that He gives an opportunity for children to hear the Word of God at every training. 12-year-olds are studying “Jesus Is at the Center” from the Gospel of John. 15-year-olds – “How to Make the Right Choice That You Will Not Regret.” Girls are studying the Names of God in the Bible, and the senior team is going through “Heaven, Hell and Life After Death.”

Analyzing the whole year of 2020, we can say that the happiest event and the greatest victory was the making of a covenant of faith with the Lord of our four players.

Please pray for the outreach camp in the Carpathians for teens and youth that is going on right now as it was planned in January.

Distribution of Gospel Literature

Over the past two years, the cooperation of the department of Christian ethics with the East European Humanitarian Mission All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation has significantly increased in the dissemination of Christian literature for children and youth of different age ranges, as well as for teachers. The head of the department, Arkadiy Slyoza, distributes and sends out the Bibles, children’s Bibles, Bibles for youth, Christian coloring books and literature for teachers in Ukrainian and Russian languages that were given to us by our partners. And in December, we even experienced for the first time the distribution of the Bibles in prisons.

Winter Camp for Children

Our department of Christian ethics, along with the Second Presbyterian Church of Memphis, USA, held an annual winter outreach camp called “Lamp of Life” for children from disadvantaged and low-income families and children from boarding schools. Due to the tightening of quarantine restrictions in Ukraine, the camp was held online. During the week, the children were steadily connected on video chats with mentors from Ukraine and the United States. They were also receiving daily Bible study assignments, and were actively involved with the camp organizers by texting or talking with them via Zoom. As the camp was over, thanks to our partners, all the participants received gifts. Please pray that the Word of God will work in the hearts of children.