Dear friends!

We are so excited to greet you with the love of our Lord in the New 2018.

Winter holidays became not only the time of worship to the Begotten Son, but they were full of opportunities for the ministry of the Word of God to all who need the Good News. Praise the Lord for that!

«… But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.» Psalms 20:8

 

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is traditionally celebrated at the end of the year by the group of librarians who conduct Bible lessons in the office of the IPO Hope to People. The year of 2017 was not an exception. We thanked God for material blessings, for the blessing and protection of relatives and friends, but most of all for the opportunity to get a deeper sense of the Scriptures and grow in the knowledge of the Lord. Praise God for a cordial and open-minded attitude, as each member of the group could genuinely share with others from the bottom of one’s heart. Pastor of the church Community of the Good Shepherd Taras Prystupa was invited to the festival, and preached on the theme “Reformation of the Heart.” We sang, prayed, served a lot and worshiped to our generous and merciful God.

 

Restarting the Heart

Thanks to God, for His mercy! As many as 240 young people got together to spend the New Year’s Eve and the following days of 2018, at the spiritually-edifying New Year’s conference Restarting the Heart. In order to participate in this corporate worship, people had to come from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Czech Republic, Germany. During these three days, the youth had the opportunity to listen to quite a few wonderful messages about the heroes of faith: Abraham, Samuel, Rufi, Barnabas, Boaz, Maria. There was, of course, a festive program, contests, gifts, two evenings of musical praise, an evening of testimonies, street evangelism. The primary concern of all these activities was nurturing of a godly character, preaching of the gospel, making people grounded in trust to the Almighty, strengthening them in faith and love for their neighbor.

 

Trip to the South

There was held a Christmas evangelistic trip to the places of residence of a non-Christian national minority. Every day’s agenda was filled with meetings, congratulations, songs about Isa, stories of faith and prayers for each other, beautiful smiles of children who received gifts. For 6 days the youth team has passed a hundred kilometers. They knew that God keeps them safe thankfully to your prayers. It’s all became possible only by God’s grace, as well as thankfully to your donations many children and families could hear one more time about Christmas and the Almighty, although, there were some who heard for the first time about the One Who holds all their lives in His hands.

 

The Heart of the Christmas

God provided for the Education Department of the IPO Hope to People and volunteers from the churches of the Association to conduct an outreach camp for orphans and children from socially vulnerable families in Transcarpathia village of Polyana, on the topic: “The Heart of the Christmas.” They spent enough time together discussing that Jesus Christ is the God’s Son, the Man, the Great Teacher, the Prophet, the Almighty, the God’s Lamb, the Truth and the King. This camp has been attended by children from orphanages of Rivne, Klevan, Zdolbuniv, Mizoch, Tuchin, Verba, Alexandria, Nikopol.

 

Winter Outreach Camps

We praise the Lord that the campground in Zalesye was not empty during the winter holidays. There have been held camps for children of the social club from the church Source of Life, a youth outreach camp “Exit,” weekends of the Bible study for young players of Christian soccer team “Nadia” and retreat for teens by employees of Hope to People.

 

Magazine “Word to the Teacher”

Please pray for the extension of the ministry of the Christian pedagogical magazine “Word to the Teacher” in 2018. Currently, we have the editorial team working on the first issue trying to put it all together. And the very first theme of this edition will be “Christianity and Science.” In this year, we are looking forward to cooperating with some new partners: To publish the magazine in the Rivne’s printing house “Estero,” and distribute it through new services of Ukrposhta.

 

 

Feast of the Great Commission

We kindly ask you to pray for the 28th missionary conference, which is traditionally held in Rivne, last week of January. The topic of the conference is framed by a verse of the Scripture: “…that through me the gospel might be established, and all the Gentiles might hear.” 2 Timothy 4:17. We expect guests from Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Central Asia, Europe, USA. In program of the conference will be – sermons, three workshops on evangelism in different cultures, testimonies of missionaries, evenings of worship and prayers, children’s missionary conference, women’s special meeting, fellowship with missionaries in small groups.

 

This newsletter was composed by Tetiana Arterchuk, Anatoliy Kytaykin, Oleg Syrotiuk