Peace be with You!
Despite the disturbing earthly circumstances, our gracious Lord is stretching the days of His grace in our country and in other countries, where our ministers are! November turned out to be abounded with many events, news, and blessings. So, we’re eager to share them with you in this update.
The Harvest on the Soccer Field
In September, all schools are usually starting another academic year, and in the Christian soccer team “Nadia” – the new practicing season also kicked off. From the first days of the fall, many children of different ages started coming to our trainings. Some of them are coming by themselves, some are brought by their parents – they just kept coming and coming. It has even caused some panic in our midst – what are we supposed to do with all of them? Well, we reasoned: our field isn’t big enough, and even though there are many coaches, but still, not enough for a robust training process. Please pray for the bigger soccer field and the gym…
Busy October for the Team “SKY”
Our coaches have come up with the idea to set up a floor hockey tournament with a transitional trophy among 5-8 grades in the school where we practice. The main goal of these competitions is to recruit new children to the team, so that they can hear the Gospel when we get together for practice. After the tournament, an important event was waiting for us – the grand opening of the season in our club. After all, we have taken some time to assess our last season along with the junior and senior teams, and then at the end, we sketched out the plans for the new season. The senior team has gone through a challenging test in the form of the 1st round of the First League of the Ukrainian Floor Hockey Championship, and the youngest one took part in the 1st round of the Christian Floor Hockey League – EDGE in the age groups: under 12 and under 15 years of age. Please continue to pray for the floor hockey ministry!
Distribution of the Magazine on Christian Education
In order to help the teachers to learn more about the Christian pedagogical magazine “Word to the Teacher,” which is being prepared by our team, our employees Arkady Slyoza and Nadezhda Dolya, took an opportunity to present it at the city holiday dedicated to the teacher’s day, at the seminar of deputy principals on educational work in Rovno, at the seminar “Family – Home Church” in the Rivne region, at the regional seminar “Forming competence skills at the classes of Christian ethics” at the Ternopil Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, and also at the XII International Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the state and church model of development of modern Ukraine in the city of Uzhgorod.
Thanksgiving Day at Klevan Boarding School
Our employee Ruslana Kovalchuk, along with the teachers and students of the boarding school for visually impaired children, prepared the musical drama “The Tale of the Ruddy Apple,” which took place on October 25, 2018. The students of the third grades took part in an exciting presentation of Thanksgiving Day. And what made this holiday so special was the Bible that has spoken to everyone on the importance of being always thankful to God.
Why Does Prayer Have the Power?
In October, a prayer seminar was held on the campground of Zalesy, which was attended by representatives of six churches from the Association of Bible Missionary Churches of Ukraine – the churches are from Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Sarn, Kiev, and Novograd-Volynsky. It was a great time of fellowship, sharing and edification. We prayed for each other and thanked God for His great deeds in our lives, as well as in the lives of our churches. We also prayed earnestly for all those churches that are part of our Association.
Bible College in Rivne
In November 2018, the first session of the Rivne Bible College Word of Grace has taken place. Taras Nikolaevich Prystupa taught on “Personal Spiritual Formation.” During 9 days, 30 students from different parts of Ukraine, as well as brothers and sisters from Belarus, had an opportunity to dive into the atmosphere of the Gospel. The course touched upon such important aspects of the Christian life as: On what basis the Christian should build his/her foundation; prevalent stumbling blocks on the way to spiritual maturity; how one can preach the gospel to oneself and to others; how to live in the Body of Christ and many others. Please continue to pray for students to perform their homework before the Hermeneutics session, which is scheduled for February 2019.
News from the Far East
A long-awaited trip to the Udege village of Gvasyugy (1000 kmfrom Vladivostok) was finally undertaken. The brothers were able to bring warm clothes and groceries for Sergey Piskalov. They ask to pray for funds that are needed to buy the firewood for the winter time. Sergey’s ministry, who selflessly works there for the glory of God, has brought so much joy to bothers who visited him there. His ministry continues to make a difference in the lives of some locals who visit the small group.
Unfortunately, brothers did not have a chance to speak with Alina, who is considered the very first Udege believer, since there was misadventure. As the sister was going back home from her relatives in the evening, she needed to cross the hanging bridge that had no railings, so she ended up falling off the bridge into the river, since she could not resist the strong wind. As this happened, she laid in the cold water for several hours before people helped her out. An ambulance from a neighboring village took her to Khabarovsk, where she will be getting a long-term treatment. Please pray for her speedy recovery and the inner state. Pray for the health condition of Yury Mikhailovich after the heart surgery. Yury, once again, got into the Coram Deo Institute and will soon go to the next session in Khabarovsk.
Ministry to Yazidi Kurds in Armenia
In October, our ministers, who serve among the Yazidi-Kurds people in Armenia, were able to come to the first session of the Bible College in Rovno. This has become a great blessing for all of us. Upon returning to Armenia, the ministers once again visited the Yazidi village of S., where the elderly couple live, who bring up their grandchildren. The grandfather is disabled, so is little granddaughter Maya with special needs who always had some speech impediment. Recently, Maya was bitten by a dog, which added insult to injury in a way that it was impossible to make out what she says. Seeing this situation, brother J. offered to pray for her. As the prayer was over, Maya slowly started enunciating individual words repeating after brothers, and then she spoke her own language. Praise our Lord for such wonderful deeds among this pagan people!
Please pray for this family! They are very receptive to the Word of God; and sometimes, they have several families coming over to their place to hear about Jesus and pray together with Christians.
Visit of Friends from Belgium
In November, one family paid visit to us – Pierre and Michel Blond from Belgium. They are engaged in the ministry of distribution of Christian audio materials and literature for evangelism in the different languages. They also have brought many gifts this time – microchips with biblical materials, solar audio Bibles, which do not need to be charged from the power outlet. These materials will be helpful for our missionaries who are working out on the missionary fields. The couple of Blonds also visited the house-dormitory of graduates of boarding schools and, one of the orphanages of the Rivne region where our ministers work.
How to Become a Mission Minded Church?
The participants of the missionary conference, which took place in the city of Kamenskoye at the end of November, were actually meditating on this important question. The small congregation House of Agape started considering how they can become the church of the Great Commission, and what they can do for this right now in their own city.
Missionary Conference in Rivne
On January 20 – 28, 2019, in the city of Rovno, at the Bible Missionary church Community of the Good Shepherd, will be held XXIV missionary conference: “that from my mouth the pagans hear the word of the Gospel and believe” (Acts 15:7b).
Please pray for the conference to go smoothly and for it to be attended by Christians, who are passionate for the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise pray for the missionaries, who are serving on the mission field, will be able to come and gather together at the conference.
Tatyana Arterchuk, Anatoly Kitaykin
