Praise God that our Lord is with us! Faith in this truth gives us the confidence to move forward despite what is happening around the world.
we have the Lord our God, helping us
2 Chr. 32:8
We should not be afraid and get discouraged. We have an important commission to support and pray for our ministers. Please read the news from mission fields and give glory to our God!
Ministry in Italy
Our brother and faithful minister of God, Yaroslav Dovhyy, together with his family, devoted many years of his life to the ministry to Slavs and Italians in the city of Caserta, Italy. They thought about how to develop the ministry there in the future. But the Lord changed the course of their lives in a completely opposite direction.
In recent years, Yaroslav has been struggling with the disease, but the doctors could not make a diagnosis. At the end of last year, the Lord blessed him to meet with a good specialist, a professor of medicine, who was able to make a diagnosis and select supportive therapy. At the same time, she said that it is impossible to cure such a disease in Italy. And of course, Yaroslav in his heart had many questions to God. Ten months of prayer and misunderstanding of the situation did not undermine his faith in God’s sovereignty, but on the contrary, Yaroslav’s family now sees clearly where and why God is directing them. It turned out that patients with such a diagnosis are treated in the USA. With God’s help, it was possible to quickly resolve all organizational issues and find the necessary funds for the flight. At the end of September, Yaroslav and Oksana will go on a trip with their daughter, Eva. Perhaps after the treatment, the Lord will send them back to Italy. The family of Dovhyys is ready to follow the Lord wherever He leads.
Arab Ministry in France and Ukraine
Most of the Arabic-speaking students who studied in Ukraine, whom our brothers served, returned to their homeland.
The beginning of the war in Ukraine prompted one of our Arab ministers to bring his large family from the south of Ukraine to France. And this is not a coincidence, because our brother is fluent in both Arabic and French since he comes from a Muslim country where both of these languages are official. He immediately began to serve people in that region of France, where there is a considerable number of migrants from the countries of the Arab world and refugees from Ukraine.
Another our employee, who is originally from Syria, was forced to temporarily move with his family to a safer part of Ukraine, but continues doing video sermons for the Arab Christian YouTube channel, and also communicates remotely with members of the Ukrainian Arab church and continues to teach Ukrainian believers how to evangelize people arriving in Ukraine from the countries of the Middle East.
Persian Ministry
We’re very grateful to God and to all who participate in spreading God’s Word among the Persian people! Many churches and individual disciples of Christ were able to receive printed Bibles in their native language this year. This is a great joy and encouragement for people who are going through severe persecution. We pray for the leaders of the churches and for those brothers and sisters who are imprisoned in the countries of the Middle East closed off to the gospel. We pray for the families of our brothers who were tortured for their faith last winter in a country where terrorists recently came to power.
Although due to the war in Ukraine, a leader of the Persian ministry found himself in another country as an immigrant, the Lord gives him a great desire, strength, and opportunity to carry out an extensive media ministry in the Farsi language, as well as to plan out some new events for this fall. Please pray for the in-person conferences and meetings for Persian-speaking Christians in neutral countries, which will help strengthen their faith, deepen their knowledge of the Bible, make them grounded in the statement of faith, and perform the sacraments that the Lord commanded us and which cannot be freely performed in their homeland.
Ministry in Central Asia
By the grace of God, the family of our Ukrainian minister in Central Asia are doing well.
They were able to travel and visit old and new friends and families who gather to study the Word and build their marriages on His foundation. The family ministry that our brother and his wife run is extremely relevant in these countries. Please pray for their disciples from among the local people who have completed the training course and are now serving and mentoring married couples themselves. There are a number of people whose lives have been changed by the work of the Holy Spirit and thanks to your prayers. In the fall, our employee will begin studies at a state university to obtain a degree that will allow him to officially provide psychological counseling. Pray that he can use it for the glory of God and to build relationships with people who do not know Christ!
The Church from Mariupol is Scattered
The Mariupol Word of Truth church was literally scattered all over the world because of the war. Three families are now in Germany, two in Poland, several families remained in Ukraine, some went to the Czech Republic, some to Georgia, and some are already overseas. A foreign country, a language barrier, uncertainty, a strong desire, and the impossibility to return home definitely get people depressed. Once a month, the church gathers for an online service. Pastor Stanislav Kolpakov makes every effort to encourage and, if possible, visit his brothers and sisters. Here is his prayer, “God, give us faithful hearts that would love You, our country, and people who are waiting for our help, for our prayers, and for the gospel, and for our selfless compassion.”
