Alex Bezkorovainy, Vyacheslav and Oksana Selivanov on missionary conference in Rivne.
It all started in 2007, when a married couple from our church (Jurij and Rita Kudelin) invited us to visit a Roma people family with them. By agreeing to the proposal, we had no idea that this visit would be the beginning of our ministry among the Roma people.
During the first two years, we were getting to know each other, trying to gain their trust and building close relationships. We visited each other, had tea together, chatted, and in conversations more and more discussed the topics of eternity, salvation, and the meaning of life. After some time, we decided to meet once a week for Bible study, and it was a great blessing. God showed us the tremendous thirst they had for the Word of God! Over time, the desire to meet more often grew and the Lord blessed us to start worship meetings among the Roma people, and to form prayer groups and Bible study groups. We had the opportunity to visit conferences and had different counseling meetings, which united us more in Christ. However, we had various times, when the Lord took us through the times of spiritual appraisal and times of dejection.
Christmas congratulations to Roma family
On this day, God has formed His church among Roma people. We have a great blessing to meet every day of the week!There were many human thoughts like “never” and “it cannot happen”, which we had to overcome with the belief that there is nothing impossible for God.
Women’s prayer group
Please pray: One of the local churches agreed to lease their premises on Sunday from 8 am to 10 am, moving their church worship time to an hour later. We are very grateful for God for the opening of their hearts.
– About the Roma people, who have heard about Christ for while, to make the decision of giving their hearts to God
– About the preparation and holding of baptism in Stakhanov in Spring 2013
– About the Biblical teaching of church member;
– About the Lord’s guidance of our mission trips to those people, whose hearts are open to accepting the truth
– About a minister, who could lead Bible groups in Krasnodon and Sverdlovsk
Vyacheslav and Oksana Selivanov
Outreach group from church “Svento Drome” on evangelism.
The main direction of the church ministry is missionary work. During 2012, the outreach team had 17 evangelistic trips to different towns. The sermons about the Gospel, testimonies, and songs definitely touch the hearts of the listeners.At the moment, the Roma people church “Svento Drom” (“Sacred Way”) in Stakhanov, Lugansk region, consists of 17 members. On December 9th, Vyacheslav was ordained as the pastor of the church.
For the ministry, people sacrifice not only their time, health, and Spiritual gifts, but also finances: their transportation, musical instruments, computers, etc. This is the principle of church teaching: all that we have shall serve the Lord.
Once, when the Roma people ministry was just beginning, an interesting case happened to Oksana. Once, after waking up in the morning, she was surprised that in her memory all the time appeared the Roma words “Teaveh bahtali.” In the evening, during the Bible study group, she has found out what they mean: “Be happy!” So the Lord reassured her and confirmed that the ministry of the Roma people is His way for their family. And surprisingly, Oksana, who does not know the Roma language, easily learned by heart and sings, without an accent, songs in the Roma language.
