Christmas party for Students

On December 27 we had great opportunity to openly witness about Christ to many our students who came to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.A week before that we send them all Christmas cards by mail. We also handed out the invitations to the Christmas party on 27 of December.The whole program of the party was focused on Jesus and His gift to all of us.There were songs, power point presentation, skit, message about the true meaning of Christmas.A one point before eating the cake all of us with students stood up to sing to Jesus “Happy birthday to you”!They said that they had never ever done that before.We gave them a piece of paper and asked to write their most secret desires and what they would like for Jesus to give them next year. After that we got up to pray to Jesus asking Him to hear all their desires.Some of the students said that they had received the Christmas cards we send them by mail prior to the Christmas party. It was great surprise for them to find an envelope in the mail box with the words of blessing. They had never received anything like that before. They were so grateful for the care they received from us.After the Christmas party some asked direct questions about God and were deeply touched by all they experienced in the party.Please pray that the seeds that were planted and watered in their life would experience rapid growth caused by God.

Urgent Prayer requests

* Please pray for the difficult situation in Ukraine.
* Please pray for effectiveness in our current ministry to the youth.
* Please pray for all the students to be open and receive the gospel.
* Please pray for our financial support and the funds for the ministry.
* Please pray for the upcoming English summer camp in 2009.
* Please pray for the well being of our team members.

But the Word of God grew and multiplied Acts12:24

Last Wednesday at our English club we had privilege to hand out the New Testaments to our school age students. Each time we have a class with them we try to focus on the Word of God.We all pray that God would continue to open their hearts to receive the truth of His Word, as they meditate and study it diligently.They have never heard the word of God preached or tought to them before.We have been able to cover some of the very important topics like:What is true love?What is sawing and reaping?Is there absolute freedom?Why is it important to have purpose in life?We look forward to having discussion on what is real beauty?We hope to cover a lot of Biblical topics with them by the end of the year.

English club Ministry

English clubs ministry

It has been over three months since we started our English clubs minitsry.
As we have been praying for a long while about what can we do to be more effective in our ministry here in Bila Tserkva. God burdened our hearts with the young people. So 3 months ago we launched our first English club with school age students. It turned out to be very powerful instrument in reaching the students of Bila Tserkva.
We have discovered that they look forward to coming to the club and learn both English and Christian principals.
We meet every Wednesday ones a week at 5:30 pm. for about 2 hours. The first hour we spend teaching them English and the second hour we teach them Christian principals. We have different people from the USA helping us teach English and teaching Biblical Christian living.
We use different topics like: What is real love? What is real beauty? Who am I, where I come from, where am I going? We teach them Bible, share our testimonies ect.
After a month of school age students English club, God opened a door for us to start another one in the local huge University of Agriculture. So we have second club going every Monday at 4 o'clock pm.
We teach these students the same godly principals as in our first club.
We have a team of 3 couples, ourselves included who have burden for all these students. (45-50 people total) We get together to pray for them and seek what else and how else we can minister and be effective. God brought some of them to me in a special way. They came up to ask if I could give them personal classes. So I have 5 students who come to my house twice a week for a class. This is the best way to build relationship with them. I take time every class to talk about God and get to know them. Interesting thing is that all the students who come for personal classes are the very ones who are closer to God then others. When we open discussion with them about God and others principals, they are so receptive and attentive that I wish that church people were this attentive at preaching time.
I want you to know and join us in prayer for what God began to show us recently.
We want to see a youth church which will be solid, active, bible believing church out of these 45-50 students. We gather them for tea time and for other activities. We work with the two girls who got saved. Please pray for Tanya. Her grandmother got in a hospital with a disease. Her family is very nice and we hold them dear.
We all feel that it is not going to be fast. We wont see quick results. It is very hard and lasting work.
All we can do is to give them security in what we teach them. They don’t hear it at schools or homes.
So all we can do is top plan the seeds and expect God to give growth.

School age students club






University English club

"Jump in Heaven" Youth Conference

"Jump in Heaven" Youth Conference October 31- November 2

From October 31st through November 2nd of this year, we had our second youth conference at a partner church in Zhashkiv, a city close to Bila Tserkva. We went with our team partners who took responsibility for arranging the event.

Our first conference was in April of 2008. We had about 50 teenagers from 3 churches in 3 different cities. At this second conference we also had about 50 young people from the same 3 churches. The name of the conference was "Jump in Heaven". The theme of the conference was "Self Worth in God".

As we prayed about whom we can invite to speak at the conference God put on our hearts to ask our friends, a couple from Eastern Ukraine, to speak at the conference. They minister as pastors at a local church there.

The conference was amazing, the presence of God was all over it. Many people testified how God set them free from many complexes and inner scars.

We took four of the girls from our English club who were non Christians. One of the girls, named Anya, enjoyed the conference so much that she didn't want to leave. She cried a lot at the conference.

If it's the Lord's will, we will have another conference in Spring.

A Father's Heart is Turned

My brother Roman, my father Sergey, and me.

I would like to share something to encourage all those who have experienced pain and hurt due to broken families and divorce.

When my twin brother and I were 6 months old, our father divorced our mother and left us. Only once in ten years did he come to see us and that was only when he was drunk. So we grew up in a fatherless home.

When I was thirteen, I got saved and began to follow the Lord. Growing up, I realized that I had a deep sense of loss because I did not know my father. Even though I knew God was now my father, I still suffered because of the loss of my earthly father. He still lived in the same town, but I had only seen him once after many years. I had no feelings for him and I think this was because I always felt like he was just a stranger like any other man on the street.

When he found out that my brother and I had become Christians, he didn't care. When we asked him to turn to the Lord and repent, he said that he had nothing to repent of. So at that point I can say that I actually gave up on my father.

But God had His own plans and He prepared a special surprise for me and my brother. It was on May 3rd of 2008, the day of our birthday, that my father came to church in our home town of Slavyansk. My mother was there working that day and she said when she looked out and her eyes fixed on him walking up to the church door, he was looking so desperate and broken that she hardly recognized him. He came to say that he wanted to see his two sons (me and my brother).

When my brother came to the church to see him, my father began to cry and ask for forgiveness for leaving us and letting us go through life without his help. He said that the past several months had been a nightmare for him because he had had a terrible bout of depression that kept him awake almost every night and made him nearly lose his mind. No doctors could help him and no medicine had been good enough to cure his depression.

Right there at the church, in private conversation, my brother led our father to repentance. Our father went home a totally different person than when he came. He has had no restlessness since that time. He began to come to church after that and went through a discipleship course along with his current wife. I can testify that since this time my father has been baptized and is walking with the Lord as a new person.

It had been twenty-nine years since our father had left us. God gave us the best gift possible. He brought our father to the Lord Jesus Christ on the very day of our birthday. He really does turn the hearts of fathers to their sons and turns the hearts of sons to their fathers.

Our Journey Begins

In February of 2008, Anya and I left our home in Slavyansk in Eastern Ukraine and moved to Bila Tserkva over 500 miles away where God has called us as native missionaries. We are creating this blog so that we can open up our lives to you and share about how God is using us in Bila Tserkva. God has given us a heart for reaching school aged and university students. Our dream is to one day see a thriving and active student church.

Before being led to become native missionaries in Bila Tserkva, I worked as a full time assistant in our home church in Slavyansk, Church of God Ukraine for six years. While working in that position I began to feel strongly that God was calling me to full time missions, but didn't know where exactly. About a year before we moved, I had the opportunity to work with an American team in Bila Tserkva as a translator. That is when God confirmed that He wanted us to work in missions and showed me exactly where He wanted us.

It has been nine months since we packed up our home and our little boy Nikita (who had just turned one year old at the time) and said good bye to all of our family and friends. God has been faithful in providing for our needs in good times and in bad. We have been witness to God's miraculous leading in ministry and confirmations of our calling here. We are currently involved in two English Clubs reaching out to school age and university students, youth discipleship through private English lessons, sharing God's Word in local churches, youth conferences, street evangelism, and we are praying about future English Camps with other missionaries.