Dear brothers, families and churches.
This January in Ukraine was full of events both politically and in church. It's the first time in 24 years of independence when Ukraine was standing on the verge of a civil war. In cities that are regional centers the authority shifts from government officials to opposition. There are many killed or wounded people. We keep praying for stabilization of the situation in our country and for peaceful solution of all these problems. I’m sure God is in control.
Things are going quite well at the institute. Howell and Mary Ferguson, Denton Landon, Alexander Rodnayev and Victor Semikoz visited us in January. They all give up a lot in order to teach and share their experience with students. We are especially grateful for our American brothers, who continue showing us their care and dedication, traveling over a thousand miles every time they come here. Next month we are expecting a new student from Dnepropetrovsk. He wanted to get a quality Bible education for a long time, and now that he’s retired, he can pursue his plans. In two weeks, our students, Aleksey Mitskutis and his wife Alina, will travel to city Ukhta in Russia. The Church of Christ there is in need of a preacher. It’s more than 2500 km from Gorlovka to Ukhta. It means that we started training preachers for the former USSR countries too.
There is some good news in the churches in Donetsk area. In the last month there were 5 baptisms in one congregation in Kramatorsk and 1 baptism in another. The church there is actively working with children and there parents. Also summer camps and winter outings with the church to Svyatogorsk play a huge part. Jeff Abrams and his team, Vitaliy Rodichev and Vladimir Paziy are the people who have been working in Kramatorsk for many years, and the results of this cooperation are already visible.
There was an important event in Gorlovka Church of Christ. Bogdan’s (our graduate and the youth leader) grandmother Lyudmila was baptized. She has been studying the Bible with Bogdan for a long time, even though she wasn’t so eager to do that. Nevertheless, Bogdan was persistent, and his reason for that was the fact that his grandmother attended Jehovah’s Witnesses. Thank God she made the right decision, and we hope that Bogdan will be encouraged to achieve new spiritual victories.
We continue visiting the orphanage. I started taking students with me there, involving them in this work. Mostly it’s Katya Kadenko. She is an active and devoted Christian and expresses willingness to work with kids.
We thank everyone who supports the work of the BVBIU and its students. We know it’s a huge sacrifice, but the results of this work are already seen. Churches in Ukraine are in need of sound doctrine and strong preachers.
Your brother and co-worker,
Dennis Sopelnik
To see Dennis’ report with pictures, please click here.