Hello brothers and sisters.
I want to share the good news that I enjoy and that encourages us to serve God more. Considering the unceasing military actions in the east of our country, I would like to point out that God still cares about Ukraine and especially about His church here.
Baptisms at God’s Church
In March there were several saved souls added to the God’s church in Ukraine. I want to tell about two of them. The first one is Yuriy, a young man from Kyiv. Brethren from Shevchenkivska church of Christ in Kyiv have been teaching personal Bible classes to him for a while, and as a result he obeyed the gospel. He was baptized by a BVBIU student whose name is Yura Romanov. Yura Romanov has a wonderful family; he has a wife, Katya, and a son, Matthew, who soon will be three years old. They joined the BVBIU program in February last year, and now God is already doing a great work through their family. Together with Andrew, Yura is preaching at the Schevchenkivska church of Christ. Their family loves God very much, and he will be preaching full time after the graduation. Please keep these two men named Yura in your prayers: one of them needs to grow spiritually, and the other needs to continue serving the Lord confidently.
The other man is from Lviv. His name is Igor. As far as I know, he obeyed the gospel on March 27. I haven’t met him yet, but I’m very happy that brethren (BVBIU graduates) who started a congregation in Lviv only six months ago have such results. Please keep praying for the congregation in Lviv so the Lord’s name will be glorified through this ministry.
The Bible Institute
Everything is well at the Institute. We had both Ukrainian and American teachers in March. I taught a class on Personal Evangelism, Walter Rayburn taught Wisdom Literature, Garth Hilton taught the book of Job and Contemporary Religious Thought. It was a wonderful time, and we are grateful to God for the wonderful lessons that were taught.
We try to have evangelizing events on the streets of the town together with students once a week; also we want to start an evangelizing project in social care places (hospitals, orphanages, schools, for handicapped people). Two weeks ago we visited a doctor in charge of one of the local hospitals. Unfortunately, they can’t give an affirmative answer, since the traditional Orthodox church has a great influence. However, they let us know that they won’t object to spreading the gospel and we can visit the sick. Also there is an opportunity to work with the people who temporarily lost the ability to move (after traumas, serious illnesses, strokes etc.) and handicapped people. We will have contacts of those people who want to talk to us. Please pray for our ministry and the opportunities to spread the sound doctrine.
Last week we had our annual planned evangelizing practice. We were able to send our students to 4 congregations (Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Skvyra). This way we can help churches in their evangelizing ministry. I participated in the evangelizing with brethren in Skvyra. It’s amazing when people have an interest in the gospel and we asked to pray for them. During this short time, we preached on the streets, at the local hospital, and prayed for those who needed support. I hope that the hearts will be opened for the further communication.
We continue searching for students for the new school year, and there are some prospective men, women, and couples that want to join our program. Some of them I’ve known for a while now, and I’ve met some others as a result of personal visits to congregations in the territory of Ukraine.
We planned an all-Ukrainian meeting of preachers and ministry leaders in Dnipropetrovsk in April; it will be a BVBIU initiated meeting. It all started in November as a simple meeting for the local preachers. It’s been wonderful how many people are willing to come to these meetings, and their number is growing. We will do our best so that these meetings will bring forth good results.
The Institute, its staff, and students send you their greetings and their thanks for the prayers and support of this work. Together with you we continue fulfilling the Great Commission of saving souls.
Your brother and coworker,
Dennis Sopelnik
To see Dennis’ report with pictures, please click here.