Hello dear brothers, families and churches.
There is one WWII story about a soviet nurse, who carried the wounded from the battlefield. During that period of time she saved thousands of lives, but she was killed in action. We are still on the battlefield, trying to save the lives. We have to train more people to help people to be saved.
In September we have started a new school year to train more ministers for God's Kingdom. In this year we have four new students, and we are expecting one more to join us at the end of the month. It's getting more difficult to find people who are willing to study God's word and preach. We continue teaching those who trust us and who want to be effective ministers. There are eight second-year students in the program. One of the students (Sergey Slastyonov) was unhappy with his financial situation and went to Russia to earn money. It’s so sad that people love this world more and are not willing to give up anything for the sake of receiving a reward from God.
In August, we had a VBS for kids at the Central Church of Christ in Gorlovka. There were not so many kids, but we tried to show them the love and attitude of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for the help of all those people who participated in this program. We have also been to Kharkov and Kramatorsk and helped with VBS there.
Right now, Howell Ferguson and Albert Bagdasaryan teach courses at the Institute. These are the brothers who encourage and support students and me greatly and who show us the true Christian example. We need such brethren for our students to look up to them, because they are the future leaders. As you know, Ukrainian churches don’t have elders yet, and the committees of brothers are leading almost all of them. We are still growing spiritually, and we need those people who will help us with that. We are grateful for their work and ministry.
At the end of September, we are expecting arrival of our brother Jim Sherman. We are praying for his safe travels to Ukraine. He has already done so much to spread the gospel here, and he still participates in training the future preachers.
The church in Ukraine is slowly developing, and of course all of us want its growth to be like during the first century. Nevertheless, it’s very difficult to achieve. We continue evangelizing, inviting our friends, and we often do get the positive results. I think that we have to keep doing what praises the Lord, and at some time He will give us the growth. Sound doctrine, patience and prayer are the foundation of the future for the Church of Christ in Ukraine.
Our family, students and stuff send you their greetings and gratitude for your patience and support of God’s work in Ukraine. We can already see some of the results of our work; our graduates are serving at the churches, making them spiritually strong.
With love in Christ,
Your brother Dennis Sopelnik
To see Dennis’ report with pictures, please click here.