Dear brothers and sisters as well as anyone who reads Bear Valley Bible Institute in Ukraine news,
It's been a month since the beginning of the new school year. I mentioned before that we have 6 new students. All of them are young people and their grades are very good. In September the 1st year students studied Homiletics (taught by Stanislav Kuropiatnikov), Plan of Salvation and Family Life (by Jim Sherman) as well as How We Got the Bible and Christian Evidences (by Albert Bagdasaryan). The 2nd year students had Ezra, Nehemiah and Ester (Denton Landon), Leadership (Andrew Zhuravlev), Ethics and Intertestamental Period (Dennis Sopelnik) and Greek (Terry Harmon).
It's a very intense schedule of studies. Every Instructor gives homework that includes writing plans of sermons and study papers. In our experience the first two months of the school year are extremely challenging for our students and later on they are getting used to work load and Institute's rules and policies. Many of our students learn patience, good time management and appreciate the importance of saving souls daily thanks to the rigorous schedule.
Because of such intense schedule our students can't work outside jobs. We are constantly looking for congregations and individual brethren who can help us support training of the future workers in the Kingdom. So, as you see, all parties have to work hard for the success of the Lord's work. Apostle Paul took no small efforts in training the next generation of evangelists. He left us an example of keeping alive and preserving the power of Gospel by teaching the next generation of disciples.
This month we have another great news to share with you. We were able to publish the Commentary on the Book of Isaiah by Jim Mettenbrink in Bila Tserkva. This project was initiated by the author and now a lot of congregations in Ukraine will have teaching aid for this prophetic book study. In the years before such publishing projects used to be carried out in Russia and the books would be shared with the congregations of the neighboring countries. Now Jim Mettenbrink decided to help the church in Ukraine and we are truly thankful for his work and good quality commentary to this Old Testament book.
Due to some logistic changes our Masters course will be taught in Bela Tserkva as well. We are expecting our Masters students in November and, as I understand, it will be the last in class session for them. And then in May of 2019 we have the graduation for both Bachelor and Master degree students. I have high hopes that some of the Masters will become our new Instructors and join our faculty.
Lately I had a very encouraging news. Our 2018 graduate Alexander Belorusov is successfully teaching and preaching in his home town of Zugress that is currently occupied by pro-Russian militants. He courageously meets with the local Christians every Sunday and because of his efforts the church still congregates. I ask for your fervent prayers for the Christians who are in danger of militant, political and religious persecution in the Eastern parts of Ukraine.
We are truly thankful for your support and prayers. We have done a lot together and yet we need to do a lot more. God bless you!
Your brother,
Dennis Sopelnik, Director, BVBI-U