Greetings, dear brethren, churches and families,
These days, just as always, church should be the foundation of truth and refrain from panic over the viruses threats. All over the world corona virus pandemic is spreading and panic overwhelms even some of the church leaders. There some confirmed cases in our country and a lot of people are scared of the future events. However, in the Bible Institute everything is happening according to the schedule. In a week we will have a week of personal evangelism practice and then a week of break. We will be careful and diligent with precautions and I am sure God will take care of us.
In February we started the prison ministry. The governmental officials gave us permission to visit a maximum security colony three times a month. It's a very unusual ministry for us. Our congregation never had this experience. But we have graduated some people who had had personal history of incarceration and now they are a part of prison ministry evangelical team. We are not allowed to take photos or make videos there. We can take nothing with us except for the Bibles. Currently we have a Bible study group with 11 regular attendees. Every one of them is a convicted felon, some are murderers but they assure us that they are very sorry and repentant and want to change their lives for better. Of course, actions speak louder than words, and we will see if there are real changes in their lives.
Also last month Michael and Janine Underwood ministered alongside with us. It's a wonderful family of missionaries who demonstrate an example of faithful service, patience and Christian care. Every year Michael teaches two courses in a row. This year he taught 1 and 2 Peter and Jude and also a course of Pauline Prison Epistles.
We found some potential students for the next school year. There is a young family from Poltava. They both want to study and we had a meeting to discuss some peculiarities of their education. And another contact is a young man from Odessa. He graduated from a naval school and couldn't find a job in the field. He was interested in applying to our Bible Institute.
Last week we hosted a local seminar on "Motivation in Service". We had guests from a few Ukrainian congregations. There were brethren from Dnipro, Kiyv and Brovary. We discussed how to motivate the church to ministry, what kind of ministries are there and how to strengthen the Church from within. We try to broadcast our lessons in the social media and make it available for distant brethren.
Brother Denton Landon, who taught the Book of Isaiah, had to leave one-day sooner. As you know, nothing like this was really had been anticipated, but all flights from Europe to the States were canceled and he found an emergency flight via London to return home. We are very grateful to brother Landon for his service to us and his active part in the life of our Bible Institute.
We are thankful to everyone who keeps us in your prayers, who supports our ministry. Apostle Paul encouraged us to cast all of our cares on Him because God cares for us. The whole world is scared of the corona virus but sadly not fearful of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God grant us wisdom in everything.
God bless,
Your brother Dennis Sopelnik