Dear brothers and sisters,
I hope you are doing well and keeping the faith. In the end of October Ukraine has entered into the red zone of quarantine and the government enforced a lot of restrictions that are still not lifted. However, we continue congregating in the church and it seems like it is still safe. The members have different opinions about worshiping in the building during yet another outbreak of the virus and, naturally, those who are cautious make their decisions every time whether to stay home or not. We streamline every service online.
In the beginning of November, the students went to the places of evangelical practice in different places of Ukraine. Matthew, Anton and Sasha went to Chernivtsy where they worked in partnership with the local congregation. The local preacher and our Instructor Dmitry Galiuk was supervising their activities. They had a very busy schedule. During that week they conducted a lot of youth group studies. They preached, visited the members and practiced street evangelism. Dennis went to his home city of Kharkiv and also paid a visit to the congregation in Kramatorsk. He held some youth meetings, and alongside with the church worked in the street evangelism efforts, as well as had some private studies too.
Beginning November 15 the students resumed their studies. Currently they have Genesis taught by Brovary Church of Christ Minister Viktor Semikoz.
In the first part of October I visited the rehabilitation center of the Church of Christ in Nikopol. Our graduate Sergiy Khovrich decided to continue his ministry there. During 4 years he lived in Bila Tserkva and helped us with maintenance in the church building. But the times changed and we encouraged him to serve the unfortunate and troubled people. About half of his own life Sergiy was incarcerated because he had been a very dangerous criminal. His life was changed when he obeyed the Lord. He graduated from our program and helped us during the time period of 4 years. Now God found him a place where he would be extremely useful. These days he teaches the Truth to men who are afflicted by different addictions (drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc.) I request prayers for him and his ministry that it may be fruitful and many people will be saved.
As for the next month, we are planning on having a few events in the church, meeting the church family being one of them. In the recent past we came to realize that fellowship is very important and when you lose it seems even more valuable.
Thank you for your help and support of our ministry. May God keep you and strengthen your hands.
Your brother and coworker in the vineyard of the Lord,
Dennis Sopelnik