Dear brethren,
I trust the Lord was merciful to you and you were strengthened by His power. In January and the beginning of February we had a lot of interesting and exciting events in the Institute and the local church.
As I had written in the previous report we had some very strongly implemented quarantine restrictions during 3 weeks of January. Educational institutions, some businesses, restaurants and cafes were closed. It hurt the country's economy but hindered the spread of the virus in a positive way. As of now the peak of the epidemic is in the past.
My family had a successful trip to the winter retreat for the Western Ukrainian congregations. It's an annual event hosted by the brethren of Lviv Church of Christ in partnership with some American churches. They try very hard to unite the Christians from the Western Ukraine and encourage them. The congregations in the Western part of the country are few in numbers, so the events of this nature are very successful. Personally I enjoyed great lessons, fellowship with many dear brothers and sisters in person, meeting new friends and telling them all about the ministry of our Bible Institute.
We had most of our January classes in the building. It's a great blessing to maintain peace and keep studying the Word. We are very grateful to all congregations and families who support our students letting our them focus on the deep studies of the Holy Scriptures, keeping them from the need of working outside jobs in the effort of providing for their families. Thus, our second year students had the following classes: Homiletics, part 2 (Instructor - Stanislav Kuropyatnikov), Personal Evangelism (Valentin Tsopa), Romans (Andrew Zhuravlev) and Prison Epistles (Dennis Sopelnik).
We are also very grateful to the Lord for healing the brethren after having been seriously sick with corona virus. Our preacher Konstantin Kisilenko as well as Sergey Gritsenko were hospitalized in the serious conditions. Thanks to God and right therapy, they are home now completing their recovery.
Just a few days ago we had the most joyful event when one more person was added to the Lord's family - brother Victor from Konstantinivka. He moved to Bila Tserkva searching for a job because his home city is struggling with employment problems. He has some friends here and they kept inviting him to Sunday worship services and studying the Bible. After these efforts I had a personal study with him as well. As the result Victor decided to obey the Gospel. The rest of his family is still in Konstantinivka and we hope that they will join him in the right decision of obedience to the Savior.
The other news we have is that the next portion of "A Commentary on Job" by Homer Hailey was printed. Thanks to the financial help of brother Jim Mettenbrink we are able to accomplish such interesting projects. After the books are printed we ship them to the Ukrainian congregations. During the last four years we were able to provide the local congregations' libraries with 4 books of different commentaries. All of the congregations were very thankful for the opportunity to read and study the Word,
Our family, our church and the Bible Institute send you greetings and our love.
Thank you for the constant prayers and support for us.
Your brother and coworker in the Lord's vineyard,
Dennis Sopelnik