Dear brothers and sisters,
So, we are in 2023 now and soon we will mark a one year anniversary of Russian military aggression while the cruel war continues on our territory. We are not informed about the numbers of casualties, how many killed and wounded the war claims daily. This is a tremendous price we are to pay for our freedom. It seemed that one could have got used to anything with time but it's has not been so with the war with its devastation and death. So many people who are refugees and resetlers come to us looking for help and their number increases. The front lines are constantly changing and people leave their home places looking for safety. We ask for your prayers, we need them so much. Constant power outages and ongoing mobilization don't let us relax.
The church of Christ in Bela Tserkva.
With all these horrors in the background we keep ministering and got some good results. God opens up people's hearts and the Gospel didn't loose its power. In the beginning of the month we had a baptism. Oksana from Nikopol decided to let the Lord into her heart. Her family had moved to Bela Tserkva in the summer and they lived in the church building for about two weeks. Since then they were regular in attendance and the time came when she decided to submit to the great commission.
Every Sunday we have a lot of visitors who come for the grocery care packages. They share the information about the church by the word of the mouth giving us an opportunity to spread the Gospel among the unbelievers every Sunday.
The other news is that my family and some church members went to the winter retreat in Lviv. It was such an encouragement for us. We are very grateful to the congregation in Lviv and our brothers from the States (Walter and Chris) who raised funds for the event.
Bear Valley Bible Institute Ukraine
The classes at the Bible Institute resumed in the middle of January. The students had Homiletics II (with Dennis Sopelnik), The Religions of the World (with Albert Bagdasarian) and Romans (A. Rodichev). And the happiest event of the month of January was the wedding of our student Viacheslav Shmakov. He married Margarita, his girlfriend of many years, who was baptized last summer. Now they are the man and his wife. There wasn't a big celebration. They wanted to save up and have something fancier in the spring. We helped them to rent an apartment so they would have a place of their own. With all the dreadful stuff that's going on God keeps us safe and gives us beautiful moments.
We are so appreciative of your help and your love for us. We are very grateful for the funds that allow our students to stay in school and get Biblical education.
Your brother,
Dennis Sopelnik