Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
It's already the middle of March 2024 and the cruel and merciless war in Ukraine continues. Two years of the constant terror and bloodshed. People learned to function in stress. The social programs' funding gets less and less money. The people got poorer considerably. With these events in the background we appreciate so much the most valuable help from our American brethren who sacrificially give towards the needs of refugees. This way we spread the Gospel and the people also receive a chance to be saved.
The Bible Institute faithfully continues its ministry. In February and March we had the following subjects - Minor Prophets, part 1, The Wisdom Literature (Instructor Dennis Sopelnik) and the Book of Job (Dmytro Galyuk). After each course the students have to take the written test and also the oral part of the testing. Our online studies definitely don't substitute the personal presence but it's the only safe option of keeping the studies going.
We keep working with the refugees in Leipzig as well. For us it's a wonderful opportunity to have fellowship with Ukrainians and share the Gospel with them. We don't have a lot of opportunities for the evangelism here so we try to use every chance we have.
I'd like to request your prayers for our bothers Dennis and Valentine who are in military now. Our student Dennis got married recently and he was allowed a short leave for the occasion. He was on the front line position with 0 distance to the enemy, it means he occasionally was 100-200 meters away from the enemy trenches. A lot of fellow soldiers who had been drafted with him lost their lives. We keep him in our prayers at all times and it was God's good will to keep him alive. And one of our Instructors Valentin is also in the military serving as an officer in the headquarters. He aged considerably in the recent six months. His physical health deteriorated due to the constant stress and lack of sleep. Both of them, as well as thousands of our defenders, need your fervent prayers.
I'm very thankful to all of our preachers who try and help the needy. As an example I will tell about a very interesting event that happened in Bela Tserkva. Our brother in Christ and the local preacher Konstantin contacted one humanitarian fund. Those people came with their own pizza baking equipment and literally in the back yard of the church building cooked and gave away free of charge a lot of pizza. All the refugees who are in the city were told about the upcoming event and hundreds of people had a joyful feast. Of course, it was only a one time event that doesn't resolve the humanitarian catastrophe but the people got a little hope for rejoicing. I wish you could see the eyes of the children who were given free pizza. They swallowed their slices in seconds!
The world has always been cruel, and only the love of God helps and keeps it in existence.
May God keep each of you.
Your brother,
Dennis Sopelnik