Dear brethren and churches,
I'd like to share with you the latest news from the Bible Institute, some local congregations in Ukraine and on the occupied territories.
Churches on Christ in the East of the country.
Unfortunately, the situation in our country remains unstable. The military conflict in the East of the country still continues. Fortunately, many churches in the region keep worshiping. In the city of Khartzysk (that is located in the middle of the DPR (unlawfully proclaimed republic) they had 5 baptisms recently. The preacher of this congregation Vasiliy Pavlovich shared this great news over the phone. We used to financially help this congregation and thanks to the joined efforts God added saved souls to the Church. Probably the people of that part of the country appreciate the Good News more since their only hope is the Lord. One member of that congregation is working on getting the permits to cross the border, he has a big desire to become a student of our Institute.
If you are willing to help people on the occupied territories I'd be more than happy to answer your questions and provide you with the necessary information. There is another local congregation there in Donetsk which we were able to help once and it was very needed. This money was given to 2 families who were in big financial turmoil. There was a young lady who was fighting cancer in one family and there was a man who had got a head injury during the shelling in the other family. Praise the Lord that in both families medical help was successful.
Bible Institute.
Currently we are getting ready for the next school year. The classes will start in September. We will have to purchase the necessities for the new school year. We are expecting more than 14 new students and we will need desks and chairs. Also we will have to rent additional apartments. These are pleasant tasks because we are thrilled that more people want to join the Bible program and devote their lives to the service of the Lord. We will have students from all parts of Ukraine and it's a big progress. Only two years ago most of our students were from the eastern part of Ukraine but now we are targeting the whole country. We were able to achieve this goal by very active recruitment activities and personal visits to the local congregations. I am very thankful to my assistant Alexey Mitskutis for the great job. This young leader demonstrates intensive spiritual growth.
Churches of Christ in Ukraine.
A terrific news came from Lviv where our graduates continue laboring. Bogdan, Stanislav and Dmitriy and their families have established a new congregation there in the October of the last year. This part of the country is very difficult in regards to evangelism. The Catholic Church is very rooted there but God keeps working through our team of young evangelists. Yesterday they had yet another baptism. This is the third baptism since they've started. One man from this young congregation will study in the Bible Institute.
We've also got some good news from Dnipropetrovsk where our brother and graduate Alexander Rodichev serves as a preacher. He is a faithful brother whose family has worked in this city for a few years now. They have a good team of teachers and they run children's' school "Smart Elephant". Every year brother Jeff Abrams and his team help Ukrainian churches to run a family camp "Amerikraine". This year they had 14th camp. We are thankful to Jeff and his team for this service and their help. We had 7 baptisms this year in "Amerikraine" camp where some saved ones were from Dnipropetrovsk. My wife and I were able to worship with that congregation this month and I taught a Bible class. This is an amazing Christian family with the desire to grow.
Everything is going well in our home congregation in Bela Tserkva. We take turns preaching with other brothers and it gives our students an opportunity to practice as well. Also we made plans to have VBS in the city in the end of August so we will follow up and invite children to the Sunday school. My wife Vera and some sisters from this congregation are getting ready for the VBS.
In August we plan to have a meeting for the preachers and teachers on the Church of Christ in the city of Chernivtsy. This time the topic will "The role of women in the church". I hope this will help us to discuss different aspects of this interesting subject, have good fellowship and establish new contacts. And we also made plans to do some exterior and interior improvements in our church building in August getting the church building ready for the future use.
Dear brethren, churches and families, thank you for your prayers, support and care for us. You labor with us here. We know that a lot of good work in Ukraine wouldn't be done without your generosity.
Your brother and co-worker,
Dennis Sopelnik
To see the pictures that accompanied this report click HERE
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