Greetings dear brethren,
February for our Institute was quite eventful. First of all, a few words about the weather. During the last three weeks in Ukraine we have been having some low temperatures (15-25 below zero in Celsius). It is not extremely low temperature but added to the high humidity it is hard to withstand this cold. Due to this it was rather cold in the building but we hope that March will be warmer.
Recruiting events
On first Sunday in February some students and I went to the church of Christ in Donetsk (Petrovsky district). It’s one of the largest congregations numerically. They have three elders, some deacons and preachers. We were able to do the BV presentation and establish a good connection with this congregation.
Also during this month we were able to visit church of Christ in Rubezhnoe (Lugansk region). It is a home congregation for our second year student Anatoly Chebotar. I preached there at Sunday service and also told them about the BV work. Some men were interested in our Institute. Please pray for our prospective students.
In the beginning of March our students will go to the conference in Kiyv and we made arrangements with the stuff of the event to give them the floor and do our presentation.
I assume that information about our Institute is available to all churches of Christ in Ukraine. We try and tell about our work and encourage Christians who want to serve in the Lord’s Kingdom to come to us.
Time after classes in the Institute
Our students have already established some traditions and thanks to them they are able to feel like a part of big family. One of these traditions is birthday parties. This month we had 3 of them, including a birthday of the Instructor. In February we congratulated Stas and Helen as well as our Instructor Albert.
Also we have a very nice time at the gym. If you have never seen men and women playing soccer together you have to come to Ukraine. Also in my opinion we have very powerful, interesting and edifying youth group meetings that take place in our building. For a time being there had been mostly our students present but recently to our great joy some young people to Gorlovka joined us.
On February 14th the central congregation in Gorlovka baptized two young men Bogdan and Aleksey. They obeyed the Gospel and brother Stas baptized them. Also we had evangelical events on February 14th and 22nd.
At present, brothers Viktor Semikoz, Albert Bagdasaryan and I are teaching. The first year class has 1 and 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles and Minor Prophets. The second year has 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Hebrews.
We also have sad news about our first year student Alexander. We had to let him go due to his unchristian lifestyle. First of all, he failed more than half of the courses he took. Secondly, he continued to live in sin (smoking, alcohol and constant lying). After numerous talks to him we had to make him leave the program. Please pray that he repents and stays in the church.
If you have comments, questions or suggestions I am always ready to hear you out. Thank you, brethren, for your support and your prayers. We try very hard to make sure that the Lord’s money is used in the right way. Paul was very appreciative of the work that had been done for him in Macedonian churches (2 Cor. 8:3). We too are very thankful for the opportunity to train the church leaders for the congregations in Ukraine.
Your brother in Christ,
Dennis.