Woodland
Hills Church of Christ
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NEWS FROM PROLETARSKYMay, 2002 Dear Family and Friends, We hope this finds you all happy and healthy in every way. The weather has finally become HOT, although there was a frost last week that killed gardens in some locations. According to the Ukrainian calendar, summer officially begins this Saturday, the 1st of June, so Happy Summer to everyone. We are happy to report that two souls were added to God's Family during the month of May. Dima is a student in one of Donetsk's universities studying computers. Valerya is a former coal miner who was initially contacted during summer campaign work in 1996. Things don't always happen as quickly as we would like for them to, do they? We have some regular visitors who we hope and pray are "in the pipeline" and we can soon tell you about them becoming brothers and sisters. One of our brothers, Alexander (coal miner), will begin teaching a Saturday class for those who are seeking the truth. We rejoice over the return of two of our members who have been away from us for over a year. Ludmila and Andrew spent a while as Jehovah's Witnesses and we pray that they have put all their issues to rest and are back on firm spiritual ground! It is a joy to see our members putting into practice many Christian principles. Two weeks ago, the Friday night ladies class was held in the home of Anna, a diabetic who lost her second leg a few months ago. Several of the ladies traveled to her home to sing, pray, encourage and wish her a happy birthday. This past Sunday evening, several people went to the home of Galina, who is also in a wheelchair to take the Lord's supper to her. Although the young men of the congregation usually bring her to Sunday services in her wheelchair, she had been sick for several days and unable to attend worship. Ukraine Bible Institute's graduation was held on May 25. One of our members, Anatole Pisarev, graduated from UBI after 2 years of study. We are proud of Anatole and the work he is doing now: teaching, preaching and working with the youth. Please remember his wife, Vita, in your prayers as she is in the hospital and was unable to attend the graduation ceremony. Charles Evans and his interpreter, Igor, are attending evening services at Proletarsky and even taking their turn in preaching for us. As we mentioned last month, Charles and Igor are working in the Kubishev Region of Donetsk with several congregations there. We always enjoy visiting with them. We were so happy to see Doug and Marge Reeves on a few occasions during the month of May. Doug spoke at UBI graduation and at our Sunday morning service this week. We had approximately 90 people in attendance, including many visitors. In May, Lynn had her turn to travel to Kiev along with Marge and Linda Sneed. We look forward to some very special visitors in the month of June. Gene and Mary Parker are planning to return and, considering the amount of time they have devoted to working here, it would be more accurate to call them citizens than visitors. We are so thankful for Gene's recovery and we look forward to working together with them again. Another visitor will be Alicia Mostovich, a member at Proletarsky who is currently studying at the Mississippi University for Women. Alicia, we are waiting for you! The Kyiv Post of May 23, 2002, carried an interesting article entitled "Missionaries Find Fertile Ground". The article describes the current religious situation in Ukraine, saying, "Unlike counterparts in Russia who have reported harassment and discrimination at the hands of authorities, missionaries working in Ukraine say that their churches enjoy religious freedom". The article went on to report that the Mormon church has 200 missionaries in Ukraine. It also reported that "Foreign churches, especially the financially strong Mormons and Baptists, are the fastest-growing churches in Ukraine". On one hand, we are so thankful to God that the door to spread the gospel is 'wide-open' in Ukraine. On the other hand, this has encouraged groups such as Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Baptists to focus their efforts on evangelism here with missionaries, literature, etc. In addition, the Russian Orthodox and Catholic churches already have a huge presence here. Thank you so much for your prayers and support in taking the gospel of Christ to the people of Ukraine. We love and appreciate you all, |