Dear brothers and sisters,
The warmest greetings to you in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
With great joy I thank you for your prayers for our family and ministry. Thank you very much for your financial support; it is a great blessing for us. May our Lord reward you hundredfold and generously provide your every need!
The hard and tense year for our country is over. We could never have thought that so many things would change so fast. Fighting in the Eastern Ukraine, fear of war in the entire country, refugees, increase of prices, it all affects people and only Jesus Christ keeps encouraging us, sending peace and joy to our hearts. As Jesus promised in John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Recently our congregation pays much attention to worship God and encouraging people. We have organized the worship group and plan to develop this ministry in our congregation. On our Sunday worship service we spend about one hour worshipping God – singing, sharing testimonies about God’s work in our lives and prayers. Still, we feel the lack of prayer, so we decided with our group of brothers that we will gather on a special prayer meetings once a month to pray for each member of our church by name, for every teenager and child who attends our services or Sunday school, because only God can change hearts.
We also want to thank you for your prayer and financial support. Today we especially realize how valuable it is for us. Despite all the difficulties, we have many reasons for joy. The great joy for our family is our youngest son Timofei. He’s a very cheerful and beautiful boy. Photo 1 – dedication prayer for him in the church.
More and more we get convinced that if our priority is ministry to God, then we’ll surely have blessings. The example of it is the life of a young sister Natalia from our church. For several years she has been a member of our church but never showed any initiative in ministry. Because of her job she often missed the Sunday services. Her husband is an unbeliever and their relationships were very tense. He was against church. Natalia felt her spiritual weakness. A sister in our church prayed for her and her family and once Natalia said, “I want my husband and daughter to be saved, so I have to place God in the first place in my life”. She left her job and started helping in our day center. It contributed much to her spiritual growth. Then the Lord made a miracle – He disposed her husband’s heart and gave additional income to her family. Now Natalia serves much in the children’s ministry, as well as in the worship group and dreams for her entire family to serve God altogether (photo 2).
Recently our teenage club is actively developing. Boys and girls feel rather free on our meetings, they ask questions, sing and pray. Many of them come to our worship services. Considering the fact that the majority of these teenagers are poor, we prepare a snack for them every time. “Jesus called His disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way” (Matthew 15:32). We also pray God to strengthen their hearts and help us build relationships with their parents.
I would like to share one passage from God’s Word that speaks about one of our aims on this earth – advance of the Gospel. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). Amen!
With love and prayers for you,
Ruslan Buryachok
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