Buryachok, 2016 4th Quarter Updates

Dear brothers and sisters, dear fellow laborers,!

The warmest greetings to you in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

God is being merciful to us and keeps sending to us everything needed for life and godliness. To Him be all glory! We are so much grateful to Him for you and your prayer and financial support of our ministry. It is a great blessing for us. May our Lord reward you hundredfold and generously provide for your every need!

With the aim to use more efficiently this favorable time for preaching of the Gospel in our country, we put accent on the development of our helpers and leaders. Two of the brothers and one sister continue their study in the Biblical Seminary. Sisters, who sing in the worship group, have started taking the vocal classes. Sister Alyona, who has finished the Christian school, together with her helper Diana is leading the Sunday school for children. We pray for the development of this ministry and call brothers and sisters to take their children and grandchildren to every Sunday worship service. Because Jesus Christ said “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14) (pho. 1)

It is a great encouragement for us that new people come to our Sunday worship services. We continue the ministry of the day center for children and teenagers. We see how God is changing them and it brings great joy to us. They have learned to pray, memorize Bible verses, and have started understanding the Scriptures. With many of the families of these children we have built friendly relationships and pray, so that God will open Himself to them. About a month ago on one of the meetings of our team we set an aim to do our evangelistic ministry more active and make our congregation known to people. Of course, we had done it before because “a city on the hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). But now we have started several new projects, i.e. distribution of bread and New Testaments on the day of the remembrance of the Famine. It touched people’s hearts so much that with tears in their eyes they thanked us. And even when the bread finished, people kept coming and taking New Testaments, saying “I wish there would be more people like you”. We invited everyone to our worship service (photos 2, 3).

On the following Wednesday our team continued this outreach with the free distribution of tea, coffee and Christian literature on the central square of our village. It was a very favorable time, when we have an opportunity to tell people about Christ while they drink tea or coffee and in the end, to give the New Testaments to everyone who wishes.

We ask you to pray, so that this ministry will develop and so that we will have funds to continue it (photo 4).

In addition, >we gather during the Christmas Holidays to visit and congratulate all the staff of the county and village administrations and give them Bibles.

And in the end we want to thank you for your support and for the joint ministry for God’s glory. Now we’re praying, so that God will use us for the spiritual support in the neighbor villages. We also continue holding the groups of Bible study in the villages Grynivtsi in the house of our sister Lyudmila. By the way, not only her husband but her older sons also have started attending our worship services. And younger sons attend our Sunday school.

We also have started attending with preaching of God’s Word, the group of believers in the village Vygnanka. There to our meetings gather up to 8 people in the unheated place in the state of emergency. There was a large Christian congregation there in the past, but when local ministers were gone, younger believers scattered and older believers passed away. It saddens me greatly and I pray, so that God will restore the church there.

Dear friends, we are very much grateful to God for your support, which is very valuable for us. May in the coming year the Lord will strengthen us in the ministry for His glory!

With love and prayers for you,

Ruslan Buryachok