Missionary Update            February 2003 Newsletter

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ!

I thank the Lord for the entrusted task of a church planter.  Thank you for your special care for the Lord's work here in Ukraine and for your valuable contributions, so that we could be totally given to ministry.  May the Lord bless you and repay hundredfold!

The Lord sent me a wonderful wife Tatyana and two sons: Bogdan (3) and Mark (18 months).  We are expecting our third baby soon.  I'm glad that my wife feels fine and her pregnancy goes along well.  Up till now I've been experiencing special God's blessings on my family and myself.  My wife understands me and blesses my ministry, we have physical strength to do God's work.

I thank the Lord for my assistants in ministry, who are filled with gifts and desire to perform it.  The Lord allowed us to start several Bible study groups in our church: one for men and two for women, according to a special program.  We also have a Christian youth club, where the church youth can invite their friends, sings songs together, fellowship and study the Bible.

The Lord gave us opportunities to have one-time outreach educational programs in schools as we presented the subjects of AIDS, Drugs, Sex etc.

At this time my ministry is in Svityaz church, where I perform the responsibility of pastor, and I also help the pastor in Shatsk church.  We have 60 to 65 in attendance in the Svityaz church and 20 to 25 in the Shatsk church, on a Sunday morning.  Both churches have Sunday schools for children.

 

 

Our church members mostly have no jobs and most of their income comes from their vegetable gardens and farming.  The church in Shatsk has its own facility, where the church members are currently doing some renovations to use it as a House of Prayer.  Our church life was filled with happy as well sad moments.  Two elderly sisters went to be with the Lord.  Please pray for their husbands as they adjust to living by themselves.  There was also a happy event: two young people, who were baptized recently, will be married on February 23.  This is the first wedding in the young Shatsk church.

The desire of my heart is to start a new church in the village of Pulmo.  It's 20 miles away from where I live.  There are 400 families in this village, and many young people.  I already had some meetings with the school students there.

People in this area have a hard time getting a job, so they work in their fields and do farming for living.  The nearest big city is Kovel (55 miles away), Brest, Belarus (60 miles) and Lutsk (100 miles).

Thank you so much for your prayerful and financial support of my ministry.  Please keep praying for my ministry and a more effective work in the churches of Svityaz and Shatsk.

In Christ,

Vyacheslov Malinov