David is leaving soon for a missions trip to Novhorod-Siversky, a city in northern Ukraine on the border with Russia. Don’t worry – it’s far from the conflict zone! Please pray for hearts to be open to hear the Gospel and for the ministry we will have in the local churches.

The picture above is of David preaching with Anastasia, the local coordinator of the trip, translating at an evangelistic concert in Novhorod-Siversky in May, 2017.

Here is a message from Anastasia:

Novhorod-Siversky is a small town on the northern border of Ukraine with Russia. It’s in one of the poorest regions in all of Ukraine, with one of the highest alcoholism rates in the country. Families often drink together with their children, and the children pick up the poor habits of their parents. Young people often die there from alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Most people in Novhorod are Orthodox with a heavy accent on traditions and rituals and very little about Christ and God’s Grace. If you speak with people there, you can tell that very few of them have ever heard the Gospel about Jesus.

As far as Evangelistic churches in the city, there are only two of them. They are very small; one of them has forteen members, while the larger of the two has twenty-five. 90% of the people in those churches are over 50 years old. Because of the vision of those churches and the difference in age, it is very hard for them to reach the youth in their city, and the youth don’t have any desire to come to church.

However, young people in Novhorod are very responsive to invitations to fellowship with Christians of the same age. Music is the language of the heart, and they are excited when we invite them to concerts. This is one of the ways that I see we can share the Gospel with them.

So, let’s do it together!

– Anastasia Furtak

We will have pictures of the trip when we get back. Thank you all for praying for us!