Tag: church

Ministries to Pray For

DavidLeave a comment

Recently a friend of mine that’s on the missions committee of a church that supports us asked for a basic rundown of the ministries we are involved in to pray for and understand what we’re doing right now. Sometimes I don’t think I do enough to keep you guys informed on what we do everyday! Here’s the list that I gave to her:

  1. Katya is translating curriculum for biblical counseling.
  2. I am adapting a book called “The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses” by Chris Bruno for our small group at church—it’s a great tool for a group like ours, which has unbelievers, new believers, and strong believers all at the same time.
  3. We are both studying at the local seminary, which takes up a lot of our time—right now we are studying Hebrew Exegesis via Ruth, Koine Greek, and Philosophy in Theology. All of those subjects are challenging and exciting in one way or another.
  4. I’m working on witnessing to local JW’s, as they are very prevalent in Ukraine (there are more JW’s than Baptists and Pentecostals combined in Ukraine).
  5. The worship team I lead is growing by leaps and bounds—we are playing our own arrangements of worship songs, and I’m hoping to start writing our own worship songs with them soon (something VERY needed in the Ukrainian context).
  6. We have a worship retreat coming up in June where we may have an opportunity to try to write a new song—I will be one of the leaders at that retreat.
  7. I am part of the preaching team at church, though I only preach a few times a year (not including invitations to preach or teach at other churches from time to time).
  8. I am teaching a class on prayer and worship this month at the local seminary.

I recently read Deuteronomy 6 in my devotions and was reminded about the importance of passing on our faith well to the next generation—most of what we do is involved in that somehow. Please pray for these ministries, that God would help us to be good ministers of the Gospel and His truth!

– David

P.S. Here is the last livestream from our worship team…

Happy (?) new year!

Explosions in Lviv are not the fireworks we wanted for New Years

DavidLeave a comment

I’m actually really excited about 2024—God is growing us and changing us in many different ways. There has been so much shift and change in the past 365 days that I know He is doing something good, new, and possibly big. However, this year started out already pretty rough for us. Russia began the new year celebrations by bombing all of Ukraine constantly from about December 29th until yesterday (January 3rd). Moreover, that’s just what we experienced in Western Ukraine—Eastern Ukraine, closer to the front, has had no break whatsoever, regardless of the holidays. Here are a couple of pictures I took or friends took from an explosion that happened in the neighborhood of our old church in southern Lviv:

A view of the blast crater from above
I took a selfie from a distance, showing how far away the blast affected other buildings—I’m standing right next to the kindergarten where we replaced windows.
This apartment building was most affected by the blast. Other organizations were helping with the cleanup there, and our church was advised to help with other affected areas.
Inside a classroom in a school that was hurt by the blast

As you can imagine, explosions from rocket attacks in Lviv are not the fireworks we wanted for New Years. However, God used even this! Just a few hours after the attacks, when the coast was clear, our new church, Ukrainian Bible Church, jumped right in with the cleanup. One of the buildings that was damaged by this explosion was a kindergarten where a girl from our church works—we went there and helped to repair windows, clean up glass, and make the place ready to serve kids in the neighborhood again.

I’m really proud to be a part of a church that’s ready in a moment’s notice on a weekday in the middle of the workday to just drop everything and help the community. Katya and I live on the other side of town (we drove more than an hour to get to the neighborhood where the cleanup was happening), and by the time we got there, the work was basically finished! Ukrainians are amazing—please keep praying for them, for their spirits to be high, and for God to bring revival here.

Our church has organized a round–the–clock, year–long fast in 2024 for a “just peace” and for Ukraine in general. For this to happen, each of our church members has agreed to fast for two full days out of the year. However, anyone can take part in the fasting and praying for Ukraine—if you would like to, please contact us, and I (David) will get you more information.

God is working in Ukraine; we can feel it and see it around us. He is opening up opportunities to talk with neighbors and build relationships with unbelievers, He is growing our local churches, and He is bringing outsiders into His flock. Please pray for us to have the boldness and the words we need to share with our friends and neighbors the great news of the hope we have in Christ (Ephesians 6:19).

God bless you all! Happy new year!

Preaching today!

DavidLeave a comment

davidandruslanRuslan, a good old friend of ours, asked David at the last minute yesterday to preach at his church. He is the pastor from Katya’s old church. Please be praying for both of us. David was up really late working on the sermon, and Katya is going to translate for him. Please pray for the Word to go out, lives to be touched, and hearts to be changed!