January 2010 Report

Greetings from Ternopil Church of Christ!

Happy New Year to all of you!

We can’t boast of beautiful decorations and illuminations as I could see in Abilene and all over the USA on the eve of Christmas. But Ukrainians also love celebrating New Year and Christmas, and on December 31 we gathered in the church building together and had a very good time greeting one another, exchanging gifts, fellowshipping and praying.

It was probably the first time in the history of the church that people could take off their heavy winter coats and feel warm and comfortable in the worship hall. Young people decorated the hall and prepared a slide-show of the church activities in 2009. This Thursday on January 7, we are going to have a special Christmas prayer meeting and a potluck lunch with prayers of thanks. We will appreciate if you join us in our prayers.

About our studies:

We have already written you about our intentions to hold a Bible seminar together with our brothers form Chernivtsi. We were very glad to meet Dmytro Galyuk, Volodymyr Shoot’ and three other members of their church. Dmytro and Volodymyr, who are about 40 years old, both graduated from Kyiv School of preachers and are very knowledgeable. The studies were very successful, and we agreed that we would like to have such studies more often, with the involvement of preachers from churches of Christ in Ukraine. The boundaries of our ministries are being extended. Similarly to the requests of the biblical hero Jabez, the Lord has answered our prayers.

About finances.

We are very grateful to the Lord for having such a financial support in maintaining the church building in proper condition.

Our church donations cover the needs of needy and sick members, cleaning and other needs which are not indicated in my financial reports.

We hope for cutbacks of these expenses in the New Year due to the installation of the partially electrical heating of the building. However, we have an increase of transport expenses because we started giving more transport services in taking young people for ministries and evangelization. About two weeks ago we went 140 km south of Ternopil to encourage and support a young paralyzed woman, who is raising a teenage son together with her elderly mother. The more activities – the more expenses.

Some church news:

I would love to see you again and visit you with my assistant Taras Lopushnyak. It is very good news that Taras has been enrolled in St Petersburg Bible University. Oksana has fully integrated back into her Ukrainian family, and all of us can see that she has become even more eager and talented in her ministries. Dima has also been very active in the church life and even has time to improve his achievements in studies and swimming.

We are asking for God’s blessings for your new beginnings and plans, and may the Lord fill your hearts with His peace, joy and love!

With love in Christ,

Volodymyr