Praises – Rejoice with us!
Our dear brother in Christ, Peter Rumachik, has gone to be with the Lord. We praise God for the life of this dedicated servant of God who was a blessing and example to all of us. He spent 18.5 years in Soviet prisons and labor camps because of his uncompromising faith in the Lord. The funeral was Feb. 2. Our next Challenger will share more about brother Peter.
The winter session of Kyiv Theological Seminary is now completed. Subjects included “Bibliology,” “Holiness,” “Exegesis,” “Hermeneutics,” and “Methods of Teaching.” We praise the Lord, both for God-fearing instructors and for eager students, who immediately begin applying in their personal ministries the things they learn in the Seminary.
As one of our missionaries in Central Asia recently wrote, “This past year has been one with smattered bouts of intense persecution for some of our national church-planting families, but as always followed by waves of blessings.” We praise God for those blessings, and for strengthening those whom this world has tried to intimidate into silence.
In Belarus, BIEM missionary Nikolai Ryzhuk expresses thanks for you, BIEM friends. After describing a special evangelistic service held in Brest for orphans (with 250 present, 85% unbelievers), Nikolai writes, “Praise the Lord that in the West there are sweet, kind, sacrificing, and loving people—YOU—who helped us to do this!” We echo his sentiment!
Praises – Rejoice with us!
In Sepahua, Peru, missionary Wilber Huillca says, “I request prayer, that God will help and give us wisdom in reaching more young people with the Gospel of Christ.” He expresses thanks to the Lord for souls saved through their ministry in 2018 but yearns to see more!
BIEM church planter Vitaly Bilyak and a team of dedicated children’s workers have launched a new orphanage ministry in Ternopil, Ukraine. They have made several trips to a nearby orphanage and established good rapport with the director. Now that a ministry team is in place, please pray for this monthly outreach to the nearly 150 needy orphans.
For this May, a special missions conference focusing on Central Asia has been planned to coincide with the Spring session of Kyiv Theological Seminary. Please pray that God will bless this effort and call Ukrainians to ministry in Muslim lands.
Although it’s still winter, it’s not too early for BIEM’s missionaries to begin planning for summer camps. It’s also not too early to donate to the camp fund. The camping ministry always requires many thousands of dollars, but the camps always make a valuable spiritual impact on young lives. Please pray for finances, for the leaders, and for God to prepare the hearts of children and teens!