Thank you for your concern and for praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People
Dear Friends of BIEM,
1. Last week we asked for prayer concerning Vitaly Yurchenko’s application for special permission to leave Ukraine and visit the United States again. We are glad to report that he and his wife Alona did receive this permission, so they will be with us for several weeks in February and March. We look forward to having him in supporting churches to give firsthand reports on how our relief efforts in Ukraine are opening the hearts of Ukrainians to turn to God and receive Christ as personal Savior. Thank you for praying!
2. Sasha Petrenko has returned safely from the battlefront in the East, where he and two others supplied warm clothing and many other needed supplies, including a generator, to a division of soldiers from their area. Because Sasha’s regular ministry focuses on the military base in Goncharovsk (near the Belarusian border), he and those with him personally know some of the recipients of their aid. They were able to distribute New Testaments to many soldiers and share the Gospel. You can view his report at the following link:
3. Many friends have contacted us for news regarding the draft notice that Igor, our church planter in the military city of Desna, received along with the other men on the city council. For now, Igor and these other deputies (councilmen and government representatives similar to our congressmen are called deputies in Ukraine) have jointly decided to disregard these notices, thinking that this may be some kind of aberration. Please pray that this matter will simply go away. One decision Igor and his wife Sasha made was for her to remain in the Ukrainian military. Since completing her training as an infantry soldier, she has worked in the training and support departments. They had been planning for her to terminate her service. However, they now feel that if he receives further draft notices while she is performing vital logistical work for the military, her duties will protect him from conscription.
4. On December 16 we shared how a young man named Bogdan visited his uncle at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Desna, Ukraine, with the goal of enlisting at the nearby military base. But when he heard the Gospel and believed on Christ, he altered his plan and stayed to learn more about God. As an update, Bogdan has now been conscripted into the military. Before leaving, he declared that, when he returns, he wants to serve on the staff of the rehab center where he first heard the Gospel and received salvation.
5. In January, BIEM’s Bruce Tuttle and local pastors Slava and Igor traveled with a team of Christian men and women to a village in the war zone. The pastor of the village church had been killed by shrapnel, leaving behind a wife and several children. Through that pastor’s testimony and death, many in the village who never attended church before have been coming to services and hearing the Gospel. The team conducted a church service plus a children’s day camp. As a result, another woman in the village trusted Christ. Of course, seeds of the Gospel were planted in many other hearts. May God water those seeds and harvest more souls.
Sam Slobodian
President - BIEM