Thank you for your concern and for praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People
Dear Friends of BIEM,
1. Our missionary Sasha Petrenko in Goncharivske, Ukraine, joined forces with some others to make yet another evangelistic aid trip, this time to soldiers near the eastern front. Because the Petrenkos live and minister in a military community, Sasha has personal ties with many soldiers, providing access to the same ones he has already preached to multiple times. Among the valuable items Sasha and others delivered to the front was a special large item. Learn more about that trip in our latest video update here.
2. The Ukrainian military asked the church that BIEM’s Vitaly Yurchenko planted in Chervona Sloboda whether they could house 20 soldiers who are to receive a 3-week leave while the battalion is rebuilt. (These men have been involved in some of the heaviest fighting and represent half of the 40 men surviving from their original battalion of 200.) This is a wonderful opportunity to share not just war relief but also the Gospel with these soldiers. Please pray for the Lord to open their eyes spiritually and that they will embrace Christ as Savior.
3. In December, we shared how a young man named Misha (the nephew of a BIEM missionary couple) survived numerous battles and put his faith in Christ. He is now being redeployed to the frontlines in Bakhmut, where life expectancy is very short. As far as we know, Misha is the only believer in his new unit. The family asks, “Please pray for him to stand strong in Christ and to return safely after the war.”
4. Today our website (BaptistInternational.org) was down momentarily. This was due to a massive attack on the DNS service we use to host our website. Apparently, Russia is behind this as part of the cyber warfare they are conducting against many sites and services in the United States. Please pray that we will be able to continue our internet presence through our website, which has been an important tool in our War Relief efforts. If you have trouble connecting to our site, please try again later. So far, the problems our site is experiencing seem to be intermittent.
5. As BIEM continues to depend on local Ukrainian churches to distribute humanitarian aid to the needy, we try to monitor the overall situation among churches during the war. In February, the Institute for Religious Freedom released updated information that, across Ukraine, the number of churches destroyed, severely damaged, or looted by Russian occupation forces has risen to 494. (This figure includes denominations quite different from our own.) But, praise God, of the 50+ church buildings built by BIEM, so far none of them have been destroyed. Only some received superficial damage to windows, etc., from nearby bomb blasts.
Sam Slobodian
President - BIEM