Report August – September 2014 BVBIU
The disruption of the Bear Valley Biblical Institute of Ukraine has stopped with the beginning of the new classes in Ternopil! Here is the report from Denis Sopelnik that you will find encouraging! The attached PDF has pictures that Denis sent with his report.
Hello dear brothers, families and churches.
I’m happy to inform you that in the last month we managed to start a new congregation in Ternopil and organize the work of the Bible institute. Thank you for your prayers.
The church in Ternopil.
In the middle of August we had our first church service at the place we rent. Before that we’ve been doing some renovations and repairs at that place, painting the walls, buying the needed furniture and things. We often thought about our building in Gorlovka; everything was running smoothly there. It’s difficult to understand what exactly is going on with us, but life moves on, and souls are in need of salvation still. There were 11 people at our first service, and there were 15 people present at the second. Many of them are the refugees from the Eastern Ukraine who previously were connected to the institute. God continues blessing us. There are brethren at church (Bogdan Chigvintsev and Eugene Tebel), who are BVBIU graduates, and we’ll take turns preaching at the church. In September we plan to start a program to work with kids, young people and families. Our sisters in Christ prepared a nice opening of Bible school for kids. They bought all the necessary materials. It’s difficult to predict the results, considering the fact that people in this area are speaking in Ukrainian only, and for many people we represent eastern Ukraine (where military actions take place), besides they vies us as strangers. People are tightly connected to history and culture of their area and are very proud of their Ukrainian heritage. Nevertheless, we will do God’s work here, and we want to find faithful people eager to study God’s word.
Bible institute.
On September 1, we started the new school year. I witnesses yet again that prayers of many of us are working. At the end of May, many people thought that we wouldn’t be able to restructure and continue our work later this year. We have lost a lot indeed; many valuable and rare books stayed at the occupied building together with almost all office technique, TV for web-conferencing, furniture and many other things that help us to run the school smoothly. I was worried about the teachers from eastern Ukraine that they wouldn’t be able to travel to Ternopil. Also it was difficult to find apartments for the students. Due to the recent military events, the landlords want to lend apartments mostly to the locals, besides prices are going up rapidly. But we have successfully started the school year, and we have three new students. We have 8 students in total in both classes. Teachers from all regions of Ukraine and from the US are willing to come and teach. I’m grateful for every faithful brother who supports our ministry and believes in the future of Ukraine and God’s church in this country. It’s always difficult to start from scratch, and Satan is actively working to prevent God’s work to be successful. Please keep us in your prayers. Your short letters provide a great inspiration for me to move forward. I’m grateful for your encouragement.
The situation in Ukraine is still tense. Military actions continue to take place in Gorlovka, but the school building wasn’t damaged yet.
The church in Ternopil and Bear Valley Biblical Institute of Ukraine send you their greetings and thanks for your support and constant prayers.
Your brother and co-worker for the Lord’s cause,
Dennis Sopelnik
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