Featured Photo: Distribution from the Ivano-Frankivsk church building continues. This van was loaded with Family Buckets, hygiene supplies, and other critically needed commodities. It will be taken to locations where those displaced by Russia’s invasion and occupation are seeking refuge. Among those helping are Ivan Skoleba, Koyla Didukh, and Vova Paziy of the Church of Christ in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Ivan Skoleba sends a report!
Greetings to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
Thank God we’ve lived through another month.
Situation in Ukraine is very tense, martial law restricts activities and brings pressure onto people and the society. At this point, we can see Russia becoming even more active. Her aggression toward Ukraine knows no limits.
Many people were hurt during the recent shelling of Central Ukraine. Every day brings much suffering and pain. There are so many displaced, wounded military; hospitals are overloaded; crying and dismay, fear in the eyes and words of people. Many lost all hope to return to their homes. Younger and older folks are those that suffer most.
War is horrible. It takes away our families and friends. My family and the Church in Ukraine have never faced such trials before. We thank all of you for prayers, unity in spirit, and your letters because these give us hope and encouragement.
We are thankful to the Hillsboro Church of Christ, to all brothers and sisters there, and especially to brother Ron for the letters that encourage us and the Lord’s Church here. Big thanks to brother Bill and sister Lyuba from Florida for their support and prayers, for their tremendous help to the displaced.
Our dear family in Christ, the Lord sees everything you do and will add it to your treasure in heaven. Our life is over in a wink, and each one of us is to stand before our Heavenly Father soon, thus I’d like for you to realize how important your support is, especially at this horrible time that Churches of Christ in Ukraine are facing. You help all of us be strong in spirit and treat one another with love and sympathy. We believe that this war will be over, too, but the world will never be the same to many of us, because tribulations change us making us stronger, revealing our strong and weak points, and improving all of us. And our faith in Christ helps us understand that everything is under Almighty’s control.
Today, people are more open to the Word of God and to His Church. Many more people turn to God. Together with giving away aid to people we talk to them about salvation, about Christ and His way to God the Father, which He showed us having given away his life for all of us. We are co-workers with you in this, dear American brethren in Christ.
These are our accomplishment in the Lord that you are a part to with us:
- We have moved to the new building and have been assembling there. Displaced from the East started attending the church. Our members help them and support these people and their families.
- All men work at our construction together with hired workers. We do all we can to move to the small meeting room and hope we can do so in July. The small meeting room is almost done but there are still some minor things to do. Then we’ll be able to use the whole ground floor and let in those families that are waiting for lodging.
- We give away humanitarian aid to hospitals, children’s home and families; work together with the administration receiving the information about needs from them and trying to address those needs in the first place. Big thanks to all brothers and sisters who put together family buckets. You should have seen the joy and gratitude in the eyes of those receiving the buckets, as well as your letters and drawings. One family even found money in an envelope. Everybody from children to elderly gives thanks to Churches of Christ. All of that makes our standing in Ivano-Frankivsk firmer giving us more opportunities for preaching the Gospel today and in future. Benevolence lifts all barriers that separate people and they are willing to hear and understand the Word of God.
- We teach and preach in Zelena where there are a lot of displaced people as well. People give their thanks for humanitarian aid. All men there are fighting and have left behind their wives and children. The war has made some of them widows and orphans. We stay in touch with them trying to encourage them and get them involved with their lives. People in the village are beginning to see the difference between the Orthodox Church and the church of Christ and they have stopped ridiculing Bogdan and Galyna and calling them the “sect”. They see now that it is through the church of Christ that the Lord helps the village and supports its inhabitants. Petro Fedorovych, Galyna’s father, is a good illustration to this. Every family in Zelena knows him. He became a different person after baptism and has a peace of mind now. He’s overcome the fears he had before. Petro Fedorovych spends more time praying and sends big thanks to the American brethren that visited the village. He always sends his greetings. They are harvesting hay in the village now. Many families have cattle and live on the money they get from it; thus they harvest hay and berries in summer.
- Our church assembles on Sundays and Wednesdays as usual. We are gradually getting used to the new building. On Sunday, June 26, our attendance was 34 people and 12 families worshiped online. We hope and ask God to help us fill up the new church building with people that seek God with all their hearts. We also ask God to give us wisdom and opportunities to spread the Gospel. Please, pray for us and our congregation so that we can go on with our ministry to God and take the Good News to the people in the world. Please, pray on behalf of our daughter Anya. She’s in Germany now saving money for her medical studies. She is planning to be back in September when the new academic year will begin. We pray together and ask God to give us peace of mind and in our countries, for the lives of young people, our children and grandchildren, so that these horrible circumstances wouldn’t harm their personalities and abilities. May God protect us from nuclear war which Russia uses to threaten the world.
Big thanks to you for your prayers on behalf of our family. Our daughter-in-law and grandchildren are back to Ukraine. Ruslan brought them from Wroclaw, Poland. It was soo good for them to be with the Church of Christ in Wroclaw as they could feel the love and care on the part of the ministers and all members of the Church.
Big thanks to all of you. We thank brother John, Dalraida church of Christ, Mike Lawson, and Charita for their great efforts to collect and bring in humanitarian aid to churches in Ukraine. THANKS!!! We love you! Yours in the Lord, Ivan and Svitlana
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