The beginning of our participation in church planting coincided with the time of the Soviet Union collapse, the time of freedom of preaching the Gospel in Ukraine. Each of us participated in the building of his local church but in addition, since 1995, our group has been directly involved in the construction of the biggest church in Donetsk, located on the central street of the city.
By that time, we had left work in the coalmines and had been working for five years on the House of Gospel church building taking time between our missionary trips and rehearsals. It reminded us Jews who did work restoring the walls of Jerusalem with one hand while the other hand held a spear (Neh 4:17). The same happened to us: we held a brick, a bucket of sand, mortar and concrete, and a little time later, we held guitars, violins, keyboards. Maybe it is hard to imagine, but that kind of ministry we had then.
During the construction of the House of Gospel church for six years, our friends from American churches had visited us. We conducted joint services with them, evangelizations in different parts of our city and in small towns near Donetsk. Groups of believers were formed in four villages, and after the construction of the “House of the Gospel church” has been finished, our friends from America helped us to purchase houses for churches in those villages: Krasnogorovka, Galitsynovka, Jelannoe, and Zavitne. Our group helped to modify those houses and convert them to churches.
Every year since 1991, additionally to for our ministry in Ukraine, we had far and long trips (2-3 weeks) together with different missions. That is how we visited the Far North, Transbaikalia, Kazakhstan, Byelorussia, Moldova, Central Russia, Omsk and Orenburg regions. In each place, we held 3-4 services, helping the missionaries to start work there. After our services in the Far North and in the Arctic, four new churches were formed there. However, it is not us, but only God’s grace!
Currently, through the evangelistic and children’s ministry, we plan to help in church planting in Pokrovsk, which is located 40 km from our center “Hope for the East”. The administration of the region wanted us to open a church in a small resort town Svyatogorsk in the north of the Donetsk region. We need your prayer support.
In connection with the military actions and the fact that Donetsk is now on an uncontrolled territory of Ukraine and in a blockade situation, it is not possible to visit the affiliated churches. Church services continue in Zavitne only. Groups of believers from Galicinovka, Karlovka, and Kamishovka attend services in Zavitne every Sunday because there are no churches in their villages. Krasnogorovka and Jelannoe village churches have been left without leaders because of war situation. We pray and look for brothers who could continue the service in these villages. We ask you to support this need prayerfully.