Serving the Lord in Corona times

I was extremely happy to start our new semester in August. Global quarantine brought us a lot of corrections and changes, but it also took us to a new level of trust, adaptation, and growth in finding new digital ways of working with people. 

 

Here are some news and highlights of my new beginnings in ministry

1. Two teams that I serve on 

This is a new team that I joined part time. It’s called Campus Link Team. This team works with our student volunteers all around Ukraine where there is no staff presence and all movements are built exclusively by students. This team has an enormous impact to reach Ukraine for Christ because we will never have enough staff to send to each city, but through partnership and training church youth we are able to build movements of evangelism and discipleship countrywide. At this point we have around 120 volunteers from 15 smaller cities in Ukraine.

I am taking a picture=)

I continue to be a part of a national student ministry team. We oversee 7 local teams of staff and I will keep coaching our Associate staff leaders and help them in their roles. 

Please pray that the Lord would give у wisdom and strength to navigate my schedule and priorities in balancing two ministries. 

2. Training camp for student leaders 

In the end of August we held a training camp for the student leaders, teaching them the basics of ministry. We had around 40 students (not everyone could come during to quarantine restrictions and limitations). Such camps are very important for our ministry because they give our volunteers a bigger picture of the scope of the ministry they participate in, they build relationship among like hearted servants of Christ, encouraging and learning from each other, and it also gives us an opportunity to get them all together, teach them and equip them for the new ministry year. 

I was leading a seminar about discipleship, sharing the Great Commission from the Lord to make disciples and also giving them practical ideas how they can start their own ministry of discipleship and what tools they can use. 

Please pray for the LINK ministry, that we would be able to launch new ministries in new cities of Ukraine and help the existing ones to grow and prosper. 

3. New field ministry 

Volunteers from Ostrog

This year I will disciple a few girls from the city of Ostrog. It’s a smaller city in the northwest of Ukraine. They have around 30 students involved in the ministry and they have been growing fast. 

Ira and Luba are to my right and left

Please pray for Ira and Luba – the girls I am going to disciple – so they grow spiritually and practically in skills of leading the movement and invest in other girls from Ostrog 

 

A funny coincidence is that my brother Kirill is going to study at the same city at the technical school. 

My prayer that he would get involved in the ministry too and make more friends and come to know the Lord. 

Thank you for keeping my ministry in prayers and for supporting me so faithfully!

Spring update

 1. Personal reflections 

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.” Daniel 2:20-22 

This verse has a special meaning for me these days. It reminds me that: 

- God is the Only who deserves all praise 

- He is in control of all things (happening or not happening in my life) 

- He has His perfect timing for everything. 

- He establishes and provides for me to fulfill His calling for me. 

- He reveals His plans to us when He thinks it is a proper time (meaning some things I will not understand and it’s ok=) 

2. My life and ministry plans for the near future. 

 I have entered a new season of my life, being married, seeking what the Lord wants me to do, and what is His will for us as a couple now. Johnny and I got married May 1st and I hope most of you were able to witness the beginning of our family. We have been praying about what our life direction should be now. Some things we proactively did (we applied for my green card and submitted immigration papers) and some things Lord has brought to us without us even considering it (because of quarantine Johnny is now able to live and work from Ukraine). Johnny likes working at Flightaware, he sees it as a blessing and his mission field with his coworkers. He loves airplanes and business intelligence and this job offers all he needs. I want to continue my missionary work with CRU. I want to be used by God to raise young Christian leaders to help build the movements among the students. It’s my passion and what I believe the Lord wants me to do. I am staying with CRU in Ukraine but I am changing my status to an associate staff because in Ukraine there’s a priority and a value for couples to be both in ministry, so when your spouse isn’t – you have to change your status. 

We both see a huge benefit in investing in people and serving people so we have been trying to have my friends over and build relationship as a couple and serve them by making delicious meals as nobody could go anywhere during quarantine. 

3. “Things you have heard me say… entrust to reliable people….” 

I want to introduce you to Ira Nedelcheva. Ira became a believer when I was a new staff in Odessa. She wanted to serve God fulltime after she graduated university and she was transferred to Dnepr to work with college students there. In the last three years she has been leading that ministry along with Zhenya. I have been discipling Ira last three years and enjoyed investing in such a capable staff girl immensely. Ira has many gifts, she is very strong in analytical and strategic thinking, she has brought up a lot of strong Christian girls and discipled them. We have challenged Ira to take my role and join our leadership team and she accepted it. In summer Ira will be moving to Kyiv and joining our team. 

4. Leadership Project 

This May we finished a project that was designed to help our staff to grow in their leadership skills and be introduced to working on the national level with representatives of other ministries. I was leading that project and was so blessed to observe them apply what they learn in their local teams. It worked just perfect to finish this training this spring because it was done online and the team could work and study remotely during the quarantine. 

5. News “from the fields”. 

A few students came to know the Lord this spring during the quarantine time. We encourage them to start learning how to share their faith and the only way they could do it now is online! So we have our own “spiritual zoomers”=), students who do evangelism and discipleship online through zoom and have not tried it yet in real life. It’s another encouragement from God that His plans to save are unshakable. 

Here is a student from Kharkiv university. Her name is Eva. She has been meeting personally with our staff girl Tina and she accepted Christ this spring. Tina trained her in her first baby Christian steps of growth and Eva started sharing her faith with other students! 

6. My prayer needs and requests. 

 - I wanted to ask you to pray for Johnny and I to find our ways to serve people together as a family, may the Lord send people our way who we can encourage to get to know Him closer. We are praying for open doors and people that Christ has prepared for us. 

 - And I would like to ask you to pray and consider helping Ira Nedelcheva with her transition to Kyiv. Life in the capital is a lot more expensive and she is lacking support for her rent and expenses now. Here is her page with CRU https://give.cru.org/2850030

You can give her a onetime gift or start supporting her monthly if you are led by God. Even a small amount will help! 

 Thank you so much for being a part of what God is doing in my life. 

S