Real stories of change

The reason of every ministry is to bring glory to God and to see the real changes in the lives of people who stop living in darkness and start following the light- Jesus Christ. It is a true miracle to see how God transforms them, bringing reason into meaningless lives and beauty from ashes. This time I'm excited to share with you a few stories of our students from Odessa.

Please pray:

 -  for these students to grow in faith and to be fruitful in their ministry among other students.

 -  for our Speak Out Summer Camp from July 5-20th. May it become a great opportunity for our leaders to grow and learn and for those who don't know the Lord yet to meet Him personally

What's your worldview?

English club became the main big event at the beginning of spring in Odessa Campus Movement. We were blessed by the visit of a team of 4 volunteers from Columbia, Missouri. We had a good advertisement campaign thus we were able to sign up almost 100 people in four classes with different levels of English.

English club has always been my favorite strategy for Evangelism. We get to interact with students in most natural way, read passages from the Bible and discuss them with the students. At English Club it is possible to break a lot of stereotypes about Christians; we can build an atmosphere of love and care and also show that Christian life is not boring.

I met Valerie in my class and at our personal meeting after the club I shared the Gospel with her. She said that she always felt the presence of God in her life. Now she understands more about the sacrifice of Christ and the possibility of having a personal relationship with God. Please pray for her further spiritual growth.

And here is our new tool for evangelism – “What’s your worldview?”. This test helps students understand what is their worldview in life. Very often our students think they are Christians, but this test clearly shows them that they may be agnostics or apatheists (people who are indifferent to God) At the end of this conversation it’s easy and natural to share about what we believe and what the essence of Christian theist worldview is. This is exactly what happened with Tanya. She is an agnostic but I shared about the possibility of knowing God personally through Jesus Christ.

        Please pray: 

- For all the meetings that we hold after the English club, that students would like to learn more about Christianity 

- For the upcoming mission trip for our volunteers to Ismail. This project is called Expedition. Our students go to work with the church youth in Ismail, teaching them the skills of sharing the Gospel and working with unbelievers. It’s the weekend of April 18-20. 

-For our hiking Trip to the Carpathians

 in early May. We want to take students from English club with us. May they have a personal encounter with God in the mountains. 

Insider. The price to follow.

Two weeks ago we returned from Winter Bible conference, which was called: «Insider. The price to follow ". In this difficult time of life in our country we wanted to emphasize what it means to believe in Christ and follow Him no matter what the circumstances are. Together we reflected on what it meant to bear fruit to God, staying on the vine, and what price we pay in our daily Christian life. All of our students received a call to build spiritual movements in their environment, to share the Good News about Christ even more than usual.

At the conference we had the opportunity to practice the skills of sharing the Good News with people. We have preached a message of hope and shared with refugees from the East who live in Ternopil (the western part). Many of those families came without husbands and dads, they lost their homes and they don’t know that the future holds for them.

After the conference, we had a meeting for students and volunteers in Odessa. All these guys are ignited for God and they dream about seeing changes in their universities, campuses, dorms.

The sault and the light=)

Yesterday, we went together to share the Gospel in the dorms of Odessa. We were praying, trusting God, and that evening we shared with 37 students. Praise God!

A group of students who heard the Gospel

Please pray that this semester that students would respond to the call of God and accept Christ.

At the end of March we will have the English club. We pray God would bring many students and draw them to Himself.

Proclaim His glory!

Around 1000 staff from Eastern Europe and Russia

In January we had a regional conference for our staff from Eastern Europe and Russia. We gathered to hear from each other how God is working in our region, support each other in difficulties we face. The theme of this conference - Proclaim His glory! We prayed together and trusted God the awakening among our nations, we set goals in the ministry for next 5 years.

Back home alive!!!

Russian staff praying over Roma

 The presence of Roma at the conference, our new staff who was called this summer to serve in the east, was a special event for us, Ukrainians.  Just before the conference their platoon was released and he was able to go with us. Just a couple of weeks after Roma and his soldiers left the place of their location the area was destroyed by explosions. God has particularly saved Roma and the guys he is responsible for. He told us how he lived at the battle field, where talks about death are very real, when there’s no means of refuge except God. During the attacks some soldiers were trying to be closer to Roma, because, as they said, "Roma is closer to God, He will protect!" Very soon Roma will go back to the battle field. Please pray for his safety in this dangerous time, and for those boys who hear from him about God, so that they are reconciled with God at this life.

 "O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee."

(2Chr.20:12)

My family (even my cat
 made it for the picture=)

My recent family reunion was a miracle from God. My parents are divorced and have not spoken to each other for 12 years. My mother became a Christian, she goes to church, and my dad doesn’t. While I was away he stayed at my apartment and fed the cat - he regularly came to my church by himself and read all my Christian books. When I returned to Odessa, a week ago, we all went to church together and after the service spent time together: we ate, talked and played games. I have not experienced anything like this since my early childhood. Praise God for how He helps parents to forgive and reconcile. Pray for my dad to repent and get saved.

Pray for the beginning of this semester in ministry among the students. In February we will attend conference named: Price to follow. Let's all pray for those students to be united for what would change the future of our country – leading people to God. 

Conformed to His Image

In every one of these people we can see the image of the Creator 

These 5 students are now on the Spiritualformation’s path. This is about 1% of all those with whom we have worked for the last time.We get to know hundreds of students through massive projects and personal meeting. But only a few begin to sincerely follow Christ. For Vicka and Anya it was hard to make this decision. It took 5 months for them to open their hearts to Jesus. And all this time we were there for them.

All this is possible only because of God and your care about us. It takes so much prayer, time and energy, and other resources to change the lives of those who change the world afterwards. And you give us the resources. Thank you. Thank God! 

With your support Maxim came to us through English club, later he joined our soccer team. Now he is writing his coursework at the university about that Christ was God, not just a man. During his “History of religion” classes, he is ready to defend his faith in front of his atheist teacher. Alina is a future lawyer, but today she goes to the students’ dorms to share about Jesus. Vitalik and Diana are going through lessons for new believers. 

May God bring another 500 students through these 5 students. Lets pray for that!

News from the "field"

In the end of October we had an interesting strategy, brand new to Odessa, - seminars on EQ, emotional intelligence. Two of our staff from Budapest have held fascinating seminars for three days. The hall was packed, the students were delighted.

It would seem that the theme of EQ is very far from Christianity. But actually talking about faith with students was very natural. We discussed this pyramid.

Our beliefs are always at the base of each of our lives, then our character forms, and last - emotions. We are forming our belief based on what we understand about our value and significance, as people created in the image and likeness of God. At the end of the workshop each of the students were offered a personal meeting to plan the development of certain areas of their EQ.

Alina and Nastya

I went along with Alina, the girl I disciple, to attend one of those meetings. We met with Nastya, a student of the Building Academy. She moved to Odessa from Donetsk. Nastya was very open and listened carefully about how our relationship with God affects our beliefs. She wanted to pray the prayer of repentance at the meeting. Now Alina helps her understand the basic principles for spiritual growth. 

Also, God answered our prayers for Anya. She heard the Gospel last year and now I see the sprouts of faith. She said that she accepted Christ. My meetings with her are a great joy. What a privilege it is to help somebody make the first steps of faith!

God  blesses us with new volunteers. This year we met Lana. She is Georgian and came to Ukraine from Batumi. Lana is already a Christian and she loved our vision in reaching out the students of Odessa with the Gospel. She is studying at the National University and lives in a dorm. Last week I went with her evangelize in her dorm. For her it was a great encouragement to learn how you can talk to students in such a simple and natural way.

Pray at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word... (Col 4:3)

1.  Please pray for the spiritual growth of Nastya and Anya. Anya's parents set up quite negatively against faith, arguing that her repentance is a betrayal of Orthodoxy. It’s a big trial for her.

2. Pray for our time of evangelism in the dorms. May God lead us to those students who seek Him.

3. In my last letter I shared about my conversations with Ira. Just one month after that she was hit by a car. Now she is treated in her hometown and we do not have many opportunities to see each other. Please pray for her recovery, and the fact that these tests have strengthened her faith. Not draw her away.

the4points or 4 challenges of Christianity to the modern world

That is the theme of our student ministry in the new semester. We use the strategy - 4 points (the strategy originally came from UK). 

These 4 characters explain the essence of the Gospel - the love of God, man's sin, Christ's sacrifice and personal choice.We started this strategy with distribution of the rubber bracelets to students of Odessa, in the largest colleges. 

Giving out the bracelet we also advertised our events - Quest, Paintball, English club, where students could come and take a closer look at our movement. At these events we talked about our Christian movement, and offered the students an opportunity to have an interesting picture-test with us (basically 4 questions where you need to choose the images for the answer).

Photo-test

At the end of that test we share the Gospel using these four characters (heart, X, cross and question mark). During the first month about 50 students met with one of our staff or a volunteer personally and heard the Gospel. Once we share the Gospel we offer the students to go through three lessons with us that would help them understand Christianity more. (Examples of topics: "Who Jesus Christ really was", "Can we trust the Bible," "How can faith affect my life today," etc.) At this point many students have agreed to go through these lessons with us. Praise the Lord! 

I want to tell you a little more about the English club that we had for one week. There was a family of Americans who came and led the classes with students every night. We read the stories of the prodigal son, how Jesus fed 5,000 people, Jim and Donna have shared their testimonies. After just one week some visible changes were already seen in the guys. One guy, Nick, said that he began to read the Bible after the clubs. 

Oksana with Jim and Donna

Oksana is a deep thinker and she wants to learn more about God. Her friends try to dissuade her to come to us but she decided that “dealing with truth" is more important. 

Ira and I

I had a special time of communication with Ira. I shared the Gospel was Ira and she said that God was knocking at her heart right now with a special force. She understands that she has been trying to fill the thirst in her soul with wrong things and she wants to change her life. Please pray for her that God would be the water of life and salvation for her. 

Pray for our ministry in October: 

1 For our meetings where we share the Gospel with new students. 

2 For those students who have heard the gospel and are going through the lessons about Christianity with us. May it helps them come to faith. 

3 For Oksana and Ira to come to know the Lord.