June 2017 Update

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Yesterday I had a meeting with Andrey at his place. We spent a good deal of time discussing our strategy for the work in the Eastern Ukraine, grey zone on the Ukrainian side. He and I are going there at least once a month. He does projects there for KOEH and I’m visiting and ministering to “my people” projects supported by DMI and local business people. Lately Andrey and I were in touch with Gennady and through LOR we support some of his trips over to the grey zone. We are giving over $3,000 for Gennady’s ministry to the soldiers on the lines and citizens in villages in the grey zone.  
Andrey and I are very happy with the ministry we are doing. On each trip we visit poor people, both Christian and non-Christian.  We give them some help financially or with food and clothing. We are also preaching in the churches in these villages. 

We love all we are doing, but recently we have found there are Baptist churches in the grey zone where no pastors and young people remain. I am speaking of groups of elderly people – 20-30 gathering for worship services, but have nobody to preach the Word. Pastors left this area or remained in the occupied area. For example: a lot of village churches around Donetsk were pastored by pastors residing in Donetsk/Makeyevka. These cities are now in the occupied area. It is too complicated now for them to come to these villages on a regular basis and the churches in Donetsk need ministers too. Most pastors have left. Some moved to Ukraine, but a lot of Baptist ministers moved to USA. There is a huge movement of Baptist immigration from Ukraine to USA. 

Our hearts ache for those dying congregations and for the elderly people left without shepherds. We’re working on a plan of ministering in the grey zone in a systematic way. We will be going there in shifts; Andrey, Igor from LOR, and myself. We plan on staying there for a week at a time. Our goal is to help the poor and preach in various villages where there are groups of believers.  During one week, we will be able to cover 3-4 villages with preaching. Then next week somebody else is going there. It is good for Andrey and me because while visiting those groups, we will still work on our regular projects in the area.   Some of those villages are close to the front-line, so we’ll have to have permits from military officials for going there. Please, pray for these plans. Andrey will be heading there next week. I just returned from several big trips – East, South and West.  

Did I tell you that our Dad moved to Zhitomir 2 weeks ago? Looks like he likes it there, but he misses our house in Yenakiyevo. Nobody wanted to buy the house, so he just left it empty. 

There are many things to praise the Lord for these days:
God’s guidance in our ministry.  
The support of DMI for the ministry in Ukraine.
Our father’s safe move to Zhitomir.

We need your prayers as we try to minister to so many people in need.
Pray that God will open doors for finances to come in for aiding these small churches in the grey zone.

Greetings to all!
In Him, Sasha