November -December 2006

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:14

 Dear Pastors and Friends, 

            At this special time of year, we send you warm Christmas greetings from the Slobodian family!  We hope that the joy of this Christmas season finds you doing well and enjoying holiday festivities with family and friends.  As we celebrate our Savior’s wonderful birth and look forward to another year, our family has much to thank God for. 

Sarah, our oldest continues her ministry at our mission office where she has been a great blessing to many of our missionaries and projects.  Susan still lives and works in Franklin which is not too terribly far away.  Steven is in his last year of studies at the local University while Sharon is completing a degree which will enable her to work in the medical office field.  Stephanie is in her senior year at a local Christian High School where she enjoyed the volleyball season as captain.  This year Steven traveled to Russia and Ukraine with Sam while Sarah, Sharon and Stephanie took part in our children’s summer camping ministry in Ukraine.  Sam keeps busy directing BIEM and Amy continues to do our bookkeeping.   

As we approach the end of this year we are concluding 25 years of BIEM’s ministry.  The September conference we conducted in Ukraine to celebrate this milestone was a great highlight of the year as we shared that wonderful time with 120 missionaries, pastors and friends connected with BIEM from several countries.  Another highlight of this past year was the expansion of BIEM into Central Asia.  We thank God for this open door and the wonderful people God has blessed us to work with in reaching these needy Muslim nations.  This year we were also blessed in having many Americans come and visit our ministry as several mission teams came to help in teaching, evangelism and church construction projects.             

At this point we would like to share some great blessings.  We are glad to report that we are within $11,000 of reaching our goal in our matching funds program to pay off our office building.  Praise God for the great response!  The church building projects in Chervona Sloboda and Desna, Ukraine are at a very exciting point as both have made enough progress to begin meeting in their new facilties next month.   Lost neighbors have pitched in to help with the work and many have promised to attend the services.  Please pray for a harvest of souls in these two locations which have already made a huge impact in their communities.  Both of these churches have a great need for folding chairs.   Since we are loading our next container of Gospel Literature and humanitarian aid for Ukraine at the end of the month,  we have an immediate need for at least 100 folding chairs.  These chairs do not have to be new.   If you can help us with this please contact us.           

Thank-you for your part in this ministry and may God great you and yours a blessed Christmas and wonderful New Year!  

                                                                                          The Slobodians