Thank you for your concern and for praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People
1. Previously, our weekly updates and Challenger newsletter featured the Melnychuks, a large Ukrainian family who adopted 10 of their 15 children as orphans. We presented the possibility of buying a small family bus for this active Christian family. Praise God, all the funds needed for that purchase have been received. Thank you on behalf of that family!
2. We received an encouraging update from our church planter Vitaly Bilyak. Conscripted into the Ukrainian military, he is doing well and taking advantage of many opportunities to share the Gospel. In fact, he has been asked to speak to the entire company of soldiers in which he serves as unofficial chaplain. The general has asked him to speak at length on the topic of how to preserve your family when you are away serving in the military. The general realizes this is a critical issue for soldiers, and the fact that he is asking Vitaly to address it shows that Vitaly is rising in stature and Christian influence. Vitaly asks for prayer as he prepares for this meeting, which will be a wonderful opportunity for evangelism and building relationships. He also shared a need for basic furniture. If you would like to provide for this need, you may designate a donation “Vitaly Bilyak.”
3. Winters in Ukraine can be severe, and for defenders living on the front lines they can be brutally frigid—dangerous to life and limbs. Because virtually every Ukrainian church has members or friends who have been drafted into the military, believers there take a deep personal interest in the welfare of those serving in the trenches. In this week’s video, Yura Levtseniuk demonstrates a simple but effective type of heater that can be created as a way for churches to bless those in the trenches in the name of the Lord. You can help to make it happen!
https://vimeo.com/user37287229/heaters
4. As winter approaches, Russian missiles and drones are intensifying their attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. The bombardments target thermal plants, substations, and other sources of power. Although nuclear power stations are not being targeted due to the major ecological disaster that would result, Russia is striking the transmission lines as it strives to block power from southern and western Ukraine from reaching central and eastern Ukraine, where it is so urgently needed. As the power company resorts to “rolling blackouts” to ration power and distribute it, friends of BIEM report days when they have no electricity for 20 to 22 hours a day. And the times when electricity clicks back on are unpredictable. As BIEM did last year, this winter we want to raise $100,000 in war relief to assist 100 churches with heating. In this way, we are providing not only warmth for church services but heated havens where anyone can go and warm up. The severity of the situation begs for more than kind words and warm wishes but for genuine aid. As Proverbs 3:27 says, “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.” If you can help, please designate your gift “War Relief.”
Sam Slobodian
President, BIEM