October 2022
Dear Friends and Partners,
I hope this letter finds you well! Much has happened since our last war update – Ukraine has bombed the bridge from Russia to Crimea, disrupting Russia’s supply chain to Crimea and southern Ukraine. In an angry response, Russia showered a massive number of missiles upon 20 Ukrainian cities and causing massive disruption to electrical grids and power plants. It unphased the Ukrainians who are resolute in winning this war. There are now attacks upon the western border of Russia and there is an overall increase/intensity of hostilities. More to come in a few weeks, because this is our ministry prayer letter.
After months of preparing and partnering with Bibles for the World, we were able to pick up and distribute 35,000 copies of the book of John to our six ministry partners in Kharkiv. The booklets were printed in Germany, transported to Kyiv, where we pick up these resources, and delivered to our city, six hours away.
All of the booklets were distributed within two weeks and our ministry partners were absolutely delighted and thankful to receive them. I was informed that our friends had run out of similar theological resources some time ago, and they were in desperate need of these booklets for their food packets - as they go from village to village and town to town to distribute supplies. They are eternally grateful!
The timing to receive these books of John was providential too. Our ministry partners have reached many areas within our district over the past 8 months, but when the Russians were pushed out of our region even further, our friends were able to visit many more towns and villages that have been unreached since the beginning of the war.
I am confident that seeing the massive destruction was very difficult to observe: destroyed homes, destroyed military equipment on the roads and fields, and seeing dead bodies of military (Russians often leave their dead on the battlefield), and graves of civilians killed or tortured.
But the joy comes in helping those who are stranded and in desperate need. The remnant of people, mostly elderly, now have some food and God’s word to encourage them. Our friends are true heroes in how they tirelessly reach more and more people for Christ!
In the towns where churches exist, participation has exploded in number, with many people accepting Jesus as their Savior. But many of these new locations do not have a church (or a non-functioning church), so these biblical resources are essential to helping people have the most basic understanding of the gospel. Thankfully, our ministry partners share the Word of God through a sermon and provide an altar call before distributing any food.
While salvation and revival are happening across many locations, there is still a huge spiritual and humanitarian need! With winter coming, many people are very concerned about the lack of electricity, heat, food, medicine, and windows to keep the cold out. It will easily get to 20 below zero in the deepest parts of winter, so please pray that people will survive the cold weather.
Our budget for Ukraine has been totally exhausted for 2022, but when additional donations came in recently, the board approved an additional $15,000 for Ukraine last week. Since last week, we have distributed $10,000 of the $15,000 to help our partners prepare for the winter, but this is just the beginning of what is truly needed. We will distribute more in the next couple of months.
My hope and prayer are that God will help us raise more before year’s end to help as much as we can between now and the end of December.
The donations we received from American churches were a huge blessing, but my network of churches (where I have a connections) has been exhausted, so I am assuming our donations in 2023 will be greatly reduced unless I can make some new friendships and/or these churches will come through again next year. Please pray my efforts will be fruitful and I won’t get discouraged.
I want to give my sincerest thanks to Bibles for the World for partnering with us and I want to also thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to help thousands upon thousands of people! This ministry can only help out at the level that you participate and make others aware of our ministry. So please continue to share our ministry with others, continue to pray for the citizens of Ukraine, and thank you for sacrificially giving. We thank God for you in every way!
In Jesus’ love,
Ron