While the War Rages, Ministry Continues

June  2025

Dear friends,

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the warmer weather. The latest news is my oldest daughter (Isabella) departed home and has been in San Diego for a few weeks until she returns to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix to begin her position as an elementary teacher, while completing her last year of school. While in San Diego, her boyfriend proposed and she is now engaged. I am very excited for both of them! Everyone else in my family remains in Colorado.

The war in Ukraine continues to rage on with no end in sight. On May 25th, the news reported that the Russian military has placed 50,000 troops near the border near our city of Kharkiv and I am waiting to see if there will be a major escalation in our region. Here is one news article reporting on the situation: https://news.sky.com/story/kharkiv-why-russian-troops-are-massing-near-ukraines-fortress-city-13373348.

Since early June, the Ukrainian military has destroyed many long rang bombers deep inside Russia. Some call it Russia’s “Pearl Harbor.” Russia has now begun its retaliation efforts - so we need to pray for lives to be saved and things don’t escalate even more than they already have over the past week. It looks like all peace negotiations are done for now.

In this prayer letter, I want to highlight pastor Zhenya and his church, which is Light of Life Baptist Church in Pokotilovka, Ukraine, a town about 5 miles from  Kharkiv.

Pastor Zhenya has had several challenges since the war began – his church and rehab ministry were suddenly halted for a short period of time, when the owner of the building immediately evicted everyone so the Ukrainian military could have housing for their troops. With no notice, he had to find a home for his family, which was in one of the former conflict zones and was heavily damaged by bullets, etc. Since then, his family has found improved housing and the church discovered a new place to worship – so both the family and the church are back on solid ground. Here is pastor Zhenya’s testimony:

“Hello dear friends, I am very glad that I have such an opportunity to update you on our situation since last year. My wife Anya and I now have four beautiful children, with two born during this horrific war.  My wife and I have been serving in Christian ministry for many years. Prior to the war, with God’s help, our ministry has served many people who have recovered from their disease, accepted Jesus as their Savior, and living a life of restoration and freedom in Christ through our rehab ministry. We saw many people saved, healed and transformed until the war began in February 2022.

Not only did the war have horrific effects upon our country and the lives of many people, but it challenged my ministry too. Many people from our region moved away, due to our proximity to the Russian border. It was when the war began that our third child was about to be born, and due to pregnancy complications, we were homebound. Our ministry was thrown out of our facility to make room for Ukrainian troops, which left our family homeless and our ministry aimless for a short while.

But God made a way for both our family and ministry! And through the constant help and support of Slavic Christian Ministries, we received the resources and encouragement to reach an amazing number of people within our area. Because of God’s help through Slavic Christian Ministries and you, our church has flourished and multiplied numerically and salvifically. We have distributed countless amounts of food, medicines, clothes, firewood, and heaters to keep people alive. Our church is feeding people spiritually with the Word of God every week during our church worship service. Throughout the week, we engage in several ministries, including recovering addicts, children’s ministry, youth ministry, humanitarian aid to the community, and discipleship training. Some of those in rehab were former prisoners, so we feel blessed to truly help those who truly need the love of Christ and feel to feel accepted by Christ’s loving family.

Despite SCM’s help, we still have many needs like fuel for our vehicles, car maintenance, funds for our food outreach, supplies for our kids and children’s ministries, and of course, support for our family too. Thank you for praying for all our needs – we thank God for each of you. Please pray this war will end soon.” – Pastor Zhenya

Friends, thank you for supporting Zhenya and his family in prayer and financial support. Their church is doing a wonderful job of serving people in Christ’s love, while faithfully preaching the good news. Thank you for all your prayers and support in every way! We are down $12,000 from this time last year, so please pray for our ministry and my family too.

In Jesus’ love,

Ron