EQUIPPING
News, updates
Church Planting & Equipping.

Click to zoom image
Church life is alive and well in many of the villages around Cherkassy.    Having spent 5 days visiting several villages, progress was evident in many of them.    Seven years ago the village of Yasnozirya had one elderly believer, and had just acquired a derelict house in which to commence a church.    On Ascension Day this year I spoke to a group of 14 people from the village, including a lady for whom it was her first visit, and which also included a local councillor who brought greetings and spoke warmly of the church’s influence and activities.

Four years ago when I visited the church at Lebadyn the people were chopping down trees and digging foundations prior to erecting a new worship centre.    Lebadyn now has a very impressive building seating around 100, and with a “cry room” for mothers and babies, which enables them to see and hear what is happening in the church, and with plans for a library, kitchen and accommodation for visiting teams.

New believers are still being added to the churches – one church will soon be baptising 7 candidates, and another has 3 people waiting to be baptised.    All the churches visited were engaged in reaching out to their communities and all had a vision for extending their premises in order to do more evangelism with better facilities.    A major focus for all the churches is to provide activities for young people, as there is very little in the way of sporting or recreational activities in the villages, and the churches put a lot of energy and manpower into children’s’ and young peoples’ camps in the summer.

While the people are very enthusiastic, most are hampered by lack of equipment and finances.    One church needs its roof repaired, 2 need fencing around their buildings as they are open to villagers wandering in and taking building materials which are lying around, and 2 or 3 are wanting to extend their existing premises.    Many pastors only have a bicycle, and if pastors do have a car, they are often untrustworthy and not really safe.

While it is important that Hope Now continues to help with finance for many of these projects, the pastors and people would also value personal visits of church teams to help lead a camp, to teach crafts, and to give encouragement by sharing in fellowship and interest.     If any churches in the UK feel they could “twin” with a village church and would like more details, please let me know via the Southampton office – I know it would be a great blessing on both sides.

Valerie Reddaway



Click here to go to the main page of the Evangelism and church planting project
HEALTHORPHANSPRISONSEQUIPPINGSHORT-TERM SERVICENEWSNEWSLETTER
DONATEEVENTSCONTACTPRAYER DIARYMINISTRY LINKSABOUT HOPE NOW
Hope Now is a UK Registered Charity No 1072038
Designed by WWW.VISUAL-CRAFT.COM
PRAYER DIARY
01.05.2012    Pray for the music group Zozulenka, and their teacher Natalya, as they busily practice for their return tour here in November

02.05.2012    Pray for preparations that are being made for the cycle tour this summer, and for opportunities for the participants to share their faith as they cycle around the villages

03.05.2012    Pray for Brenda and Ksenya as they speak today at the meeting of the Oasis Group at Locks Heath Church

04.05.2012    Pray for Jon and Ali as they attend the Baptist Assembly annual meeting in London until 7th

05.05.2012    Pray for our students at Universities and Colleges as they complete their studies for this semester and take their end of year exams

06.05.2012    Pray for all those who receive food packages through the feeding programme, that no needy person/family is overlooked

07.05.2012    Pray for David John as he completes his preparations for the teaching sessions at the Pastor’s Conference next week

08.05.2012    Pray that we will have full teams of volunteers for all the camps that will take place this summer at Kompas Park

09.05.2012    Pray for the young people from Rainbow House in South Africa, and for Margaret Ferguson as she supports them in their studies

10.05.2012    Pray for the work of the mobile medical unit, and for Dr Doreshenko to fully recover following his recent illnesses

11.05.2012    Pray for the ongoing support of the Mission Fund, which undergirds all the various projects that we have, that adequate funds will be received each month

12.05.2012    Pray for Larisa and the work she does with the family support group, which encourages mutual sharing and prayer

13.05.2012    Pray that the Humanitarian Aid system that we use to send money to Ukraine becomes quicker and more efficient

14.05.2012    Pray for Anastasia Vovk as she plans camps in various villages around Cherkassy, and pray she finds a team of helpers to assist her

15.05.2012    Pray for safety in travel for Jon, David Reddaway and David John as they travel to Ukraine for the Bible School Graduation and for Ksenya as she returns to Ukraine to help Alla at Kompas Park

16.05.2012     Pray for the ongoing work of Cherkassy’s first sheltered accommodation, especially now plans to renovate the house have been drawn up and the costing received

17.05.2012    Pray for the Church twinning programme, that more UK Churches will offer to twin with a Ukrainian Church for mutual support and encouragement

18.05.2012    Remember before God all our children in cottage homes, thanking God for the security and love they receive from their foster parents as they grow up in these Christian families

19.05.2012    Pray for the work party travelling to Ukraine today, to prepare Kompas Park for the summer season

20.05.2012    As Jon, David and David return to the UK, pray for the newly graduated students as they take up their responsibilities back in their churches

21.05.2012    Pray for the children in the orphanages we support, and for Larisa and Misha as they oversee our work in them

22.05.2012    Give thanks for all our volunteers who come in and help with the monthly mail out, and do other jobs so willingly, often without being asked

23.05.2012    Pray for Jon and Ali to be refreshed as they take some time off together and have a break

24.05.2012    Pray for ex-prisoners who are now leading churches and serving in their communities that they will be faithful to what God has called them to do

25.05.2012    Pray for the young people in our pre-independence homes, that they grow in confidence as they study and plan for their future

26.05.2012    Pray for Vika Lavrenko and Stanislav Dyachenko, sponsored children who celebrate their birthdays today, also for the quiz at Ashley BC this evening in support of our work

27.05.2012    Thank God for our Board of Directors, whose support of the work of Hope is so encouraging; pray especially for the two new Directors to become more familiar with Board matters.

28.05.2012    Pray for Alla Kostyunina and her team as they prepare in detail for the planned camp activities at Kompas Park during the summer

29.05.2012    Pray for Misha in all the work he does at Alpha House and in the Ukrainian Office of Hope Now; pray also for the plans he and Lena have in using Alpha House as a summer day camp in August

30.05.2012    Pray for Vlad Serdyuk, one of our sponsored children, as he celebrates his birthday today

31.05.2012    Pray for Cyndee and Darrel Knight and the Hope Now supporters in America, especially in their plans to visit Kompas Park this summer