During the socialist regime Christians had no access to higher education. We can't even imagine how many "bright Christian minds" were prevented from realizing their potential to benefit society. For all those years, church members were not able to present biblical values to those being educated under the reign of communism. The social disintegration which we are reaping now is the fruit of the godless rule of our predecessors. The modern generation of young Christians have access to those areas of public and political life that were previously open only to members of the Communist Party.

Winter weather has never hindered the emergence of warm and sincere love in human hearts. The problem is that societal trends and shifting public opinion have had a negative impact on the development of this beautiful feeling for many years.  We have these attitudes imposed on us from childhood onward. Historically, the majority opinion is the norm. While in past years women were forbidden to be alone and unsupervised with unmarried men, today's youth see no problem with such a situation.

We are happy to report that on February 20, we had the second meeting of youth from Salvation Church with the youth from the Zenkov-Dikansko-Oposhnyanskiy area - and I will make the bold prediction that it will not be the last such meeting. It appears that a strong friendship has developed between our groups. It is surprising that such different people find common interests so quickly and easily. Watching the young people greet each other and talk, I became increasingly convinced that our spiritual kinship in Christ may be even stronger than blood ties. But, as always, first things first ...

Nobody likes to lose. If you ask anyone on the street whether he wants to be a winner, almost certainly he would answer in the affirmative. Maybe today there would be those who just don't care whether they win. But we can say with confidence that no one wants to lose ...

 

True, the Christmas celebration lasts only for a day, and many children are waiting for the festivities. We held our most recent Christmas program in a boarding school in the village of Varvarivka. February is almost here, but we will still fulfill our pre-Christmas promise to hold a celebration. Children always remember those who promise to bring gifts, and eagerly await the fulfillment.

That's what I would call our house group in the village of Rossoshentsa.  Our group is unique, as are all of God's creations :). It consists of 8 men, 14 women and 7 children. In total that makes 29 people, 7 of them married couples. Surprisingly, people of different ages, from 2 to 56, get along well with each other. We enjoy having our meetings at the houses of different members.

Dear Christians! It is the 21st century now. Outside our windows the world is cruel and cold. In fact, we probably can't even guess how bad it is. But it is bad, and painful and hard...For the sake of a few minutes of warmth the people out there are ready to give anything. They are ready to pay, and pay dearly for things that will give only a moment of happiness. New goods, new prices...Today the former pleasures are not enough. The demand is always for something new, otherwise the cold will pierce you through.

Proverbs 18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: 19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.

I don’t know who suggested the first line of the poem by Ukrainian poet Vladimir Sosyury as the title of the seminar, but these words are very well suited to our purpose. This is the sixth year in a row we have held this seminar in our church. It’s worth noting that the number of visitors did not decrease. Love is a topic that people always have and always will be ready to discuss.

Every year we have a children’s Christmas party at our church. This year we decided to do something different. Members of our church purchased and made gifts for the children.  They were especially motivated by the fact that the children were disadvantaged.  The children of our church went with their parents and happily walked from one store to another buying toys and other gifts!  We put the gifts into boxes from the mission organization "Spiritual Rebirth".  Each of the boxes was decorated with Christmas symbols and had the label “Give hope!” and some verses from the Bible. Our church members filled one hundred and ten Christmas boxes.

We conducted another medical clinic in the Christian Ministry Center on January 22. The team of 19 volunteers represented three Poltava churches: Salvation Church, Born Again Church and Hope Church.  Thirty four people came to the clinic from the neighboring apartment buildings.  The number of visitors has increased with each successive clinic. We are very happy that people are starting to think about the church as a place where they can come for help and without fear of being rejected.