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Our Chicago UBF headquarters was blessed to serve our international guests from Ukraine, sh. Jacob and sh. Noah, who were invited for the purpose of sh. Noah’s pastoral ordination. Sh. Jacob, the new director of Kiev UBF and the successor of Missionary Peter Kim had recommended Sh. Noah for pastoral ordination, and after review and approval by the General Director M. Moses Yoon and the ordination committee, they were both invited to our headquarters for that purpose. During the week, and in preparation for Sh. Noah’s ordination, they both studied the book of 1 Timothy with our senior shepherds. On Saturday July 20th, 2019 at 2 PM in the afternoon, we witnessed the ordination of sh. Noah and his installation as a pastor. Sh. Noah shared a shortened version of his life testimony and the amazing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in his life. He also declared his intention for wanting to be ordained as a pastor as well as his sincere desire to continue serving as a shepherd family at Kiev UBF. After that pastor Teddy Hembekides delivered a brief ordination address and interacted with sh. Noah in a few questions and answers session regarding sh. Noah’s upcoming pastoral responsibilities, to which sh. Noah was clear in all his commitments.  Several of our staff members, P. Ron Ward, P. Mark Vucekovich, P. Kevin Albright, Dr. Mark Yang, and P. Teddy Hembekides, who are also ordained pastors themselves prayed over him in order to establish him as a newly ordained pastor for the church body of our Lord Jesus Christ and in our UBF church community. May the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself has chosen to ordain him by his own grace and wisdom also bless him to continue to serve the Gospel of His Kingdom in Ukraine and across the world. Amen.

Noah O. Z.’s Life Testimony

“’No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’” (Jn.8:11)

“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21)

I. My way to Jesus

My name is Oleksandr (Noah). I was born in 1975 in Ukraine that was a part of Soviet Union at that time. I was the firstborn in a loving family with 3 children in a small village. I’ve been baptized semi-secretly in Orthodox Church as a baby. But when I grew up that had no meaning for me because our education was based on communistic propaganda. I believed it sincerely and once tried to persuade some old ladies that God was but a myth.

Most of all I liked to read books and study. That was why I did not sin actively. It gave me reasons to think of myself as a perfect person. But actually, I ruined my life in less obvious but more dangerous passive way.

At age of 13, I went to Kyiv to study at specialized physical-mathematical school. I heard old ladies in my village gossiping that I was to become a new President. Their predictions were far from the truth. Far from home, the intensity of my study rapidly decreased. Instead, I was more involved in reading fiction, playing and inventing board games and enjoying lustful talks with my new classmates.

I entered Kyiv State University in 1992, the next year after the ruining of Soviet Union. Ukraine became legally independent, but people were not ready for it. Most of them became materially poor and spiritually devastated. So, students seldom studied eagerly. They mostly tried to earn money or just wasted their time. I had no idea about earning money, so I chose the second option. I saw the poor condition of my country and my own disability to change anything, even myself, so I decided that there was no future for me. I continued reading fiction till I became sick of it and could not read it again for some time. I bought expensive erotic magazines despite of my empty pockets. From time to time I drank alcohol on parties and once even came to an exam drunk. Gradually, I made a long way from “I am a perfect person” to “I am totally lost”.

II. With Jesus

In 1994 I was invited to Bible study by Korean missionary Lydia Shin. I thought that the church could help me to change my habits and become a better person, so I accepted the invitation. I still remember my first Bible study on Genesis 1:1. God was the source of meaning. He intentionally created the world and put his meaning into it. If the world had no sentient Creator, it would be meaningless. This thought was revolutionary for me and suddenly filled me with a new kind of joy and confidence. There is God, so there’s a future for me. The church became my new family and that predefined a lot of decisions in my life. Yet, for several months I struggled to become a better person and constantly failed. But then suddenly I met the best Person through John 8:11 at CIS Bible conference in Moscow.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." It was God’s grace. I could not but be condemned but Jesus forgave me because of what he’s done on the cross.

Thus, my new Christian life began. It was a strange life. I had a lot of things to fix in me and I still have to. Through common life with other brothers, God taught me to accept others, to love and to serve. He also taught me to be careful with the money and work with my own hands and brain to support myself and help others. Sometimes, I was too proud and harmed people with my arrogance and desire to replace Jesus for my Bible students. That had to be fixed as well. In 1999, I entered Kyiv Theological Seminary “Grace and Truth.” God taught me that there are a lot of churches and devoted believers that do not belong to UBF. I learned that the Church of Jesus Christ is huge and diverse, and it really humbled me. God is not ours, but we are His.

After graduating from the Seminary, I was proposed to continue my studies in USA, but I refused. I didn’t have any call to be an academic person, but I understood that I’m tied to my church as with family relations. At the end of 2003, God blessed me to establish a family with a beautiful and devoted woman of faith, Anna. Now we’ve got 5 beautiful children, 3 sons, and 2 daughters. Anna’s got a burning desire to serve children, so we did it together. A lot of times, we showed the ‘Superbook’ cartoon in the local school and shared the good news with the pupils there. God blessed me with a good job in Web-development as well.

Actually, most of my Bible students ran away. But I thank God for two faithful brothers Andrew and Anton who devoted their lives to Jesus. Both of them married godly women and each one of them have two children already. God helped me a lot by letting me be their Bible teacher. May God bless them to grow in His calling and in knowing Jesus Christ.

III. God in the Valley

Starting from 2013 I learned God from a different perspective: as the God who walks with me in the valley of the shadow of death. In 2013, my mother died of cancer. She accepted Jesus after trying to talk me out of UBF. Though she did not attend the local Orthodox Church, she visited the priest for Bible discussions. I discovered that the funeral is a perfect place to share the Good News.

At the end of 2013 Ukrainian President decided to become a dictator and therefore, peoples peaceful protest arose at the central square of Kyiv that we call ‘Maidan.’ The failed dictator fled to Russia after killing more than hundred people. In 2014, when we were politically and economically weak, Russian troops flooded the Crimean Peninsula and some regions of eastern Ukraine. War began. In five years, thousands of people were killed, a lot of infrastructure destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people became refugees. A few refugees have been living in our church building for several months. We learned to pray for our nation and to support those in need. It was a war to free the Ukrainian nation from slavery under the Soviet Union. Sometimes, it seems that our people are like Israelites who left Egypt but still dream about cheap Egyptian food. Even still, there are a lot of people are willing to be responsible and pay the price of freedom. We pray for our nation to know God and to depend on God.

In June 2014, I got sick and it terribly impacted my health condition. The cure with antibiotics depressed my immune system and opened a way for other diseases. I became much weaker physically and it took years to be restored. I now realize that it was God’s blessing for me. When I was weak, it was hard for me to pretend to be a good person. I could not be as smart and productive as before. I was often angry or depressed or argued with my wife. Sometimes I cried to God in despair: ‘I believe in Jesus; I study the Bible. Why can I not act as a Christian?’. It’s hard to explain it all, but I finally saw that God is near in all my weaknesses. I received a lot of support from books by Philip Yansey. "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). I discovered that God is the One whom you can rely on when you can not rely on yourself.

IV. God’s work in Kyiv UBF

Kyiv UBF was pioneered in September 1991 and made a long way to leadership transfer in 2019. M. Peter Kim is a devoted and passionate spiritual leader and it looks like he is irreplaceable. But he believed that God is doing all things. So, the recent years our center was in ‘transformation mode.’ Local shepherds took on more and more responsibilities. Sh. Jacob, sh. Jonathan and sometimes other local shepherds delivered Sunday messages. The elders’ team was responsible for all processes inside the church and preparation of season conferences. In 2017, we started the catechism program in our Thursday meetings to help brothers and sisters to have a clear understanding of the foundation of Christian faith. It helped us to see the forest behind the trees. We invited new people through English club and some other thematic clubs. Meantime, the elders’ team was preparing the Statute of the local church. In April 2019, the Statute was accepted, and official membership was established. Then the church members voted for sh. Jacob as the new director and for elders’ team members. We pray for Kyiv UBF to grow as self-depended, or better ‘God-depended,’ church that is rooted in the sound teaching of the Bible and is influential in the Ukrainian society. The Statute prescribes that the sacraments such as holy communion can be held by the officially appointed pastor only. Brothers proposed me to receive this title because by God’s providence I’m the only one in Kyiv UBF with a theology degree. So, that’s the main reason for my visit to Chicago. Another reason is that I’d like to learn about campus evangelization because it’s currently a weak point in Kyiv UBF that must be improved. I thank the UBF Headquarter for all the support and prayer for Ukrainian mission.

The key verse of Kyiv UBF in 2019 is John 17:21: ‘(NIV) that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’ We pray for unity of our leaders. We pray for learning Jesus as our King through Matthew Bible study. We also pray for our growing disciples’ team: brother Veniamin, Oleg, and sisters Natasha, Natasha F., Ruslana, and Veronica. We pray for our country to win our defense war and restore peace. May Ukraine become a holy nation for God.

Pastoral Ordination Address For Noah O. Z.

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:15, 2)

We are here today to witness the ordination of one of our own brothers and a long-standing member of our church community and a faithful servant and witness of our Lord Jesus. As members of the body of Christ, we have a responsibility to our brother, as well as to the church community to which he belongs, to ordain him. We do so not for the sake of validating him, since his years of labor under the Lord’s blessing stand to witness. But we do so according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in obedience to the Lord’s directive which is to set him apart in the role he already occupies as an elder and pastor. And while the ministry he is called to serve cannot be limited to a list of tasks, it is important that we recognize some of the fundamental aspects that his pastoral role would involve; in other words, to state what the fundamental roles of an ordained minister of Christ Jesus are in regards to the church community he is called to minister to. Primarily, an ordained minister, (1) lives and acts in obedience to the most fundamental of God’s commands to love God and to love others; and he does so in selfless and self-sacrificing love as our Lord Jesus Christ did through his life and works. He is also (2) committed to a life of proclaiming the gospel message in faithfulness to our Lord Jesus by whose grace the gospel may freely be given to those who by faith would receive it. Finally, he (3) oversees the community he’s called to serve in its praise and worship—in its teaching and instructing—in its testimony and witness—in its mission and outreach—in its fellowship—as well as in the nurturing and mentoring of its growing disciples through the Word of God in accordance with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These are paramount obligations to the minister who is privileged to be ordained by the Lord from on high and acknowledged by his peers, who in obedience to the Lord, will lay hands on him to symbolize this blessing.

Ordination is a long-standing Christian practice in the church comparable to worship or the communion of the saints. For this reason, we take it to heart and carry it out in the presence of the body of Christ in an open ceremony like this one which entails laying on of hands on the person to be ordained—namely Elder Noah O. Z. This laying on of hands—or, this act of ordination itself—is one of the most significant ceremonies in the sight of God and of those who witness it, because it symbolizes our living faith in God. It is the expression of our faith that the Lord is ever so faithfully and actively working down through the generations, from generation to generation, that He Himself is working, testifying even now, passing on this holy office to one of His chosen ministers by the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God. So, as we lay hands on Noah O.Z. to ordain him as a Pastor in the presence of this church body, the church body has a responsibility. Their responsibility is to witness and acknowledge Noah’s ordination as his earnest commitment to the Lord, the church and the flock entrusted to him by God. Of course, this congregation here is the larger community to which Noah belongs, and his own church community is in Kyiv, Ukraine. They cannot physically witness his ordination, but they acknowledge the years of service Noah had dedicated to the Lord, and his labor in the Lord in Ukraine testifies to his readiness to receive what the Lord and the church are about to bestow upon him—pastoral ordination.

So, I will ask Elder Noah a few questions in the presence of this congregation:

• Do you Noah O. Z. sincerely believe that you are called by our Lord Jesus Christ to live and serve as a Pastor—a conviction of the Holy Spirit by the will of God?  
• Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Will this also be your own testimony as you strive to serve the church, the flock of God under your care, as well as the souls of whomever the Lord would send you?
• The book of Acts tells us that the early Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Will you fulfill your part in serving the community of believers by teaching the word of God, by encouraging the life of faith, prayer and godly fellowship in the Lord?  
• Scripture commands the overseer to, “Keep watch over himself;” “Not to be greedy for money,” to be “A willing shepherd” who is “Eager to serve” (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2). “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Will you often examine your heart in order to remain in Christ’s grace and mercy, strive to keep your heart free of greed, be willing to sacrifice for the sake of God’s flock as a shepherd, following in Christ’s footsteps, even when it means suffering for the gospel? 

After hearing Noah O. Z.’s responses as well as his testimony, we are ready to ordain him as a pastor before God and the church. May the pastors appointed to pray over him approach for the ordination.

Thank you for praying for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in Christ and for sh. Noah's ordination as the Pastor for Kjev UBF. May God be glorified!