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John 13:34, 35: “A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
 

 

I. Co-working and Visiting Ministry.

We wanted to obey this command in order to show others that we are the disciples of Jesus.  In God’s work it’s vital to cowork well and love one another in Christ.  When there are conflicts among Christians and lack of love it does not set a good example for others.  We decided that our church should not be exclusive but willing to lovingly cowork with other Christian churches and organizations while maintaining our gospel foundation of student one to one Bible study ministry.  Here are a few examples of how God helped us to cowork with others.

Conference – Through Ambassador Kim’s connection we were able to meet Pastor Chang who graciously allowed us to use his church for our conference in Lviv. His congregation supported our conference through their attendance, housing and feeding us. Pastor Chang of Shalom church serves the homeless and people of addiction. They also built three churches with no money but only through fasting and prayers. Pastor Chang prayed for us to also have our own center in Podil. We are very thankful to have met him and for his hospitality in ministering to us. This conference helped us to bond as a church and cowork with other precious Christians.

 

Parish nursing—Maria and I attended their 3 conferences held in Kyiv this past year.  It is an ecumenical ministry of nurses, doctors and pastors from different denominations that work together to help mostly sick, homeless and dying people and to bring awareness to those who are suffering without medical help.  The head of this organization is Father Nikolay who is an orthodox priest. Several of our students want to volunteer their time to work with the needy in Kyiv. Through our partnership with Parish Nursing we believe we can do this. We want to follow Jesus’ example to reach out to those in need not just financially but with our labor and love. Not only did we cowork and visit other ministries in Ukaine, God also allowed us to visit many UBF chapters in Europe and CIS.

Through seeing the different UBF chapters we were moved by the dedication and faithfulness of our missionaries and shepherds in their love for Jesus.

II. Work of God in Podil and our family
This summer our two children, Christy and Johnny left and began their college lives and join with Sarah in Chicago. They are actively serving Westloop UBF. Several of our coworkers there commented that our children have been a blessing and brought revival in their ministry. We also thank God who provided full scholarships for Sarah and Johnny and about 70% for Christy’s tuition. God blessed Maria Joy to get a teacher’s position at KIS as a Russian teacher and work on her Masters on-line through the University of Buffalo, N.Y.  She has been our music director in Podil UBF working with Grace and Joy Kim, Fedor and Ulia. She also helps with English Club, teaching the Bible with students and giving the Sunday and Conference messages. God blessed our English Club in Podil as well as the EC at KPI and KNU. Through English Club several students attended our SWS and many to our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. This fall KPI and KNU English club has been independently carrying out their sessions without us.

We are also thankful for Misn. Josephine Kim who led several group Bible study on “Women of the Bible.” Many of our sisters were moved and wrote testimonies based on the lessons.

God blessed our church in many ways in the past year.  On December 17 God blessed us to purchase a Bible house in the Podil area.  We thank God for all the coworkers around the world who supported us in prayer and financially.  There were many who helped us especially Olexander (Sasha) and OlenaTuitenko who were with us in all the transactions. M. Abraham T. Kim, M. Sarah Barry, Chicago elders, Ambassador Kim and his wife, Jenny Cook, Christy Peace and Maria Joy Peace for their support, labor and encouragements. We are grateful to Westloop, Wright College, U of I, and Central UBF for their financial gifts and loans they gave us. Also for Moscow UBF, Kyiv UBF, and Chicago UBF who promised to also support us financially in the future.

God blessed our Christmas Concert on December 23 and more than 30 members could attend. This time each of our leaders in our church brought someone to come to our Christmas Service. This is a great sign for the growth of any church. It is because God’s work is not about addition but multiplication.

We are now in the midst of choosing a Key verse for 2013. We pray that each of our members may review what God has done in their lives in 2012 and may God give each of us and our church a proper 2013 key verse.

III.  Prayer Topics