Long Day

Pastoral Conference of Kyivan Eparchy took place at the ULC office in Kyiv yesterday. Rev. Vadym Zinchenko was leading the Conference and Rev. Victor Khaustov from Kharkiv was the essayist at the Conference. His paper analyzed  Jehova's Witnesses' cult groundless crtisism of the Holy Trinity.  Pastor Khaustov's essay is a deep analysis on the basis of JW cult journals and Scriptural texts both in Hebrew and Greek. The essay had many quotations from Church fathers as well as from modern authors. After discussing the essay pastors shared news from their parishes, discussed prospectives of church life in Ukraine and took part in the Vespers of the Resurrection Lutheran Church in the evening.

Soon

Ukrainian readers will get a new book -  The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel by C. F. W. Walther.  We have finished reviewing its Ukrainian translation and we pray and hope that in a month or two it will be published by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. The book is great and it's a necessary reading for each Lutheran theologian, pastor, teacher and layman. I am looking forward to seeing this awesome book paper edition soon!

Interesting Statistics

A few days ago RISU (www.risu.org.ua) has published data about religions in Ukraine. The data were presented by the State Committee on Religions and Nationalities. Christianity is dominating religion in Ukraine. As for Christian churches Orthodox constitue almost 52% of all the congregations, almost 30% of all the churches are Protestant, others are Catholic (both Roman-Catholic and Greek-Catholic (Uniate))

Prayers Are Needed

I have just retuned from one of the hospitals in downtown Kyiv - one of our parish members had fell down from the 3rd floor (about 10 meters or 30 feet hight) and broke his legs and feet in many places. His name is Vitaliy.  After his confession and absolution I have communed him with the true body and blood of our Lord Savior in bread and wine of the Holy Supper. Prior to that and after that we read the Scriptures and had devotions. Please come to the throne of grace with prayers for this young man - doctors say he will not be able to walk till fall at least.

News from Japanese Church

As soon as we learned about horrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we began to pray for our sisters and brothers in Japan and for their country. I received a message from Rev. Mark Schroeder, President of Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod with good news about our sister church in Japan, Evangelical Lutheran Christian Church - neither people, nor buildings received any injuries. They cannot locate one parishioner, though and we ask to pray for that person.  We thank our Lord for such a gracious care for His Church in Japan and we continue to pray for Japanese Christians and for their suffering country.

Funeral of Pastor's Mother

We had a funeral in our congregation today. Lubov (means Love) Kudryk died. She was 63.  She is mother of Pastor Serhiy Kudryk, who serves St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Chernihiv. She is also mother of Alla Plakhotniuk, a faithful member of the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Kyiv. Lubov Kudryk has joined our church in the latter part of her life, she loved Jesus Christ, her Savior and despite of a very difficult case of cancer tried to come to church as often as possible. As she joined the church she began with sitting on the last bench in our worship facility. As her illness was progressing, she was moving to sit  closer to the altar to make it easier for her to come to the Table and to receive the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in bread and wine of the Holy Supper. The last time she was in church she was sitting in the very first row and now she is with our crucified and risen Lord in heaven. It was my privilige t be her Pastor and serve her with the Word and Sacrament, and to officiate at her funeral. "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."(The Nicene Creed). Come, Lord Jesus!

Prayer Request

 

     Resurrection Lutheran Church from Kyiv asks for prayer to the throne of grace of our Lord and Savior on her behalf. We were asked to leave our usual place for worship where, in addition to God's services, we had a possibility to have Bible classes, children's choir and Sunday School classes. 

     We could find a place for worship which is smaller. We cannot have all the regular activities now, except liturgies. The place is also rather cold - many of our people caught cold and other illnesses.  Could you pray that we would have a permission to return to the former place of worship, please?  Another prayer request - to help our church build or buy our own worship facility. Without it will we will have lots of hindrances for sharing the Word of God and serving God's people effectively.
The Lord says, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." (Psalm 50:15).