Seven Loaves...serving Christ on the mission field of Ukraine

 

Letters from Bible College Students

Bible College | Scholarship Program | Letters from Students

 

The following are letters of personal testimony written by students at the Bible College.

My name is Stefan and I would like to share about my ministries with you.

I have two ministries for now and it's a great blessing for me, through these ministries God has given me more power and a strong desire to follow him.

The first one is in the village Knazichi where I attend a church. I often preach in the Sunday services. But before service the pastor and I go to a hospital to bring sick people to the church to hear the Gospel. There is one guy named Oleg who can't walk anymore. He was in a car accident and he doesn't have one leg and the other one is in very shape. So we carry him to our car.. I know God has sent us to these people to be witnesses of the Lord, because nobody loves these people. Especially this Oleg. He is just alone and we like to serve him. It's amazing that people can feel God's love just through your love to them. This guy Oleg got saved recently, praise the Lord, and he just started a new life. Please pray for him, because he needs it.

My second ministry is with children and young people. I love this ministry very much. All of them are in a hospital too, but they have other sicknesses , such as children with disabilities, blindness, and mentally illness. But in spite of their illness, I still love them because God loves them. When I go to them we sing songs, talk to each other, play games. Also I tell a story about Jesus, I tell them that Jesus loves them and wants to save us for himself. For me it really means a lot to be a friend to them, and I can be that way for Jesus. These children like guests very much. They love when somebody comes to them to talk or just to be with them.

I believe God will lead me in this ministry and lift me up. I would like to be the light of God for them and I want them to have this light too. I really love all these kids and try to share my love with them. Now that I have I told you about my ministries I would like to invite you to pray for me and all kids I work with. Thank you for letting me share with you.

May God bless you a lot,
Stefan

 

Hello, my dear Friend,

This is Viktoria. I want to thank you for your prayers and support for me. I can feel God's help in my life and my ministry through your prayers.

I now have a ministry in a church in Kiev. I work with 7-11 years old. I teach in a Sunday school. I like my ministry. I like to work with children and help them to understand God's Word.

God helps me a lot in this and He gives me wisdom and power to teach these children. God directs my ways and helps me to go through all trials and temptations. I am very thankful to Him, for He loves me so much and He is always with me.

My study is going very well. I have a lot of interesting classes and my teachers are great. All of them are willing to help me any time I need it, and they take care of us students. I thank God for the opportunity to study here. Through the college I am growing spiritually.

Also I thank God that in the college I learned to see God's will for my life and for a lot of other things.

I pray for you and love you. It's very good I can write you and tell about myself.

May God bless you.

With love,
Vica

 

Hello my dear friend.

I am Igor. I would like to thank you very much for all your prayers and support for me. I can feel God's help through your prayers for my ministry and me.

I am fine. I now have a social ministry to people with disabilities and I like it very much. God has also opened other doors for me and I can do much more work for him. I help Christians with opening a new church and today we will do evangelism to invite people and tell them about Christ. When our church starts I will be a leader of home group and will teach Bible. Also I will participate in a worship group in the church. I think God is lifting me up in my ministry to Him.

Since September, I have been praying God to give me the desire and ability to study English and guitar, and that He would give me more work that I can do for him. I can see now that He is answering my prayers. Also when He sees me being impatient He just gives me some trials and teaches me through it. I praise Him that I am getting closer to Him. I want to serve Him with all my life.

Everything is fine in college. All my grades are OK and I like to study and learn the Bible. College helps me in my ministry.

I pray for you for God will bless you a lot, and give you everything you need.

With love and prayers
Your brother Igor

 

Hello my dear friends.

I am Sasha. I want to thank you for your prayers and support for me. I can feel God's help in my life and my ministry through your prayers.

I am fine. My student ministry is helping to open two new churches in Kiev. I am working with some graduates from our college.

Not long ago we had a problem finding a building for a church. Praise the Lord! We now have it! Also, we have five more people who regularly come to our church. We work with those who drink and some poor people. Now some of them have started to come to our church. It's a big miracle for us; we can see how God is working in people's lives. People who didn't want to hear anything about God have started coming to a service and listening to God's message for them. Praise the Lord!

We go to people's homes and talk with them, help materially, spiritually and pray for them. Also we do street evangelism, telling people about God's love and inviting them to come to our church.

My studies are fine, but sometimes I don't have enough time to study. I pray more than I study.

But praise God! He blesses me and all my grades are OK.

Everything is fine in my personal life. But I want you to pray for my problems. The first one is about my father. Please pray for him. I want him to be saved for God. I want it very much.

The second one is that I need to trust God more in my life. I want to say that everything I have it's His.

I pray for you and I pray that God would bless you a lot, and give you everything you need.

May my God bless you.

With prayers for you,
Sasha

 

Hello dear friends,

Not long ago I had a great opportunity to serve the Lord. I cannot explain my feelings when I was asked to go to have a ministry for a month and I couldn’t go because of my job. But when I asked my boss, he let me go! I was amazed! It was a miracle for me. I am telling you this to show God’s power and strength. Also if you pray for something ahead of time, and it is a God’s will, He will open the doors and makes it possible.

Carina and I went to Berdyansk. One of the main reasons we went was to see what Ernie Smith is doing and how can we help him.

The first of July we were at Berdyansk. There is a youth club in the church on Tuesdays to Saturdays. Almost half of our time we were working with young people. We played games, talked, and invited them to the church.

Also on Tuesdays and Thursdays we attended an orphanage where we talked about God and played with the children.

In the beginning of July there were English classes in the church. I helped as translator because the teachers were American college students.

Sometimes I helped with the renovation of the youth club and one time I preached in another church in the city of Takmak.

After this it was suggested that we go to a youth camp. Because we needed to go home we were there just four days, but it was very hard to say goodbye and go home. Our purpose there was to help the leaders and give them new ideas for the camp. Also I a little did physical work. I carried the food and water and I made a gang for children and gang for cooks.

I thank God for being using this way. I had a rest and worked for God’s glory.

Igor

 

My name is Helen. I was born in Moldavia in a Christian family, so I have been going to church and Sunday school since my childhood. I also went to children’s Christian camp very often.

I have heard a lot about God from my parents and in the church. I have been told how He changed people’s lives, but for me it was just a story. I thought I was too good to be changed.

One I heard in a sermon that God is almighty and powerful, and that He takes care of the whole universe. But He noticed our Earth and came here to be as we are. To live among us, to have the same feelings we have. He came to die on the cross for me, but I just hid behind my good deeds. When I heard it, I wanted to be close to God, who created me, loved me, and know me better than I know myself. I brought every problems and sin to him. I wanted Him to look at my heart, to clean me. I gave God all my life even though it was very hard for me to do.

Now I feel His presence in my life and big joy inside of me. If I didn’t understand anything before, now Jesus opens me a lot. I started to talk to him as my Daddy. I praise him for the life He has given to me.

In the Moldovian church I worked with Sunday school children and participated in street evangelism, showing Christian movies in the city.

Some years later my family moved to Poltava in Ukraine. My father now works with the association of Youth Christian Camps. In Poltava I sang in a music group in the church and continued to work with children in camps.

In August I went to a camp for orphans and there I met some students from this Bible College. They invited me to study there. I was very glad because I was praying about where to study, but I didn’t know where God wanted me to go.

I thank God for this college. I believe He will help me to be the person He wants me to be.

Helen

 

Hello my dear friend.

My name is Stefan and I want to share with you about my way to the Lord.

I was born in 1987, in the springtime. I was given the name of my grandpa who had suffered a lot for the Lord, and died in prison. I have 5 brothers and I am the youngest one. My parents work for the railway.

From my childhood I have been taught to be a faithful worker for God. I read the Bible and attended church. I was trying to live as God wanted me to live, the Holy Spirit was real in my life, I prayed a lot, and I believed in God.

But when I grew up I understood that in addition to God, whom I loved very much, there was Satan who wanted me to serve him. It was a long story but I had to choose whom I would follow. I thank God he opened my eyes and I got saved when I was 14 years old. But before that I had the question in my heart: “Did I have eternal life?” and praise the Lord, I now have it.

I live in Zakarpatie, in Kamaniza village, we have about 3 thousands people. I work in a church with young people and also I sing and preach. After services I used to visit the sick and I preached the Gospel to everybody I met on a road.

Now I study in Kiev Wesley Bible College and I believe that God has a purpose for my life to study there.

My dear friend I don’t know you yet, but may God bless you and your family very much. May He guide you in your life. I would like to challenge you to work for the Lord. He wants you to give your life completely to Him and He called you to serve others.

Thank you very much.
Stefen 

 

Hello, my dear friend.

I thank God for you and your support. It’s a big privilege to study in this college. Our teachers are especially a big blessing for me and great example for my life. In Acts 5:19-20 we read how the Angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night and brought the men forth, and said, go, stand and speak to the people all the words of life. So Jesus brought me out of darkness and gave me the possibility to study here and tell everybody the words of life.

God has given me a ministry. This summer I had a ministry with young people in the city of Primorsk, with Ernie Smith. My main ministry was to be a translator, but I participated in all the church activities. Some girls and I were teaching English to children and adults. This helped us to have a good relationship with them and tell them about Jesus.

From Tuesdays to Fridays we had English for children in the mornings and for adults in the evenings. When we got to know each other well we started to invite the children to our home to play games and watch movies. Because of this, the group of children increased until we had about 25 children.

Also, we attended a youth center, which was opened by the church. There we played games, sang, and taught them the Bible.

The most wonderful thing that happened was that one eleven-year-old girl got saved. She attended our English class for several days. One day she came and wanted to talk to me. During our conversation I told her a lot about God, and in the end I asked her if she wanted to repent. She said, “Yes” and we prayed together. The next weekend when I went home I was told that my cousin had been saved in a youth camp too. He was the same age as that girl. I was just amazed! I realized if I work for God He would never forget about the salvation of my family.

Now that I am back at the college, God has given me two ministries. I teacher Sunday school for children, and I am helping in the opening of a new church in Kiev. It’s a Free Methodist Church. It’s so wonderful to be useful to God.

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

May God bless you.

With love,
Ana

 

 

This site is maintained and updated bimonthly by Ernie and Anna Smith.

Please contact us at ernie.smith@wgm.org

(Last updated Friday December 05, 2008 21:39:07 -0700)