I received this a few days ago and thought our church members would appreciate knowing what was going on with Tolik and Alyona Deminko in their part of the world:
EXPEDITION-2018
In this letter we want to share with you how God has been leading our national ministry lately, opening up new horizons for the expansion of His Kingdom throughout the world.
A few years ago, during the height of the war with Russia and an economic downturn, God began to show to our national leaders through different passages of Scripture that we should not focus on our problems alone but, following the example of New Testament churches, we should bless others despite our poverty and hardships. Therefore, we started praying and seeking His will for what we could do to help national ministries in other countries.
It turned out that God had been working in the hearts of other people as well. When we surveyed our staff, over 75% of them indicated their openness to serving as missionaries in other countries. At the same time, several national ministries sent us their requests for missionaries from Ukraine. We saw that God was preparing us to become a blessing for other nations. As a result, a vision was formed to send a long-term mission team of Ukrainian staff to a different country by the year 2020.
In the context of this vision we sent three teams on short-term expedition trips to Poland and Belarus this spring. You can learn more about these teams and God’s work through them here.
Please pray with us:
– for God’s leading as we put together a staff team who will serve abroad long-term and for selecting the country and the city where they will go;
– for preparing and holding our national evangelistic project SpeakOut in Cherkassy (July 8-17), for good working relationships with the city administration, for our partnerships with local churches and, most importantly, for many people to come to know Christ personally.
Thank you for your involvement in our life and your part in helping build student-led spiritual movements in Ukraine and beyond!