The below came as an e-mail from Tolik Deminko. I know you will rejoice with me when you read the below:
| Student prayer movement We realize that dependence on God is the foundation for our whole ministry. If He will not work in people’s hearts, producing spiritual interest and building up His followers, everything we are doing will be in vain. Our dependence on God is best expressed when we rely on His work through prayer instead of on ourselves. |
It is a great encouragement for us that the students involved in our local ministries as volunteers also realize this. Two years ago volunteers in Dnepr took the initiative to gather Campus Ukraine students from across the country for a time of worship and prayer. Their goal was to unite the participants and help them build their local prayer movements. This became our first national Student Prayer Summit that brought together about 50 people. |
| This year the summit was held in Lviv, gathering 125 (!) students from different cities. Its goal was to help the participants grow in their personal prayer life, understand the importance and value of praying together, and continue building their local prayer movements. We want to share with you the feedback from Katia, a student from Kyiv who took part in the summit: |
“During my first year on campus I and one of my friends met for prayer and looked for other Christians at our university. Yet usually there were only 2-3 people at our prayer meetings. During the second year, outreaches were held on campus on Fridays and we met more Christians. A lot was happening in our ministry, including personal evangelistic appointments with students. I also tried to organize prayer meetings, taking the initiative to invite people, but often no one could come and eventually I stopped trying. During the first semester of my third year at the university I was so busy that I hardly had time to participate in the ministry. At the beginning of the second semester I attended the prayer summit in Lviv. It was great to hear students from campus ministries across Ukraine share how they encouraged one another, found time and met for prayer. A master’s degree student from my university who also was at the summit was inspired to help resume our prayer meetings. In one week 13 people from our department told us they wanted to get together for prayer!” |
| Student Summit “Abide Forever” |
Last weekend Tolik was attending student leaders’ summit in Albania with about 250 students leaders from our ministries all over Eastern Europe. During the last six months Tolik has been involved in organizing it along with a team of people from four different countries. The goal of the summit was to speak to the students through God’s Word, to motivate them to make a life-long commitment to multiply spiritually wherever He calls them. Please pray for His work in the hearts of the summit participants, especially when they came back to their daily routines that they will be faithful in the decisions they made at the summit. |
| Summit design team that Tolik has been working with for the last 6 months (3 Ukrainians, 1 Albanian, 2 Americans) |
| Main speaker Tariku Fufa, our Ethiopian staff that leads Student-led movement department of Cru in 24 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. |
| Thank you for helping reach students in Ukraine and beyond for Christ together with us! |