June 2005

The month has started with my last trip to CCX (IFES/Intervarsity-Ukraine) board meeting in Kyiv. It was the last responsibility I planned to delegate during the transitional period of the ministry. In accordance with the plan, I have resigned (one step in 6 months) from the chairman positions at Tabitha clothing ministry board, CCX national board, and Simferopol Christian Church council. However I keep staying as a recourse person at Tabitha and as an elder at the church, it was time for me to leave from CCX board at all giving more room for younger and more passionate for the student movement members (I remained the only one at the board who never experienced Christian students movement himself, and they have all CCX graduates there now), but the board asked me to stay 6 months more in order to the back-up new chairman for making the succession process more smooth. Now this prolonged responsibility is over now, and I am ready to back to school!

Nevertheless, I keep enjoying teaching as well. Right from the CCX board meeting, I went to Zhourahvoushka resort in the forest not far from Kyiv to teach the ‘Preaching Jesus in Cinema Theaters’ (Evangelism thru secular movies) course at Eurasia International Fellowship of Evangelical Students Institute. What a wonderful school it is! They have had 160 students from 21 countries this year! Only my class of 13 students had representatives from Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Scotland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and the US (see the pictures attached). Isn’t it amazing? Olga, Zhenya, and Dasha were with me there and we had a great time together. Zhenya was assisting me in leading discussion time during the course and was involved in the praise worship team as well.

The book ‘Sexuality’ by Elaine Pountney was printed right in time for her course on the issue and received with well-predicted interest. Every student of the school was glad to receive also a copy of ‘Old Earth? Why Not!’ book by James Nienhuis on behalf of the author.

In cooperation with Euro-Asian Accreditation Association, we have supplied libraries of all Christian colleges and seminaries in the former Soviet Union with five more titles of the books we published: –

  • Foundations for Christian Education by Eleanor Daniel
  • Logics and the Bible by Sergei Golovin
  • Old Earth? Why Not! by James Nienhuis
  • One Blood by Carl Wieland, Don Batten and Ken Ham
  • Why Won’t They Listen by Ken Ham

The rest of the month beyond doing myself and training the team in the daily management of the ministry, I was doing pre-course assignments for TCM class on Prayer at TCM Institute (Haus Edelweiss, Austria) where I am going to July 18-29. I am still short of the funds a little, but the Lord provides in amazing ways, and we have purchased air tickets already. Please pray for the funds, for my trip and the safety of the family, for the Lord’s guidance in my studies.

I have received a pre-class reading assignment for the studies at Asbury seminary as well and doing it as well.

Zhenya is here with us for the summer break and is involved in ministry as well. She has translated the ‘Jesus in the Cinema’ workshop script into English, and after some editing, it will be available at our site www.ScienceAndApologetics.org. Let me know please if you would like me to mail you the script directly when it is available.

This month we have produced two DVDs based on the shooting we made while two prominent apologists were here in Simferopol.

The first one is ‘Creation in Evangelism’ – a conversation with Rev. Timothy Alferov – a Russian Orthodox priest, physicist, and well-known writer on the issues of scientific and moral apologetics.

Another one, ‘Religion and Society’ includes presentations, lectures and workshops of Bruce Little, professor of South-East Baptist Theological Seminary, our ministry board member as well as one of the most faithful co-workers in the academia outreach ministry.

The first DVD is targeted at Christians, who underestimate the role of apologetics in general and creationism in particular for successful evangelism, another one – is for non-believers who are interested in various social issues that are used as bridges for communicating the Gospel to them.

Please pray for the Lord will help us to use these tools for the Kingdom’s sake.

Please pray for our ministry, for all the projects mentioned above. Pray also for my family and for our team. 

May 2005

The greatest event of the month was the ‘Freedom and Responsibility in Science, Medicine and Society’ round table of our regular ‘Man and Christian Worldview’ symposium. It was 20th one and it was the best one so far! We had quite a few new participants, but many old ones as well. It is a real joy to see how the hearts of former strong atheists melt gradually and the strongholds of post-communist academia fall down step by step by the work of the Holy Spirit thru the cumulative work of faithful coworkers in Christ. Our team was responsible for the technical equipment of the symposium and the book table as usual (the pictures of us and our books display are attached).

The greatest pleasure was to see the Philosophy professor from Kyiv who was coming several years to defend his Marxist ideology. He was aggressively anti-Christian all the time, but did not have peace and was coming over and over again. It seemed no argument can make him reconsider his dogmatic position. But the symposium is not papers and discussions only. He had fellowship with the professionals of his own level who are Christians and their love and patience were stronger than any argument. He was able to see videos and listen to concerts both with direct and indirect Christian messages we presented to the speakers as entertainment. He was provided with books on apologetics and various aspects Christian worldview.

This time we can not recognize the person. His mentality revolved! He confesses that the last drop to the cup was the book ‘Case for Christ’ we published several years ago in partnership with Literature and Teaching Ministries. He would never purchase it, but Rick Deighton, a missionary from Idaho, who faithfully participates in the project for several years, gave it to him as a personal gift. The professor told us that he teaches his students from that book! Aren’t the ways of our Lord amazing?

We had Pavel Begichev, a musician (harp) and prominent evangelist from Samara (Central Russia) as a special guest at the symposium. Beyond representing the paper ‘Freedom and Responsibility of a Musician’ he has performed a concert/testimony ‘Gospel in Blues’ at the night entertainment program, as well as a workshop on history and development of Christian music at Simferopol Christian Church right after the symposium. We have taken all materials on the video and going to issue a DVD ‘Christianity and Modern Music’ on it. The goal would be reaching for Christ those who are interested in music on the one hand, as well as responding to some strange ideas Christians have about music.

Please pray for that project as well as for the seeds planted during the symposium for the Lord sent the workers to water the ground and to take care of sprouts, as well as for the harvest in a due time!

The greatest personal news of the month is Zhenya’s return from Kentucky Christian University. Despite the hardships of the first time being so far and so long from home, struggling with cultural and academic adjustments she did quite well. Your prayers, support, encouragement, and care considerably enhanced her spiritual and academic growth and maturity the studies at a great Christian school provide.

After a couple of days of rest and coping with jetlag Zhenya has joined our ministry team assisting with the text translation and the seminars technical equipment.

I am very glad the Asbury Theological Seminary has accepted me even I am short of those two courses, but I really would like to complete the TCM program after all. However, starting the ATS studies this fall reduces the probability of catching up with the courses I still need for TCM graduation. Nevertheless, the opportunity exists for me now to take the reading assignment for completing one of the courses by correspondence as well as to take another course I need in Haus Edelweiss’s class. In order to use this opportunity, I should go to Austria in July by myself, since the course is offered for another national group at that time, not for Ukrainians. It means I should travel there alone and at my own expense.

The cheapest way to the House Edelweiss Ukrainian students team takes usually (by going across Eastern Europe changing trains and buses} is long and, the main issue is not safe enough for going alone (especially – carrying the laptop computer). However, the airfare is extremely high in Europe during that particular period. Nevertheless, the gracious designated gift of a brother in Christ has provided half of the airfare and that is only another half needed now. Please pray for the funds, a safe trip, and the Lord’s guidance in my studies.

Video shooting animals and the visitors at the zoo as well as the interviews with the former ones have supplied us with very interesting responses on people’s beliefs on their origin, relationships to the creation, and responsibilities toward it. It will make our ‘Walking Thru the Past’ video based on Moscow Paleontology Museum shooting much more interesting than stones and bones panoramas only. The script of the video is in the progress now. Please pray for this project as well.

A last but not the least part of our ministry in May was preparing ‘Preaching Jesus in Cinema Theaters’ (Evangelism thru secular movies) course development I am going to teach (and Zhenya – to assist) at Eurasia International Fellowship of Evangelical Students Institute not far from Kyiv on June 5-11. The institute provides intensive training for staff workers and volunteers of the Christian student movement in the former Soviet Union – those who are involved in the most vital outreach for today’s students – future teachers, physicians, lowers, civil and mechanical engineers, army, and police officers, etc. Please keep the school in your prayers as well.

Please pray for our ministry, for all the projects mentioned above. Pray also for my family and for our team.

March 2005

You know the greatest news of the month already: I am accepted for the Beeson International Leaders program at Asbury Theological Seminary. It will require 1.5 months at the campus every 15 months. The first time period I should be there is September 12 – October 22. Please pray for my visa to go there, for my travel, for my family staying here, for our team that going to run the ministry in my absence.

Beyond the usual work of teaching, preaching and current materials printing, we were involved much in strategy and vision development for our Center and our closest partners at the field – International Association for Education and Crimean-American College.

In particular, the syllabus for the distance learning video course ‘Systematic Apologetics’ final version has been developed and we are going to offer that course since April. We are going to advertise it thru mailing and online at our Internet site.

On the other hand, we have completed the shooting of another distance learning video course – Science and the Bible. After some editing, it will be available for the taking from a distance as well.

We study the materials that were shot at Moscow Paleontology Museum. The materials are extremely interesting and thought-provoking. Our challenge now is how to make the video out of them which would be interesting and challenging for non-believers as well. Please pray for the Lord supplies us with creative ideas for this project.

The book Letting God Create Your Day, Vol.3 by Paul Bartz came out of the press already. However Foundations for Christian Education by Daniel and Wade print is delayed a little bit because of the political changes in Ukraine – it was exactly the time with the great customs management style and leading personal change when the paper for the project was going thru the customs. Therefore the paper came late and the book goes to the press only now. Please pray for this project as well.

The unstable political/financial situation in the country has made us decide to cancel Family and the Bible this year – not many people were ready to come without having a clear picture of how much transportation and lodging going to cost, nor could secure budget for the event. Therefore we decided just to abstain from it for a while. It is the seventh year, after all, we are doing it, so we should provide a year of the rest for the soil – to practice trust in the Lord.

However, we got plenty of time to complete the long-going video projects mentioned above as well to make a proper evaluation for new challenges and opportunities.

During the month I was assisting to teach Apologetics course Crimean-American College, as well as was helping to do some staff training workshops.

Despite the difficulties caused by the plans change, the Lord encourages us by the feedback on our materials work for the Kingdom. Let me share a couple more with you.

“Thank you very much for everything you sent and wrote to us. Praise to the Lord! What perfect timing! My youngest daughter is turning 12 soon, and I have worked with kids of that age at Sunday school. Their interests and views are so much different, it is very interesting, but the fact that I am not a teacher was scaring me. I was looking for something special for them, and it turned out to be so close. I am praying for the best way to use your materials with them. Right now I am enjoying the pamphlets and ‘CREATOR’ with my daughter. I have devoured three magnificent books in three days. It is not surprising that Burgen was rewarded with a gold medal for the first book; I would have given him ten medals for the second one as well. I am so glad to have those books, as well as so glad that they are written in such a good natural Russian. And it is such a pleasure that the Center for Science and Apologetics happened to be not far from us. Great! Of course, it would be very good if as many kids as possible could have a ‘Big Difference’ book for themselves and their friends. I just want to offer the book to them. Thank you very much for the video materials. It is such a pity that it was so close, but we did not participate in it. Let’s trust the Lord. His things are always on time. I prayed about the necessity of the ministry for that age. And I got the answer! I have found out a lot from your materials: things I did not know, things I understood wrong. God touched me, and a lot of my pain was cleaned away. My family relationships were down and out. I am so thankful for the books that gave me strength in love, helped me to come to the Father, and to see everything in a different way.” Laenko Nelly, Evpatoria, Ukraine.

“I have bought your books ‘Evolution of the Myth’, and ‘Weird and Wonderful at the store on Sunday, the 27th of February. I have read both of the books at once. I liked them so much, that I decided to buy more books, and give them away to my friends as gifts. I went to the store the next day, but unfortunately, I was able to buy only three last ‘Evolution of the Myth’ copies, and ‘Weird and Wonderful’ was already sold out. So now the books are the most valuable ones in my library. I am going to tell about the books everywhere I can.” Muromtseva Olga, Moscow region, Russia.

Isn’t the Lord the greatest comforter and encourager?

On March 29th we (Sergei, Olga, and Dasha) are going on two days train trip to the Greek embassy in Odessa for our visa to go for the Southeast Christian Church European partnership missionary summit. Please pray for God’s guidance and protection.

Please pray for our ministry, for all the projects mentioned above. Pray also for my family and for our team. 

February 2005

The greatest news of the month is: two self-governed mission daughter ministries are officially registered in two countries – Russia and Uzbekistan.

The first one is based in Kursk where I am coming to teach at the college annually. The ministry has started by Andrey Goorsky – our former manager who got married to a girl from a very good Christian family recently and moved to Russia where she is getting an internship after medical school. Andrey has a great vision on apologetic ministry development in Russia for better equipping Christians for effective evangelism.

The second one is quite distant – in Tashkent. It is established by Andrey Gorkovenko (isn’t it funny? – all my best disciples have the name, Andrey). He is ethnical Ukrainian with Uzbek citizenship and extremely keen on training Uzbek national church leaders and developing worship in the Uzbek language for the nationals could fit it naturally (the majority of Christians in Uzbekistan are Russians and Koreans, and worship teaching and preaching going in Russian there). Andrei has started the church, church leaders training center, and the library. He is going to translate most of our books into Uzbek.

Please pray for these new ministries – for God’s guidance, safety, and support for them. Please pray for the Lord to make me a good encourager for both Andrey’s and provide me an opportunity to visit them at least once a year.

Our video-producing team made a very successful trip to Moscow where they shoot a lot of great materials at the stronghold of atheism – the Moscow Palaeontology Museum. Now we will work on developing this material into a video on how all those displays can be used as evidence for Biblical truth. Please pray for this project.

The video version of the seminar ‘Jesus in Cinema’ has been completed and is in distribution now in DVD and MP4 format. People consider it very informational and spectacular (it includes various video clips from the movies of 1912 – 2004) and equally interesting for Christians and non-believers. It attracts everyone who is interested in motion pictures art by discussing its various problems and approaches, but the indirect message above it all – what the Good News is about. Telling people what they want to hear we deliver them what they need to hear.

Several publishing projects have come to the final stage. The Best Things in Life book by Peter Kreeft and Old Earth? Why Not! by James Nienhuis has come out of the press already, Letting God Create Your Day, Vol.3 by Paul Bartz is in biding and will come next week. Foundations for Christian Education by Daniel and Wade are at the press and going to be completed in two weeks. Please pray for these projects.

The rest of the time was filled up with regular activities like preaching and teaching at the church and local missions, duties as boards member for Crimean-American College and for Tabitha clothing ministry, preparing for two sets of workshops (one is for unbelievers and another one for equipping Christians) I am going to do on my trip to Kostroma (Central Russia) where I am going to at the end of March. We continued to shoot the ‘Science and the Bible’ video course as well and plan to complete the shortage in March.

The strategic policy of teaching teachers and training trainers has brought first feedback. Here are clips from a couple of very encouraging letters I have received recently:

“I and my colleagues would be absolutely ungrounded without your materials. Communicating young people (I work mostly with teenagers and young adults) on the principles of Christian ethics, I have to undermine their atheistic way of thinking and evolutionist worldview first. This is almost impossible without powerful facts of science you supplied me and my colleagues with.” Victoria Fedirko, iterant evangelist; teacher of Christian Ethics at state schools. Sarny, West Ukraine.

“May I thank you for your books. They are extremely interesting and masterfully crafted. I teach ‘Philosophy of Science’ and ‘Ecology’ courses at colleges of Moscow. Therefore I constantly use your materials and always recommend them to my students.” Prof. Dmitriy Troitskiy, Ph.D. (Chemistry), Russia.

Praised be the Lord for revealing His eternal ultimate glory via our rather limited co-working at His field!

Please pray for our ministry, for all the projects mentioned above. Pray also for my family and for our team. 

January 2005

The major event of the month was teaching Systematic Apologetics at Donetsk Christin University on January 10-21.

The political situation in Ukraine has made this visit to Donetsk very special compared with previous ones. The region is ruled by the most powerful criminal gangs which tried to make their corrupted representative Yanukovitch (Yushchenko’s opponent with two criminal charges (street robberies!) served and one waived) the president of the country. The population majority of the region (mostly – coal miners) continue to live in communism-like conditions of slave labor. They have voted for the guy as one soul. People fear any changes and consider lies and corruption as the only way of government. They are not far from the truth regretfully because of man’s fallen nature, but the problem is – they do not see wrong in the situation. Just a typical story: a student answers the question at a church youth service how God works in her life: ‘I prayed hard for God’s help in passing the test and got a chance to cheat successfully, therefore’.

Donetsk Christian University campus was like an island of freedom surrounded by old (communism) time lifestyle where people do not want to leave slavery because they remember the fish, which they did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. They are happy to give up their freedom because of responsibility-phobia.

Therefore my trip to Donetsk was quite different from my usual teaching trips this time. It was like visiting the battlefield to help, inspire, empower and equip people who face real challenges every day because of their desire to share their faith. People around them who fear freedom, consider everyone with different opinions or political orientations as a personal and national enemy. Nobody suffered physically so far, but verbal abuse is common. Sometimes students were thrown from public buses (the campus is out of the city) when their co-travelers found out that they are in favor of Yuschenko.

As a result, I had various meetings, workshops, and seminars additionally to 4-6 hours of everyday teaching. I met with secular colleges students as well as state schools teachers. I preached at a church and at the Family Development Center. The issues we discussed ranged from classical arts to bioethics moral issues.

Now I am back home to the regular activities that include leadership and preaching at our local church as well as teaching lessons ‘How to Know the Will of God’ for the Tabitha ministry staff, Wednesday night in-depth Bible studies on Genesis 1-11; ‘Jesus at Cinema’ movie club.

TV and radio programs broadcast is going on. It was an additional way to proclaim absolute truth when people were seeking what is right in political turmoil. We plan to go to Moscow in the middle of February to shoot the video on the Moscow Paleontology Museum evidence for the Bible. Please pray for this project.

The Best Things in Life book by Peter Kreeft is in the press already. Three more books are going to the press in February: Letting God Create Your Day, Vol.3 by Paul Bartz, Foundations for Christian Education by Daniel and Wade, and Old Earth? Why Not! by James Nienhuis. Please pray for these projects.

Another prayer request is a decision for my D. Min study at Beeson International Leaders program. I am accepted as a student by Asbury Theological Seminary, but the decision on the scholarship is going to be made in February. Please pray for the Lord’s guidance on this issue.

Please pray for our ministry, for all the projects mentioned above. Pray also for my family and for our team.