We were pretty prepared for the new wave of pandemic restrictions by developing a hybrid approach for Joint School of Christian Apologetics courses. Through the year of quarantine, we learned all the strengths and weaknesses of in-class and online teaching and combined two models for the best result. On the one hand, it allows keeping on the dynamics of actual in-class fellowship. On the other hand, people from any part of the world can join.
Thus, during the Master’s Apologetics and Evangelism Strategy course, we had ten persons in class (see the pictures attached) and 30 students online, even from such remote places like Udmurtia at the Urals and Khabarovsk at Far East Russia. Otherwise, they would not be able to join the program at all because of the distance and the war between the countries!
Here is some feedback we received from the online students:
“I got ignited for evangelism in a very new way because of the course! Some kind of renewed daring has come!!! How precious is the ministry that God has entrusted to you!! I can’t wait to start the work!” – Irina Draya, Kherson.
“Thank you for the course. Attending it was a great blessing. Sorting everything out will take some time now, and I want to continue learning from you!! I live in Moscow. We have no teaching like this in our churches. Christians hardly ever preach about it. My heart breaks for the younger generation – there is no one here to teach them evangelism and apologetics. Train me, and I will train them! No matter how naive it may sound, I believe our Lord will change the hearts of people in Russia through the Good News of Christ” – Daniel Gavrilov, Moscow
We continue to experience a season of enormous grace that came after the seven thin years. At the prayer time of the course, I shared with the students how the Lord blesses our ministry. One of them, Yury has approached me during the break with a very specific question: does your new Center have a proper classroom? The question was very up to a point. The facilities we got have space for everything we ever dreamed of having except that one thing – a place for public lectures and seminars easily accessible by public transportation. After all, this shortage was not a big deal since several schools in Ukraine are glad to offer us their classrooms for use, though they are pretty far from the Center.
“Well, – Yury said, – first time I attended your seminars about 20 years ago as a new believer. That drastically challenged my understanding of the church, evangelism, and mission, impacted the rest of my life! I am a pastor now, and our church has recently built a new sanctuary right at the next neighborhood from your Center and near the public bus stop at the main road. Feel free to use it for any of your programs – we will be honored by the partnership with you.” Isn’t this amazing? May the Lord be praised!
Andrey, our director, and I have visited the church (see the pictures attached). I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship ©. We already plan several events there, including starting over the Reliable Foundations Media Club (stopped with the quarantine) next year. Please join our prayers about it!
The confirmation for the need for the Reliable Foundations Media Club restarting has come almost immediately! Someone, out of the blue, sent me a video clip – some men are relaxing at the campfire after a day of hike in the woods in the middle of nowhere (attached). What do you think they are doing? They listen to the RFMP seminar on the biblical view of life and death! May the Lord be praised!
The shift of the public schools for the distant learning became due to great opportunity for us! Our materials for children help them learn better, shape their worldview, and make them missionaries to their peers and their teachers! Attached are the pictures one pastor sent. His daughter uses our books for doing her school assignment on science. I am sure her teacher will find many good points to think about while reading that notebook! Please pray with us for all God’s youngest witnesses!
The Eurasian Apologetics Center facilities remodeling goes on. By God’s grace, we have raised 59% of the estimated cost and completed the essential indoor works (you can see the progress pictures here). The most important issue, for now, is getting the kitchen completed and installed. We plan to move into the facilities in a week to be able to maintain the place while the first frosts come. Thank you very much for your care and prayers!
Despite the lot of our time and efforts the remodeling takes, we do not slow down the pace of the ministry. We keep all the commitments we made to introduce the Truth to skeptics, strengthen the saints in their confidence in the Truth, and equip God’s people to proclaim God’s Word effectively. We just choose a proper format of the approach to practice according to the situation. For instance, a Doctorate course on Biblical Anthropology at the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological University (Kiev) was made in the hybrid format (few students are in the class, the rest are online – the pictures attached), while some of its parts for the Bachelor level students at Ukrainian Biblical Theological Seminary (Lviv) were provided in the media format at the same time. The same hybrid approach was used for the schoolteachers’ seminar on incorporating the biblical worldview and understanding of science into the government-controlled school curricula, while the youth conference on the Bible veracity was more purposeful to do as an actual gathering (see the pictures attached). Please pray with us for the fruits of all these events! I believe somebody who attended them will come someday and say: my heart for Jesus, for evangelism, for ministry, for missions was impacted there!
