Report on the work in Ukraine

Jesus calls us by thy mercy. Say her name, we hear thy call. Give our hearts to thy obedience.

Serve and love thee, best of all. I appreciate the opportunity to tell you a little bit about Ukraine. I'd like to read first in Proverbs chapter 11.

Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. First of all, I want to just leave a challenge with each one of us to go in for rent for winning souls.

The Lord Jesus said, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? We cannot place a high enough value on a precious soul. And each one of us have the opportunity to in some way reach others. I'm thinking of the words that were spoken about Barnabas when he came and he saw the grace of God.

So any little that has been accomplished in Russia and Ukraine is a result of the grace of God. Winning precious souls, gathering them to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to go back to 1991, really, and just say a couple of words about Russia, because that's really kind of the start of that work and the work in Ukraine.

Let me say, first of all, that Russia and Ukraine were together before communism fell. Russia is the greatest land mass in the world, and Siberia is a land of desolation, exiles. Many people from Russia and Ukraine were sent to Siberia.

Some have said that only 1 in 20 lived. Some had to walk through severe conditions. Women and children following.

And the reason for them to go was that they had a page from the Bible. Or they had spoken to someone. We don't have that problem in this country.

We can speak to others in how we fail, oftentimes. To have a page from the Bible could mean prison and beating and death. We know of some who heard the police coming at night with their dogs.

A knock on the door, the grandfather was given just a few minutes to gather his clothes and say goodbye to his wife, never to be seen again. That was communism. But the door opened, and in 1991, through one contact, the door opened to take the Bible, take Bibles and the Word of God to Russia, first of all.

A man stayed with Jesse. He invited Jesse to come to Russia with Bibles to the city of Tobolsk, which he and Andrew did. Found real opportunities to go to schools and orphanages, and actually businesses would close for an hour so employees could hear the gospel.

People would reach out the windows of buses. People, when they got a New Testament, if it was warm and it was parked, they would sit down to read what they couldn't have before, the Word of God. Do we value the Word of God as we should? I've been a friend of Jesse for many years, and so in 1992, Jesse invited me and Mark Wovotny to go to Russia.

And in 1992, again, we had every opportunity to preach the gospel, to give out Bibles freely. And as a result, this number is probably low, but about 650,000 New Testaments have been given away in Russia. And thousands more now in Ukraine.

And it resulted as from one contact, one person was followed up, and others have been reached with the gospel. As a result of, I gave a little report meeting in Oil Springs. I wasn't really too enthused about going, giving a report, but I did.

And as a result, a number of people from that area went to Russia in 1993. And from many of those, they've also gone on to work in Ukraine. So I'm going to give you just a little background of Russia.

In Russia, in 1993, an assembly began in Sergut. Later, an assembly began in Kaskara. Then an assembly in Severorosk, in the Ural Mountains.

An assembly in Tobolsk, and in Volchansk. They're small, weak. They need your prayers, they need help, as Jesse and others can give them.

So that's a little bit of Russia. But that was the beginning, really, of interest in going to Ukraine as well. And it's very easy to go to Ukraine.

You don't even have to have a visa. Heather Anderson is there now, who many of you know. Dan Perez is there in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk.

And so the work is going on. I just returned from Ukraine a couple weeks ago. And when I left, Malcolm Stanley from Portage La Prairie and Howard Pratt from Kirkland Lake came, and they're continuing the work.

Along with Dan, who's staying on for several months further. Maybe even until others come in the new year. In Ukraine, we can go to schools, and maybe just go to the principal.

And they usually give us permission to have a meeting, either with a classroom or maybe with a couple hundred or more students in an auditorium. We give Bibles freely, and we can speak the Gospel. And there's really no restrictions.

We have meetings at the present three times a week in an apartment we rent. And it's a place where we can also stay. So the Word of God is continuing.

I should mention that Timothy Sloan is working in the city of Lutz. And they do a work there among orphans, street children, feeding them, helping them in different ways, preaching the Gospel, providing clothing for the needy. And so Timothy Sloan is doing a good work there.

Timothy and Rhoda. Some of you would know Laura Cancer. She went to Ukraine in 1995.

Her husband passed away. She had an exercise to go and take the Gospel to her husband's relatives. So she and Jill from Campus Kaysing, Tim, her son, went to Ukraine in 1995 and brought the Gospel to relatives and others.

And so that work started in the large city of Lviv, over a million people. So clothing is given out. Orphan homes are visited, schools and private homes where there's needy.

Medication is sometimes purchased for people who can't afford to pay it themselves. Sometimes food. There's great need.

Hard for us to realize in this country the poverty. Sometimes we're invited to a home and literally the cupboards are bare. There's nothing.

And yet they may provide us a beautiful meal. And so as a result of Flo going there and different men going to help to preach the Gospel, an assembly began in 2010, in October. It took a long time.

A number of people were saved. They had to learn the truth of how to live as a Christian, how to assemble as an assembly of believers. But now they're a functioning assembly.

I was there a couple weeks ago. There were 22 believers. Some of us were visitors.

And there were about 10 unsaved observers. One man who was interested since has gotten saved. When we were there, one of the people that we knew, their son, was hit by a bus and had to be taken to the hospital.

So we went to visit them, gave some help to the parents, and as a result he's doing well. Heather is working well with Flo. She's willing to help out in any way.

And so we appreciate her help. When we first arrived in Ukraine, we usually stay with Flo for a few days, help there. And then for myself and others, we go on to Ivano-Frankivsk, which is another city.

I should mention that there are two missionaries commended from North Ireland to the city of Lviv, Edmund and Angus Johnson. And so they're working well in Lviv, and a help to the small assembly that has just started. So for the work there, many of the people have no knowledge of the Bible.

So when they get saved, they have to learn Christian principles. They have to learn about the assembly and how an assembly is to function. So I want to mention a little bit about the work in Ivano-Frankivsk.

This is a city to the south from the other cities. Luts is in the north part, and then you drop down to the city of Lviv, then further south to Ivano-Frankivsk. These are in the very western part of Ukraine.

And just to the west are the Carpathian Mountains. They're beautiful. And if you went there and go to some of the villages, you'd find things much like they were here 100 years ago.

Horses, oftentimes, very few cars. Little cottages on the hillside. Beautiful, really, but people are existing through their gardens.

It's the same in Russia and Ukraine. Many people survive by the gardens they grow. So different ones have gone to Ukraine.

Malcolm Stanley, Howard Pratt, Eric Fowler, Jesse was there. I can't tell you everyone that was there. So it's been a combined effort.

We hope eventually there will be an assembly in Ivano-Frankivsk. There are over 20 believers there, but we need men who will take responsibility to carry on as an assembly. There are some men, and we've had contact with them recently, and they were kind of away from the meetings, but we hope they'll return and go on for the Lord.

We were able to visit a prison in Ukraine. We spoke to about 60. It was a young man, and they listened intently.

And afterwards, the teacher, their teacher, verified what we were saying, so she was pleased, I guess, with what we said. So there's many opportunities. We visited a number of villages and towns, taking clothing, giving Bibles, speaking in the schools, and they invite us back to many of these.

We get new opportunities, and so it's a privilege to be able to do this. In 1997, laws were passed in Russia restricting. Actually, year after year, they become more difficult, so it takes quite a bit of time even to get a visa.

So that door was wide open, but it's closed, or at least it's restricted. At the present, Ukraine is wide open, and I just want to give a little challenge to young people. He that winneth souls is wise.

Think of the value of a precious soul. You can't measure it in dollars and cents. You can't measure it in the opportunities you might otherwise have, the privileges, the easy life.

But to win one's soul for the Savior will be worth it all. He that winneth souls is wise. I think of David Livingston, I believe it was.

He said, I never made a sacrifice. And if you've ever read his books, you would know that he spent many days sick, tired and weak, traveling the interior of Africa. I think of Verne Markle, who went to El Salvador, over 70 years of age.

Before he went, he gave a challenge to young people. He said, here's the ticket for anyone who would go. I'll leave a challenge with you, too.

If there was someone really exercised to go, I'll get your ticket. He that winneth souls is wise. We're thankful for God's blessing, souls being saved.

In Havana, Frankies, when we first went there, I should just tell you how it started. David, Max McLean and Howard Pratt weren't able to land in Lviv, and they took them to Ivano-Frankis. There they were talking in English, of course, and a man came over and asked them what they were doing in Ukraine.

So they said, well, we're giving out Bibles and speaking. He said, come to Havana, and we'll give you opportunity. And so that was in 2004.

So in 2005, a number of us went to Ukraine, and we were able to preach every night to maybe 50 or more people, and different ones were saved, and we're thankful for that. And some are still going on and attend the meetings that we presently have three times a week, and new people come. So there's opportunities.

I think of those who are there right now, Malcolm Stanley and Howard Pratt, and Dan Perez. If you think of it, pray for Heather, for Flo, for Dan, for Malcolm, for Howard. So we're thankful for God's blessing and help for souls that have been saved.

But we'd like to see an assembly begin in Havana-Frankivsk in due time, but it will take God to work and to do that. So there's much to be thankful for. There's need.

There's a wide open field, not just there, but worldwide. He that won his souls is wise. We can never measure the value of a precious soul.

It was the reason the Lord Jesus went to the cross that our precious soul might be saved. Each one here, as a result of the Lord Jesus going to the cross, was because he loved our soul. He was willing to pay that great ransom price to redeem us.

So I just want to leave a little challenge along with this simple report. He that won his souls is wise. Go in for winning souls, people you come in contact with.

Give them a little calendar. Give them a tract. Maybe an opportunity to speak to them.

You never know what one contact will mean. There will be people in heaven that we don't know anything about. As I think of all the Bibles that have been given out by many different Christians, not only in Russia and Ukraine, but here in this country and wherever.

God can use his word. And God will use his word. And there will be souls in heaven that we don't know about.

But maybe we'll meet them on the other side. He that won his souls is wise. May God bless these few remarks for his honor.