I remember the times when the old Center was a tiny apartment, where we (I was a student back then) could hang out with our friends, watch movies, take some books from there to read or have a small group meeting. The Center has certainly changed and so did I.

Life can be compared to a series of awakenings, where God calls us out of our sleep to see the needs of people around us. Within the last year, I realized that a lot of people around me can benefit from studying the Bible or simply meeting to pray.

I was greatly encouraged by the personal example of Chris and Lena Lovingood who have been doing that for a long time. I decided to also start meeting with people to study and the UEC provided an excellent opportunity for that--with its convenient location and available resources (Bibles and study materials).

Right now I am meeting with 3-4 individuals each week to study one of the books of the Bible. We are studying 1 & 2 Samuel, Matthew, and Acts. We also meet with several people as a group to study Job. All of these studies have been a blessing to me because I see how God has blessed our church with different gifts and how their growing understanding of God through His Word changes them; they too have their awakenings and start using their gifts to bless others.

Yulia Idemenko has been an encouragement and blessing to me. I started meeting with her a little before she was baptized in late April. Then she went to the United States to work for the summer. This summer has been a time when a lot of us held our breaths and prayed because so many of our people uprooted themselves from our church for the summer to work in the US. But to my amazement and gratitude, when she came back after some adjustment, I saw her faith still vibrant and her desire to grow still present. We renewed our studies and now are exploring the life of the Jewish people in the times of Samuel and after. Unfortunately, despite God's growing this ministry, my support has been discontinued as of December 2005, and I'd like to ask you to pray about this situation so that I can continue in full-time ministry.

Editor's note: Vitaly first came to Kyiv as a student in 1996 and began attending Nivki Church of Christ in late 1997. His relationship with missionaries who were teaching in the university was his first real contact with Christianity. He was eventually baptized in March 1998 and has been serving in the church since then. He became a small group leader and has led in the student outreach. He also began preaching sometimes for Nivki church. For more than a year, he has been working in full-time ministry and hopefully he will be able to continue to do so. He was one of the very first students to visit our original center on Dovzhenko Street before we moved to our new facility four years ago. It's exciting to see how we have played a role not only in reaching students for Christ but also in seeing them mature into Christian leaders who are now actively reaching out to the next generation.

To reach Vitaly, email him at vsamv@ukr.net.

By Vitaly Samodin

Posted November 22, 2005