Dear Friends and Prayer Partners
My prayer for you is that the Lord will bless you and answer your prayers this New Year and make this a memorable year of blessing in your life.
Our ministry is evangelism, and praise the Lord, we ended last year on a high note with our largest and most successful evangelism since being hindered by Covid! Now we have started this year at full speed. I left for Ukraine on Tuesday January 3rd. The only way is to fly to Poland, then go by car across the Polish and Ukrainian borders, then into Lviv. The first day was spent being shown how, for hundreds of years, Ukraine has had an independent identity from Russia, and has every reason to fight to be free from Russian intervention and control.
I then travelled the 350 miles by car to Kyiv. I met with the military commander who was in control of Gostomel airport, just 20 miles outside the city, when, at 10.00am on the morning of the 24 February 2022, the Russians launched the attack with helicopters and paratroopers, to capture Kyiv and President Zelenskyy. Although the Russians captured the airport, the Ukrainian defenders prevented the enemy from reaching Kyiv and eventually drove the enemy back to the borders.
I met church and military leaders and chaplains on the Saturday, preaching to over 1000 in my very dear friend Boris’s Messianic Congregation. We ignored air raid warnings and missiles dropping, this is the largest Messianic Congregation in the world! Afterwards I met with about 50 of the military chaplains who work on the frontline, who are enlisted military, but whose only weapon is the Bible. I also was officially enlisted in the Ukrainian military, complete with uniform and certificate, as an army chaplain! Then back to Lviv for the Day of Prayer in a large church building, worshipping with, and preaching to, 2500 on Sunday evening. If the churches are full, why should I not join them?!
As believers we should only be afraid of two things: sin and disobedience to God. As Christian Believers we are fighting satanic spiritual powers with prayer and the power of God’s Word. Prayer is not lighting candles and reading set prayers from a book. It’s a dynamic relationship with God through our Mediator Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. Paul called the Word of God the Sword with which we fight and resist evil. Today’s church is in danger of compromising the Authority of Holy Scripture as being the Divine Word of God. That’s why much of the church is weak and powerless. How can you fight if you doubt the accuracy of your sword or your weapon?!
Then on the Monday I met with the Military Governor of the whole Lviv Region Military Administration. Spending an hour in his office with him, he thanked me for my message on the previous Day of Prayer last June which he was able to attend and stay through the whole service. We discussed the current situation and he agreed with my presentation of the four main issues. (1) We must continue and increase our support of the military until victory. (2) In conjunction with the Government and the United Church Council, we are planning a massive celebratory Day of Prayer with 10,000 in the Sport Palace in Kyiv for June 10th 2023. (3) Ukraine will need continuing, increasing support from the West when the war is over to repair the vast damage to homes and infrastructure and enable the 8 million refugees to return. (4) To help to bring mental and physical healing to the whole nation traumatised by the war – spiritually, with the Churches and evangelism, working with the Government. This may be even more difficult than material reconstruction. After our positive meeting it was immediately posted on the Lviv Military Administration website.
Finally, our last meeting was with some of the refugees from the war zones who are being sheltered temporarily in the Seminary building belonging to the church – families torn apart, missing loved ones, living in a tiny space, each with 4 bunk beds and extra mattresses; one family with mother and 10 children in just two rooms, who had owned a large house now occupied by Russian soldiers; one woman who was with a family member, who had stepped out of her home to collect food when a shell landed near her, killing her friend and severing her leg – she was struggling between bed and a wheelchair, shocked and traumatised as she told her story. These were just a few of the hundreds of thousands whom we are able to help with the gifts you are sending us.
Your support meant 2022 saw increased blessing in ministry, more coming to Christ, more miracles of healing – and an especially high level of financial support for victims and survivors of Putin’s war in Ukraine. In this New Year we are expecting to do more than in previous years – which means we need your support more than ever! To fulfil all that God has put in my heart this year, we will need your prayer support – and almost double our financial income.
Thank you,
David
Thank you for supporting the ministry through prayer and finance. For those who support by Standing Order, thank you; and those who give anonymously, God sees what is done in secret. Psalm 65:11 declares, ‘You crown the year with Your goodness; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.’ Our prayer for you is, even in hard times, you will experience God’s goodness and abundance, so you can continue to bless others. We provide humanitarian and spiritual aid to the displaced in Ukraine. And David holds ministry in person and online.