What news is there from the groups?

Kherson
Ira: the changes that I see in Julia make me happy and encourage me. The course “Marriage Without Regret” was really necessary for her. She used to wear a mask of sarcasm, but now she has changed a lot. Her family conditions are the same though. Her husband still comes home drunk. And recently he came home and began to “teach” his son by beating him. Vasia didn’t want to stay at home after this, and now he lives with his grandmother. But Julia understands her mistakes, and she is ready to change--although it is not an easy process. The topic about our tongue especially touched her heart. We discussed how our words can hurt and kill somebody or heal and encourage somebody. We talked about how we feel ourselves when people hurt us. As Julia is a teaches, she began to think about her attitude to her pupils and how she hurts them sometimes. I met her husband. I am praying for him. It’s hard to talk to him because he always is drunk.

Dnepr
After an English Intermediate group, Olia, Lena, Peter, and I walked home together. Olia asked me a question—“How can we overcome spiritual exhaustion?” She said she didn’t have any physical and spiritual strength to live. I said to her that God is the answer. He can give you strength and the desire to do something. And I invited her one more time to come to the Sunday service. She said that it was what she needed. And I didn’t expect this kind of reaction from her. Now we are the only ones who support her emotionally and spiritually. When we had invited her to come to our service before, she just used to say nothing, but now she desires to go, and this is only God’s miracle.
In the beginning of March, we celebrated Women’s Day in the mountains. It was an unforgettable time. 5 new people went with us. 3 of them were new. This trip amazed us because of its beauty. When we climbed on the top of the mountain, we prayed and praised God for this opportunity to see this beauty.
You can see some of the photo in this site:http://ekklesiya.pp.net.ua/photo/17-1 http://lafanya.io.com.ua/album30565 . After this trip, two girls joined our church.

Zaporozhie
Anya: I want to tell about the so called “failed group.” It happened that there were only two people at the group. Sergei said that he is an orthodox believer but was never open for the serious talk about Christianity; Vladimir, a programmer, attends two groups a week. Usually the discussion at the group is in English. Unfortunately I don’t speak English and don’t always say what I would like to say. So at this group I started to talk to them in Russian. We were talking about everything they were interested in--sense of life, God, Christianity. Sergei was mostly listening, but Vladimir was definitely seeking God, and he just needs to see the right Path to Him. Last Saturday he came to our church. Praise the Lord!

Odessa
Our church leadership group gathered to develop the vision for the evangelistic ministry in the church. Right now there are a lot of projects and the focus is not right. The leadership team worked on the priorities and decided to pay more attention to the church lay leaders’ motivation. Here is the other news:

We started to have a kids’ service. Of course the first time was kind of hard. But we hope that it will get easier and better in the future.
Our multimedia team started to work professionally. They spend a lot of time in preparation, and connect everything to one topic. It turns out very good. Great teamwork!
We organized a prayer service on Fridays. There will be worship too.
There were 50 people at the family group that took place on the Women’s day. People brought their friends-unbelievers. It was very interesting, spiritual and fun!!