Wounded Heart

    On the 21st of June the Odessa church baptized 8 people. One of them was Alexander, a member of an English/Bible group.



   Alexander has been coming to the Advanced English/Bible study group for 3 years. He is a sailor who attended classes when not at sea. Alexander is very intellectual, has a great desire for learning, and asks a lot of questions. Because of his comments and questions, group members often thought of him as a broken-hearted person who was beaten by life. He often talked about pain and the meaninglessness of life. After coming to the group for three years, Alexander started attending church sometimes and reading the Bible. He began to relate to God as a Father. Through prayer, Alexander began asking for forgiveness and giving his pain and the wounds of his heart to Jesus. Before a 9 month trip at sea, a pastor prayed for him. Alexander took the Bible and several books by Christian writers with him. A lot of people from the church wrote him encouraging text messages. While at sea, Alexander read most of the Bible and accepted Jesus as his Savior. In June, Alexander was baptized. Praise the Lord!!

Spiritual Unity

   Testimony of Ira Chumachenko from the Zaporozhie team:


   “You all know my husband, Andrei. I have the greatest news of all!! This Sunday he witnessed about his faith in the church. Awhile ago I asked my husband several times whether he gave his life to Jesus. Andrei answered, “Yes, don’t worry, I am a Christian.” By his actions I could tell that he really had committed his life to Christ. He didn’t want to be baptized though. Knowing my husband, I didn’t want to pressure him so I just prayed. It was a surprise for me when he came to church for the third time in his life. I used to think he didn’t need church at all. His repentance was God’s miracle to me. Thank you so much for all your prayers for us. I can’t describe in words the difference in our relationship now. Everything was pretty good before, but now it’s special and really wonderful. We have something that we never had before: spiritual unity. On July 5th Andrei was baptized! Thanks and glory to the Lord!”