Our Community Needs Your Prayers!
Resurrection Baptist Church is a big part of the Last Bell community – and needs our prayers.
We treasure our relationships with local churches in Zhytomyr! In our first post in this series we shared about Dom Christa. Today we want to introduce you to Resurrection Baptist, the home church of Last Bell staff members Lena & Vitya Andrusenko and Vasya & Luba Yaroshuk, along with several of our youth. And we want to ask for your prayers.
A few years ago, Kolya was one of our youngest orphanage graduates. He began attending church, and decided to follow Jesus and be baptized. His love for God led him to volunteer with church kids and street kids. Kolya wants to go to seminary and be a missionary or youth group leader.
Kolya participates in the teen ministry and summer camps.
Kolya’s brother Sergiy also attends Resurrection Baptist; he’s an open-hearted, hard-working guy. This year he became a Christian. He tries to attend church even though his job often prevents it.
Sergiy with Luba and Vasya. He’s a strong athlete!
Orphanage graduate Yuliana also attends. She’s part of a Christian foster family in Zhytomyr. Our young people got to know her at church. We love fellowship with families serving orphans!
Yuliana wants to attend a Christian university.
Two months ago, Yuliana was part of a joyful baptism of new converts.
Tanya and her husband Pasha, also church members, are volunteers at our Shelter Crisis Housing facility for orphan moms. Tanya provides learning opportunities for the children: crafts, drawing, play-dough, singing, poems, brain-storming games, and other activities.
The couple also helps our staff teach life skills in Zhytomyr’s trade schools.
Now we want to ask for prayer from our U.S. community for Resurrection Baptist, which recently experienced a terrible tragedy.
The pastor and his family were driving home from Germany when he fell asleep at the wheel. The car drifted into the wrong lane and landed in a ditch. The pastor’s son-in-law sustained internal organ damage and his legs were crushed. He’s back in Germany for medical care, and may never walk again. The pastor’s wife, Ludmila, died.
Luda was a loving person who volunteered in many ministries. Our executive director remembers seeing Luda fixing food in the church kitchen prior to a Last Bell graduate reunion.
Remembering Ludmila
Please pray for Resurrection Baptist and the whole church community, especially the pastor and his family. If you mention them in prayer at your own church, please let us know! “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (I Thess. 5:11).
From the Yaroshuk family, church members and long-time Last Bell staff members: “We’re thankful God has called us to serve orphans. This ministry encourages and inspires us to give even more of God’s love when we see how big the need is. Thank you, readers, for your prayers and donations. We do God’s work together.”