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Mission Report:
- Ukraine
(other Mission Reports)
April
23-30, 2002
On April 23-30 another Convention was held in the city of Alushta, Ukraine. I
was able to go and minister there to the saints who were gathered from the
Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. It was an exciting time
for the saints to gather and worship over the preaching of the Word. Earlier in
the month, Bro. Lonnie Jenkins had travelled to the country of Ukraine to travel
around and minister to the saints in their local churches. The convention was
held at the end of the same month in Alushta, which is an excellent location for
the local people to gather. Bro. Joseph Hamid, from Athens, Georgia accompanied
me to visit with the brethren and help minister in the meetings. Bro. Jonathan
Typpi also came from Lima, Ohio and ministered in an afternoon session for young
people.
We had time to meet with the translators and churches who are printing the
Messages to discuss the ways to improve the printing operation in those
countries. Due to the high costs associated with mailing printed sermons across
borders, we are actively exploring a new printing operation in Russia itself for
the Believers in the country of Russia. Message books are already being printed
in Lithuania and in the Ukraine. It was decided that the present level of
production was not adequate enough, numbers of printed Messages needed to be
increased.
I was scheduled to travel to Siberia in April, but it was impossible to obtain
the necessary visas for travel in Russia. It takes a long time to get such a
visa to travel freely within the country,
almost six months from the time you file the application till the visa gets
approved! Visas for the Ukraine are much more easily obtained and we were able
to travel easily about the country.
One of the
more exciting aspects of the trip had to do with the many new faces that came to
the meetings in Alushta. The local church members are witnessing in their local
areas and getting the Message out. There were several new converts baptized and
new young men rising in the ministry. It may not be long before Communism
revives in some form again, but until that time comes, it seems that the Lord is
doing a quick short work in the Russian speaking part of the world. The most
common plea from the people is for ministers to come and visit their Assemblies
and minister to the saints who could not come to the various meetings that were
being held.
My own plans involve travelling back to Moscow and visiting Novokuznetsk in the
Siberian region in August. During that trip I will be taking part with several
others to minister at the first Russian camp for Families, south of Moscow, on
August 20-25th. I have felt led to take on a greater involvement with the
ministry to the Russian speaking Bride and am looking forward to assisting them
in whatever way possible. We have printed and distributed 1000 copies of the
poster "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" in the Russian language. I brought with
me several pictures and prints that are not available to the saints over there
and they really enjoyed receiving them. I have been working on printing a
collage of photos of Brother Branham at various stages of his ministry for
overseas Churches and put all the writing in the Russian language.
Recently I have found an outlet for Russian Bibles and I have been interested in
purchasing some over here for distribution over there. I met with several of the
ministers whose Bibles were so old and tattered and torn that I wondered how
they could even read the words on the page. I have been searching for a good
source to get a good quality hardcover Bible for the ministers and then for the
people for approx. $8.00 US each. I would like to purchase several of these to
bring to the Family Camp in August.
May the Lord richly bless you and I trust you will remember these precious
saints in the former Soviet Union.
Bro. Barry Coffey
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