Good news from Dnipro

We thank all the brothers and sisters who helped Camp Amerikraine Relief. Since mid-June of this year, you have helped create a new congregation. Sixty miles from the battlefield during the war. In the city of Dnipro. Our city is attacked several times a month, and missiles and enemy drones fly over our town to attack our country. Many people continue to move as far away from the war as possible, but many have nowhere to go. Dnipro is the first city where refugees from the east and south go to get away from the war. When you can no longer stay in your town or your home has been destroyed, you go to the unknown.

You don't know anything and nobody, but you treat material things differently now. Because they're gone, all the fruits of your work on earth, all your goals and dreams are gone. They are not worth your life. And that's why we needed to be in a place where people can get to know the church and God. We have several goals. One of them is to change attitudes about the church. The material world teaches us to care only about ourselves. And the propaganda of the material world is a negative attitude toward the church because you have to give something away, not accumulate. For a long time, people have thought that religious organizations serve only for profit. They felt that you could be a believer and not attend church meetings. Does that sound familiar? The first church in scripture was famous for sharing the people's hardships and, therefore, being loved by the people. (Acts 2:47). The change in mentality is generational. If people see the church's good works, they will know the importance and necessity of the church and tell other people about it. Later, they will get to know God and learn that we are created to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10, Mattew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12)  

The second reason is that God's word must be preached. God's prophets were not listened to, but God sent His people to preach about His mercy and His willingness to forgive the sins of others. Therefore, Christians who build their expectations that the purpose of evangelism is to bring people to Sunday worship are disappointed and, more often than not, stop preaching the good news. God never set such a goal for us. And so we set a goal that we would love for people to come on Sunday, but even more so we would love the opportunity to tell people about Christ. If our goal is to bring people into the church building, we figure out ways to do something in the building to get more people in the building. And if our goal is to preach Christ to the people who come into our buildings, there is nothing wrong with that. If our goal as every Christian is to preach Christ and have people come to Christ and not to Sunday worship, then our creativity will go in a different direction. If people reject the message, they won't be rejecting us. So the mentality of our team was that even if some people wouldn't listen to us and would think that we were foolish to put our hope in Christ, we have examples of Jesus's disciples when they went "rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41). Rocket attacks. Lack of electricity. Cold. Short daylight hours may be a limitation, but they cannot be a roadblock to the preaching of Christ. 

We give thanks for the building. Many Christians stay in it. It is where volunteers stay for overnight stays who are traveling to more dangerous places. Christians from more dangerous places stay in it. But most importantly, this building is where the preaching of Christ is preached, and the preaching of Jesus Christ is not just through words, but through service to people.

We have had two weddings of Christian refugee couples. We are constantly getting to know new people and trying to serve them, show them Christ, and serve each other. We are thankful for the resources and for the opportunity to provide humanitarian aid to people. During our ministry, we have been helped by Christians from Romania, Belgium, Poland, Australia, the US, and Сamp Amerikraine Relief.

You are helping during a time of war, which is very important. But you are helping preach Christ, which is even more important.