Hand of the Lord upon us

Dear brothers and sisters from the USA, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

By the mercy and grace of the Lord, we have lived through the first month of this year, 2025. And again we have seen how good the Lord is and how wonderfully He cares for us in every occasion of our lives.

1. In our services in the church, we feel the Hand of the Lord upon us. There are not as many church members in our church as before, because many have left abroad, because of the war, especially the youth. But we gather regularly and do everything that needs to be done to serve God. We have fellowship from the Word of God, prayer hours, and sisterly prayer hours, we glorify God through hymns, and we also help people in need. Our volunteer brothers continue to travel to places where there is military action and bring humanitarian aid to the soldiers who are there defending Ukraine.

2. Since in our village the holiday of Christmas is celebrated on January 7, then we with our church organized evangelism for children from the village. Thank God, many children came to this holiday and heard the Good News about Christ, and at the end of this evangelism all the children received good gifts.

3. In the village of Vanchikovtsy, a neighboring village, we also organized such a holiday for the children of this village. And on the eve of the holiday of Christmas, our youth from the church, as well as youth from other churches, walked around the village of Vanchikovtsy and preached the Word of God to people in their homes.

- In this village and further on every Sunday, after lunch, we hold a service and invite people to this service. We are glad that people come and listen to the Word of God. We pray for them so that in this village there will be an awakening to repentance.

4. Thanksgiving

-I am grateful to God for the fact that at the beginning of this year we had good opportunities to serve God and glorify His Name through evangelism.

-We thank God for answered prayers and always thank God for you, brothers and sisters from the USA - our partners in evangelism here in Ukraine. We thank you for your support and for your prayers for us.

5. Prayer requests:

-Pray with us for those children who heard the Good Word this month. So that the Lord will test the hearts of these children for repentance.

-Continue to pray for Ukraine. Only the Lord can intervene here and He has all the power to stop this war.

-Pray for me too, so that the Lord will give me strength, wisdom and zeal to serve Him in humility and obedience.

With all our hearts we thank the brothers and sisters from the USA for caring about the ministry in Ukraine, supporting us both financially and in your prayers before our God, especially now when we are going through these trials through this war in Ukraine. You are with us and we feel it. We love you and we also pray for you that the Lord blesses you with peace, health and abundant blessings from heaven.

With love to you, the Gortopan family.

Nativity of Christ

Dear brothers and sisters from the PIEI mission, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! With God's help, we have reached the end of 2024, a difficult year of war, a year of worries and problems. In our region, although there are no enemy missiles, people live in fear and are very stressed. Young men cannot walk or go where they need to, because they are caught and sent to war. But we thank God for helping us so far and always caring for us.

1. This month, our family, and especially our son Sergey who works abroad, made social packages for poor families from the village, as well as from our church. We are glad that the Name of the Lord is glorified through such social events.

2. We had guests of our brothers from England, who testified and preached the Word of God. It was a good evangelism because many unbelievers were present.

3. Our church celebrated the Nativity of Christ on December 25. There was a blessed service where children, adults and all who had a desire to glorify the Name of the Lord Christ the Messiah served God. We are very glad that our church was visited by unbelievers. After the holiday of Christmas until the New Year, our church had one week of prayer where we had thematic prayers and services every day.

4. Thanksgiving:

- We thank the Lord for the fact that He led us throughout the past year, protected us from all evil and supported us with His Mighty hand.

- We thank God for the fact that we freely preach the Gospel to people in our country.

- We thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters from the USA - our partners in the ministry here in Ukraine. For the fact that you always support us both in your prayers and financially so that we can help other people in need.

5. Prayer requests:

- Let us continue to pray for Ukraine and Israel, where there is a war, so that the Lord will bring long-awaited peace.

- Pray for the Ukrainian people, so that when they listen to the Word of the Gospel, more people will repent.

- Pray for me and my family, so that the Lord will keep us close to Him and so that we will serve Him with zeal.

We sincerely thank you, brothers and sisters from the USA, for all the support that we have received from you throughout this year. For your prayers and for your financial help. These are the blessings that help us serve more here in the Field of God. We wish you that this year, 2025, you will be blessed and protected by God.

With love to you, the Gortopan family.

Regional conference

Dear brothers and sisters from the PIEI organization, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Only God cares for us in this difficult time for us, He strengthens us in serving in His Field, therefore all glory, honor and worship belong to Him!

1. At the beginning of this month, our brothers and sisters from the church had regional conferences. We brothers had a brotherly conference with brothers, our guests from Romania.

And our sisters had a sisterly regional conference with sisters from Kyiv, and from the eastern regions of Ukraine, where there is now a war.

2. The sisters also had one day of fasting and prayer at the beginning of the month, when there was an international day of fasting and prayer for sisters. They also collected monetary donations in the amount of 7,000 UAH for the needs and support of poor countries. This is also a blessed service that the Holy Scripture teaches us.

3. Prepared social packages to support and help poor families from our church, as well as unbelieving families from our village. This is a ministry through which the love of our Lord Jesus Christ is preached. Therefore, we wish that God be glorified through this ministry.

4. Thanksgiving:

- We thank the Lord God for protecting and defending us until this hour and until this place.

- We thank the Lord for the brothers from our church who go as volunteers to the eastern part of Ukraine, where there is a war, and bring social assistance, food, and also have the opportunity to preach the Word of God to these people who do not yet know God.

5. Prayer needs:

- Let us pray together for peace in Ukraine and Israel.

- Pray with us for the upcoming holidays: Christmas and New Year 2025, so that the Lord will help us evangelize more unbelievers from our villages during these days.

- Pray for me that the Lord will give me the power of the Holy Spirit, so that as many times as I open my mouth, I will have suitable words for those who listen to the Word of God.

And to those from the USA who work with us, we thank you very much, because you are a blessing to us. We pray for you and wish you that the blessings of the Lord accompany you every day.

With love to you, the Gortopan family.

Trip to Alba

Dear brothers and sisters from the USA, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through the grace and mercy of our Lord we had a favorable time blessed by God, and this month.

1. At the beginning of this month, I, together with the brothers from the PIEI Ukraine mission, went to Romania, to Alba, for a conference at the invitation of our missionary brothers from the PIEI Romania mission. Our brothers from Romania received us with great love and we felt at home. We had a very good and pleasant time together with the brothers from Romania, where we studied the Word of God with brother Norm Wakefield from the USA on the topic “Equipping Men” “God’s Blueprind for the family”. Together with the brothers from Romania, we studied useful lectures from life and how we should behave like real men in this difficult time of our life. This encouraged us very much and we are grateful to God for our brothers and sisters from Romania for this invitation and hospitality on their part. May the Lord bless all our partners of the PIEI mission from Romania and the USA.

2. Our church, this month, helped with social assistance to poor families from the church, as well as in the village to people who live in need. We saw so much gratitude in the eyes of these people for these gifts, which they really needed, and they also praised God for His mercy and kindness to them. We really hope and pray for these people, that the Lord touches their hearts, so that they would know and accept Christ in their hearts.

3. We also had a district conference with a team of pastor brothers from Arad (Romania), where we received good teachings from the Word of God for our edification. These brothers were also in our church where we held 2 evangelisms, on Thursday evening and on Sunday afternoon. Glory to God.

4. We had 2 funeral services where 2 brothers in faith departed into eternity. It was a real evangelism where more than 100 unbelievers were present and listened attentively to the Word of God. We pray for these people too.

5. Thanksgiving:

- I thank the Lord for having a good opportunity to evangelize the Gospel.

- I thank the Lord for you, dear brothers and sisters from the USA, our partners in evangelism, for working together with us to spread the Word of God among people in Ukraine.

- We thank God for His protection and security, for the fact that there were no enemy missiles in our region where we live.

7. Prayer requests:

- Let us pray with faith for peace in Ukraine.

- For those who heard the Word of the Gospel this month, so that they repent.

- Pray for us, the ministers of the church, that the Lord will endow us with wisdom from above so that we can lead the ministry in the Field of the Lord.

-And to those who are our partners in ministry here in Ukraine, but live far from us, in the USA, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your activity in our ministry here in Ukraine. I know that the Lord will reward you more than our gratitude to you. I wish that the peace of God and the Blessings of the Lord would be with you every day and every hour.

With love to you, the Gortopan family.

Harvest Festival

Dear brothers and sisters from the PIEI America organization, we greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the grace of God, we continue to work in the Field of the Lord with God's help.

1. In all the services in the church, we see the hand of God, which leads us wonderfully. There are fewer of us now, because many have gone abroad because of this war, but what we can do for the Lord, we do everything with God's help. There are fewer young people, but we still gather for service, both youth and children and adults. We have prayer fellowships, we also glorify the Lord through singing and study the Word of God. Brothers volunteer from us go to the Donetsk region, where the war is going on, and bring food and other aid to people in need.

2. We had a child's blessing in our church. A young family brought their son Mark to the church for a blessing, where we prayed over this child, so that the Lord would bless him. We entrusted Mark in the hands of the Almighty God Who knows how best to care for and protect him. Unbelieving relatives of this young family also came to this service and listened attentively to the Word of the Gospel.

3. We are now living the first month of this autumn and as always at this time we, with our church, celebrate Thanksgiving Day for all the fruits that the Lord has blessed us with this year. On this day, our church had a special prayer of thanksgiving to God for the rich harvest that we received by the grace of God this year.

On September 22, we celebrated the Harvest Festival in Vanchikovtsy, and on September 29, we celebrated this holiday in our church, from Tarasovtsy. There was a wonderful meeting and a wonderful Thanksgiving Day to the Lord with prayers of thanksgiving, with songs of praise and sermons inspired by the Holy Spirit - Glory to God!

4. Thanksgiving:

-We always thank God for you, brothers and sisters from the USA, our partners in the ministry of the gospel here in Ukraine, for the fact that you always support us in your prayers and materially, so that we can support other people who are in need in this difficult time of war for us.

-I am grateful to God for His protection and defense in different circumstances of our lives.

-I am also grateful to God for the fact that we have many good opportunities to preach the Gospel.

5. Prayer needs:

-Pray, together with us, for those unbelievers who heard the Word of the Gospel this month, so that they repent.

-Continue to pray unceasingly for peace in Ukraine.

-Pray for me so that the Lord strengthens me with the power of the Holy Spirit and wisdom from above in my sermons whenever I have the opportunity to preach the Gospel to people.

Once again, with all our hearts, we thank all our partners from the PIEI America organization, we thank all the sponsors who support our ministry here in Ukraine. May the Lord reward your work in His Field. We love you and always pray for you. We wish you that the Lord blesses you abundantly. With love to you, the Gortopan family.