Weekly Update | September 28, 2023
Ministry in Spain and Greece
Dmitriy Zherebnenkov
A huge thank you to the church for your prayers and participation in the missionary work in Europe. Having seen the work that the missionaries do and how we as the church are invested in this labor, all we can do is rejoice and thank God.
Torrevieja, Spain
Victor and Tatiana Kovba have already been serving for 2 years in Torrevieja and the church that they founded has been steadily growing and developing. We had the opportunity to respond to their request for help to lead a course in Hermeneutics (theory and methodology of interpretation). About 20 people attended the course, including those who serve in the church and whoever else was willing. This is an invaluable element in a developing church and the forming of its unity. The ability to properly study and interpret Scripture sets the right foundation for those in ministry. It was wonderful to see how the brothers and sisters desire to know, understand, and apply the truth. Continue praying for and supporting this ministry. There are many Slavic people in this city, and the church has a huge potential harvest to work with. Pray that God would help them form a good team and that they would have a culture of evangelism among all church members. (*see photo down below)
Athens, Greece
A very important retreat happened in the suburbs of Athens for the families of missionaries in Europe. This was the first such retreat and by the looks of it, not the last. It was a unique opportunity for many of the missionaries to combine both a vacation and spiritual encouragement together with their wives. Both Eugene Bardosh and Dmitriy Zherebnenkov participated in this retreat, besides also others from Europe and America. All the seminars touched on the family of the missionary and their ministry. The program contained time not only for seminars and meetings, but also time for fellowship, getting to know each other, tours, and personal time for the family. On Sunday we had an opportunity, just as in Torrevieja, to attend and preach at the church of the missionary located there. Vitaliy Fomin and his family are in the process of planting and organizing a new Russian-speaking church in Athens. So far it is still just a group of believers, but they already regularly meet on Sundays. They are located right in the center of Athens, and once again have many opportunities for reaching Slavics in this city. (*see photo down below)
Observations and Conclusions
I am grateful to God for this opportunity to personally see the work of the gospel in Europe. Having spent a decent amount of time with the missionaries and their families and having seen their labor, I would say I’ve started to look at missionaries as heroes of the faith. Beloved, I don’t want to overestimate it, but this is hard work that they’re doing. For the most part, they live very modestly, but they are sacrificial, genuine, and very hospitable. We now value their work much more. Many of the people that they end up working with ended up in Europe with a difficult past. This often means broken families or big spiritual baggage that is brought into the church, which the ministers then need to deal with. The planting of a church is a very painstaking and massive undertaking that requires full surrender, and those who do it deserve special support. There are very few believers in these countries. Churches are small and need fellowship and encouragement from abroad. People in society are closed to the gospel but they need the Good News like never before. We must see our support for these people as a privilege. It’s wonderful to see that GFChurch is involved in the evangelical movement in Europe. Praise the Lord!
Photos From The Trip
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continue supporting the churches working among the people who have suffered from the war in Ukraine: gfchurch.com/ukraine/
The Scripture memory text
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O Lord.7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.10 Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
Psalm 36:6-10
and your righteousness to the upright of heart!
Below are the services and meetings for this weekend:
- Thursday (6:30 PM) – Kid’s Bible School (open to all but required for parents), followed by Bible Study (Proverbs) for the whole church at 7:30 PM.
- Saturday (8:00 – 9:30 AM) – Men’s prayer breakfast, followed by Church Board meeting at 9:30 AM.
- Sunday services:
- Worship Service in Russian at 9:00 AM
- Worship Service in English at 11:15 AM