22 March 2022

Dear Friends,

I was able to teach a Bible class for the church from Kyiv. Of course, most of them are no longer at home. Many are in western Ukraine, but others are in other countries – we had people in the Bible study from five different countries. It was a time of joy as we prayed together and praised God for His mercy and abundant grace. What an incredible testimony of how the Word of God can sustain the believer in the midst of great pressure. As the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
8 We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--
10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Below is the text I just received from Denis Shamrov, the student I told you about in a previous letter. He and his wife and son are now in Poland. His nationality is Belarusian, but he doesn’t want to return there for fear that he would be conscripted and forced to fight against Ukraine. So he is seeking to be granted official status by the Polish government to be able to stay there and work there.

Mr. Jim, we thank you for your financial help. This will help us now while we are not working. We are very grateful to you. We have good news - Paul Miles helped us find a biblical church here. The pastor of the church knows Russian and studied in Kyiv at the Bible Institute. He understands the gospel very well. We are now praying that we will have the opportunity to minister to unbelieving refugees from Ukraine. The pastor wants to receive them whenever possible. We can help them in this ministry as we know Ukrainian and Russian. Pray for our opportunity to serve.

Thank you for teaching us the pure gospel, free and unconditional. It changed me a lot. If not for college, I would have gone in a different direction. but you showed me what the scripture says about salvation. I am grateful to you for this. I saw the truly great grace of God.

Thank you very much for your concern. Now our greatest need is for the Lord to help us serve here. Pray that we can obtain documents and be able to work in the church and for people so they can continue to study His word and come to know God. Both I and my wife want to devote our whole lives to serving Christ. Pray that we have this opportunity. Thank you. We love you and look forward to seeing you in the future.

So we see that the Word of God is not bound. Even though driven from their homes, we now have Ukrainian missionaries in several countries in Europe. They have been equipped for the work of the ministry and are serving the Lord where they are. What a blessing to see this in action!

The suffering of being displaced and losing almost all material things, and the grief of families being separated is great. Please pray for these wonderful saints of God, that they will be sustained by His grace and mercy, that they might have that perfect peace that comes from having a mind focused on the Lord (Isaiah 26:3-4).

Pray for the peace of Ukraine,

Jim