UKRAINE UPDATE

Note From Brother Vladimir Ryabov:

Brother Barry, glad we have a connection and fellowship in Christ.

I want to give you an update about believers in Donetsk. The meetings are held regularly on Wednesday and Sunday. In the past we also used to meet on Friday. That was a prayer meeting. But now it is not safe. On Wednesday we start the meeting earlier. Believers who don't have a car can't get home. It is good that we can do streaming.

The Lord is blessing us in the Word. Without that I can really see it would be hard here. Last Sunday we baptized four sisters. It is a joyful event for us. We pray for each other that the Lord will keep everyone safe wherever they are in any part of the city. We help if necessary both physically and financially. Because unemployment rate is bad here.

Thank you very much brother Barry for the financial help for the believers. It's the Lord and may He bless everyone involved. We certainly want this to be over so we can go somewhere and have people come to us. We are not complaining but we are keeping this before the Lord realizing the time we live in.

Shalom Brother Barry. To all who know us, please give our brotherly greetings.

Brother Vladimir Ryabov

Note From Believers In Ukraine:

From our hearts we thank you, brothers and sisters, for your support. May The Lord bless you, the ministry of Brother Barry Coffey, and all the saints in Christ.

With love, The Family of Komorov, City of Krivoy Rog, Ukraine

Note From Believers In Ukraine:

Greetings to Brother Barry Coffey’s ministry, and all our brothers and sisters. We thank you from our hearts for your offerings for us. May The Lord bless you and strengthen you in the journey. Glory to Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Kiev, Ukraine

Note From Believers In Ukraine:

Greetings to all of our brothers and sisters!

We are thankful to Brother Barry Coffey and everyone else who is helping us in this hard hour. We don’t have the ability to work or to earn some money. Furthermore, I can’t even leave the house to drive anywhere. We used to drive a little. One time we were picking up an elderly brother, Oleg, from a retirement home to bring him to church and we were pulled over. They checked our documents and they wanted to verify my information in their database. We were praying, and of course, The Lord did it in such a way that their database froze and the military man took a long time trying to query the database for a response. But, Praise be to God! he could not get the system to respond. The children were crying. Glory to God! I was released and told that I must have my documents on me but they did not know that I didn’t have any documents. I told them that I am a Christian and they did not ask for my draft deferment document. Praise The Lord that their database froze and they let us go. Since then, I do not go anywhere; I stay at home. We thank you for your support. Thanks be to God!

Note From Bro. Vasily In Ukraine:

Greetings, brother. You will probably remember me, I am brother Vasily from Ukraine, Vinnitsa region, Mogilev-Podolsky city. It has been over a year and a half since you helped us financially. Once again we thank the Lord Jesus Christ and all of you who helped us. With your help we came out of the crisis situation, and it was normal for about 1 year. We have had another crisis in the last six months. Since the forced and brutal mobilization to the army increased. I am the only one in the family who is able to work. Our son Denis was forcibly taken into the army. I am 53 years old and still in the draft age. I work as a plumber on call. Many people are hiding from the police. Many people became poor, others don't want to do repairs because of the fear of war, and as a result there are very few orders for work. And if there are any orders, I can't freely go to work, otherwise I will end up in the army or in jail. I'm sorry, brother, that I wrote a lot, I wanted to explain it briefly, but in fact you can't describe a lot of things. That in this pressure on us from all sides, there is help and protection from the Lord. Because of this situation, I decided to ask you, brother, if you could organize some financial help for us. May the Lord bless you all! The grace of the Lord in the body of Jesus Christ!

Note From Believers In Ukraine:

Greetings to the ministry of brother Barry Coffey, and all our brothers and sisters. Heartfelt thanks to you for your sacrifices, for the financial support. May the Lord bless you, and repay you all your needs. Glory to Jesus Christ, with love to you, the brothers and sisters of Ukraine. Also, a special thanks to brother Sergey for his mediatory work!

Report from Bro. Barry Regarding Ukraine:

​Winter in the former Soviet Union is never an easy thing to experience. In the time of war, it is much more difficult. Many of the Believers are staying away from public places, especially the brothers. The government is randomly taking people from their places of work, or off the streets and placing them on the front lines. In one church, four brothers were taken forcibly for service in the army. We have to be very careful not to use names or locations to protect the Believers. Receiving medical care or medication is especially challenging. It is incredible that some groups are still holding church services. We are still sending funds to help families in need in Ukraine, however reports from within the country are slow getting to me. I have included these brief testimonies below. Please continue to pray for these Believers in Ukraine.

Testimony:

Bro. Anton (pictured below) from the Zaporozhye region is an elder in a small church in that area. This brother works in a military factory and he has a guarantee that he will not be taken to war because they make products for the army. He has been working at this factory for many years on the day shift and about a month ago he was transferred to the night shift by decision of his superiors. And last week a missile came and hit the shift where he used to work and killed the people he used to work with. When he was transferred to a different shift, long before these events, he didn't realize what it meant. When this disaster happened, Bro. Anton realized that the Lord knew everything ahead of time, so He gave instructions to his superiors to move him and he realized that the Lord was not finished with him yet and Satan could do nothing to harm him. May He have Eternal Glory and Praise.

From a Pastor in Ukraine:

Greetings dear brother Barry. I would like to tell you a little bit about the situation in Ukraine, I am in close contact with believers in Ukraine and we try to support the special needs of brothers and sisters. Nothing has changed for the better, but on the contrary, it is getting harder and harder to live on the pensions or earnings of the Believers there. I just talked to on Pastor who said there are people in their congregation who are in the hospital and need money for medicine, it is winter and they are often sick, especially children. They still have services and there are those who come and listen to the Message of the hour.

Also, Brothers from other cities have to sit at home and not go out, so as not to fall into the hands of the military, who indiscriminately send everyone to war so of course they cannot work and it is very difficult to live in these conditions. Prices in Ukraine for some products are higher than in other countries, prices for medicines are very high. In one city an elderly sister broke her hip and can't walk and her pension is around $50 per month. She pays $45 for her apartment and $5 is left for living. Of course, the Believers help her as much as they can, but they are all there in almost the same conditions. But the Lord does not leave them, but through friends, brothers and sisters they support them in their difficult living conditions. But they try not to be discouraged but give glory to God for everything. God bless you brother, and many send you heartfelt greetings.

Note From Kopchinskiy Family:

Greetings, we are the Kopchinskiy family. We thank you for the financial support during these hard times. We thank brother Barry Coffeys church, all brothers and sisters, and also brother Sergey Luzanov. We pray for you, and thank you for your prayers. May the Lord bless each one of you richly! I'd like to testify about how the Lord restored me: when I got into a car accident, the doctors said I wouldn't be able to walk, or at the very least with crutches, but now I am able to walk with no crutches or supports. Glory and praise to Jesus Christ!

Note From Bro. Barry:

God bless you all.

I get many requests for any updates on the situation concerning Believers in Ukraine. There is very little information coming from the area, but recently two brothers traveled into two areas of Ukraine to minister in the churches and encourage the Believers there. We are still supporting personal needs there as we hear about them from the Believers. There are always medical needs, and living expenses, etc. And as the cold Ukrainian winter approaches, there is a need for wood and other types of fuel. So, I will include the report from the brothers who went deep inside Ukraine, and I will be leaving out most of the names and locations for their protection. I also have included a recent photo and report about Bro. Viktor was deceitfully drafted into the army.

Bro. Barry,

“We are in Ukraine having meetings in 2 places. First is Užhorod, second is about 7hours of drive deeper into the country near the city of Chernivtsi. It was good and we just want to be encouragement for believers along the complicated way that they are going through. This was a burden in our hearts to see them, have meetings and fellowship. Not many other visit them right now, so they really appreciate it when someone comes. We went only as 3 brothers, because the car was fully packed with clothes collected in our church and other things to bring also some physical help to believers

There are complications with electricity, because some electric connections were damaged in the country and generally the energy infrastructure is being [damaged] all the time. In the evening they mostly turn off the electricity and Believers use petrol generators for producing electricity or led lights when this happens. The other thing is border and military controls that are on the roadways inside the country (maybe every 40-80 km). They stop you [at roadblocks] with machine guns, they have a system of passport and identity control everywhere and check where you go and who are you. If you are healthy Ukrainian man between 18-59 they mostly write your details down and you can be called into the war every minute.

That is why many brothers or man stay at home and don’t travel too much. They try to avoid control points. Still, they can stop you unexpectedly mainly in the cities and put you on the list. The sad thing is, that a new law now forces every man between 18-59 to go to the military office and give documents to them. The only justification [for exemption] is when you have minimum 3 children up to 18 years old or you have confirmation from the doctor that you have serious health problems (this is not easy to receive). We heard about some boys even from the churches, that left their homes during rainy night, left car in the forest and somehow crossed the border fence to run away from the country. They informed parents days later, that they are in different country like Norway for example. They are afraid because they know that some of their friends their age were already killed at the front.

But, the Believers are positive, very sensitive to the influence of the Holy Spirit and very open to receive the Word. This is a very positive side of the situation. They pray more, they love the Lord and they want to serve Him in the place Lord Placed them.

The first church that we visited and had meeting was church of pastor brother Vladislav Tuliebitch in Uzhorod- Friday night (Bro. Viktor Wovilka was taken to the war area is from that church). We spent the afternoon and night with these precious Believers. On Saturday morning we went about 470km further to the east and near the City of Chernivtsi in the church of Bro. Kruchko. In both churches we met about 40 Believers and some were on the streaming and some could not come (mainly some brothers, who are afraid to travel, but still many brothers and sisters gathered). We spend 3 days there having 3 meetings there and a lot of fellowship to the midnight hours or even more every day. After it we had to say goodbye with tears in our and their eyes and go home approximately 1000 kilometers.

Info about brother Viktor Wovilka:

Bro. Viktor (pictured below) was deceitfully taken to the preparation camp and was very close to go to the front, but after training he refused to sing military oath and refused to take the machine gun to his hand. First two days were hard and they wanted to throw him into the prison, but finally he was allowed to join the other section, where he deals with support work around the war. Many are praying for him and church intercedes for him. We heard that maybe he will be able to be moved close to his home and be part of the military control that is on the roads across the country. Brother Viktor from Uzhgorod continues to stay at the military base. There are no reports that he will be released home. But thank God he is not being sent to the front line. All the other men with whom he was brought are already fighting. Let us remember Him before the Lord.

Info about brother Sergiej Khalus (husband of Sis. Luda (last picture), in Poland):

He was taken to the front in December, 2022 and Lord still protect him there. Many of his friends already died. He was the only one from his military unit who was moved to be not exactly on the frontlines, but around 40 kilometers from it and he is part of supplying team.

There is another brother from Khmelnytskyi region, who is Message Believer. He is somewhere in the front, but he is alive and may the Lord protect Him.

Info about brother Eugene A from Donetsk:

Praise report from the family of brother Eugene A. (middle picture) from Donetsk. You met them in Norway. They have returned back to Donetsk. Last week shell fragments fell into their yard. Thank God the whole family was inside the house and the house itself was not damaged. In the neighbors' house, the roof and windows were broken.