Eastern European | Winter Bible School
Every dollar donated to enable the recent Winter Bible School was truly well spent, and used by the Lord to create a wonderfully spiritual environment for the scattered brethren throughout the Russian speaking world. We're thankful for safekeeping throughout- the hotel where we held the conference had all spare rooms taken over by Police bussed in to deal with the riots, so we had off duty policemen walking all around us throughout the last few days of the School. We had speakers including Alan Atkin, Steve Gretton, Paul Hosking and Jeremy Neate from the UK, and Joe Badlu from the USA. Brother Joe Badlu summarizes his impressions:
Despite the demonstrations, riots and bloodshed in the center of the city of Kiev, about 65 brethren and sisters attended the Bible School here. Some others feared to come because of the violence, but we were quite safe. It was an amazing experience to meet elderly brothers who had been looking forward so eagerly to coming to the School for a whole year. They had braved very low temperatures [it was -25 C during the School] and one 87 year old brother travelled five days to be at the Bible School. They came from remote areas of Siberia and the Arctic to be together with those of like faith at Bible School. At the end of each presentation or lecture, brothers and sisters engaged in deep discussion of the Biblical topics in an animated but friendly manner. The highlight of the Bible School was the baptism of two brethren, SVYATOSLAV from Ukraine and NIKOLAJ from Russia. It was most spiritually uplifting to be amongst brothers and sisters who showed such zeal and passion for the study of God's word. It was a pleasure for me personally to meet face to face brothers with whom I had previously been in communication by email, from Russia, Ukraine and the UK. Brother Joe Badlu is the treasurer for Carelinks USA. The funds donated for the project of sending out Bibles to remote parts of Russia and Ukraine are forwarded by him to the brethren who are posting the Bibles out. Above you can see Brother Joe receiving very detailed accounts and receipts from a local brother.
It was good to see some more recently baptized present, including our African brother Samuel, pictured above, who was recently baptized in Ukraine.
You can view the testimony of 87 year old brother Pavel who travelled five days to Bible School on various trains. It's translated into English and worth listening to. See http://youtu.be/lGQWcq2DdiI. Above is a picture of our brother taking careful notes (as many of the bre & sis do) on the talks.
We're truly grateful to our speakers and to those who sponsored the local bre & sis to attend. We're interested in hearing from potential speakers for our Summer Bible School, which God willing will also be held in Kiev in July this year. Do be in touch if you're interested. Speakers talk one sentence at a time through translators - below you can see bro Jeremy Neate being translated by bro Alexei Tishchenko.
