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Eastern European | Winter Bible School
and bread until the pans run dry. If
reading this sounds like drama, it is
not. It is cold hard reality for some.
And I will pray that my Brothers and
Sisters in the West will support this
valuable work with more love, under-
standing and aid and pray for more
workers to come over and help those
who already work out here.?
There have been baptisms every
week. Pictured top right is VLADIMIR,
a spritely gentleman who looks like
some kind of Christadelphian
Solzhenitsyn, who simply loves what
we have to teach. He was at one time
a guard on the Berlin Wall and still
remembers some German from his
time stationed in Berlin. He is
pictured with Cindy Heaster and Mel
Downton.
Pictured right is our new brother
Vitaly with Marina, and Vanessa Boler
and Mel Downton to his right.
E
very 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 communica-
tion by email, from Russia, Ukraine and the
UK?.