Statistics of our students group in L'viv... do they matter?

Just realized that this semester I haven't shared about how our student groups are going. At the same time there's A LOT to share about (both happy and sad). I wanted to start with some statistics, which I usually really love to analyze, even though I know for sure that the Lord doesn't work through statistics:-)

Anyway, here's how statistics of our L'viv CCX student group look:

Last semester:

- 4 people in our leadership team

- 1 regular Bible study group

- 5 non-believers attending

- around 35 people involved all together

- 3 universities covered

- 1 car to get around

- 1,000 gospels of Mark distributed

This semester:

- 7 people in our leadership team

- 2 regular Bible study groups (and 1 about to be started)

- 6 non-believers attending

- around 20 people involved all together

- 4 universities covered

- NO car to get around:-)

- 0 gospels of Mark distributed

Now, are these statistics good or bad, I do not know. All I know is that 13 months ago we (together with couple of other volunteers) have started our work with CCX Ukraine to help students of L'viv understand WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in their lives! And after all that has happened (good and bad) I can definitely say that - GOD has done A LOT through this and it all really matters! If not in lives of people we've met, then at least in our own lives. We are indefinitely grateful to the Lord for that. We have grown, being inspired and blessed!

Yesterday, we had our 6th group this semester and the topic was "God's redeeming sacrifice through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 3:19-26) We are going through the book of Romans and some studies are not easy to undertand. But this group WAS AMAZING!! Seemed that all students were very much moved and inspired by the words that we've read in the Bible that evening. Those, who do not follow Christ yet, have been asking many questions... and got great answers from other members of the group! One could feel the Spirit of the Lord was moving. Evenings like this give you a great boost in ministry and another proof that what you invest into people from the prospective of ETERNITY is the most important thing in this life.

So we are praying that this ministry here GROWS even more!! That more students get serious about their faith and those, who do not believe reconcile with God. We do not know what our role will be in the future... We are praying for CCX staff to come to L'viv to continue this work that has been started. Please pray for this WITH US...

Picture of our yesterday Bible study group

Bible study #5 last Wednesday - 14 people! Why did Christ die on the cross?

Just wanted to share that this Wednesday we had 14 people at our group (well, including us:-) and three of them were non-believers (Anya, Olena and Svyatoslav). There were quite a few students from the conservatory, who are Christians too. We had a GREAT study and then discussion about "Why did Christ die on the cross?"...

We thank everyone who's been praying - please keep doing that!! We know of at least other 5 people who were going to come, but didn't come for different reasons.


I will update this post later with more pictures and details. Here's a quick one though (apologies for a medium quality of the picture, I made it with my phone, since we still haven't fixed our camera:-(

Wednesday student group: 9 people - good discussions.

This Wednesday, we had nine people at the group. Turned out that one of the new students couldn't come, even though those two guys were one of the major reasons for us to do the group this particular day... however some other people called me and asked if the group is happening, because they wanted to come. So, it was a good thing that we've had the group. It seems like the Lord is adding more and more new people.

Most importantly - we had a very good Bible study. We've talked about "Why Christ came into this world?" and the discussion spurred a whole lot of very interesting questions, including one unbelieving girl giving her version of "how do I get to Heaven?". It was GREAT to see, how, in the process of reading the Word of God people get to their own conclusions, on such important question.

This time we also had short time when we sang praise and worship songs and we plan to continue this in the future, even thought couple of people mentioned that they really want more of the Bible study time and discussion. Well, we decided to make the singing time short.

So, that's how the group went and we're excited now to see how it will be next week, and even more, how the groups will go after quarantine is over. THANK'S everyone for your PRAYERS. Please, keep praying.

P.S. Apologies for the fact that last four posts are "pictureless" - our camera broke down and we haven't fixed it yet. I promise to try to post some pictures later, so you can see a more visible account of what's happening in our life:-)

Swine flu outbreack in L'viv. No student group this week:-(

Well, at least they say there's a flu outbreak... I personally do not feel that, except for the fact that there are absolutely NO face masks and flu medicine left in the aphoteka's (pharmacy stores). Many people are wearing masks, if they are outside, or stay at home altogether just to limit the risk of getting infected. If you ask me, all the fuzz about it in the media sounds like pre-elections turmoil, just to lift up and praise some of the presidential candidates.

All schools are on quarantine for THREE weeks (can you believe that) including the L'viv Concervatory where we work with students!! That's why we had to cancel our Bible study group this week... Sadly that means that we will have to cancel groups in next two weeks as well. However, we've decided to pray about it and may be have a group anyway next week. We will see. Seems that some students still have stayed in L'viv and didn't go to their home towns.

Me and Katya are doing good (praise the Lord) and are not feeling any signs of the cold. We continue our preparations for going to Passion 2010 conference in Atlanta!! I have already sent our itineraries to the Passion team and have confirmed my vacation at GSM Server. We're looking forward for attending this conference very much. Also, after the conference we will be able to go visit with some friends of ours in Florida. Which is

also so great, and we're looking forward to that very much as well.

P.S. Ok, just to add some more visualization to this swine flu thing (I personally think politicians in Ukraine took it way to far, with overestimating the danger of the situation. But then, on the other hand - it is the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS YEAR). So, here's a bit of a humorous view on all this (you've probably seen this already, but still

wanted to share):

Poor little piglet... it ain't that dangerous - leave him alone!!

Students came in spite of the snow.

On Wednesday, we had our first Bible study for the students of the L'viv Concervatory. Overall, we had 10 people come to the group, even though we expected more people... but, we know that at this point numbers are not important.

Besides, this was one of those days when if anything could go wrong, it did:-( First of all, since we were not able to meet at the Conservatory we had to invite people to another location to have the group (it was at the apartment of a friend of ours from the church). Besides this, this apartment is hard to find so we had to meet students at the more familiar location - House of Organ Music (most students know this place).

Tolik Sapsay meeting people, acting as a poster pole

Secondly, it had continued snowing almost all day. Those people, who came to the group, mentioned that couple of their friend didn't come, just because they haven't brought their warm clothing from home yet...:-) Then, when we were in the middle of the Bible study kids (who were staying with the baby sitter) started beign VERY loud and noone could get them calmed down. This made the whole atmosphere a bit desruptive, but nevertheless the discussions and Bible study itself went very well. The theme of the first meeting was "Who is Jesus Christ?"

In the middle of a discussion

We had two non believers at the group (Anya and Svyatoslav) and it was good to see them being active and asking questions about Christ and the Bible. Actually, Svyatoslav is an interesting guy, because he was first person whom we surveyed way back in September, when we've started the project. It was funny that he was the one who, among not too many others, showed up at our group.

Anyway, even though not many people came we are not getting disappointed by any means. We will continue to invite people, and even if only ONE person finds out more about Christ in their lives and relives His transformational love - it is WORTH doing. So please continue to pray for our Bible studies, which we have decided to have every Wednesday till December. Soon we want to start having Praise and Worship time and prayer time, so students can be introduced to this as well.

First SNOW in L'viv... and first Bible study:-)

Well, how do I say this... "This is NOT Texas!!". Those were the words of one of our American friend Dustin (who lives in L'viv), whom I asked this morning what does he think about today's weather. Today, winter has sudenly invaded L'viv...

That's what I've seen from the window of our appartment this morning

That's how my car looked (took me 20 minutes to clean it)

That's how the streets of L'viv looked this morning

Not that it is very unusual to have snow in October, but we surely did not expect for it on the day when we start our FIRST Bible study group with students. Hoping and praying that this will not stop them from coming to the meeting tonight.

Talking about lots of snow, when I cleaned my car this morning, it reminded me of this really funny commercial that I've found on You Tube long time ago. Here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpTe_EfHVSA

Telling you, it looks almost like myself this morning before going to work (with only exception that, Praise the Lord, I have found my car OK:-)