Final CHRISTMAS PARTY for students of L'viv Concervatory.

We have had a final meeting with our students group on the 9th and then 16th of December. Both those were really GREAT meetings and we had around 22 people in attendance during those two meeting (16 and 12 people correspondingly:-)

So, the Lord has really made that day very special since we've had snow for the first time in December, so it felt really like Christmas. We've had a special program prepared with a code name "Santa Clause vs. Sheppards", with couple of games prepared, a Christmas story that we red together with students and a short movie about how Christmas is no longer about Christ's birth anymore in most of the countries. Then we've talked about what Christmas really means and what it means for each of us personally.

At the end we've sung couple of Christmas carols together, which was cool, because there were many musicians in the room, so even without rehearsal it sounded really cool.

Anyway, all in all, it was a great finish of the semester and all students were really excited about the next semester. So, first or second week of February we will be starting the group back again, hopefully in the Concervatory building.

There's a battle going on...

OK, apologies for a delay, but here's an update on our students group at the conservatory.

This Wednesday we had 6 people at the group and only one of them was a student (Alina - the one we've already written to you about!)... However, we had a really great group, which turned more into a testimonial sharing and prayer meeting. It was a true blessing to be there.

To be brief, please pray for the whole situation with students and the work at the L'viv Concervatory overall, because it seems that some forces REALLY do not want us to be there. One of the examples is that we find good support to the "Identity" project among the management of the school, but at the same time many people (some professors and administrative personnel) are really against us even putting posters out... There were cases when some of them simply ripped them off the wall before we even completely put them there. In addition to this many students, consistently are not able to come to the group on Wednesday for different unexpected (unscheduled) events that Conservatory has.

Please pray. I will try to go to the Conservatory again tomorrow to put out posters... so we will see what happens.

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.