Iliya Hlushchak shares in his January report his wide range of ministry of pastoring, translating and edifying:
Now I would like to tell you more about what I did this month in these fields, with God’s help. We decided to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the first day of this year in all our churches. This was something special for us, to have the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the year. Also, we usually have it at the end of the church service, but now we chose to have it in the beginning. We had many nonbelievers attending this service. As I have written in my previous report, we decided to celebrate Christmas twice, on December 25th and on January 7th as well. So, we had rehearsals and preparations to make.
On January 5th, I was invited to attend the meeting of all church committees in Chernovtsy. We had fellowship and we prayed together. About 80 persons attended this meeting. We had two brothers from Romania, so I had to translate for them. I invited one of them to celebrate Christmas with us on January 6th, when we had the children’s program. I translated for him again, as he preached at this church service. We had a wonderful program, attended by children and parents both from in and outside the church. We gave over 70 Christmas presents on this occasion. After the church service we visited a family where we shared the Gospel with their guests. The next day we had another church service again, which was also attended by many nonbelievers. In the evening, we went caroling to the old and the sick and to non-Christian families. When we were invited to go inside, we also shared the Gospel. On January 8th, I visited my mother, where I also visited the local church. During the holidays, it is easier to get in touch with people. I hope I will keep doing this difficult ministry of urging the people to seek God.
I also visited several churches in the area. I went to my parents’ village, Kamenka, twice this month and I attended the meetings of the Romanian Baptist believers and preached the Gospel there. Then I visited the church in Bahrinesti two times and also preached the Word there. A sister from Bahrinesti passed away. She was a member in the Ukrainian church in Chernovtsy, but she wanted to be buried in the village in which she was born, which is a Romanian village. I was invited to preach at this funeral in Romanian. The brother of the deceased warned me that we had to do 90% of the funeral service in Romanian. But, in spite of this, we had it half in Romanian and half in Ukrainian. I decided to speak in Ukrainian first and then in Romanian. This man didn’t like it in the beginning, but then I could see how his heart melted and he listened carefully until the end. The songs also touched his heart. After the funeral, he was completely different, with a softened heart. We need to pray for this man and for his brothers.
Don is serving as the HeartCry Coordinator for Eastern Europe. As an itinerant evangelist, his pulpit ministry is directed toward preaching on the inner life of the believer and the spiritual need of the lost. With HeartCry, his ministry includes organizing Bible conferences and corresponding with the HeartCry missionaries in Europe. He and his lovely wife Cindy live in Tuscumbia, AL.
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