Ministry Partnership Update from Ukraine
You can now read the Ministry Partnership Report from IIya Vysotsky for the 1st half of 2025 below.
Chernihiv Bible Church
July 2025
Things are going well, thank God. My family and I are going through a serious stage in our lives. Since I feel and know that I am called to serve, I decided to leave the business I had been running for 10 years and devote myself to ministry.
This decision was not easy to make, but I know for sure that it is the right one.
I am currently transferring all my affairs and would like to find some kind of work in the “church sphere.”
God is working in the Church! New people are converting, and we are currently preparing two young men for baptism. Thank God, the youth ministry is growing.
We hold meetings with military families from time to time.
We hold meetings with parents on various topics.
We try to talk about God and the Church to people through social media, because we have many followers, mostly families with children.
There are difficulties:
Right now, we have two families who have decided to leave, and they were active in ministry and held positions of responsibility.
I hope to see the fruits of repentance in the Church. May our Church grow for the glory of God.
One young man, named Yura, was baptized that year. He happened to come to our service and began attending from time to time. He had been living his life before that, constantly searching for God, and sometimes attending an Orthodox church.
He said that he had been searching for God his whole life and found Him right here in the Church. He was very surprised that there were so many people who loved the Lord and lived according to the Bible. Before that, he thought he was the only one.
YOU can be a key support to this church planting ministry in Ukraine.
Your prayers and practical support can make a difference in seeking God’s Kingdom extended in the midst of war and hardship.
Chernihiv is in Northern Ukraine, 90 miles north of Kiev near the border with Russia and Belarus. It has a population of some 300,000 people. At the start of the war it was occupied by Russian troops but they withdrew after a few weeks. However, Chernihiv is one of the targets of ongoing Russian missile attacks across Ukraine, and Ilya and his family have not escaped the impact of these attacks.
From January 2023 IBN has been supporting Ilya who is a gifted church-planter in Chernihiv. Ilya is married to Victoria, and they have 2 boys (3 & 6). Ilya’s father, Vladimir, is a Baptist pastor. Ilya studied in Chernihiv & Kyiv Christian University, and has served as a youth leader in Chernihiv for 10 years. Now Ilya is in the second year of planting a new church in Chernihiv. The Church Plant mission team has 13 members who are also involved in helping with humanitarian aid and relief to their community. The target group for this new Church Plant is young families.
Our monthly contribution is £350 to EBF for Ilya’s support in this vital ministry, offering the hope that Jesus Christ brings to people and through ministering to the local community in the face of the ongoing war. You can be involved in this gospel ministry through prayer and practical support.
Become involved with a monthly, or one-off contribution, to support this ministry.
IBN can apply Gift Aid on personal gifts; please email info on your gift, marking it CHERNIHIV using the details below.
Beneficiary: I B N (www.ibnetworks.org) Bank: The Co-operative Bank
Sort code: 08-92-99
Account Number: 65375615
All gifts will be acknowledged.
Address for cheques: IBN, 6 Millturn View, Dromore BT25 1HG
Please email info@ibnetworks.org if you require any more details.
Our next VIRTUAL VISIT is in planning and we will let you have the date as soon as possible.
Might you help financially and prayerfully in this ministry?
The support of Irish baptists has made this work possible through the European Baptist Federation Mission Partnership scheme.
Thank you again for your support.