Contact: Stacie Fain 219-4328

Sunrise has provided direct support to Living Faith United Methodist Church since its establishment in 2002.   Led by Pastor Alexander merzliakov, this church in Lugansk, Ukraine, has continued to grow.  Recent news from Lugansk describes how members are active in congrgation life, and Eurasia UMC activities.  The congregation acquired a home near public transportation and transformed it into a worship center.  Delegates attend regional Youth Forums.  Many young families have joined the church, and special events are held for youth and families.  Young people learn about seminary opportunities.  Healing services are well attended and successful.  Easter dramas reach out to unchurched people.  Experiences and testimonies about life with Christ are shared and celebrated. For more information click here.

September 2009

In September we started small group program in our church. Before this we had only one Bible Study group that was hold in the church building every Wednesday. In July was made a decision to start new small groups. Next, we conduct some training about small group during the summer. As a result, we started five new small groups. We have six groups now. Three of them are home Bible groups and three of them meet in the church building in different days.

Now we can see some fruits of this ministry. There are three absolutely new people started to visit church because of these groups, and some people started to come on Sunday services more often.

We made accomplishment in front of the church building by putting there tiles. This job was done by the young guys from our church.

October 2009

October 11 we celebrated the Harvest Day, which is the day when we thank God for everything. It was great service. We had children program with lots of songs and verses. It was nice, specially to see so many children on the service together. We had 15 children on this service. They are very active.

Then after children part we had youth drama. In this drama one guy, Dima, had to do 100 expressions in one time. The idea of the drama was to show people what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. Dima had to do 10 expressions that person could receive a cake. Some people said no. I don't want this cake, but Dima still had to do the expressions, because there was cake for everyone. The other people were angry that he makes these expressions for them, but only few were thankful, but he still made the expressions for all of them. It was interesting and instructive to watch this drama.

October 25 we had the baby blessing service. Baby Julia was blessed. She is Andrey and Yana's daughter. Andrey and Yana was the first couple, whose marriage was blessed in our church two years ago. Baby Julia was the first baby girl blessed in our church. In the past we blessed four boys.

October 16-21 the team of four people from Germantown UMC visited us. This team and the missionary Patrick Whaley hold the seminars for the Methodist Churches of the East Ukraine. From each church came pastor and lay leader. They all came to Lugansk. They were people from Kerch, Sevastopol, Krasnoarmeisk, Poltava, Kharkov UM Churches. Also pastor and lay leader from Kirov (Russia) participated on this seminars. The themes of the seminars were the Stephen's Ministry and the Small Group Ministry.

It was first time when our church became a place for such event. People from our church took active part in the organization of this event, so we could experience a lot of joy. It was good school of practical ministry for people from our church.

November 2009

In November we did not have many activities in the church, because of the flu quarantine. This quarantine was announced in whole Ukraine. All the schools, colleges, theatres, cinemas and other public places were closed or limited during the quarantine time. The quarantine lasted three weeks.

But, anyway, on November 22 we blessed a marriage. In Ukraine churches have not possibility to merry people and we only bless marriage after couple is married by officials. It was second time we blessed marriage in our church.

The Internet Evangelism ministry.

Our church is looking for the new possibilities of the Gospel spreading. Our vision is the powerful Internet Evangelism ministry for the Russian speaking territory (ex USSR). During the year 2009 our church is doing some Internet Evangelism activities. Our church developed some lines in this ministry.

One of the results of his ministry was our web site building.  Our Internet Evangelism leader built up our new web site (www.livingfaith.com.ua), which is not a usual church site, but an instrument of the Gospel spreading. For example, the site main page starts with the animated inscription: "Do you know answer on the most important life question?" Next, follow three possibilities for answering:

- "Yes, I know the answer." This answer turns you to our church schedule and information.

- "I do not know the answer." This answer turns you to the explanation of the Gospel.

- "I do not know what question is the most important life question." This answer turns you to the explanation about everlasting life and everlasting condemnation.

Also there are some other interesting ideas were used in the web site.

Even the building of the web site was used as the possibility to share Gospel. Internet Evangelism leader attracted one teenager to do some parts of the web site and now this guy is interesting in following Christ and take part in all youth group meetings and Sunday services.

Of course, the Internet Evangelism ministry is not only web site. The site is only one of many ways to share Gospel in the Internet. I believe that our church people will continue to increase our Internet Evangelism Outreach.

God bless you,

Living Faith UMC people.