Thanking for 2008

Greetings to you dear friends! The year 2008 finished. We would like to look backwards and just to remind you everything which happened during this year and to thank God one more time for His presence in every situation, to thank Him for His blessings and for each person, who serves at the Alpha and Omega and for those who make the work of the Alpha and Omega possible, and just for all who comes to the Alpha and Omega, and for those who helps Alpha and Omega financially.

In January our Theater-Studio Alpha and Omega made Christmas performance for children, called “Queen of eternal ice” (Snow queen), which was really successful. Praise God for enthusiasm and devotion of our theater members with their leader – Julia Gaidai!

2 pageants performed in Krivoy Rog at Orphanage number 2 (120 ppl.) and at the Rehabilitation centre for boys (40 ppl.), 2 pageants were performed at “Alpha and Omega”. Over 240 people attended. Among whom were children from Orphanage “Beregina”, from families with many children and from families who are not well-off, from family orphanages, from Zarya and Ribalsk and 6 deaf children with translators. By invitation to the church “New Bethany” in Dnepropetrovsk we participated in the Christmas celebration for children from the city of Pyatikhatki. More than 100 children and adults came.

On January 13th at Alpha and Omega the wedding of Dima Makarova and Olya Kovalenko took place. Their pastor from the Central Baptist church married them (Igor Paramonavich Magonov). He preached the sermon, during the time of the wedding, which was serious as well as witty. About 200 people attended.

In February until now there has been a special course for future preachers lead by Alexy Navrotsky. Nikolay Slobodyuk and Sergey Nikolenko lead two lessons. Here is the list of people who are taking this course: Igor Solodenko, Ruslan Guzanov, Vlad Shamaida, Valery Verba, Rodik Avtushenko, Sergey Guk, Dima Lukyanchuk, Danilo Kudryachenko, Sergey Bevz. All 10 people successfully passed their exams. Nowadays these people preach at the Alpha and Omega every Sunday. Praise God for each of them!

On Friday the 15th of February, there was a Talk-Show at A&O. The theme was “Who should make the first move”. It was connected with St.Valentine’s day. There were about 65 people at the party. There were videos, competitions, food and good fellowship. As usual, the girls were much more active in the discussion.

March 9th – as usual, we had our Sunday Service. In Ukraine, we recognize March 8th as Women’s day. This celebration does not have any basis in Christianity, most likely it was started with unchristian motives, but up to this day we continue to mark this date with another meaning. We use it as an opportunity to express our love and gratefulness to our mothers, sisters, female friends, girlfriends, wives and daughters. We use this date to tell others about the Lord’s plans for men and women. We discuss what is written in the Bible about how men and women do not need to oppose each other but fulfill each other and work together.

Aleksey Navrotsky preached the sermon. The theme touched on God’s purpose for the creation of men and women, their relationships and the Lord’s intentions. After the service we began an unofficial part where the men of Alpha and Omega congratulated the beautiful half of humanity. Of course not the whole half but only those who were in attendance that day at the student centre.

During this programme, romantic songs were sung by Rodion Avtushenko and his group and also a duet was prepared by Ruslan Guzanov and Andrey Davidenko. During the song which Rodik’s group sang, the guys at Alpha gave one beautiful tulip to each of the girls in attendance that day at Alpha and Omega. At the end of Ruslan’s song, he gave flowers to his mom and Andrey present roses to his girlfriend.

We also showed some funny skits, the guys sang a rap-congratulation-song which they wrote themselves, they showed some parodies of Yushenko, Yanukovich, Putin, Eltsina, Lyashenko and Pushkin conveying their wishes for the girls. At the end we showed a short film of our women and a romantic instrumental song was played called “I just want to say I love you”. It was a wonderful evening!

March 21st We held another Prayer evening, hosted by the music band X-Press. About 50 people were in attendance. This evening held something special. There was an atmosphere of worship, God’s word, repentance, prayer in groups of 3 people and a real feeling of God’s presence.

On the 5th of April We had a conference called “Knights of the first love” about renewing one’s relationship with God. It was led by our brothers and sisters from “Youth for Christ”. The speaker was Slavik Nedavnii from Kiev.

On the 11th of April We had photo show at “Alpha and Omega”. There were nearly 50 people in attendance. There were many interesting and creative photos of various themes. Ivan Lyshenko was our speaker. Vitalii Onishuk shared a short sermon. Thanks so much to people who made this show possible: Sasha Kurilenko, Zhenya Onishenko, Katya Bovshik, Katya Ivchenko, Julia Prokudina and others. Some photos by the following photographers won prizes: Julia Sokolenko, Peter Kurilenko and Lyosha Ziryanov and these photos were sold by auction. The highest bid was made for a photo by Lyosha Ziryanov – “Jazz Club in Seattle”. After finishing this show many others photos were sold in a moment.

From the 12th till 16th April at “Alpha and Omega” we had guests from the USA – Brian Kelley, Mike Rello and John Martin. Members of “Alpha and Omega” organized lectures in the universities for them and meetings with students and pupils in schools in Dnipropetrovsk, and in the evenings we had “Crossroad” meetings with youth. It was interesting, educational and we had fun.

On the 18-19th of April at “Alpha and Omega” we had our traditional day of tidying up our centre before Easter. Nearly 30 people under the guidance of Yan Batshev were painting, washing, and repairing “Alpha and Omega”, preparing it for the most important Christian holiday of the year.

On the 25th of April (Good Friday) we had a service. It was a calm, slightly sorrowful, prayer service, where we were recollecting Jesus’ suffering on cross for our salvation. We sang to Him and listened to the sermon “The 7 last phrases of Jesus on the cross”.

On the 27th of April we celebrated the bright and joyous holiday of Christ’s resurrection – Easter. It was amazing and spiritual, saturated and joyous service. Michael Zhovnir preached, Vanya Lyashenko was the speaker, the main worship group was “X-PRESS”, but also other music groups of “Alpha and Omega” took part. But what was special is our choir and Easter performance of theatre-studio “Alpha and Omega” (artistic leader is Julia Gaidai).

On the 3rd of May “Alpha and Omega” held a talk-show with Miss Ukraine-2007, Lika Roman. Lika appeared to be a real believer, she is romantic, shy, but very firm and principled in the questions of faith and moral cleanness. Everyone liked the meeting. The programme was lead by Michael Zhovnir.

Guys from the city of Yuzhniy charitable foundation “Heritage” invited the “Alpha and Omega” Christian volleyball team to the volleyball tournament, which was on 2-3rd of May in the town of Yuzhnii in Odessa region. The tournament was combined with evangelism. The organizer, Oleg Dubala, asked the participants to prepare their testimonies (3-5 minutes) and songs. In this tournament took part teams from Cherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Yuzhniy, Moldova.

On the 4th of May, on Sunday a pastor from Tajikistan, Sergey Gavrilov, was preaching at “Alpha and Omega”. It was a very deep, inspiring and interesting sermon of a person, who is under the constant oppression for his faith, living in a Muslim country.

On the 10-11th of May Alex Posukh, one of the A&O “veterans”, who lives in Canada today, held a seminar for the interpreters. It was at the A&O e-net café. There were 20 people, some of them were non-believers. The theme was “Idioms in English”.

On the 11th of May, on Sunday there was an international Day of prayer in Ukraine. In Dnepropetrovsk there was a great celebration at the large stadium “Meteor”. There were believers of different churches: Baptist, Pentecostal, charismatic (about 5 thousands of people). A few people from “Alpha and Omega” were there. Also, pastor Alexy Navrotsky and Nikolay Slobodyanyuk took par in the pastor’s prayer.

On the 15th of May few people from A&O (Alexy Navrotsky, Katya Ivchenko, Dima Bondarenko, Jenya Onishenko, Sergey Vivchar) went to Kiev to the lecture of Josh McDowell, which was organized by the “Ukraine for Christ” mission. Our guys were very glad.

On the 16th of May some of our guys went to the Youth Christian Conference called “Passion” which took place in Kiev. Such famous musicians and singers as Mat Radman (England), Chris Tomlin and Charlie Hall (USA) took part in the worship. Lui Giglio, the founder of the “Passion” movement was the main speaker.

On the 23rd of May “Alpha and Omega” held a “Brain Ring” for the Christian and non-Christian youth. Such “Barin Rings” became regular in Dnepropetrovsk. Young people from the Pentecostal church called “The rock of Salvation” are very active in this.

On the 31st of May there was the wedding of Dasha and Kolya Chupikovy. It was in the church called “Hope”. Pastor Alexy Navrotsky did the wows. “X-Press” and “Red letters” music bands did worship. Zhuzha and Vakha lead the reception part. It was fun.

On the 20th of June Alpha and Omega made a Graduation party for those, who graduated from High education establishments, finished their schools and colleges. This event was wonderful not only for gradauators, but also for their guests and those, who served that evening and took part in programme.

June 28th We held a conference at Alpha and Omega called “Five Love Languages”. The pastor of “Grace” church in Militopol, Mikhail Britsyn, was our speaker. He is a very strong speaker and excellent preacher.

In July, Anya and Tatyana Maksimovs and Anya and Natasha Viskovatovs were in Bexhill, Great Britain. Their trip took place in period from the 4th till 15th of July. Girls and their moms spent time with friends, met new people, were in churches, also they went to Haywards Heath fo congratulate The Baptist Church of Haywards Heath, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. This church is tied to us with the tightest knots and warmest feelings. Our friendship goes back to 1997. Many groups of our youth have traveled to England by invitations from this church. A few of their members have also come to visit us. The members of this church provide evangelism support and charity in Africa. Anns and their moms came back with lots of impressions.

Also in July Igor Solodenko – coach of our football team, went to Finland. He signed a contract wth one of the finish football teams. Igor came back to Ukraine at the end of October.

Ruslan Guzanov, Vanya Lyashenko and Claire Ansell had an opportunity to take a part in the Conference of Athletes in Action in Poland. It was an interesting experience for our guys, which will help them to develop our sports ministry at the Alpha and Omega Center.

On the 1st of August we had a Canadian-ukrainian party with Canadians, who came with Roland and Anita for being in our summer camp.

On the 4-5th of August a team from the Alpha and Omega went to the camp “Jubilee”, which is near Primorsk, near the Azov Sea, in the Zaporozh’e region. Before our summer camps our team comes and prepare the territory of the camp. In this team there were: Kolya and Anya Slobodyanuk, Zhenya Onishenko (known as Zhuzha), Dasha and Vitalik Sherbina, Alyona and Julia Iotko, Ian and Julia Batshev, Vitya Ionov and Anton Burakov.

From the 6th till 13th of August we had our Summer Camp-2008.

Even though the prize for the camp was 850-900 grivnas (including food and transport), this year we had the biggest amount of people in our camp – 309 people. This was our jubilee camp – 10th. Our first camp was in 1997, than one year we didn’t have camp. Our camps had place on the Azov Sea, Black Sea, near Berdyansk, Feodosiya, Kerch. Some hundreds people repented in our camps, many of them are good servants of God and strong christians today. Rodion Avtushenko’s family came to God through our summer camps. In the camp-2008 there were people from the USA, Canada, England, Shostka, Nikolaev, Poltava, Berdyansk, Krivoy Rog, Ternopol, Melitopol, Kiev etc. The theme of our camp was “Finding Truth”. Pastor Roland was talking from the Bible about “Blessed are those…”. In worship our music bands took part – “X-Press”, “For You” and the main band was “Red Letters”. Leadership meeting which was on the 16th of August put a high mark to the Camp-2008.

I want to thank everyone who took part in the preparations and leading our camp, who invited their non-christian friends and relatives, who spent his/her time and money, who prayed about the camp to God’s grace throne. Praise God!

On Sunday, the 17th of August after Sunday service at “Alpha and Omega” there was an aftercamp party, which was attended by almost 70 peoples. They stayed almost till 10 p.m.

On the 18th of August at “Alpha and Omega” there was a sad and funny evening at the same time. It was the party devoted to the Claire’s departure. Claire has been studying and living in Dnipropetrovsck during one year. Together with Tanya Knyazhanskaya and Anya Viskovatova she was the leader of the Bible study group, she sang in the band “Red Letters”, visited village of Zarya with Aleksey Navrotskiy. On Saturdays she visited children in Krivoy Rog from orphanages, she helped in translations. She was taken on our local TV channel to lead the program in English. Claire became a very good friend to many people from “Alpha and Omega”. And now when she came back home to Canada we miss her so much.

On the 28th of August Roland and Anita Syens went to Canada.

In September we had a meeting with Melanie Edwards, who created the group of the village evangelizations at the “Alpha and Omega”, and now she is a Missionary in Burma. She left good recollections about herself in Dnepropetrovsk and many our students were happy to come on this meeting with her. Melanie told us many interesting facts about her life in Burma and showed photos.

4-11th of September Jerald and Janice Firths’ coming to Dnipropetrovsk from Haywards Heath, England. This family helped a lot to “Alpha and Omega” and many our students. They visited Anya Kreidentets&Nikita’s wedding on the 6th of September in German Lutheran church. They also had an opportunity to visit many friends, they walked around the city, went to Zaporozh’e to see Chortitsa. From the 11th till 15th of September together with Fedor and Dasha Beliy they were in Kiev. It seems to me that Jerald and Janice were satisfied with their trip to Ukraine. We will be really glad if they come again.

On the 10th of September – Anya Lyanna, Sasha Kurilenko, Zhenya Onishenko, Anya Maksimova and Rodion Avtushenko came home from Canada.

On the 28th of August they went to Canada for taking part in the International Youth Conference, which was on the Malibu island. There were many young people from all over the world, of different culture, of different religion, but they all were united by the Name of Jesus. Our girls and boys were satisfied by this trip and they showed a good example of being a one spiritual team, what was noticed by the organizers of this conference. Malibu Island is a very beautiful place, so our guys could enjoy God’s creation and make lots of pictures. Praise God!

On the 28th of September “Alpha and Omega” made an evangelization in the village of Zorya. Many years ago with the help Tatyana Pidtykanna (teacher) and Tatyana Rindych (local school principal) pastor Roland Syens began Bible Study group in this village. When Roland had left, this work continued to be done by Alexey Navrotsky. The fruit if their ministry is many young, good, talented and active people, who received Christ in their hearts and became members of “Alpha and Omega” and Lutheran Church. This was the reason why they wanted to have evangelization in their village.

2-3rd of October there was a conference “God’s hands” with Karen Zimmerlee and Natasha Yevdash. This conference was made for girls and it lasted during 2 evenings, which were attended by 15 girls. Girls were inspired by what they heard from Karen.

On the 3rd of October at the Alpha and Omega we had a coffeehouse “University party”, which was attended by 40 people. Guys had an interesting evening, the main theme was “Knowledge”. There were many jokes about studying, many interesting and funny things about studying process were talked about.

On the 9th of October in the city of Shostka Alpha and Omega celebrated their 3rd birthday. They had a youth conference, the main theme of which was “Time”. The importance of time was talked about, people also talked about the right planning of their time. 10 our people with Alexey Navrotsky came to Shostka to congratulate with their birthday. Praise God for Alpha and Omega in Shostka!

From the 28th of October till the 10th of December there were courses for the leaders of Small Bible studying groups, which were lead by Olga Maslo.

On the 9th of November a guest from the USA preached at the Alpha and Omega. His name is Viktor Reznikov. This mas was a chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of Anape (region in Russia), then he was a businessman and a mayor contender of Anape. He went through the kidnapping of his son, after 2 shots to head, he survived after clinical death. Now Viktor is christian, he drives all over Ukraine for testifying about his faith in Christ. After his preaching at the Alpha and Omega nearly 20 people repented.

On the 9th of November Sergey Bevz and Nastya Muzichuk (guys from Lutheran Church) announced about their engagement. They are planning to get married in July-August.

On the 15th of November in the building of the “Hope” church we had our Thanksgiving Day.

It was a wonderful time, when we thanked our God for everything He gave to us, for each other. Responsible for organization of this party was Sasha Kurilenko. There were involved nearly 30 different ministries into organization process. There was a special corner for those who wanted to take a picture. This party was attended by 140 people, among them: 2 guys from Odessa, 8 people fro Nikolaev, 5 people from Kiev, 8 graduators from Krivoy Rod rehabilitation center. It was exciting evening. Everybody liked being there.

25-27 November – in Dnepropetrovsk in assistance of the Alpha and Omega center there was a Christian business-conference. It’s organizers are Alpha and Omega and Christian Satellite TV Channel CNL of Maksim Maksimov. Speakers were 4 experienced american businessmen-christians., among them is a manager of Microsoft. The main work in organization was made by Sasha Kurilenko, who was great with his team. Seminars were attended by more than 100 people.

On the 19th of December under the initiative of Aleksey Navrotsky in the Internetcafe there was a 1st meeting of businessmen of the Alpha and Omega. There were 12 people. Time was very interesting and showed that these meetings are important.

On the 24th of December in the building of Central Baptist Church our traditional “Christmas evening with candles” took place. Programme of this service was very rich, various from musical point of view, very good preaching of Aleksey Navrotsky. There were more than 600 people, among them many guests from other cities, many non-christian people. Praise God!

On the 28th of December in the Internetcafe we had our leadership meeting, talking about year 2008, about its results, we’ve planned our year 2009 and thanked each other for our joint ministry. This evening was interesting, warm and lovely.

During the year 2008 at the Alpha and Omega were born new members:

13th January – David (Maksim and Anya Bashmakovs)

8th April – Karina (Sasha and Katya Kachalovs)

14th May – Ivan (Vasya and Katya Yeremeyevs)

27th August – Vsevolod (Lyosha and Larisa Burakovs)

9th October – Michael (Slava and Sveta Iotko)

19 November – Anastasia (Sergei and Oksana Nemchenko)

In addition to all these events, each week at the Alpha and Omega every Monday we have meetings of leaders. Every day we have rehearsals of music bands and theater-studio, vocal group (under leading of Nina Guzanova), every month we have Leadership meetings, meetings of musicians, meetings for leaders of Bible groups, once in 3-4 months we have meetings of Small Soviet. Also we have sports competitions. Every week we have nearly 8 Bible study groups gathering together, we have Baby-Showers for future moms (During a long period of time ministry called “Baby Shower” was done by Alyona Yanus. She makes parties for future moms and their friends. On these meetings girls have felloewhip, play games, mothers share their experience of being a mother with others, pray together. So, they have a great time together), every Saturday a team goes to Krivoy Rog to visit children from orphanages and rehabilitation center. This year we had 2 prayer evenings, where we gathered to pray for each other, for our needs, for our friends all over the world. Also this year Aleksey Ziryanov started school for drummers on Wednesdays, which is attended by guys from different churches of our city and region. This year Paul Yanus, Yan Batshev and Aleksey Ziryanov worked on a new system of central heating, now it’s warm at the Alpha and Omega and we can economy our gas. We have new workers, who serve at the A&O. A Group of JOY continues to make our life more interesting by new ideas of different parties and events. Kukarekins family and other people made donations for buying a new control panel and 2 microphones for the A&O. A new Christmas tree was given as a present by Katya Bovshik. In 2008 our football ministry and theater-studio A&O was 10 years. On the 26th of December our web-site was opened. Praise God for all these blessings!!!