On Saturday, December 3, 2022 Bryte church hosted a missionary reunion – a meeting of missionaries and those, who are interested in this ministry. Over 16 missionary teams from various churches of the Pacific Coast Association, as well as our friends from SOL Church, and New Life rehab center were able to attend this meeting.
According to Vadim Yurchak who is the head of the Missions Ministry of the Association, this event had a strategic meaning since due to COVID, these types of meetings haven’t been organized for quite some time. During the reunion, the representatives of at least eight various churches could share their ministry experience, as well as to encourage and support one another in prayer. The fellowship and discussions were so fascinating that the event ran well into the night.
The teams were representing both external, as well as internal mission. When talking about the local evangelism, there was an emphasis on the ministry to the homeless, street evangelism, ministry to the immigrants, and day camps for children from Afghanistan. While addressing the external missions, there were reports that were presented about the ministry in Africa, Europe (Spain, France, Moldova), and Asia. There was also an important emphasis on the help to Ukraine: the Association’s project led by Peter Babich and a project of summer camps for widows and orphans, “From Heart to Heart” led by Oksana Kopchuk.
There was a lot of resources for personal study and training institutes such as Blagovest (Aleksandr Pronin), Coram Deo (Fatima Avramemnko), and Kairos (Andrey Dzube). It was interesting to find out more about “Parasolka”, the ministry for immigrants, as well as about The New Life rehab center for those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. There was also a time of prayer for the family of Joseph Sheremet who responded to God’s call to missions, and is moving with his family to Poland for a long-term mission work.
The award for the best presentation was given to The New Life Rehab Center (1st place), and Heart to Heart Missions to Ukraine (2nd Place).
The concluding part of the meeting was a panel discussion about the internal missions and contemporary methods of evangelism. The panel speakers were: Sergey Pastushak, pastor of SOL Church, Oleg Kostyuk, Pastor of The Cornerstone Church, Pavel Shur, Pastor of the Cornerstone Church, and Andrey Dzuba who just recently arrived from Russia. The panel’s moderator was Ilya Koryaka. Some of the material from the reunion can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/1zoUWG_56Ks.
Svetlana Iotko
