The church of Christ exists since the Day of Pentecost. The church consists of believers of all ages and generations and has been in existence for all this time. However, as the time passes there also comes a time of a birth of new local churches. These churches have their own history and the first day of their official opening.
February 24th was the historical day when Slavic Baptist Church in Valencia had a grand opening and it marked the beginning of its existence.
I came to Valencia on February 23, 2019 along with Joseph Sheremet who is a member of PCSBA’s committee, and Alec Yanovskiy who leads the Missionary Ministry. Immediately, we met our missionaries, Alec Shipuk and Vladimir Prizhbilov and their wives. After a satisfying dinner, we began planning the Sunday church service and the first members meeting of the local church. I was surprised by the warm atmosphere of mutual understanding and Christian love between of these two families.
On Sunday morning, we met at a café in order to meet and fellowship with the leader of the missionary ministry of the Spanish Baptist Union. After a good discussion, we affirmed the support in the filing of the registration of the new Slavic church. It will be a part of the Baptist Union of Churches of Spain.
In the morning, we visited a Spanish church, which allowed the Slavic Baptist Church to have their church meetings in their building. I expressed my gratitude to the pastor of this church emphasizing their involvement in the reaching out of the Russian-speaking population for Christ and for their support of the work of God.
This same building was the location of the evening service of the Slavic church. After worship, I preached on the theme of “Why is the Local Church Needed”, after which there was the time of the informative part of the meeting. There was an emphasis that the church is established based on missionary ministry of PCSBA, in agreement with which, all of the churches must establish their membership. I indicated why church membership is necessary and announced the nomination of brother Alec Shipuk as the head pastor. His ordination is scheduled to take place on May 26th of this year.
Vladimir Prizhbilov who is a church deacon was assigned to be his helper. God provided a helper and gave this wonderful young family to minister together in Valencia.
Joseph Sheremet talked about the responsibility and requirements of church membership. The attendees joyfully filled out the applications to become members of the local church, and the air was filled with joy and celebration. Everyone felt a special meaning of this moment because they understood that they are part of history of establishment of a new local church in Valencia. In the future, this church will engage in a great missionary ministry since this city has many Slavic people who do not know the Lord and are in need of salvation.
At the close of this amazing day, the members of the new church organized a great dinner. We had the privilege to get to know the members of the local church who shared their personal stories of moving to Spain.
As I was coming home, I was grateful to God for opening of the doors for the proclamation of the Gospel in Spain, and for our missionaries who responded to God’s calling and moved to this country which Apostle Paul once dreamed to come to. Our “dream” for Spain came a reality and was possible thanks to the readiness of two families to move to this country, Alec and Olga Shipuk and Vladimir and Ella Prizhbilov.
May the Lord bless them in this great ministry!
Ivan Mileyev
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