Heat and Hope for Churches in Ukraine
Dear SGA Team,
I am truly grateful for your faithful support of our churches, especially during this past winter. This season brought many difficulties for all churches in our area, including severe cold and frequent blackouts.
As the pastor of First Baptist Church in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi and a regional pastor overseeing more than 20 sister churches, I have the privilege of supporting and coordinating our shared ministry. We continue to hold regular meetings, organize outreach efforts, and stand together in mutual support.
Despite the hardships, all of these churches remain active and strong. They are led by dedicated leaders, and most have experienced significant growth over the past four years of war.
For example, our First Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Church had around 200 members before the full-scale invasion in 2022. Even though more than half of our congregation (over 100 people) were forced to leave the country, today we have nearly 350 adult members. These are people who have come to faith and been baptized during these difficult years.
The funds you provided for winter relief enabled us to support 12 churches, helping them endure the winter and continue their ministry.
Pastor Oleksii took responsibility for the church at the beginning of the war, when key leaders had to leave the dangerous area. In 2023, we ordained him as a pastor.
He has proven to be a strong and faithful leader, raising 10 children together with his wife while actively serving in ministry.
He shared that at one point they had completely run out of funds to heat the church building.
It was at that very time that we were able to call him and provide support through SGA.
Pastor Oleksii expresses his deep gratitude and praises the Lord for such timely care.
Pastor Viktor (holding the wood, in the picture) also stepped into leadership at the beginning of the war.
Under his pastoral care, the church has been actively serving people in need and has nearly doubled in size over the past few years.
Brothers from the church came to deliver firewood to the storage using a simple cart.
They were filled with joy because the church would have enough wood to last through the rest of the cold season.
Mykola is another pastor who took on the great responsibility of leading the church when the war began.
He is very humble and actively involved in ministry.
He shared that their congregation will be praying for those who made this generous gift and helped provide heating for the church.
Serhii was ordained into pastoral ministry in March 2026.
He had been active in ministry for a long time, but was not able to serve as a pastor because his wife was not a believer.
Later, she was diagnosed with a serious illness.
However, after the church prayed for her, she recovered. This experience led her to Jesus – she believed and was baptized.
Now they serve God together, seeking to make a difference in their small village.
Pastor Vakhtang is another faithful servant leading a church in the town of Serhiivka, located on the sea coast.
This area is frequently targeted by enemy bombings, yet the church remains very active in serving the community and helping people in need.
Pastor Vakhtang himself faced the risk of death when two missiles struck the apartment building where he lives.
More than 20 people lost their lives that day, but he miraculously survived and continues to serve faithfully.
Vitalii is a pastor from the village of Stari Troyany.
He is raising seven children, is a gifted preacher, and has a deep passion for reaching the unreached.
In addition to the church he pastors, he travels to another village every week to support a group of people who came to faith in Christ through his efforts.
He expressed gratitude to the Lord and to those who made it possible for the church to receive coal for heating.
I just wanted to share with you some of these stories and I will provide additional reports and pictures to the office soon.
Thank you again for being such a blessing for us.
Valentin
Pastor
First Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi church