and artillery that was marching on Kiev. And he heard they were hungry, and so they began to take a lot of the aid that we provided and feed those soldiers. And he and his men ended up getting military medals. That's pretty neat. They got some nice military medals. And so we praise God that the God is using them. This is Brother Vitaly. And when he goes back to Ukraine, he's come back and forth a few times now. And he brings in many, many suitcases of aid. He's made 12 trips now to the war front. And he uses his vehicle and trailer. And God has used him very brave to go in the areas where he's been going. You'll hear a little bit more from his presentation about his efforts. But we thank God for that. There's many men in Vitaly's church that are in battle. They're in the military. They're fighting. And because of that, he has special access to the war front. And he can actually go and be with the soldiers. They let him into nobody else, but they'll let him into the areas that are very, very sensitive. And so do pray for us. You can get a lot more information on our website, baptistinternational.org. There's a tab on the lower right-hand corner. It says View Video Updates. And we have about 100 videos of our distribution efforts. You can log in there and see the center column. You can click on that, and you can read updates. And every Friday, we put out an email that has updates on what is going on in our war relief efforts. So do stop by and sign up if you want to get those by email. So we thank you for your help in this. And now we're going to show some video clips of our efforts that are going on in distributing aid. And Brother Vitaly, after that, he'll give his presentation. Some of you might remember Brother Vitaly. He's from the Western Ukraine area. And God burdened him for urban ministry. So when he went to Chernobyl to start a new church, he aimed for the inner city. And God used him and his wife. And they went there, just the two of them with no help, nobody. And the first meeting they had, nobody came. The next meeting three came, but through all those efforts, a wonderful church has been established. All right, this is the first video clip. It's of a different Vitaly, Vitaly Yurchenko. You can go ahead and click the play. And his neighbors and relatives were meeting in their basement during some bombing that was going on in their neighborhood. So they decided between bombing to go out and sing a hymn. If you and your neighbors went out and sang a song, would you sound like that? Probably not. It's the guy in the red on the right. It's his fault. He's the choir director. While the war is going on, our soldiers are battling the enemy. We also are going to do a spiritual battle. We don't sleep at night. We pray for our streets, for our city, for our soldiers. We're praying that God will protect us. And right now, I propose that we pray right here on the street and ask God to help us. Our Heavenly Father, we believe in you and we know that you are the God of creation. We want to thank you for your help. We got financial help today from Vitaly Nigar and Zhenya. And we live in Kucha. It's Kiev region, where a very hot place now. There is a real war there. And we spent 14 days in the basement. A lot of their neighbors were just slaughtered in the streets in that area. So thank you for your help and may God bless you. Thank you very much. We were able to evacuate hundreds of families like that. This is the choir director, Vitaly, another Vitaly. This is his choir. They've been a huge help in our ministry. His choir has accompanied us in evangelistic meetings all around Ukraine. So he's always been a big part of our ministry. God is using him now to channel a lot of the aid we provide to those that are in need. This is in his home. If you live within 200 feet of Vitaly, you have to learn to sing and to sing in parts. It's just the way it is. So in his home, when you gather there, within 20 minutes, everybody has to be singing. This is a rope type material and citizens would take it along with cloths that they would find from various papers, places they would weave it into netting that they would bring to the checkpoints and give to the soldiers to use. But in Ukraine during this time every man, woman and child, young and old, did all they could. They were transformed into an army to defend their homes, to defend their land, to save their lives as the Ukrainian army was bearing, or the Russian army was bearing down on them. And they're making here these iron anti-tank barricades. And it's so strange to see Vitaly with his musician's hands, usually at the piano, working with iron. But it worked. They were able to withstand. The Russian army had to turn back because they all pitched together. And they showed a clip on the news of an elderly lady bringing her jars, her canned food to the soldiers. And I saw her on television saying this. She said to the soldiers, I'm giving you my food. But after the war, I want my jars back. Well, friends, this is Sam Sliburian, and I'm in Zubunov, Ukraine, which was bombed for the first time today. And I'm with Brother Pasha, and he's a key man in the distribution efforts that we're doing. His home church is a very strong church. They've got a wonderful Easter service there. And they have a tremendous ministry. And he's going to explain a little bit about what they do in the area of war relief. Dear friends, I am so grateful that even though we're in extremely difficult times, that God has And in the end, we were wondering what we could do, because we lived in our area of the war and it reached us. And God is using us as a channel to provide help to those areas that are being hit. to the church or not even a believer has let us use this entire building for free. This warehouse is almost empty now because we've distributed everything. Only thing we have left now is hygiene products and diapers. And it's full of groceries that we're going to deliver to some of these areas, Harsul, Harkov, Sumy, these are areas, and Nikolayev, these are areas that have been devastated. to alleviate the suffering. Thank you very much. These are trips to the East with help. And our trips consist of three parts. This is food aid for people in need. The first part. It all starts here in the church. Brothers and sisters come, form food sets, we buy them, pack them and load them into the church. and I take it to the east. Then the second part of the aid is also aid to civilians with medicines. These are the funds that I take with me. This is the unit where we know people, our acquaintances, where our brothers from the church serve, and this is the contribution that we can make together with you. One of our brothers from the church serves in the army. Not long ago he was wounded, their car was shelled by a tank, and the front of the car was completely torn off. And the second shell flew through the front glass and flew to the rear. And hit the next car. And Sasha miraculously survived. He was separated this month from the meeting in our church. And now I will take to their unit, where I will help. And I will take the dry bread that we received from our American friends. Thank you, friends. They always tell Vitaly, bring Coca-Cola. We are supported by the forces, both physical and financial, to support our population. And we are not defeated at once. There are explosions, there are about 10 minutes ago, Wonderful, God is using something negative to bring about blessings. And so we've seen a lot of positive things as well. And so I look at our congregation on Sundays, and I see before me a completely New congregations, new people, people from all over the country. They came out of very troubled and war-worn areas. And many of them, many of them are lost. And they're, they're hearing the word of God for the first time. Isn't this wonderful? Many people said, they have said that if that had been for the war, they would have never heard the gospel, they would have never accepted Christ, but now they are born again, new people. And so we have many new relationships. And our church has been renewed. Church has changed. And so we are pouring our lives into helping these people. This is a very strategic ministry. Many brothers in our church are businessmen. And they have offered their trucks so we can use them. And we take their trucks and we bring and deliver aid to some of them. And we've sent these trucks to areas that have no more of that. But God has protected them. And we're thankful that we have supplies that we can share and deliver in this way. And we believe God's going to continue to work in this way. And God's going to take this evil and turn it to good for us. Pastor Eager is hard to translate for. He gets kind of wound up. But Brother Vitale is going to come now, and he's going to bring you up to date on his efforts. He's taken 12 trips, dangerous trips, to the war front. Can he hold that microphone? Greetings, friends. And I'm glad to share with you how God is blessing us even in this time of war. This is an amazing opportunity for the church to serve the Lord. This is my family, my wife Katya, two sons David and Mark. This is my daughter and son-in-law, they're also church planners. And they're starting a new church in our city in a needy area. And this might be very hard for you to believe, but I am now a grandfather. So when you pray for us, pray for Karina and Sergei as well. Here you can see the size difference between Ukraine and Russia. Doesn't this remind you of David and Goliath? When the war started, there were a lot of experts that said that after three days, Ukraine would be no more. But it's now a year and a half, and we're still there. A little bit about our church. This is our church. We bought the first floor and basement of a large apartment building because they're committed to the inner city. And we're in the center of the city, and we're thankful for the facility God has given us. This is our auditorium. This is the leadership of our church. We're meeting in candlelight not because we're romantic, but in the winter we were without electricity a lot. And you'll see many generators outside of buildings in these times. And they are predicting there'll be another rough winter ahead. I should say that our BIM provided over a quarter million dollars of generators to our churches and church planters this last winter. When the war began, our church quickly mobilized to help refugees. Many thousands of refugees came through our city as they were going west. Every square inch of our facility, every room, every classroom, the library, everything was dedicated to refugees. And people slept in sleeping bags on floors. And we had a large basement, we turned into a bomb shelter and people in the community would come to our basement when the siren sounded. People that before you could not drag into church were now running to the church. And so our men organized themselves so that 24 hours around the clock there was always somebody there to pray with these people. and to talk with them during the bombings. And we did a lot of distribution of groceries. And so our mission from the very beginning sent us funds that we could purchase these things to distribute. And so the buses that came full of refugees, they would deposit in our city. We would fill with food as they went back to these troubled areas to get more refugees. This is the dream of every pastor to get to church and see a line of people waiting to get in. That happened to me once. People were standing in line. But they didn't come to hear me preach. They came for food. But we realized that we're a church, we can't just simply hand out food. So we quickly developed a system where people had to come to the church twice. The first time they would register and get an appointment, and they would come a second time to actually obtain the food. And both times we invited them into our fellowship hall, cafeteria type place, where they would have coffee and tea and pastries, and at every table we had a church member who would pray with them and talk with them. When the war started, the Russians very quickly surrounded Kiev on three sides. And we have a lot of friends and relationships with churches in Kiev, and we began to organize caravans that would bring aid into that area. Eventually, the flow of refugees slowed down, and then we began to focus our efforts right along the war front. In the map, you can see the round black dot. That's where we're located, and we would travel all the way to the east along those points to deliver aid to the war front. And so the darker areas are occupied by Russia right now. This is greatly reduced before that darkened area was about two or three times as big. And you can see where I've been and how many times I've been in those various eros. And this is a wonderful time where the church can help people. And so we serve when we go there. We work together with local pastors. And it is sobering. It breaks your heart to go to these places. And for example, this is how people prepare their food in these apartment buildings, because they have no electric, no water, no heat. Churches are destroyed. I should add this. The Institute of Religious Freedom reports now that 495 churches have been destroyed in Ukraine. And there are new cemeteries full of soldiers' graves all over Ukraine now. That leaves a lot of widows, a lot of orphans, a lot of mothers of lost sons. And so these opportunities we have to help so many who have become impoverished is also a wonderful opportunity to share Christ. And we always distribute a lot of New Testaments. And so we have the opportunity to preach the gospel to these people. Sometimes the bombing starts and I only have five minutes to preach, other times I can go up to 20 minutes. And this is an amazing opportunity because these people are ready to hear from heaven. They realize they may be gone tomorrow. So we've distributed thousands of Bibles. And people are very hungry, very eager to receive the Gospels. And this is what we're doing together with you, sharing the Gospel. And we also help people with medicines. And we also serve hospitals. And civilian hospitals throughout Ukraine are now housing many injured military. And our men are able to visit the wounded soldiers in these hospitals. And we can help the military, our members who are in the military directly. That was a picture of one of our men took down in a trench, so you can see what it looks like when you're in a trench. So we help them not only with food, but minesweepers, very, very valuable is high grade, military grade tourniquets, generators, clothing, shoes, medicines. Remember this photograph, I'll say something about that young man a little bit later. Fruits, vitamins, sleeping bags, water, antennas for communication, tools, chainsaws to cut firewood. And this all opens up opportunities and opens hearts to the gospel. And to tell them that there's hope that they have a future in Christ no matter what. And when we receive containers of aid from the mission, we share it with our other church planners. But the need now is not only refugees and military, but just the regular citizens around us have become impoverished because of the war. So we help them as well. Old people, sick, invalids, they come to the church to get aid. And so we've had several baptisms during this time of war. God is saving people. We had some weddings as well. Our ministries continue. This is a music ministry. We had four camps this summer. And this is our efforts in visiting hospitals. We continue to serve our local orphanages. And so friends, thank you for standing with us during these times. And this is an opportunity we have to share the gospel like never before. Does that work? The microphone there? And I'd like to share some thoughts with you from the word of God. And right now in Ukraine you see some amazing contrasts. It's a huge evil that's taking place. It's like a cloud of darkness has enveloped our country. And how can the church relate to this? And I want to turn your attention to Ephesians Chapter 5, starting with verse 8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doeth manifest by the light, for whosoever doeth make manifest is light. Wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. And we've always know that there's people in darkness. And there was a time in history where few people knew how to read and write, and they began to learn how to read and write. And today a lot of our elderly people don't know how to use a computer. And young people look at them thinking that they don't know anything. How can you not understand? But the Bible doesn't has a different standard. The Bible doesn't look at people that are in darkness as people who can't read or write or use a computer. People that are in darkness are people who have not had the light of the Lord shine in their lives. These are people who have not come to the light, nor are they the light. And most people in the biblical sense in our world today live in darkness. Paul wrote that the Lord has called us from darkness into light. And so our world today is divided between those that are in darkness and those that are in light. In any community there are those that are walking in light and the others are walking in darkness. And Paul just wrote, we read Paul saying, you were in darkness. And our lives, there was a time we were in darkness, but after we were saved, we're in light. And the dividing line is Christ, that we were in darkness until we met Christ. And so darkness is not something that comes upon you. In order to bring light into darkness, somebody needs to shine a light. And as Christians, if we don't shine the light, we are responsible for darkness. And the amazing thing about light is that it moves very fast. And it's hard to calculate with mathematics how fast light travels. And so when we are told to be children of light, it means that we need to shine lightness quickly. And so if your pastor tells you about an opportunity, What would we say? We say, well, I don't know. I need to look in my calendar. So when the Lord speaks to our heart to help a relative or to share the gospel with a neighbor, how quickly do we respond? Think about this. And in this passage, Paul mentions three ways that we are light. In the ninth verse, for the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth. Goodness, righteousness, and truth. And there's an order here. Light starts with goodness. That's what we're doing in Ukraine today. We're helping people. We give them food. We give them a place to stay and sleep. But we want to bring into their lives not just the food, but righteousness and truth. And that only comes with Christ. And you know, when Christ enters a person's life, they become a light. And that's when they can reveal truth. And sometimes we get it backwards as Christians. And so sometimes, for example, we can approach somebody and start right away with the fact that they're sinners. Well, they know they're sinners. He needs to know about the love of God. Remember I told you to keep in mind one of the young men I showed in the picture. This is a young soldier. I've known him for many years. It's a friend of my son's. He volunteered for the war. And he serves in a division of 600 soldiers. He's the youngest. He's 22 right now. Some of those men are in their 40s, even up to 60. Everybody knows he's a Christian. And so the commander of that division elevated him to be second in command. And so he's in charge of very sensitive information. He has such authority. And I tell him, Mike, if you want, I can come and visit your soldiers. He'd check with the commander. And because of his reputation, the commander allowed us to come in all the areas. And friends, light always becomes visible. And I challenge each one of us to be a light every single day. And to be quick about it. And be a light that illuminates the Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless you. Amen.