My wife, Myrna, and I recently visited Lviv, Ukraine, through our ministry, Glory Power Ministries (GPM), which works closely with CWG Ministries. We were able to minister to many displaced (those who left their war-torn regions), their children, wounded soldiers, and a number of churches. My parents were born in the Lviv region, and I can speak Ukrainian. I still have numerous cousins and relatives there, who we also ministered to.
Lviv is in the western part of Ukraine, near Poland, far from most of the ground war in eastern and southern Ukraine. But we experienced almost daily air raids while in Lviv, and Russian rockets landed near where we were ministering.
We provided financial support and worked closely with Bethesda Church in Lviv which is pastored by Taras Kolivoska, a dear friend and great man of God. Bethesda Church, along with the national Ukrainian Pentecostal association to which it belongs, are doing tremendous work ministering to many thousands across Ukraine during the war – providing food parcels, medical supplies for soldiers, hot meals for the many displaced in Lviv, housing, and spiritual help. We visited Bethany Church (which GPM also financially supports), the main church of the association in the Lviv region, which prepares over a thousand hot meals daily for the many displaced coming to the main train station in Lviv.
We ministered to many displaced, some of which are being housed at Grace Orphanage, which is run by Bethesda. The orphans from this orphanage were moved to Italy for safety when the war started, and Grace is now being used to house displaced who are staying in or passing through Lviv on their way to other parts of the world for refuge. GPM was able to supply groceries, bath supplies, games for the children, etc. (see picture with children and adults), and mostly the love of Jesus to provide these people with hope.
Also, we participated in Bethesda’s regular food parcel distributions at the church to hundreds of displaced. GPM contributed to these food parcels, and I was able to preach an evangelistic message where we saw over 200 pray to receive Jesus (see pictures of displaced standing to receive Jesus and Myrna distributing parcels). Afterwards, we ministered to individual families - their stories were heart breaking. It is hard to imagine people losing everything – their homes, virtually all of their possessions, leaving their families, friends, jobs, and towns for a strange place, not knowing what the future holds. Many families also left their husband/father/brothers who stayed to fight the horrific war.
We met one woman, Elena, who was six months pregnant and had to leave her husband behind as he was fighting in the war. She gave birth prematurely while we were still in the country. She and the baby are fine physically. Please pray for Elena and her family.
We were also able to minister to wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a military hospital. The commanding Colonel gave us a tour of the impressive facility, where modern rehab equipment is being used. We are praying that God provide for this much-needed facility. GPM provided a lot of food, especially fresh food, medicine, and Bibles for the soldiers at this military hospital.
Most of the soldiers were young and have been traumatized (see picture with these men). They so appreciated our encouragement and prayers. GPM hopes to do more to help this facility.
I preached in various churches 10 times, teaching many Biblical principles I learned at CLU (see picture preaching in one of the churches). I mainly spoke on how to receive Jesus’ strength during the war, emphasizing how we are to live only by Jesus’ words and visions, as Jesus lived only by what He heard and saw from the Father in His heart (John 5 as taught in Communion with God). I also taught on how to go from fear to faith and anger to love (from Counseled by God). In addition, I spoke on how healing from a wounded heart comes by replacing traumatic scenes in our heart which do not contain Jesus with pictures showing Jesus in the traumatic scene, because He was there ministering. In addition, I taught that forgiveness of those who hurt us is also necessary to bring healing to our wounded heart. (from Prayers That Heal The Heart).
It was an honor to preach in a village church outside of Lviv where my grandfather pastored for years and my pastor father preached in 1990.
The teaching was received well, and afterwards Myrna and I distributed food parcels to displaced people who attended the church service.
I also had the opportunity to teach an abbreviated 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice seminar (see picture at table) to church leaders, which was also received well, and hope to continue this teaching by video conferencing.
One of the purposes of this trip was to set up future training for pastors and leaders in Ukraine on how to bring healing to the many traumatized from the horrid war, using 4 Keys and Prayers that Heal the Heart. In presenting this training to pastors and leaders in Ukraine, they expressed great interest and are currently working on setting this up. We are excited about the possibility of an ongoing ministry helping bring heart healing to this traumatized nation. Please pray that this works out. One leader told me over 1/3 of Ukraine (over 15 million) have been traumatized by the war!
We came away from this trip having a much greater compassion for Ukraine. Please pray that GPM and many others can help bring healing to these precious people, including an end to this war.
GPM’s humanitarian and spiritual support of Ukraine is ongoing. We hope to make another trip to Ukraine in the near future. If you would like to be a part of GPM’s work in Ukraine, please go to this link on our website and select “Ukraine Relief” as your designation. Thank you so much!!! https://glorypower.org/site/donate-online/
Related Resources:
How to Hear God's Voice!
