CITA missionaries continue to spread the Gospel in the regions of Ukraine

Missionaries of the Christ Is the Answer (CITA) continue to spread the Gospel in different regions of Ukraine amidst the ongoing war in the country. Here is an overview of their activities in January.

Eastern Ukraine
Kharkiv hinterland

In the village of Murafa, missionaries and volunteers from CITA held their first family service and youth meeting.

About ten couples were invited to spend time with each other in a cozy atmosphere, playing games and learning about the 12 commandments of a happy marriage. According to one of the missionaries, the meeting helped participants to re-evaluate their relationships and some even apologized to each other for past mistakes.

A group of young men and women from Rivne region organized a meeting for the youth of another village, with games and conversations about “Whom God Loves.” The team initiated a youth ministry in Murafa, but they are currently in need of more missionaries to serve in the village on a regular basis.

CITA also distributed food packages to the village of Zolochivsky district in Kharkiv region, which is located only 4 km away from a Russian helicopter airfield. The military equipment of the airfield is used for shooting practice, causing damage to the village. According to the missionaries, a five-story school has been completely destroyed, and the village has been without electricity since April 2022. The people there are scared, hungry, and forced to wear dirty clothes. One can only reach them by registering at checkpoints.

CITA distributed around 20,000 Christian calendars and evangelistic newspapers in the villages of Bohodukhivskiy and other districts of Kharkiv region. While delivering the calendars to homes, the missionaries noticed that some of the calendars hanging on the walls were from 2019. The locals explained that they kept them for the biblical texts.

Despite the difficulty of traveling by car in the villages during winter, the team held ten evangelization events in the villages of Murafskaya OTG.
Zaporizhzhia region

Forty participants of the first charitable eye clinic in Zaporizhzhia received consultations from an ophthalmologist and received glasses as a gift, and also heard the Gospel.

A home group has been opened based on children’s clubs previously organized by CITA missionaries. Together with mentors, children read the New Testament, and some of them started attending Sunday services.

With humanitarian assistance, missionaries visited Hulyai-Pole. They say that the situation there is difficult – there are many ruins and frequent shelling. Civilians confess to the missionaries that they always look forward to their visits.
The missionary team in Zaporizhzhia continues to hold children’s clubs, involve drug addicts in rehabilitation, and visit families in difficult life circumstances.

West Ukraine

The Christ is the Answer missionaries, together with ministers of the same-name Rivne church, organized a vacation for about 50 people in Yaremche, including orphans and children from disadvantaged families.
A missionary from Ternopil shared that he intends to regularly visit military hospitals after visiting there and serving with his own songs for soldiers who lost limbs on the front.

Southern Ukraine

Missionaries from Mykolaiv region are helping to start worship services again in the local church building that survived in the village of Snihurivka, which was occupied at the beginning of November. The community gathered last time with 20 people, according to the ministers, most of whom had not attended this gathering before.

Also, CITA missionaries are distributing stoves in villages throughout the region. There are villages where there is not a single surviving house, the ministers share, so there is a particular demand for such stoves there: “An old man in the middle of the house dug a hole and heated the room that way. We gave him such a stove so that he could cook and eat. He was so happy and very grateful!”

“Praise the Lord! We have completed the final module of the course on studying the Gospel of Luke in the women’s section of the Mykolaiv prison. Eight women have completed the training,” said a missionary from Mykolaiv.
After several sessions, one of the listeners approached her to thank her and told her that she had turned to the Lord and began to pray.

According to her, she was not guilty of the crime for which she was sentenced. After her prayer to God, the investigator on his own initiative began to search for evidence in favor of this woman, and now they are considering the possibility of acquittal and release.

The Christ is the Answer ministrries is created to spread the Gospel in Ukraine and beyond using various tools.

CITA Press Center.