This past October marked a major milestone— the 500-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. And in Ukraine, yet another major milestone took place when President Petro Poroshenko issued a proclamation that the Reformation’s anniversary would be observed throughout the country. It is the first time a former Soviet nation officially celebrated the reclamation of the biblical Gospel, and evangelical churches rejoiced with thanksgiving!

It is a blessing that Alexander Kobzar’s church is able to minister and provide meals to needy children from the region.

SGA-sponsored missionary pastor Alexander Kobzar in Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region wrote to tell us how his church used the event to not only celebrate, but also to share the Gospel with unbelievers in as many ways as they could . . .

Earlier in the year, we held a special congress dedicated to the Reformation. We invited believers from across the region, and reflected on how believers stood for the purity of biblical, evangelical teaching—sometimes laying down their lives. We went from time to time to the main square, erecting tents for several days, serving tea with passersby, distributing evangelistic literature and talking to them about salvation in Jesus Christ.

Alexander says they distributed food to needy people in town, and that feeding children has become an important part of the church’s ministry. Twice a week, about 30 needy children come to the church and the sisters in the congregation prepare meals for them. In addition, they are reaching out to needy elderly in Avdeevka, where constant shelling damaged many homes. Believers in the nearby town of Chasov Yar purchased a house and turned it into a nursing home, and eight elderly people live there now. They are in the process of buying yet another home to house even more elderly refugees.

Alexander and his church are deeply thankful to God for you and every one of SGA’s faithful partners who help sustain his ministry. He asks that we continually lift them in prayer as they fulfill the ministry God has given them. It is often said that the Reformation missed Russia and the former Soviet countries, but for Alexander and thousands of other evangelical churches SGA serves, it is alive and well and the Gospel is being faithfully proclaimed!