J.E.E.P. Ministries
Youth Conferences
Teaching and Training the Next Generations of Europe
Since 2013, members of North American and other CREC churches have been able to join Ukrainians at either an annual youth or family camp. These camps include lectures, daily liturgy, group activities, and projects and are a foundational time for interchurch fellowship for more isolated and small communities.
Attendees have included members from all the CREC Ukrainian churches, Canada, America, Japan, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, and the United Kingdom. Camps range from 30-90 people and are normally located in the Carpathian mountains with family style meals. Some tent camps and other activities, especially with youth are held and hosted by local churches in the summer.
Family Camp in Bulgaria (2014)
In July, 2014, JEEP assisted Presbyterian Reformed Church in Burgas, Bulgaria, and Evangelical Reformed Church in Diosd, Hungary, in conducting a family camp near Burgas, on the Black Sea. About 45 people from the two churches and the mission church in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, attended. A Polish family from England also participated in the camp.
The JEEP-sponsored team consisted of members from Covenant Bible Church in Chugiak, Alaska (four members), the CREC mission in Soldotna, Alaska (one member), All-Saints Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (two members), Reformation Covenant Church in Oregon City (one member), and Mitaka Evangelical Church in Mitaka, Japan (one member). Each team member paid his or her own expenses to serve the churches in Eastern Europe. The team gave talks for the adults, supervised various activities and games for the children and spent many hours visiting with and encouraging the Bulgarian and Hungarian attendees.
The work with the children was challenging for the team. Participation by the children included up to 15 little people from two different countries, speaking two very different languages. Some, but not all, of the children have some English, so instructions and care required some tricky maneuvering around the language barrier. While the team approached this issue with some trepidation, it all seemed to work out, especially after the first day. Making crafts, playing games and singing together seemed to delight the children and the team’s ladies developed a bond of love with these small members of Christ’s church.
Key messages for the adults were presented by Pastor Yavor Rusinov, Mr. Kevin Kanoff, Mrs. Maggie Marinov and Pastor Jack Phelps (the only speaker whose name lacks a Slavic ending!). Lecture topics included homeschooling, God’s work of judgment/refinement, financing growth in God’s Kingdom, the relation between Grace and Law in Christian living, and confronting modern culture. Each lecture was followed by a question and answer session that prompted some lively dialogue and discussion. Reports from leaders and other participants indicated that a lot of mental and spiritual stretching resulted from these sessions.
The camp was located a short walk from a nice beach on the Black Sea, and each afternoon, most people went down to swim and play in the water. This offered many opportunities for Christian fellowship. Old friendships were reignited and new friendships were formed during the days and evenings of the camp. Many said they would like to do this again. One take-away message for the team was that it is good and glorious when Christian people can forge international, cross-cultural spiritual bonds with one another through fellowship and play, while at the same time growing in their knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. We were thankful for the opportunity to serve the Kingdom in this way.
Medical Missions
Ukrainian healthcare suffers from the post-Soviet system, poor training and accessibility, and corruption. Although government funded, for attentive care, a bribe is normally required. Many citizens do not have ability to use this system or their issues go beyond reliable and available treatment.
Over 15 years ago, Pastor San Sanych started working with a group of doctors from the United States that come annually and offer professional, free medical care. In the last several years, this organization has worked specifically in cities with CREC churches as well as offered help with medicine for Ukrainian soldiers. This work reaches the poorest strata of the population and provides opportunity for practical and spiritual ministry. The group Nazareth House (LINK) was born after one of these medical missions. The churches have been able to invite OSCE members and the local TV stations to witness the event. In 2017, the mission was located in and assisted by both Ivano-Frankivsk with the Reformed Church of Ivano-Frankivsk and Dunaivtsi and the Reformed Church: Holy Trinity (LINK).
After years of experience helping organize these events, Pastor San Sanych was able to talk with a Ukrainian Christian mobile clinic. This group was working with now CREC churches by 2009 and has focused on Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk. It is easier to get permission for events and faster to attend to patients without the need for translation, but the financial burden is heavier on local churches.
Training and Conferences
The local churches organize seminars to continue important training while bringing together and encouraging ministers and church members throughout the year. Some of these have been hosted by Theopolis, made possible by individual CREC churches sending their own pastors and are included in camps or organized as separate events.
There are also opportunities to hold lectures in schools and universities to wider audiences.
Ministries in Ukraine
With five CREC churches in Ukraine, the kingdom of God is bustling in that country. Here is a brief overview of the various ministries and projects in progress in Ukraine.
Christian Youth Club “Tsehla”
“Tsehla” (translated “Brick”) is a Christian Youth Club which seeks to teach children about God through Bible lessons and through relationships with the team workers and other participants. The club takes place on Saturdays and consists of thematic leisure (deliberately planned activities which are also fun), snacks, and a Bible lesson where they study the books of the Bible systematically. It is a ministry of God’s Covenant Reformed Evangelical Church in Rivne.
Children’s Christian Academy
This ministry is based in Rivne and is sponsored by the Rivne Biblical Church, God’s Covenant Reformed Evangelical Church, and the Foundation for the Promotion of Leadership-Standard (LINK). This has started as an afterschool program which cares for children while their parents are still working. The curriculum consists of Bible lessons and the sciences taught in light of the Christian worldview. The longterm plans for Children’s Christian Academy is to become a Christian school which provides an alternative to the public schools.
Eastern European Family
& Youth Camps
Since 2013, members of North American and other CREC churches have been able to join Ukrainians at either an annual youth or family camp. These camps include lectures, daily liturgy, group activities, and projects and are a foundational time for interchurch fellowship for more isolated and small communities.
Project “Standard”
This project gets its name from Abraham Kuyper and his newspaper (called by the same name). It recognizes that God’s standard is in the Scriptures and that God’s standard has been broken in this world. It seeks to teach young adults (age 8-16) important life skills and Christian values, such as how to lead, how to work in a team, how to think critically, how to resolve conflicts, and much more. It focuses on multi-day courses and one-time trainings.
Psalms in Ukrainian
Singing the Psalms is not a widespread practice in evangelical churches in Ukraine. Only a few psalms are available in contemporary Ukrainian. Two members of the Reformed Evangelical Church “Holy Trinity” in Ivano-Frankivsk are working their way through the Psalter creating metrical settings in Ukrainian, often to Genevan tunes.
“Svitlo” Christian School
“Svitlo” is a Christian school in Rivne, Ukraine. “Svitlo” exists to provide a thoroughly biblical Christian education in Ukraine. Pray that God will be pleased to raise up a generation of biblically-minded Christians in Rivne.
Conferences
The local churches organize seminars to continue important training while bringing together and encouraging ministers and church members throughout the year. Some of these have been hosted by Theopolis, made possible by individual CREC churches sending their own pastors and are included in camps or organized as separate events.
Medical Mission
Over 15 years ago, Pastor San Sanych started working with a group of doctors from the United States that come annually and offer professional, free medical care. In the last several years, this organization has worked specifically in cities with CREC churches as well as offered help with medicine for Ukrainian soldiers.
Nazareth House
Project Nazareth began in 2015, after our church in Ivano-Frankivsk had spent time serving in a foster home, which ministered to children who had been removed from their families. These children had been grossly neglected, and had largely come from homes where parents were alcoholics or drug addicts.
We tried to help the children in that institution, but a significant problem was that the children were only there temporarily, eventually being returned to their parents or sent to an orphanage, or in the best-case scenario they were adopted. Although we were only able to serve them for a short period, our desire was to continue to work with them, to help them avoid being sent back to the orphanage.
So many of these children were in high-risk situations, living without proper care from their parents. In our microregion of Ivano-Frankivsk, there are 110 registered families, considered to be in a high-risk status. Many more families, however, are at risk here but unregistered. Just like the rest of Ukraine, every other child in Ivano-Frankivsk is growing up without a father. Many children are being raised by their grandmother or a distant relative, with their mom working abroad in order to earn income.
Because of this, we decided to create a place that would help such children, as well as poor children, children from large families, or even those alone with no siblings. We wanted ultimately to offer them a safe place within the walls of the church. In the church they would be taken care of, loved, have friends, spend time, hear about Christ. They could have any help as we could offer, have hope, have joy, safety and everything else necessary for their future.
This was the vision that gave birth to Nazareth House Center. It is our desire, hope, and prayer that the Nazareth House might become the foundation for these, as well as for other, similar children in the years to come. Even if a child has walked away and been gone for some time, they would be able to always return.
Our Center works six days a week. We have 47 children attending Nazareth, 37 of them are regular, and of these over 20 children have become members of church. We also help guide their families, provide a variety of aid and counseling, and support them through the most difficult period of their life. During our first five years, we have tried to meet the needs of these children, and have made it a priority for our team, working with children and parents, volunteers, and hired workers to instill Christian values and teach them faith. It is evident, that through their time here they have grown in faith, in understanding of Christ, and love. They are now becoming living testimonies to their parents, peers, that there is a different way to live life.
A typical week at Nazareth House goes like this:
Sunday: 9:30 breakfast, 10:00 Catechism, 10:30 Worship, 17:00 Bible Group
Monday: Shopping for Nazareth; Evening time we invite the kids to our house (and others who serve at Nazareth during the week), to eat and to shower, do laundry, and for fellowship
Tuesday: 17:00 English club (three age groups for English classes)
Wednesday: 16:00 Food, homework, craft time and games
Thursday: Day for family visits
Friday: 18:00 dinner, Bunker youth club
Saturday: 11:00 food, scout school, Bible lesson, games.
The children who attend receive food, provisions, clothes, shoes, medicine, medical aid, hygiene products, school material, help during study time, psychological help, pastoral help, material help, as well as vocational advice and counseling. We lead in educating and training them with important life skills, that will be useful for them in the future. At Nazareth, the kids learn God’s word, catechism, grow in faith, wisdom, and love.
The model we have formed and created at the Center for children and their families from high risk groups, has not only proven to work, it is being copied by other ministries. We have spoken with and showed many interested people in our area how our Center works. Subsequently, some of these have followed our example and have opened up centers in their own cities. One of them, Zhenya Gryshynin, after having observed us, opened up three centers in the Eastern warfront zone. This is now inspiring others to open such Centers as well. At present in Ukraine, there are 114 centers like ours, which have already been established.
On January 29th, 2020 we were invited to a round table, organized by Mykola Kuleba, President of Ukraine Ombudsman for Child Rights, who is also our brother in Christ. While there, we learned of the future plans of Kulaba’s team which desires to open up 8,000 new locations, focused on and applying the model of centers just like ours. Additionally, we were invited to sign a cooperation and legal support agreement. Nazareth House is among the ten pilot centers of Ukraine, as a test project.