Gethsemane Church in Chervonohrad celebrated its 5th anniversary of serving the people. The youth group of Gethsemane, Chervonohrad, led the praise and worship time.

Pastor Valeriy Marchenko spoke a message on God’s will for man. God’s will is optimal for man, and one can know it by reading the Word and praying to God, thus being in touch with God. In this case, we can expect God to reveal His vision on our life.

The Wine and the Bread of the Communion – the Blood and the Body of Jesus. Partaking in the Communion the attendees could touch God, abiding in prayer and contemplation on what happened on the cross. When the 1st part of the celebration was over, the members of Gethsemane. Chervonohrad, treated everyone with a delicious meal.

After the treat, the celebration kept on going with the Chervonohracl members giving their testimonies. Khrystyna Kolomiyets was the first She spoke on how nervous she used to be about petty things in life and how she got involved in bad company. After coming to Christ she changed her bitterness to self-control and her old company to new Christian friends. That was something to praise the Lord for!

Victoria Biliovska thanked the members of the church for their support. She saw real Christians in them, preaching about God in word and action. She thanked God for helping her every day of her life. Stepan Tylovatyi, who lias been in the church since the beginning, gave a testimony about his conversion to Christ from all sorts of addictions and praised the Lord for that.

Another vivid piece of a testimony is the one of Oleksandr Pluzhnyk. His life was lost in alcohol and constant brawls, and God especially wants to rescue such sort of people from their ways. When he turned to God for help, the Lord delivered him from the addictions, and now Olekdandr is going through life challenges guarded by God.

Vasyl Andrushko spoke the words of gratitude to the church and congratulated the congregation. Church servants Khrystyna Kolomiyets. Victoria Biliovska and Bohdan Maridko, who have been actively serving in the church for all these years, were awarded certificates of  gratitude. The senior pastor thanked God in prayer for their sacrificial hearts and asked Him to continue leading this ministry.

This was just the beginning of the greetings. Gethsemane. Chervonohrad, has clone a lot for its community over the past year. Small group leaders from Lviv had a lot of reasons to thank the Lord for the ministry of their fellow church and present their gifts. The first were the groups from the “Kulparkiv” district (Lviv), who presented their verse and wishes.

The 5 sisters of the Plakhtynas family performed Christian songs. Diana and Vlad Zavadskys recited Christian poetry. Brother Yuriy Gimon, as a representative of the “Volodymyra Velykogo” district of small groups, gave a word of greeting for the Chervonohrad church.

The children’s and teenagers’ ministry performed a song and a creative sketch on how God thinks of us. At the end of their performance, they presented their gift – a picture with Jesus as the Good Shepherd- to the head minister in the Chervonohrad church Deaconess Natalya Sergeyeva.

The worship group of Gethsemane, Lviv, under the leadership of Olena Markheva, performed two new worship songs. Sister Maria Pishkalo from Chervonohrad joined the greetings and remembered the time when she came to know God in Gethsemane, Chervonohrad, and the many good things pastor Valeriy and other church leaders had done for her in her life.

Brother Vasyl Pastushyn from Chervonohrad, greeted the church and wished much growth and new achievements in ministry to people. At the end of the ministry, everyone prayed for Deaconess Natalya Sergeyeva, for God’s protection and guidance of the church. We believe this year the church will bring much fruit in the city of Chervonohrad.