MISSIONARY PROFILE
Yura
& Wendy
Popchenko
Missionary Information
Name:
Yura Popchenko
Age: 50
Spouse:
Wendy Popchenko
Age: 49
Child: Sashko Popchenko
Age: 22
Child: Yurko Popchenko
Age: 19
Child: Matviy Popchenko
Age: 13
Child: Audriy Popchenko
Age: 15
Mission Field: Ukraine
Years of Service: 27
Home Church: Central Baptist Church
Woodbridge, Virginia
Missions Agency:
,
Our Missionary for 15 years
Missionary Update 08/05/2016
Greetings from the Popchenko Family! The month of July presented two special ministry opportunities. The first was our family’s visit to a church in the town of Ivankiv about 35 miles from the notorious Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This was our first visit to this small country congregation since my uncle became the pastor there a few years ago. At the service, our family sang seven songs accompanied by three guitars and I preached on “The Essence of the Christian Life” from Titus 2:12-13. Everybody said that they were greatly encouraged. After church, we visited my uncle’s very humble home where he had moved from his nice apartment in Kyiv to pastor this church. Our younger boys had a great time watching and playing with all kinds of livestock. Please pray for that church and its pastor as they try to serve the Lord in a very difficult area. The second was the opportunity to minister at the children’s camp which our boys attended this year. The camp’s theme was “Climbing Bible Mountains”. Children were presented with the Gospel as they ‘climbed’ each day the mounts of Moriah, Sinai, Ebal and Gerizim, Calvary and the Mount of Olives. In the afternoon, I spoke to the boys on keeping their bodies pure for the glory of God. In the evening, I spoke to all the children around the campfire, drawing from their lessons and explaining the Gospel. That day at camp turned out to be the coldest and rainiest of the whole summer and we were afraid that all our plans would be frustrated. However, just before the campfire time, it stopped raining and I was able to speak. When I gave the invitation, child after child began to kneel right on the ground asking the Lord to forgive their sins and save them. Twelve children made a profession of faith that night! Praise the Lord for graciously holding back the rain and for drawing these precious children to Himself! Please pray for these young souls that God would strengthen their faith and help them follow Him to the end. Sincerely Yours in Christ Jesus, Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko
Missionary Update 05/31/2016
Translating the Bible into Ukrainian The Popchenko Family "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17 Sending Church and Support address: Central Baptist Church, 13910 Minnieville Rd, Woodbridge, VA 22193 (703) 583-1717 Mailing address: Yura and Wendy Popchenko, Patona 78, Mala Oleksandrivka, Boryspil region, Kyiv oblast, 08320, Ukraine Contact information: Email: bible4ukraine@gmail.com Web: www.bibleua.com Skype: yurapopchenko Dear Prayer Partners, May 2016 Update Greetings from the Popchenko Family! After a break in April, I resumed my Sunday night series of messages on child training. This time I was addressing “Training Objectives and Procedures during Childhood: Ages 6-12”. The interest level continues to be high among the church people and we are excited to have a pastor from out of town with some of his congregation faithfully joining us to hear the messages each week! They pack into the pastor’s van and drive an hour one way, sharing the cost of gas. On several occasions, the local pastor humbly confessed to his people that he hadn’t always followed Biblical principles in his own family, as he had not been fully aware of them. He publicly prayed, asking God to have mercy on him, and also called his people to repentance. We already see positive changes in the lives of Christians, as they are following God’s will for their families more and more. I never knew that a subject like this could revive God’s people and deepen their spiritual lives. However, this should have not come as a surprise to me, since part of John the Baptist’s ministry in preparing the nation of Israel for the first coming of their Messiah was “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just” (Luk. 1:17). Family life is where many Christians in Ukraine, as throughout the world, are failing, damaging their testimony and making them an easy prey of the devil. Using this verse in Luke in my latest sermon, I called the fathers to turn their hearts to their children and disobedient children to turn their hearts to the wisdom of the just in order to get ready for the second coming of Christ. Please continue to pray for families to submit to the will of God and train their children to live their lives for the glory of God. Sincerely Yours in Christ Jesus, Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko
Missionary Update 04/04/2016
Translating the Bible into Ukrainian The Popchenko Family "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17 Sending Church and Support address: Central Baptist Church, 13910 Minnieville Rd, Woodbridge, VA 22193 (703) 583-1717 Mailing address: Yura and Wendy Popchenko, Patona 78, Mala Oleksandrivka, Boryspil region, Kyiv oblast, 08320, Ukraine Contact information: Email: bible4ukraine@gmail.com Web: www.bibleua.com Skype: yurapopchenko Dear Prayer Partners, March 2016 Update Greetings from the Popchenko Family! After a long and cold winter, we are finally able to enjoy warm and often sunny weather. The work on editing the Ukrainian New Testament is coming along well with several new books being in the second draft now. A few months ago, the Lord began to answer my prayer for more laborers for this project by giving me a tremendous opportunity to influence young lives for serving God in Bible translation. When I first took my two older sons to a Bible school last October, I was unexpectedly given an opportunity to teach a combined class on the benefits of knowing languages for Bible study. I used the time to challenge the boys to study Biblical and foreign languages, sharing with them the need for more translators for the Ukrainian Old Testament. As a result of that challenge, at least one young man began to study English. A month ago, I was asked again to speak to the group on the subject of Bible translation. This time I related the incredible story of William Cameron Townsend, the Bible translator whose vision to make the Scriptures available to all Bibleless peoples in their mother tongue changed the modern approach to missions. Most of the youth listened attentively with one young man in particular having his eyes fixed on me the entire hour I spoke. The principal of the school now wants me to speak to the young men on this subject every session for which I praise the Lord. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will set the students’ hearts on fire and call some to full-time Bible translation. The Lord opened an opportunity for me to preach a series of messages on child training at a church in Kyiv on Sunday nights. Originally, my pastor friend and I considered having about 5 messages. However, as I discovered in the process, many believers did not understand some Biblical concepts which were necessary for appreciating the material on child training, so I had to address related subjects. So far, I have been able to cover “Training Objectives and Procedures from Infancy to Early Childhood”. The interest level continues to be high, and both the pastor and the people are eager for more. I was particularly pleased to hear a testimony from a father of the positive results he had achieved after applying these principles. Pray for young families to catch the vision of training their children to live their lives for the glory of God. Sincerely Yours in Christ Jesus, Yura, Wendy, Sashko, Yurko, Andriy, and Matviy Popchenko
Missionary Update 08/07/2015
Translating the Bible into Ukrainian The Popchenko Family "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17 Sending Church and Support address: Central Baptist Church, 13910 Minnieville Rd, Woodbridge, VA 22193 (703) 583-1717 Mailing address: Yura and Wendy Popchenko, Patona 78, Mala Oleksandrivka, Boryspil region, Kyiv oblast, 08320, Ukraine Contact information: Email: bible4ukraine@gmail.com Web: www.bibleua.com Skype: yurapopchenko Dear Prayer Partners, July 2015 Update Greetings to all from the Popchenko family! Our time in North Carolina was filled with meetings in many new churches as well as with many other great events which we will share with you in our next prayer letter. In this update I would like to tell you one of the most exciting testimonials regarding our translation of Mark & John. After our meeting at Richland Baptist Church in Asheville, NC, a lady came up to me and told me that two Ukrainian Christian men work with her. She wanted to give them Ukrainian scriptures, so I gave her a few copies of Mark & John. Two days later, I received a call from her and the lady could barely contain her excitement, “Brother Yura, if you could see the expression of those brothers’ faces when they received the gospels! It was priceless. A man by the name Theodore said, “Sister Sheila, it is perfect! It is exactly the language we speak, it is absolutely understandable and it flows well. It is the best Ukrainian translation of the Scriptures.” The next day I received a call from this brother and he confirmed everything that was related to me earlier. Then I received a call from Leonid, the other coworker of this lady, and he said the same thing, “It is exactly the language we speak, it is understandable and it flows well. In fact, some verses even display poetic features. It is the best Ukrainian translation.” I spent hours on the phone with these two dear brothers talking about different things and learned of the sad old fact from them. Theodore comes from Western Ukraine and Leonid comes from Central Ukraine. Back home, their churches have services and preach in Ukrainian, but use the Russian Bible for lack of a good Ukrainian one. Here, in Asheville, they do the same thing. This is very unfortunate because Russian for many Ukrainians is not only the language of the oppressors but also of the aggressors and they would simply not read the Russian Bible and would not accept preaching from it. Besides, Ukrainian preachers who use the Russian Bible inevitably speak a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian which make them sound like hillbillies to other Ukrainians and thus unlikely candidates to be listened to by the lost. The only thing that can improve the situation is the new Ukrainian translation of the Bible. Oh, how I wish it could be finished soon! Please pray to that end. Your fellow-servant of Jesus Christ, Yura Popchenko