War Relief Updates - July 3, 2025

Thank you for your concern and for praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People

1. Last week, BIEM received 15 specialty hospital carts from friends with connections to local hospitals. Each cart features several sliding trays, which can hold an assortment of medications, bandages, instruments, etc. BIEM’s war relief efforts include providing medical supplies for Ukrainian hospitals in the areas where our church planters serve. Such gifts certainly elevate the testimony of the churches and open doors for evangelism.

2. Anya Korbetska, a volunteer in Bilogorodka whose husband is serving in the front lines, assists in BIEM’s war relief efforts. She has access to many soldiers and families of soldiers. Anya has reported on how this aid helped three families whose fathers were killed in battle. These families are from the eastern occupied territories (Donetsk), and the state has not provided the funds normally expected after the loss of heads of households in battle. Therefore, these families are impoverished. As the mothers search for work to meet the needs of their children, Anna was able to help with food. She says these families are extremely grateful for the aid provided by BIEMs supporters.

3. In this week’s video, Eugene and Vitaly take us to an intersection near the warfront, where they and other volunteers manned a soup & Scripture evangelism point. This is their 10th time to conduct such 3-day outreaches with assistance from BIEM. We invite you to click the following link for an inside look at this evangelism project made possible by BIEM donors. Thank you for helping us to help them!

https://vimeo.com/user37287229/roadside

4. Toward the end of last year, we announced a matching-funds opportunity for donations to our war relief efforts. In that arrangement, every dollar that BIEM received for our War Relief outreach through the end of 2025 was to be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000. Praise God, that $100,000 mark was reached! As if that news weren’t exciting enough, the same source has now earmarked an additional $100,000 to be used in the exact same way. In other words, a new matching-funds offer that doubles each financial gift we receive toward War Relief (up to $100,000) is now starting. Of course, we thank God and our donors for every dollar received, but we especially praise God for this opportunity you have to double the impact of each dollar you give toward War Relief. May the Lord be glorified as believers demonstrate the love of God in action!

Sam Slobodian
President, BIEM

BIEMs of Light: July 2025

Praises – Rejoice with us!

• In the month of June, BIEM shipped not one but two containers of war relief to Ukraine. A huge percentage of each shipment consists of donated clothing and medical supplies, but they contain other helpful items, too. Contents will be distributed by our churches in Obolon and Desna. Praise God!

• Hallelujah, we received 100% of the donations needed to fund this summer’s camps for children and teens. In fact, the first camps have started. We praise God and thank you missions-minded friends!

• Recently, another Christian ministry delivered to BIEM 4 pallets stacked high with boxes of adult disposable diapers. Because the pension for a retired Ukrainian is only about $30/month, a box of these is invaluable for those who need them. We praise the Lord for directing this aid our way!

• Our newest church planter, Sergei Anokin, was with us for a few weeks. He’s planting a church in Bucha, where Russian forces committed atrocities. Because he sheltered 170 residents in a church, the UN asked him to testify when they initiated war-crime procedures. Sergei’s presentation in churches was riveting. You can view one here:

  https://vimeo.com/user37287229/anokhin2

Prayer – Pray with us!

• “K___” embraced Christ after fleeing Afghanistan but was arrested and sent back. He said, “When we go back to Afghanistan, the temptations are great... Satan will throw all his power at us to deny our faith and walk away from God to find ease. I was tried as never before in my life, but Jesus held me through the pain, storms, hunger, sicknesses, and beatings. He was closer than any relationship we can ever have.” Please uphold such new believers in prayer.

• In the country of Georgia, constantly changing laws are creating challenges for ministry. Please pray for our Gospel workers to have vision, wisdom, and discernment as they go forward in faith.

• In Belarus, our missionary Nikolai Ryzhuk and another brother spent weeks visiting small, far-flung churches of just a few members. In addition to encouraging believers, they have led souls to Christ! Please pray for the encouragement of tiny churches and for more souls to come to the Lord.

• A couple years ago, we were able to purchase land in Western Ukraine for a Christian camp. With the help of BIEM friends, a camp building with a bomb shelter is also under construction there. Please pray they can complete this extremely difficult challenge before camps begin at the end of July.

• Click here for a printer-friendly version.

July Video Update

Dear Pastors and Friends,

When we BIEM staff members visit churches or create newsletters discussing the desperate needs in Ukraine due to the war, so many of you reply generously. We regularly thank the Lord (and you!) for your war-relief contributions in the form of donated clothing & housewares, wheelchairs and walkers, funds for shipping, and your prayers.

However, as grateful as we are to see all of you demonstrating Christian love in action, our Ukrainian friends and coworkers are, of course, even more grateful. After all, they are the ones who are enduring the air raids, bombed apartment buildings, destroyed businesses, and loss of loved ones. So, whenever practical, we try to spotlight our Ukrainian personnel so they can express appreciation in their own words.

Thus, for our July 2025 video, we decided to highlight one of BIEM’s weekly video updates. In this video, our church planter Sergei Anokhin and Sam Slobodian are standing at the rear of a container loaded with aid bound for Ukraine on June 20. Because Sergei lives in Bucha, the city where Russian troops committed so many atrocities before being driven out, he certainly has firsthand knowledge of the heartbreaks and needs of the local population. You can view the video at this link:

https://vimeo.com/user37287229/moreaid

Also, although Sergei has already returned to Ukraine, you can view one of the presentations he did in U.S. church services. In it, he shares about Bucha and the beginnings of his own church-planting ministry there:

https://vimeo.com/user37287229/sergeianokhin

Thank you again for caring and for sharing of your means for the Lord’s work.

Blessings to you!
Sam & Amy Slobodian

March Video Update

Dear Pastors and Friends,

Although the war in Eastern and Southeastern Ukraine continues to wipe out businesses, homes, and lives, for the March video we want to turn your attention elsewhere, to something more uplifting. Years ago, the mayor of a town in Ukraine visited the church where BIEM’s Anatoly Kosyanchuk preaches. At the conclusion of the service, that mayor approached Anatoly with an unexpected proposal: “If you start another Baptist church on the opposite side of town, I’ll give you the land to build on!” 

In the years following that surprise offer, God has taken the Second Baptist Church in Bilogorodka from a mere idea, to an empty plot of ground, to a construction project, to a thriving congregation. Now the Lord has blessed that growing group of believers with an ordination service—one assistant pastor and four deacons! Two of those deacons are neighbors who live within eyesight of the church. Both were unsaved when the church’s construction began. But through this ministry, God has drawn them and other residents of that neighborhood to Himself!

Our latest issue of our Challenger newsletter features an article about this same special ordination service. But for our March video, we decided to let Pastor Buyko and his new assistant pastor, Roman, tell more about God’s blessing that day. You can view that video here:

https://vimeo.com/user37287229/morehands

Thank you for your prayers!

Blessings to you!

Sam & Amy Slobodian

BIEMs of Light: September 2022

Praises – Rejoice with us!

• Our new missionaries in Ukraine, the Koops, operated a 3-day children’s camp in Druzhba, which they have targeted for a new church. The first day, 65 attended; the 2nd day up to 85, and the third day over 100 participated, including about 20 mothers who were asking, “Where is the church?” When those moms heard that church services will be starting soon, some replied they will come.

• Praise God, attacks from Russia on Ukraine’s Independence Day were not as bad as some feared. Although Russian rockets and missiles hit 58 cities and communities on that day, the next day there was only one. Since then, it seems things have died down.

• In Ukraine, the Slobodians report a wonderful baptism at the new church in Bilogorodka. Nine adults were baptized. Praise God for souls being accepting Christ in this time of war. Previously, the Russian army had come within a few miles of Bilogorodka, which is in the Bucha area.

• Praise God for a fruitful trip Vitaly Bilyak took to the military front in Donbas area with a trailer full of aid. He and those with him helped civilians, wounded ones in a hospital, plus soldier friends for whom he brought much-needed supplies and requested items. Vitaly plans two more such trips in September. Pray for safety. His videos from the front include sounds of artillery and explosions.

Prayer - Pray with us!

• Sources predict that the next week will be an especially dangerous time for the military cities of Desna and Goncharovsk, where BIEM missionaries have planted two churches. Both towns have already suffered attacks by missiles, rockets, and planes. More attacks are expected. Please pray for our missionaries, the churches, and the community, that lives would be spared.

• Pasha Usach conducted a special one-day event for mothers and wives who had lost sons and husbands in the war. Over 50 attended. The event was a huge blessing and provided a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel, so much so that Pavel is planning another such an event. Pray that God will use these outreaches to draw souls to Christ, the source of the greatest comfort.

• Plans are underway to bring the Buyko family to the United States, where they will visit churches for one month. Sophia and the three girls have already received visas; now we are working on getting the special permission needed for Eugene to temporarily exit Ukraine during wartime. Please pray that this permission will be granted, just as it was for Vitaly Yurchenko.

• Some of our contacts are witnessing of Christ to Muslims in Afghanistan. Please pray for God to open eyes and illumine hearts with the Gospel.

Click here for a printer friendly version.

BIEMs of Light: August 2022

Praises – Rejoice with us!

• Praise God, our personnel in Ukraine have received another 40-ft. container of humanitarian aid from us here in the United States! This is the 7th container our dedicated Ukrainians are distributing to needy places. This one went to the city administration of a region that contains several settlements that were occupied by Russian forces, so these goods will reach some of the neediest recipients.

• BIEM president Sam Slobodian heads back to Ukraine on August 2. The main focus of this trip will be humanitarian aid, but praise the Lord, he will also participate in a baptism and an ordination!

• Today BIEM personnel drove another 5 tons of food from Poland into Ukraine, this time for the Kharkiv region. We praise God for thoughtful donors and for those driving and distributing.

• So far, we are receiving reports of young people coming to Christ in BIEM-sponsored camps in Estonia, Ukraine, and Russia. Although the Lord touches hearts in a special way through such camps every summer, we never take that blessing for granted. To God be the glory!

Prayer - Pray with us!

• Despite the war in Ukraine, one of our seminary graduates is deeply burdened for a particular district in a large city in Western Ukraine that has been flooded with refugees. Many of them plan to stay. This brother has recruited others to help start a new church, and they are praying and fasting every Friday for God’s direction and provision for that goal. Please join them in praying.

• A pastor named Aleksander emailed us today from the Intensive Care section of a hospital in central Russia. He has a weak heart, and their summer camps and other ministries may have taxed him too much. Let’s uphold this worthy servant of the Lord with our prayers.

• In Central Asia, the manager of our Christian shelter for hurting women is named Julie. She is a big blessing—talented, yet with a servant’s heart and love for Jesus. She devotes herself to running the shelter and ministering to these women and their children. It’s a big job. Please pray for her.

• In another nation of Central Asia, one church recently baptized 9 former Muslims who had put their faith in Christ. Please pray that more hearts in those regions will soften and consider their need of the Savior.

Click here for a printer friendly version.