Testimony

Guest preacher Vitalik Tkach, a pastor from Cleveland who came to the U.S. from Rivne, Ukraine, opens with David and Saul. Why did young David face Goliath without fear while seasoned King Saul trembled? The difference comes down to one word - anointing. The Spirit of God had come upon David and departed from Saul. Drawing on Luke 4:16-22, where Jesus reads Isaiah's words "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me," the sermon explains that in the Old Testament only chosen prophets, priests, and kings were anointed. Since Pentecost, however, the anointing of the Holy Spirit belongs to every believer, not to a special class of celebrity "anointed ones." And it is given not for emotional experiences but for calling - God anoints us to carry out his mission as a parent, a worker, or a neighbor, right where we are. Finally, like Saul we can forfeit the anointing through disobedience, and like Jesus at Nazareth we may be dismissed because of our past. The call is to remain in the anointing, refuse to live on yesterday's victories, and ask God for fresh oil every single day.

Brother Nazar shared a testimony about the gift God gives every believer, a gift that too often simply sits and gathers dust. He grew up in a Christian home yet had no living walk with God until he stopped finding excuses to avoid time with Him. In obedience he sold his large dream home and moved into a tiny house during COVID, and it was then that God gave him repeated dreams of inmates reading a discipleship book. Through many closed doors that vision became a real prison ministry: prisoners gave their hearts to Christ, started their own Bible studies, and the gospel book was eventually approved on every inmate's tablet. When one door closed and he was not approved, God opened another at a juvenile detention center. Brother Mykola from Ukraine opened the letter of James: every good gift comes down from the Father of lights, and pure, undefiled religion is to care for orphans and widows and to keep oneself unstained from the world. In a world lying in evil and gripped by war, mercy is what shows people that God is real and that He cares. He told of a 12-year-old boy gathering and selling mushrooms to buy bread, and a worn-out grandmother raising four orphaned children alone; simple acts of compassion opened that family's eyes to Christ, and now they come to church. From Luke 7, the raising of the widow's son at Nain and John the Baptist's question, the call is clear: do not look to earthly kings to mend the world, but to Jesus, who heals, raises the dead, and preaches good news to the poor. Be holy and bold as a lion, and let your gift and your mercy carry the light of Christ into the darkest places, the prisons, the lonely, and the families wounded by war.

The service opened by welcoming visiting youth from a neighboring church and offering worship as a sacrifice of praise to God. The main message centered on the weight that a name can carry. Through everyday stories - a respected doctor whose name opened doors, and a family business whose name earned favor - the preacher showed that a name can hold real power. He then turned to the most important name of all: Jesus. Through this name comes salvation; in it people are baptized, healed, and set free; demons submit to it; and one day every knee will bow before it. He shared firsthand testimonies of healing and deliverance, including a childhood memory of commanding a charging dog to stop in the name of Jesus and watching it flee. The second most important name, he said, is your own. Jesus the Good Shepherd calls each of His sheep by name; your name is written in heaven, and for your sake Christ suffered on the cross. The enemy whispers that you are nobody, unworthy, and unheard, and that only special people can reach God. But you can pray directly in the name of Jesus, and the Father hears you personally.

This Sunday gathering was a missionary service. The leaders read from Acts 14 and Romans 15, recalling how the apostles returned to report what God had done and gave Him alone the glory. The church celebrated the missions it supports: a Bible school that has trained workers for 170 Ukrainian churches across Europe, missionaries in Indonesia, a radio ministry, and a once depressed student whose life was transformed when she began reading a single verse of Scripture each day. Sister Vera, visiting from Dnipro, testified from 1 John 5 that whoever is born of God overcomes the world through faith. She described the war in Ukraine - the blackouts, cold and fear - and how people perish not from hardship but from lost hope. Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever, is our unshakable hope, and the Spirit, the water and the blood witness together that we can rise and overcome by confessing Him aloud. The main message unfolded the power of the blood of Christ, tracing how it flows from His head, hands, side, feet and back to give us peace, authority, forgiveness, a gospel to carry and healing. Through Scripture and vivid stories, the preacher urged believers to rest in Christ's finished work and to carry their testimony into every place they go.

This final service of the year is a time to look back and give thanks. Across 52 Sundays and many weeknight gatherings God spoke, taught, and led His people, so the call now is not only to count blessings but to remember the revelations He gave and ask honestly whether we obeyed them. Seek His kingdom first, the preacher reminds us, and He will supply all that we need. The main message centers on the words 'Let it be according to Your word'. Brother Vasyl points to Noah, who did everything God commanded, and to Mary, who answered, 'Let it be to me according to Your word'. The ark's door was shut by God Himself and those outside were lost, but in Christ the door of salvation now stands open to everyone who believes. The greatest event in history is not a landing on the moon but the coming of the Savior, and we step into 2026 trusting that God will be with us, guard us, and bless us as He promised. The evening overflows with thanksgiving and testimony. Believers recount healing after a failed surgery, deliverance from a dangerous infection, rescue from an allergic crisis, and one man's dramatic conversion 52 years ago that began with a New Year's encounter and a prophetic word. Trials reorder our priorities, they testify, and in every situation God is teaching us, holding our right hand, and proving Himself faithful.

On the Sunday before Christmas the service opens by answering those who claim the Nativity is pagan or absent from Scripture. Matthew 1:18 states plainly that "the birth of Jesus Christ was" - so God coming to earth in human flesh is a biblical fact. When we grasp who was born, why He came, and what our lives would be without Him, we have every reason to celebrate. The main message walks through Luke 2:8-20 and asks why God's glory appeared not to priests or kings but to poor, ordinary shepherds. The answer is simple: God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, a truth echoed in Zephaniah 3 and in "the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). Christ Himself modeled this, entering the world as a defenseless infant and living in quiet obedience. The shepherds leave us a pattern to follow. They did not delay but hurried to obey, they testified to others about what they had seen, and they went home glorifying and praising God. The preacher urges believers not to sink back into worry after the service but to keep their hearts tuned to praise for the gift of Jesus.

The preacher opens with a sobering picture: everything we gather in life, even millions, stays behind at the grave, and so do the names on our passport and headstone. Only one name goes with us into eternity - the name we earn by how we live. He calls it the new name Christ promises to give, the true identity without which no one enters the kingdom of heaven. Drawing on 2 Corinthians 3:2, he reminds the church that believers are a living letter, known and read by everyone around them. We are not invisible; people watch how we walk, speak, endure, react, and love one another. Each of us is either a good example or a stumbling block that pushes others away from the faith. Quoting Ephesians 4:1-2, he urges the church to walk worthy of their calling, in humility, gentleness, and patient love. The name people give us is earned by our actions: someone who keeps lying becomes a liar, someone who steals becomes a thief, and no pretty word can disguise it. He warns against the contradiction of humble pride, in which there is no holiness at all, and notes that even God names us by who we truly are - as when He called Job blameless and upright before Satan.

Brother Yaroslav shares the work of the House of Mercy ministry - baking bread, feeding the hungry, preaching the gospel in front-line areas, giving haircuts to the war-wounded in hospitals, and settling rescued people into missionary communities. He explains why he gives his life to this: twenty-two years ago God lifted him out of alcohol and drug addiction. He nearly died several times, and as he lay dying of tuberculosis he heard God say, "You will not die, but be healed." From Genesis 1:26 he teaches that we were made in God's image to reflect His love in everyday life. Quoting Romans 14:17, he says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and we serve God simply by living a visible, godly life that spreads that peace to others. You can call yourself a Christian and still fail to reflect Christ, so he urges believers never to stay silent about God. A second preacher contrasts Saul and David. Saul disobeyed, made compromises, lost his sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, grew proud, blamed others and guarded only his image before people - so when giants came, he had no one to fight them. David stayed humble, repented on his knees, refused Saul's armor and faced Goliath in the name of the Lord. The call is clear: be like David, not Saul, and let people see real faith in how you reflect God.

The service opened with 2 Peter 1, where Scripture is a lamp shining in a dark place. The first preacher turned to John 9 and the man born blind. Jesus' disciples assumed someone had sinned, echoing Job's friends (Job 8:20), but the Lord answered that the man was born blind so that the works of God could be revealed in him. Pointing to the blind tenor Andrea Bocelli and to Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs, the preacher said God uses people whatever their 'packaging' and turns our weakness into his strength. He shared how he once left university for army service as a step of faith, and there led others to Christ. Visiting missionaries Yurek and Rita, originally from Poland and now serving in Brazil, spoke on our identity in Christ and the free gift of righteousness, peace, and joy that no money can buy (Isaiah 55). Yurek told of tasting the kingdom of God at age ten, and Rita of being an empty cathedral organist who finally found assurance of salvation while reading John 10. From Deuteronomy 28 the missionaries warned that we lose God's blessing when we stop thanking him in times of plenty. They told of 102-year-old Ema, who was given 27 more years of life after she learned to give thanks to God in everything, and of fruitful mission work among Polish settlers in Brazil and elderly Jews in Argentina.

This Wednesday service centered on one conviction: when every human plan, connection, and backup option has run out, hundred-percent trust in God is what opens the door to His miracles. The preacher pointed to Scripture - Israel trapped between Pharaoh's army and the sea, Job who lost everything yet declared his Redeemer lives, and Jesus raising Lazarus - to show that God is never too early and never too late, but always exactly on time. He shared a personal testimony about his friend Taras, conscripted into the war in Ukraine and assigned to an assault unit facing almost certain death. With no human help left, Taras simply prayed and waited on God. At the last moment he was pulled aside for paperwork because of his computer skills and moved far from the front, while half of the men he trained with did not survive. The takeaway: call on God in the day of trouble, believe to the very end, wait for His intervention, and thank Him before the answer even arrives. Other brothers added to the message - that God's Word is an inexhaustible spring we should return to daily, that the enemy is real and disguises himself as an angel of light, and that we must keep our spiritual ears tuned to hear God speak through Scripture, through circumstances, and even through one quiet word He repeats until we finally listen.

This New Year's Eve gathering before 2025 was set apart as a day of thanksgiving and testimony. The church looked back over the year to thank God for His mercy and protection, recalled what He had taught them, and prepared to step into the new year with deeper devotion and more room for His Spirit to work. The central teaching came from Matthew 2 and Matthew 21:43. The wise men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh - the very things God once required for His tabernacle (Exodus 30). Since believers are now the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), the gift Jesus is looking for is our fruit: gold pictures the fruit of the Spirit grown quietly in the heart, frankincense pictures prayer rising like the evening sacrifice, and myrrh pictures dying to self so that Christ comes alive in us. Throughout the evening members shared testimonies of God's care over the past year - a dream that turned a young man away from Chernobyl and spared his life, jobs and a home provided just in time, and generosity that God returned in full. The service closed with seven reasons to give thanks and a confident hope in the eternal Kingdom and the coming of Christ.

A visiting brother from Ukraine opened by preaching on God's plan and will for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11). Even in the middle of war and hardship, the Lord's plans are for good - to give hope and a future. Just as Joseph was sold into slavery yet became the means by which God saved a whole family, what looks like loss is something God turns to good. So we are called to value what God has already given, to trust Him, and to wait on Him. Life is found only in the Son (John 3:16; 1 John 5:12), and Jesus stands at the door of the heart and knocks; like Peter beginning to sink, we cry, 'Lord, save me.' The pastor then preached on generous giving, asking, 'Can we rob ourselves - and how much will it cost?' Drawing on Malachi 3:8 and 2 Corinthians 9:7, he was careful to say he was preaching neither tithing nor prosperity, but giving to God sincerely and cheerfully rather than under compulsion. Through testimonies from his own life - first paychecks given to God, a gifted washer and dryer, an invoice marked 'paid in full' - he showed that the blessing of giving returns to the giver. Money is not cursed; the sin is loving and serving it in place of God. The service closed in thanksgiving and prayer - for Ukraine and all who suffer, for protection, and in gratitude that 'if not for You, Lord,' our lives would be entirely different. We give God not only our finances but our time and service (Jesus in Gethsemane: 'Could you not stay with Me one hour?'). Cast your bread upon the waters; what we send ahead to God remains.

Drawing on the life of David, the preacher explored what it means to be a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). The truest mark of a heart that carries God's anointing is its tenderness toward sin: when David merely cut the corner of Saul's robe, and later when he numbered the people, his heart was struck with grief and he repented. This sensitivity, not Bible knowledge or eloquence, is the real evidence of God's presence. He warned that many believers are rich in information yet starving for the anointing, drawn to teachers who flatter their itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3). David refused to lift his hand against the Lord's anointed even when he had the chance, and he honored Saul even after his death. The anointing we have received abides in us and teaches us all things (1 John 2:27). A second message called the church to live as people led by the Holy Spirit, the true author of the book of Acts. We come together not to judge the singing or the preaching but to be changed; a church without the Spirit is only a mausoleum. Jesus calls us to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) - those who have actually seen and experienced Him - in our own city and to the ends of the earth. The service closed with prayer for a grieving family and for the nation.

A guest preacher, Brother Vasyl from the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine near Kolomyia, serves the church with both song and testimony. After a prayer thanking God for gathering His people and longing for Christ's return, he speaks of the suffering of war in Ukraine and how the church there does not stand aside but actively helps people and prays for peace and freedom. Through a song of thanksgiving he praises God for daily bread, clean water, a child's smile, and above all the cross of Golgotha that forgave his sin and called him God's child. He then recounts his story: born into a large, poor family, a gifted singer and musician who gained local fame but slid into drinking and by the age of thirty had lost everything, becoming useless to everyone. Curiosity about a neighbor who had repented led him to a service in Kolomyia, where he came forward, knelt, and prayed in his own simple words: God, reveal to me all the truth. He found a new family in Christ. Despite fierce opposition from his village and even his own father, his wife soon believed too, and over time hearts and attitudes changed. He reminds us that all have sinned, that there is no other name under heaven by which we are saved, and that anyone in Christ is a new creation.