Pastor Yuri Fizer, an aditor-in-chief of the radio ministry LUTHERAN WAVE: it seems that in the time of high technologies the radio cannot play such an important role. Some may say why listen to the radio when you have other modern means to access the information like TV, the Internet, etc. However, the great numbers of letters we weekly receive from our listeners testify to the contrary. Our listeners do not only express their gratitude for the radio programs, they take correspondence Bible classes, and communicate with their brothers and sisters, with those who can and want to understand them. We have such people at our radio ministry. Although there are few of us, we try to take into account all the letters, to answer every question and to prepare interesting weekly programs. Are we a success? We hope so. And the letters we receive can serve as a proof of it.
Not much has changed since the last publication about our ministry in the Banner. It is worthwhile noting that each year we change the format of presentation of our programs. For the last year we made our programs more informative although a good deal of our time we devote to preaching the Word of God. In the nearest future we plan to prepare programs about the ULC congregations. I personally am going to visit congregations and to talk with local pastors and laymen.

Last year we made an attempt to broadcast on the Сontinent radio with brand new programs. However, only four programs were broadcast and that radio station was closed. With our programs on the Continent radio station we expected to cover the audience in Kyiv and region. We hope the Lord will help and the program will be opened and we'll continue broadcasting there.
Many times I have thought about expediency of the radio ministry. Each time letters to our program became an answer to my thoughts and questions. These letters prove that it is worth continuing our work. There are many places in Ukraine where radio is the only source of information and can hear the Word of God. And we, a friendly team of people who love their job with God's help will make every effort so that people can hear the Word of God even in such an unpopular manner as the radio.

Zoya Nikolayenko, a public relations specialist:
The main aim of the radio ministry is to bring the Word of God to our compatriots. Each Friday we broadcast the Lutheran Wave program; we also mail Lutheran literature to our listeners, answer their questions, and offer correspondence Bible classes.

In order to spread Lutheranism we communicate with our listeners. In the beginning we know nothing about their denomination, we don't know whether they go to church, what they think of Christianity but in the course of communication we get to know them and have a chance to attract them to the ULC. Sometimes we are corresponding with people for 5-6 years. We are very proud that we could sow the grain of faith in the souls of people.
The letters we receive often contain not only questions, thoughts on religious topics and stories about their lives but also requests to mail sermons by the ULC pastors on some concrete topics or a transcript of the programs they liked. People often ask to highlight various Christian aspects, for instance to tell about a prayer, a sin, or a fast.
We are happy to meet requests of our listeners. Our staff members make an information leaflet Our Review and mail it to our listeners.
One of our listeners Valentyna Markitan residing in Zhytomyr, central Ukraine, telling about herself and her way to God wrote the following, "Through Dr. Martin Luther the Lord gave us the pure teaching of His Word. When with the help of the literature I received from you I got acquainted with his life story full of ardent striving for the truth, for the new order in the Church, for the purity of faith, my heart filled with great desire to become faithful of this teaching and the church. My life credo is to protect the weak, to held with the word and deeds. Only now I realized that above all is the faith and then comes good works. Since I started corresponding with sisters from the Lutheran Wave everything has changed for the better. I became more optimistic.
I am eager to do what God wants me to do and to refrain from what He prohibits".

Oleh Beliayevsky from the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Western Ukraine, wrote that he "is looking forward to every Friday in order to listen to sermons and hymns on the Lutheran Wave .

Each day we receive letters. Our listeners thank us for the radio programs, for answers to their questions, for the Bible class materials as well as the literature we mail them. By the way, we have the practice to respond to our listeners on the day we receive letters from them. Since we know that our friends are looking forward to receiving answers to their questions.
We believe that gratitude of our listeners is not our merit but God's mercy to us, the staff members of the radio ministry and everyone who turns to us.

Anatoli Dmytrenko, a technical director:
Having analyzed letters by our listeners, one can see that these people are undoubtedly growing in their faith. We are not a center for social studies but we have information on the wide range of respondents. So we can assert with confidence that more and more people become Christians in Ukraine. Since our listeners constantly grow in their faith, we, the staff members of the radio ministry need to deepen our theological knowledge in order to be able to answer the questions we receive. Classes that were organized and conducted by the vice rector of the Seminary pastor Oleh Yukhymenko gave us the change to deepen our knowledge, to get experience and qualifications to communicate with our listeners on the appropriate level. We believe it is worthwhile renewing and continuing these classes.
Modern digital equipment allows us to file our radio programs. Presently we have about 200 programs in our archieves. We can mail the program according to the date it was broadcast to those who have requested it and mailed us a CD or a mini-disk.
I would like to note that the quality of all our programs is checked by the technical department at the national Radio Company of Ukraine. Due to possibilities of modern digital equipment, we are able to make a high quality product. Thus, we meet requests by the pastors of our church to have high quality programs for the local broadcasting.
While in Ukraine representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora from the US heard our programs. They were so impressed with our broadcasts that they turned to us with a request to provide them with audio materials of the programs.
In order to provide effective work of our radio ministry we should have our own studios with appropriate equipment. It would enable us to not only have high quality recording of our programs, but also to record programs prepared by young actors from the Little Angel theater project that is organized at the Resurrection congregation.

Yulia Sokoliuk, teacher-methodologist of the Correspondence Bible school: We are happy that so many people are writing to us and growing in faith and in knowledge of the Bible. Some of our brothers and sisters are adressing us with serious questions. Both staffers of the radio program and pastors of the Ukrainian Lutheran church need serious training to be able to answer these questions. So, we are eager that the Deaconate program last year initiated by the Lutheran Theological St. Sophia Seminary to be continued. This program is very useful and important. We need this help badly.
We register all our students. Presently there are 279 students. We used to have cases when people would write us asking to mail religious literature and we would do so. After that those people stopped writing us. Nowadays we don't have such incidents at all. Maximum byweekly we receive letters from our students. As a rule they are young people beginning from the age of 13. Currently we work according to the Bible classes developed by pastor of the Ternopil congregation Taras Kokovsky. We are grateful to him for the help. The lessons are well thought-out and effective. In the future with God's help we plan to have Bible classes on different levels that would take into account the age of the students and the level of their Bible knowledge.
We are glad that the geography of our work is steadily expanding. We receive letters from Poland, Russia. For instance one person from Russia wrote how people there accepted our orange revolution. They organized an exhibition to highlight the events that took place in Ukraine in November-December 2004. By the way, the number of those who write us from eastern Ukraine (in particular, Luhansk and Donetsk regions) has grown. There's a wonderful person from the Luhansk region Zinaida Strashnova. She is in her 70s, retired, lives alone. She receives religious literature and studies the Word. Sister Zinaida visits her neighbours who are older than she is and they are visually challenged. So, she reads the Bible to them and articles from the Good News magazine. Very interesting is the story of our communication with brother Oleh Olkhovenko, a deacon of the Catholic Church. He received higher education. And we came to know about that after he finished our correspondence Bible classes. Presently we communicate with him as Christians. He mailed me theological articles; and we discuss them and exchange our impressions. He is a Doctor the Theology. Last year Oleh Olkhovenko defended his Doctoral theises in Vatican. Now he teaches at the catholic Seminary. He even recommended his group from the Catholic Seminary to take our correspondence Bible classes.
Generally speaking there's much to tell about each of our students. Everyone is unique, has his/her ownway to the Lord our Jesus Christ. We are glad that we were able to help and continue helping them to study the pure Word of God.

We were sitting in the office of the Lutheran Wave radio ministry. Its staff members were so excited to tell me about their work. I was listening to them and filled with joy that the Lord not only richly blesses our Ukrainian Lutheran church with constant growth of congregations and preaching stations, but also gives our church people so devoted to the God's work as Zoya, Yulia, Yuri, Anatoli. I was also thinking how difficult it woul be to show the readers in the printed article the enthusiasm of these people, the team spirit of the staffers who love what they do. One can feel it with his/her heart. I came to know that Zoya Nikolayenko and Yulia Sokoliuk collected clothes in their families and mailed them to those in need. They received letters of gratitude so sincere and touching that made you cry when you read those letters. The staff members of the radio ministry mail birthday cards to their listeners and the listeners (students) greet their teachers. When you come to know about these facts, you realize that the staff members and the listeners (students) do not have just formal friendly relations but are very open and trusting in their relations with each other. This is an example of true Christian love. I had a chance to get acquainted with the letters by the radio listeners. I saw letters that were mailed in two envelopes because one envelope was not enough to keep everythin a person had to write; I realized that people who do not care would never write such a letters. Each one is filled with brotherly Christian love, praise to our Lord Jesus Christ, gratitude to the staff members of the radio ministry and respect toward our Ukrainian Lutheran Church.
Yulia Sokoliuk selected some letters by students of the Correspondence Bible school. You can read them in this issue of the Banner . I would like to finish this article with the extract from the letter written by Mykola Yurko, " I am very grateful for your program that I look forward to and for the spiritual literature as well. Brothers and sisters, everyone engaged in this program, you should know that your work is not in vain before God. Some day it will be rewarded by our Heavenly Father. I love your program because it is broadcast in great faith and God's power. It strengthens my faith when I listen to it with my family. Together in prayer we thank the Lord for such preachers. We would like to hear more of such programs from the brothers and sisters on the Lutheran Wave. May our Heavenly Father bless you and us so that we can meet in the eternity at His feet and praise Him for our salvation! Stay with God and we are with Him!"

Prepared by Volodymyr Cherevko

ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS

Ukrainian Lutheran Church - 2004
www.ukrlc.org