2 June 2009
Reedy Creek church members conduct outreach in Ukraine
Cherkasy, Ukraine
RECORD staff/Philip Rodionoff/Eliezer Gonzalez
An evangelistic program run in the Ukraine has "broken new ground" by being based on a foundation of Christian apologetics, according to Dr Philip Rodionoff and Eliezer Gonzalez, who conducted the program and are both elders of Reedy Creek Adventist church in Queensland.
The three-week program was held in the city of Cherkasy in April, with all seven churches in the city and their pastors supporting and contributing to the program, which was run with full government approval. The government's director of religious affairs, who inspected the program, commented that it was "very interesting and the topics very relevant." The president of the Dnieper Conference, Pastor Stanislav Nosov, wanted to try new techniques of public evangelism. The program was intentionally designed to bridge the gap between unbelief and belief for people who had been educated in an atheistic education system under Communism.
Eleizar Gonzalez (left) and Philip Rodionoff (right)
conducted an evangelistic program in the city of Cherkasy.
Two presentations were given each day. The first presentation was given by Dr Rodionoff and focused on the scientific and logical evidences for God and Christianity. Dr Rodionoff's presentations covered a wide range of topics, including evidences for God, the reliability of the Bible and the historicity of Jesus.
The second presentation by Mr Gonzalez focused on Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible. The biblical presentations tied in closely with and were based on the apologetics topics, while presenting the doctrines of the Adventist Church.
Mr Gonzalez says, "My aim was to ensure that people committed themselves to a personal relationship with Jesus, so they would be able to understand the teachings of the Bible." At the conclusion of the series, 22 people were baptised and more than 30 people were involved in follow-up study groups run by local pastors.
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