“I am experiencing a completely new way of knowing God”

In-depth Bible study opens new vistas for Ukrainian refugee living in Belgium.
“This is my first experience of studying the Bible in this way. Since childhood, my mother read the Bible to me. At school, I was very interested in stories about the creation of the world, biblical characters, and watched cartoons about the life of Jesus Christ. As an adult, I went to Sunday school with my son every Sunday at the Orthodox Monastery. There, all of us — children and adults — studied the law of God together with the local monk.

“Now I am experiencing a completely new way of knowing God — group meetings, spiritual walks, family communication and, at the same time, Bible study. Our group was originally led by an American lady, and now it is led by a local leader. I translate all the lessons from English into Ukrainian.

“Today we have a real systematic spiritual school, which allows us to study in detail and in depth the specifics of each of the Bible stories. We have already completed the study of the book of James, and now we have begun to study the books of Ruth and Esther. This is an incredible example of living with God through the whole range of pain, hardship, and the story of healing of refugee women. I thank God every day for this gift of knowing His Word.

“As a psychologist, I want to say that we have a great positive impact on our women’s group from these meetings: women begin to feel more of their special significance for God, understand the reasons for the trial, and their power to love increases. Of course, the best psychologist is Jesus Christ. And these systematic weekly Bible study meetings help us to gradually direct our whole life towards God, and this can only be done by knowing the direction, by studying the Word of God. I believe that our ship will sail to the berth that is the goal of every Christian — the Kingdom of Heaven.”