Greg Ogden Goes to War (Zone): Ukraine

On Tuesday, May 6^th Greg Ogden (Executive Director of GDI) with his wife, Lily, along with Dave Schanuel (US National Director of GDI) will land in Krakow, Poland.

We will be met by Igor Fedorovych, (Ukrainian National Director of GDI) and Roman, the pastor of Resurrection Church in Kyiv. We will then make our way over the next couple of days to Kyiv, Ukraine. What awaits us there? Igor identifies what to expect.

Monday, March 24

“Every day I pray and think about your coming to Ukraine. Last 3 years my life is so busy and not organised well. In the evening and tell myself I'll sit down, do the budget and send it to you for your consideration, and there's an air raid and I have to turn off the lights. The Russians have started shelling again very heavily every night.  People live in fear, uncertainty and frustration.  Lots of different challenges in my life.

 During the day I visit the doctor for two hours treatment and other ministry details.

Also visited my parents in Odessa because my dad is 84 and can't walk anymore. Mom is checking up on him, but she also got the flu, and I needed to visit them.”

Saturday, March 29

[Since the above note, Igor’s father went to be with the Lord. Igor writes from Odessa during this father’s funeral. Odessa is under constant pressure, a valued port city. His mother refuses to leave. This is her ancestral home and wants to die there.]

“So thank you for your messages of encouragement and costly and hard work coming to Ukraine! Sorry I didn't respond quickly. During the funerals, air alarmings were often sounded and our air defence forces were shot down Russian drones. Also, while we are here, every night, sirens are sounded and drones are shot down. The funeral went real meaningful.

There were many of our relatives who were nominal Orthodox. They were able to hear many good testimonies from my friends and pastors as well as the Word of God! My family spent Saturday with my mom, and I spent the whole day teaching at the Bible school in Odessa. On Sunday I will be preaching in two churches in Chornomorsk where the pastor is one of my discipleship partners.”

And Yet…Igor stays on mission

In our Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI) ministry we get to partner with heroes. I mean that. Igor is one of them. Even as we pray for the cessation of the senseless killing in Ukraine and a just ending to the war, Kingdom work goes on. Igor says,

“I serve the kingdom of God and will allow God to take care of the kingdoms of unjust men. They will get what they deserve from the Lord”. The apostle Paul sums it up well, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, say the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)

Why are We Going to Ukraine?

Encouragement: The Holy Spirit is the one who comes alongside to help (parakletos), and so we come as instruments of the Holy Spirit. Our partners and friends live in this chaos every day. The least we can do is share it with them for about 3 weeks. As you can tell from Igor’s notes, he longs for our coming. We will be staying in Igor’s home with Suzanna, Igor’s wife, and their three children, Yeva, Mark, and Leo. We come bearing gifts.

Equipping and Training: We will be teaching two packed, weeklong courses (Monday-Friday, 8:30am–6pm) on disciplemaking at Kyiv Theological Seminary, where Igor heads the Church Planting Department. At the Ukraine Baptist Theological Seminary (UBTS) in Lviv, Alex Savich, the Chair of the Pastoral Department, invited GDI to offer the final course for this year’s graduates. Both institutions will be filming the course for future use.

How exciting to see MicroGroups popping up all over Ukraine! Even in a war-torn country intentional, relational disciplemaking goes on. In these pictures of women's and men’s MicroGroups, we see the Ukrainian version of Discipleship Essentials. (It was also published in Russian prior to the war, but fallen into disuse for obvious reasons.)

Pastoral Retreat: Our very first event will be an overnight retreat with key pastors and spouses who are in a network of MicroGroup practitioners. At the Ukraine Cultural Center on the outskirts of Kyiv, we will provide some ongoing vision for how to multiply their disciplemaking efforts; engage in a fellowship of mutual encouragement as we share stories; pray, worship together, and “stimulate one another to love and good works.”

In addition to these major activities, we will be preaching on the two Sundays we are in Kyiv at Resurrection Church (Igor is the founding pastor). and other local churches who are involved in disciplemaking. A day-long disciplemaking conference will be our last event in Lviv, as well as participating in the graduation ceremony for all receiving lay certificates at KTS.

We seek your partnership in prayer. We ask that the Lord gives us strength, energy, and good health for a demanding schedule. But most of all to be filled with Christ’s love for everyone we meet.

If you are so led, we would welcome your financial support. We currently are providing Igor and family with a stipend of $3000/month.

The balance on this account is dwindling fast. Below you will find a budget of our expenses to make this trip happen.

Ukraine Mission Budget (May 5-25, 2025)

• Transportation by car: $800
• Lodging in Lviv: $1400
• Food: $500
• Partners Family Retreat: $3086
• Teaching at KTS: $2700
• Teaching in Lviv: $1500
• Flight Costs: $3,424

Total: $13,410

To make a contribution, here are your options:

1. Visit globaldi.org. Click the Donate button in the upper right. Find the “General Budget” drop-down menu and click on Igor Fedorovich, Ukraine National Director, and make your contribution. Monthly gifts are the most helpful.
2. Send a check and mark in the memo, Ukraine National Director. If this is a general contribution, leave memo blank. GDI address: GDI, 1322 Las Posas Road, Camarillo, CA 93010.
3. Donate to GDI from your qualified IRA accounts that can be structured as tax-free qualified charitable distributions (QCD's) if you are over 70-1/2. Contact your retirement plan administrator to learn how to donate from your IRA.
4. Set up transfer of your capital gains from stock investments to GDI. Provide this information to your brokerage firm, and they will handle the rest.

• FEIN: 77-0573902 
• GDI CA Corp No.: C2350302
•  GDI Fidelity Account No.: Z40463347

We will provide updates throughout our nearly three weeks in Ukraine.

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GO MICROGreg Ogden

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Jesus transforms and makes disciples one MicroGroup at a time. Greg Ogden coaches disciplemaking churches by multiplying Christians.