February 9, 1996 People are always asking me, "how can we help the Ukrainian Sabbatarians?" As a minister I’ve been working with these people, traveling to Ukraine on four different occasions since 1992, sharing life’s experiences with them and worshipping with them. I’d like to tell you about some of these experiences to give you a glimpse as to how we can really be of real help to people like this and how we can effectively work with similar circumstances in other parts of the world. I will write this in installments this being the first part. Sometimes what we think people need is really not what’s most important to them. It’s only by getting to know people, staying in their homes and spending endless hours in discussion do you really find out what is best for all concerned. In getting to know these people I have marveled as to the depth of their faith and convictions. They have had to prove their faith many times living in a most most religiously oppressive climate. However, while under Stalinist Communism they not only survived—they thrived. They were able to spread their hope and convictions to others. In the Trans-Carpathian province of Ukraine there are about 3000 Sabbatarians in 28 congregations. Across the border on Romania there are 4000 and in the Republic of Moldava to the east there are about 3000 more. Since religious freedom has come after the collapse of Communism, the Sabbatarians have wasted no time in setting up missions to preach the Gospel and to help the less fortunate. Their evangelistic travels have taken them over 5,000 miles by road to Siberia where they have had good success reaching those that have no religious background at all. In spite of their own poverty, they have not held back from helping lesser fortunate. They had opportunity to help the homeless in Moldava in the summer of 1992 in the aftermath of the civil war. They immediately took up collections in Trans-Carpathian churches for their brothers, even bringing glass panels for windows that had been broken so that people would stay warm in the upcoming winter. It was amazing to see this kind of giving spirit from people who had an income of only $30 per month themselves. When we visited the Sabbatarians for the first time in November 1992, a group of them had just returned from a humanitarian mission in Moldava. While visiting them, we asked them how we could be of assistance to them. Above all, they wanted literature. That’s why we undertook translating the first booklets GOD’S HOLY DAYS and WHY WERE YOU BORN? They also appreciated us giving them Bibles. They were especially thankful for large-print Russian Bibles that we were able to distribute to all their ministers. They told us over and over that these Bibles were a treasure to them. Secondarily, on the material side, they said that they would have liked to receive items like fabric that they could make into clothing. There was and still is a great dearth of this type of product from which they could make something. We had shipped them three sewing machines from Germany and a sizable amount of fabric from upstate New York churches. I will continue this in the next installment....