My Visiting Ukrainian Christians For the First Time in Sept. 1992.

Recorded September 28, 1992 in the Worldwide Church of God. 

Many ask me about Ukrainian Sabbath-keepers that I visited for the first time in Transcarpathia in 1992.  This experience greatly widened my perspective on what God is doing with mankind.  When Christ returns, He will marry His bride.  Who is the Bride of Christ?   Are you part of the body and bride that Christ will marry? 

This episode recounts my first impressions of many visits.  It's also a time warp going back more than 30 years to the Worldwide Church of God.  This was recorded when I was Assistant Director of Church Administration for the Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena, California.

The USSR fell apart and formed 15 independent nations. One of those nations was Ukraine. When this happened, a remarkable development occurred in the world of faith which was a big surprise to us.

We discovered that there were thousands of people who worshipped God in a manner similar to ours.  We found people who kept the Saturday Sabbath day, along with many other tenets of our faith that they drew out from the Bible itself. 

It was a surprising revelation and revolution that we first found out about from a few of their immigrants to America in 1991.  I first met with their leader and a group of 13 other who settled in Port St. Lucie, Florida.  He told me an incredible story of faith and standing against the giants of oppression and atheism.

The leader, Michael Palchey, also told me that I should go to Ukraine myself and meet some of these people. There were more than 3000 of them in Ukraine, 4000 in Romania and 3000 in Moldova.

So indeed I did go to Ukraine in the fall of 1992 and want to share this adventure with you.

This journey opened my eyes to a greater reality of God’s working with people in this world. 

Christ will return to this earth and will marry His bride (Ephesians 5)   But, WHO will that bride be?  Is it just us?   Is it more than us?  Who will be there and who will not?

What follows is my report to a congregation in Pasadena, CA about this adventure, how it came to be and its implications.