Sergey Deynekin has dreams for the Chernobaevka Church in southern Ukraine. A bi-vocational pastor who works in the building trade, he developed architectural plans for a future church building after the congregation’s long-time rental location was no longer available and they moved into a vacant house. On Sundays, they crowd into two rooms with a pulpit placed near the doorway.
Chernobaevka, a village of about 12,000 people near Kherson, about 130 km north of the Russian-held region of Crimea, has been impacted with tough economic conditions. Deynekin, his wife Lena, and a young six-member ministry team focus on welcoming children and youth into the life of the church. They run an active ministry with weekly and monthly programs for community children, as well as a five-day summer camp.
Through Deynekin’s relationships with local church leaders and the Association of Mennonite Churches in Ukraine, the congregation is building connections in the wider community. They dream of building their new church on a street corner, for wider visibility and the opportunity to reach out to the community around them through continued ministries for young people, Bible training and social ministries for people who are vulnerable. “We would like our church to be a place where everyone could receive refuge, help and love,” Deynekin writes in response to a query about the future.
In his backyard, Deynekin has a workshop for building home-construction panels out of Styrofoam and wire. Although he doesn’t have enough time to make his building business flourish as much as it could, his passion and knowledge about construction will help to keep the costs down for Chernobaevka Church’s future home. He estimates the new building will cost about $82,000 plus a lot of volunteer labour from church members. Already they have raised $11,000 through an appeal letter to friends.
Sergey and Lena Deynekin are Mennonite Church Canada partners who have been supported for many years by the Kherson Ministry Support Team, a group of families living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
See more on Ukraine:
Mennonites active in Ukraine
Kidnapped in Ukraine
Add new comment
Canadian Mennonite invites comments and encourages constructive discussion about our content. Actual full names (first and last) are required. Comments are moderated and may be edited. They will not appear online until approved and will be posted during business hours. Some comments may be reproduced in print.