In recent months, two people joined the ranks of GELCU ministers. On November 11, 2022, Maxim Perevoznyi was blessed for the ministry in the congregation “Salvation” in Shostka , and on February 19, 2023, Alexander Napreienko was blessed in the congregation of St. Martin in Kyiv.
A preacher is a volunteer, who has been delegated the authority to carry out the ministry of preaching in their congregation. This is an important ministry, especially in the context of the shortage of pastors in the Church. We would like to introduce our new preachers.
Maxim Perevozny was born in Shostka in 1978, studied at school No. 2, and entered Sumy State University in 1995, where he received a master’s degree in Industrial Electronics in 2000.
In 1998, through Baptism, he became a member of the Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists in the city of Shostka. He moved to the Lutheran Church in 2019, becoming interested in the doctrine and the freedom in faith and practice it provided. “The combination of tradition and modernity that I find here is a benefit,” writes Maxim. Since 2021, he had been studying at the Theological Seminary of the Federation of ELC.
From 2000 to 2003, Maxim studied at the Ukrainian Bible Institute at the Campus Crusade for Christ Mission in Kyiv. From 2003 to 2009 he worked at various production facilities in the city, also as a workshop manager. From 2009 to 2021, he ran a computer store in Shostka, specializing in the sale and repair of computer equipment.
Alexander Napreienko was born in 1969 in Kyiv.
In 1993, he trusted in Jesus Christ and became a member of an evangelical church. He was a church administrator, Bible group leader, and preacher. He also was engaged in a mission among the Roma people in Kyiv and the Transcarpathian region. In 2002 he was ordained and served as a pastor in an evangelical church in Kyiv.
In 2006-2008 he studied at the Kyiv Theological Seminary. From 2008 to 2019 worked in the missionary society “Light in the East” as the head of the department of ministry to the blind and book ministry. Oleksandr also organized evangelism outreach to the villages and cities of Ukraine. In 2015 he graduated from the International Institute of Counseling “Coram Deo”.
From 2017 to 2020, he served as a pastor in the Kyiv Christian Church and was involved in the ministry of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, as well as in the ministry to the homeless “House of Mercy” in Kyiv. In the process of serving the homeless, he met with the Lutheran congregation of St. Martin.
“We have developed friendly relationships and close cooperation. It was these relationships and cooperation that gave me the incentive to become a part of this congregation and serve here as a preacher. I wish with all my heart that God be glorified through the life and ministry of the congregation of St. Martin,” says Alexander.
Oleksandr is married and has four adult children and a grandson.