At the end of March something special happened in the Kiev Church of Christ. We had our 17th annual Women's day.

All of the sisters in Kiev Church tried to make this time special first of all for our Lord, whom we came to worship. We want to show to those who would come what we believe and whom we worship. We wanted to encourage those who left our church to restore their relationship with God and to inspire about our God those who visited us for the first time or who come to the women's days over and over again for years... to show them how great our God is!

So this was our Day of Worship. Worship was what we had in our hearts - all of us who took part in this celebration reading Psalms, preparing video, leading songs and hymns from a stage, singing songs for meditation - trying to help the women to be still and know that He is God.

We really wanted to make our worship a celebration so we used live music - our brothers from the band helped us. Of course we could not make it without help of our spiritual men, without their encouragement. We are so grateful that we can serve God alongside with them.

Our worship was accompanied by the great views of magnificent nature on slides. And we had a very special guest-speaker - Gloria Baird. Gloria is an amazing person: being an older women of almost 68 she has such eagerness in her heart to serve God! She shared with us not human wisdom, but deep spiritual convictions. After being with us for almost a week she flew back home to her husband Al Baird - an elder in LA church and her beloved husband for already 47 years. But we here in the former USSR can get to know her better by reading her book "God's Pitcher and other Spiritual Thoughts."

Below are some comments from our sisters and visitors.

From our sister Alexandra:
I really liked a lesson of Gloria - it was so simple and so visual - I truly saw wisdom in simplicity. The idea to encourage sisters who left the church and invite them to our Women's day was very inspiring - many of these sisters are still deep in our hearts. I liked the songs so much. When we were singing hymns I got a feeling that we were in the first century... We were in half-dark hall, only women, standing and singing to God... And it did not matter what was outside - crisis, pain, sickness - all that mattered at that moment was that we were close to our God!
A girl who came with us - we invited her at the subway after the small group leaders' meeting the other day - said that it was like a celebration for God. And added that it was very special for her to hear about God in such setting.

From our sister Svetlana:
I cannot even describe it with words... It was so special...
My Mom came. And just for you to know - my Mom is not a person who does something that she doesn't want to...
I had an idea - to give her a Bible for 8th of March and to invite her for Women's day to Church. So I did. And God worked so my Mom came.
She was happy to see some familiar faces of my friends. I introduced her to the older sister who lived close to her.
The program started. Probably you who have invited your close relatives to church, know how it feels. It is just like the curtains open and there is your heart - live and helpless. This is how I felt.
When we prayed, I reached over to hold Mom's hand. When the prayer was over, she kept holding my hand, so we keep sitting holding hands, I feel that something inside of me is rising.
Sisters are reading Psalms and poems about a Women Created by God. Mom is whispering in tears - Can you please copy this poem for me?
That's it - I think. I am about to break into sobbing but I need to hold on - I have to answer her questions about God and the Bible when the event is over. And I need to be joyful.
“And now let’s stand up and sing to our God” a sister says from a stage. And suddenly my Mom is standing up, watching closely the slides above the stage and starting to sing the words together with all of us. I am shocked. I am trying not to cry. But I can't help crying - out of joy!


From our visitors:
Eugenia:
It was a great conference. I am so grateful to all who took part in organizing it. It is so important to hear speeches like that, such thoughts - that help to look deep inside of our hearts in our feelings and goals. The singing and slide show was very touching.

Natalia:
I liked everything, it was a great weekend after a long busy week. I do not regret that I came. I liked the atmosphere. I was glad to meet friends of my daughter. After the conference I thought over a lot of things, I will try to look for the answers to the questions that were asked here.

Elena:
I am a former disciple. It was a great opportunity for me to visit the Women's Day. I want to share my thoughts and feelings shortly. The opening was very impressive...united singing of sisters. The message of Gloria made me think about my spirituality. Everything was wonderful! I am grateful to all the brother and sisters for the great event. Special thanks to a sister who invited me to come.
I think often why God is so gracious to me and gives to me so much! I think that Satan is so close to me and it is so hard for me to turn and to be saved. Satan lied to me so much! I thought of coming back to church a lot, but I need to really change and get pure to be a faithful disciple of Christ... please pray that I would get restored into the Church.

All of us sisters form Kiev Church are so grateful to our brothers and sisters in Chicago Church of Christ who made it possible for Gloria to come to Kiev to be with us this Women's Day.

And we also thank all the disciples of the MidWest for the support of our Churches in Ukraine through all these years!

with Love from the Edge,

Kiev Church of Christ

See the Video section of Women Today for music videos of our Women's Day.