BOB AND MARY ANNE PARSCHAUER
WORD OF LIFE EUROPEAN REPS
MARCH 2023
We’d like you to meet Bohdan, who has become like a grandson to Bob: Hello, I’m Bohdan Parkhomenko. I’m from Ukraine and I wanted to tell you that God has a wonderfully amazing plan for my life. My life began without a father, as I didn’t have a father documented on my birth certificate. The person named did not exist. My mother died when I was 1 year old; I don’t remember her. When I was twelve, my guardian told me this story about my early life. When my mother died, her brother (my uncle) adopted me. He is not a believer, and only visited the church once a year for Easter. It didn’t mean anything deep to him. My Uncle lived with women he was not married to. When I was five, my Uncle invited me to day camp at church. I brought a friend. But it was only to spend time there, for food and some fun. However, I went there every summer. At age nine I began to visit Sunday school. I heard lots of stories from the Bible. At that time, they were just good stories. When I was twelve in 2017, the Spirit of God touched my heart. I went forward, and gave my life, my heart, and my soul to God. My life was changed in steps. I decided to get baptized as I wanted to show others and myself that even when I went to study in Kyiv, I would be with the Lord.
In Kyiv, I visited church and became a member. I served there in media service. Sometimes I also helped in the service for disabled people and kids. God showed me a camp where I could serve. It was at the Word of Life, Ukraine. I knew that only students from Word of Life Bible Institute could serve there, but God let me go there, even when almost no one knew me. After camp, God led me to go to the Word of Life, Poland. I studied English for two months at the English4Life program. In the last week, when I would have returned to Ukraine, the war started. So, I stayed at Word of Life to help Ukrainians and serve. I have been helping in Poland more than for a year now. When I was in my second month at English4Life, I started to pray about the next step God had for my life.
I didn’t know what to do, but God directed my ways. After 2 months of praying, I surely know that it’s God’s will to study at the Bible Institute at Word of Life, Hungary. God showed me the way. I am now staying for a year at Word of Life, Poland. In the last few years, my life has changed gigantically. Living in the Christian environment made bloodthirsty battles in my soul, because the god of this world, the devil, does not want me to be directed and used by the Lord God. I don’t know exactly God’s will for me after Hungary, but others saw I was good at Evangelism. Maybe it’s true. Because for me it’s natural to share the Gospel wherever I go.
As I write this, some of the Good family, our two interns, and a few others have driven from Poland to Word of Life Hungary for the Missions Conference this weekend. This is an important event in the lives of the Bible school students as they are challenged to dedicate their lives for service in missions. Please pray for this event. Next week several students from the BI in Hungary will be serving here as their missions outreach trip. Please also pray for them, and for those of us serving here to be an inspiration and blessing to them.