TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN SO FAITHFUL, I REJOICE TO TELL YOU OF OUR VICTORIES THIS PAST YEARS AND OF THE HOPE FOR THE YEARS TO COME:

REV. ROD GORTER, IN ODESSA, UKRAINE, HAS BEEN EXTREMELY BUSY WITH TEACHING IN THE SEMINARY PLANTED THERE BY THE P.C.A., AS WELL AS DISCIPLESHIP OF THE NATIONALS WHO LEAD THE CONGREGATIONS OF THE CHURCHES PLANTED THERE SINCE 1991! MORE THAN THESE, ROD AND LYDIA HAVE BEEN ACTIVE IN REACHING OUT THE COMMUNITY, BOTH NATIONALS LOCALLY AND THROUGH THE NEW SEMINARY BEING ESTABLISHED IN KIEV, UKRAINE AND THE ONE BEING ESTABLISHED IN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA!!! FROM 1998 TILL 2007 REV. ROD GORTER AND HIS FAMILY SERVED FULL TIME AS MISSIONARIES TO UKRAINE. WITH REV. GORTER FULFILLING HIS MISSION TERM ANOTHER ITEM MISSIONARY HAS STEPPED IN TO SERVE IN UKRAINE: ALISTER TORRENS. AMONG OTHER THINGS HE TEACHING AT EVANGELICAL REFORMED SEMINARY OF UKRAINE.

DO YOU KNOW OF QUALIFIED PROFESSORS WHO MIGHT LOOK TO THEOLOGICAL TEACHING IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AS A SHORT OR LONG TERM MISSIONS CALLING?

IN RIGA, LATVIA, THE STUDENTS, DRAWING STRONGLY FROM THE YOU PROFESSIONAL GROUPS, ARE SEEKING TO BECOME CHURCH LEADERS AND LEADERS IN THE COMMUNITY THROUGH OUR TEACHING OF REFORMED THEOLOGY AND THEIR TAKING ITS SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS AND LIVING THEM OUT IN THE WORLD! SIX TERMS PER YEAR ARE TAUGHT BY OUR PROFESSORS TEACHING IN CLASSES FROM 12 TO 38 IN NUMBER!

ITEM HAS AGAIN BEEN CALLED TO SERVE, THIS TIME IN LITHUANIA. THE EVANGELICAL REFORMED CHURCH OF LITHUANIA HAS CALLED ON ITEM TO HELP THEM DEVELOP AND RUN WHAT WOULD SOON BE A FULL-FLEDGED MASTERS DEGREE PROGRAM FULLY ACCREDITED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION. EVEN AS WE SPEAK, THERE ARE SEVERAL STUDENTS TAKING BIBLE CERTIFICATE COURSES AND ONE ENROLLED IN A MASTERS PROGRAM THROUGH VILNIUS PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTE. THERE ARE ALSO FIVE LITHUANIAN STUDENTS THAT ITEM HELPED ENROLL IN BALTIC REFORMED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN RIGA, LATVIA.

THESE ARE ONLY THREE OF THE VICTORY ACCOUNTS OF OUR LORD’S WORKING THERE THROUGH THE PROFESSORS THAT YOU SEND THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION MINISTRIES.

WERE IT NOT FOR HIS HAND OF GRACE, YOUR PRAYERS AND YOUR ACTING ON HIS LEADINGS IN ALL THE WAYS YOU DO, WE WOULD HAVE NO VICTORIES TO REPORT TO YOU…. AND YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE READ TESTIMONIES LIKE THOSE SENT TO YOU BEFORE AND THOSE ON THE BACK SIDE OF THIS LETTER OF PRAISE AND THANKS TO OUR GREAT GOD FOR HIS CHOOSING US TO WORK TOGETHER WITH YOU AS HIS INSTRUMENTS OF TRAINING PASTORS, TEACHERS AND LAY LEADERS AND THE SPREADING OF THE GOSPEL AND THE KINGDOM BY NATIONALS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES…THE MOST EFFICIENT FORM OF EVANGELISM, CHURCH PLANTING AND THEOLOGICAL WORK AND TRAINING KNOWN TO MAN…AND REFORMED THEOLOGY AT ITS HEART, AS A PRACTICAL MATTER, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THREE GENERATIONS!!!!

I, THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF ITEM, AND ALL THE PROFESSORS WHO HAVE TAUGHT AND ALL THE STUDENTS WHO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AND THEIR CHURCHES THERE MOST HUMBLY AND PRAYERFULLY THANK YOU AND CHALLENGE YOU IN THE YEAR AND YEARS TO COME TO CONTINUE TO GLORIFY HIS NAME AND NOT THAT OF MEN.

IN YOUR SERVICE AND HIS,
DR. R. DAVID LUDWICK, PERSONALLY AND AS PRESIDENT, I.T.E.M., INC.

“Laboring in our Lord’s Harvest is no burden, it is gratitude for grace”
cf. Luke 10
“Stewardship is what man does after he says, ‘I believe’”
W.H. Greever