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Welcome to our show today. I'm in the studio with Scott Reed and Elena Dubb. She has traveled all the way from Ukraine to be with us. She's been in Charlotte and she's here in Winston-Salem for a few days. And so we just wanted to take this opportunity to find out a little bit about her story, about what is happening in Ukraine.
Some very exciting, even in the last few minutes, getting to hear some things that God is doing in Ukraine. It's just, I don't know, it's just made me so excited to hear more of her story. But I wanted to kind of start out with the idea of legacy. Because we never really realized when we live our lives, the legacy that we're leaving. That, you know, looking back from heaven, what will we see with how God used our lives. And Elena, this this idea of legacy is particularly important for you, because your dad left a legacy for you and many, many other people. So I just want you and Scott to talk to us a little bit about the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary there in Ukraine.
And tell us tell us some of that story. Get us going. Hello, everybody. Thank you for this opportunity to be here, have this conversation and share our story. Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, this is not my workplace place.
This is my life. I didn't know another place for work than UBTS. I started to work in UBTS when I was starting at the university. It was a great time to see how great is our God and how big ministry He's doing through us. Through people.
UBTS start in Boryslav. It was 2000. And this story is about my father, about his dream. He was Baptist, Baptist always. And during Soviet time, he has no opportunity to study, to become high, good, high education. And about opportunity for Christian people have great education, especially in theology. So he, he deeply loved learning and study. And he visioned local churches filled with church members who proclaim gospel in university, college, and they need to be educated.
Our pastor and our preacher need be educated because they proclaim gospel, proclaim world. So he start this his, his, his, its door to first students. Well, I cannot imagine how excited, how old were you when that happened? So you watched all this unfold? Did you know his dream? Or did he share it?
Or did he just keep that inside? I was so young. Yeah, it was, you're still very young.
It was 24 years ago. I was really young. I helped. How old are you now?
I am 42. Okay. Okay. I helped. You're still very young. But you were, you were, you were a young girl.
Yes. I helped father at first. It was simple, secretarian work.
I checked emails. I helped. When you start something as a family, everybody does everything. You know, everybody's going to be involved. Yes, of course.
My brother organized all technical work in, at the, as admin. It was family. Sure. Yeah. How exciting. And at that time I started at the university and was really busy with church ministry, but I was just observing and helping with so simple, simple work.
I did two bachelor and one master graduate. Right. Okay.
They implemented a bachelor. Yes. Yes. Yes, of course.
And now they started small. Yeah. With 12 students. Yes. And now we'll get to how it's grown in a few minutes, but yeah, he just started with 12 students. Who else started with 12 students? Jesus. Yeah.
I hadn't thought about that. Of course, but there was a students for, for full time, not online, but offline that then at university. But now in few years we changed. We have not offline starting. Our students adult, busy. They're probably working full time.
Yeah. Families working, have families. But they are able to go to us five times per year for offline starting now.
And two sessions they have online. This is our reality. And this is the, they are able to became in this way, a Christian high education. Absolutely.
Well, you know that most people aren't going to be able to, to leave their families and move to another city and live there full time. And so I think that's the beautiful way that seminaries have figured out how do we equip many, many, many more people through a, you know, a hybrid version of a university system. So that was brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. They call them cohorts. Okay.
And they come again every five or six weeks for one week. Okay. At a time. And they get face to face training and they get.
Coaching every one of them. Elena has a mentor that talks to them one on one about what they're doing and how they're progressing. Right. Well, we'll hear a little bit more when we come back from the break, but we're so excited to be here and to hear more about the Ukrainian Baptist theological seminary.
Fascinating. We'll be right back. Welcome back to truth talk live. I'm here in the station with Elena dub and Scott Reed. Elena is here from Ukraine and Scott is here from Winston Salem. So we're talking a little bit about legacy and, um, Elena was sharing how, um, in 2000, the year 2000, her father started a seminary in Ukraine and he died.
Um, I guess shortly thereafter, but his legend, his legacy still lives on because he transitioned and he had a plan for a transition after he passed away. Catch me up with that storyline. I let our listeners know. How did that unfold? And then how did you get involved?
Because you have a very pivotal role in the seminary now, which is, which is exciting. Tell us a little bit about that. In 2012, uh, UBTS moved to live. Um, Brazil is great city, but small city and leave is a great big city in west part of Ukraine.
And it's really, um, easy to gather different people in the view. Exactly. And, uh, it was the time when, um, in the past academic Dean and Slavic fish came back from, uh, us, he made his PhD and it was a great plan father's plan to past, uh, this role, uh, to Slavic. And when Slavic made his PhD, uh, and came back to Ukraine, father passed him a role of rector of UBTS and, uh, really say it was great idea.
Father was not, uh, so old man, but Slavic was young with fresh vision, full power. And, um, he gathered new team, uh, or new team. And, uh, we brought together new vision, new mission, values, and start to launch new programs, move to live.
And, uh, and. Changed happened. Um, and one day he suggested that, uh, I will be able to, uh, organize to women, uh, program. Did I know to do?
Absolutely not. I was young. I had to greatest experience in the church ministry, but not in educational, not in creating educational program. Now you said at that, at the point that you, that the seminary created a women's studies pathway, women could learn, but not in formal settings, not to gain a degree or some of those explain that a little bit more. I think you, this was the first time there had been something like that through the seminary.
Wow. In all of you, of course, it was possible for man become good Christian education, but not for women. So this is the first women's studies seminary program in Ukraine.
Of course. And I am blessed to see in 10 years how changed our women ministry program. I start with two, excuse me, it was 12. It was 12.
You also started on 12 status. It was 12 women under 50 age. And each of these women I known personally.
This was from, there was from my own church. Right. You recruited these women.
You said, you know, I see something in you. Yes, of course. But it was, I think it was great God's plan because I serve them and learn from. Right. It was really great God's plan. Because it was 12 women 10 years ago, but now we have 210 women.
210, wow. And now I am able to do this ministry. I understand what I am doing. Yes.
Because it was. So, you were available, but then God also equipped you. Yes, of course. As you made yourself available and you were able to do this ministry. You were available and you were learning alongside with these women, which I'm sure they appreciate. But now you're able to run this program and you feel like God has given you the confidence you need. So that's fantastic.
She does it extremely well. It makes me want to come to your seminary. About a year and a half ago, well, three and a half years ago, I went back to seminary for the first time. I had done engineering earlier in my life, but God just called me to go to seminary. And I think our seminaries are very closely aligned, biblically, missionally, from an accountability standpoint.
I think our goals are very similar and I loved it. I did a two-year program and a master's in Christian ministry, but I can't imagine what it's like for these women to have that opportunity. And God made us in his image and male and female. And so it takes male and female to completely represent and reflect God in the world. And so that you are raising up women to walk alongside of our brothers is a beautiful thing to do ministry. Sometimes I think if Father is able, observe what we are doing, he will be happy. Absolutely, absolutely. Sometimes I want to tell him about UBTS.
Well, somehow I wonder, and this is not scriptural theology, but I wonder if because the earth is God's heart, if when we're in heaven, if we'll still be able to see the redemptive movement of God over time, but we'll find out when we get there, but you've got a lot of catching up to do when you get to heaven to see your dad, for sure. Scott, I want you to tell us a little bit about the organization that you're involved with and how this organization partners with Ukrainian Seminary. And tell us a little bit about that because it sounds like a phenomenal partnership.
Well, thank you. I first got a glimpse of UBTS. Some of us were over in first Russia, Crimea, and then to Lviv teaching business as missions. We were sharing our- You've been following that for years. Yeah, I've been doing it for like 20 some years and we were teaching business, but sharing our faith, our testimonies, sharing the gospel with businessmen and women. And when we went to Lviv about eight years ago, we went to the seminary and fell in love with it. And so anyway, I was invited to be on the board of directors of Ukraine Partnership Foundation.
It's headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. And our sole mission is to raise up Christian leaders and teachers in Eastern Europe, particularly the Ukraine. So all of our money that we raise goes to UBTS for scholarships to pay staff, pay professors, run the programs. And it's just been a blessing. We do stewardship. Scott will come right back.
Hold that thought. We'll be right back. Truth Talk Live.
Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. We're in the studio and we are talking with Elena Dub from Ukraine and Scott Reed. He is on the board of the Ukraine Partnership Foundation. And they do work to raise funds and awareness for the tremendous work that's going on in Ukraine. And so Scott, we left off with you.
So let's pick back up and continue that conversation. Tell us more about what that foundation does, how you're partnering with the seminary there, and just what are you seeing? Yeah, it's been a privilege of mine once I got to know UBTS and got to know people like.
And so what is UBTS for anybody who just jumped on? Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in Lviv, Ukraine. And Elena is the head of women's ministry. And when I got to know people like her in Slavic Pej, who's the president now, a rector of the seminary, my wife Pam and I just fell in love with it. And so I'm on the board of this foundation. And our sole purpose, as I was saying earlier, is to support and help finance the work of the seminary. Most of the students, and we now have over 3,000 students.
God's just blessed it over the years. And those students. From 12 students. Yeah, from 12 to 3,000. And it's growing.
Every year we seem to get more, even in the middle of the war. How many people were there at Pentecost? Is that 3,000? Am I remembering correctly? I don't know.
That's a good question. I forgot my Bible drill information. He fed 5,000. He definitely fed 5,000. So anyway, we'll keep going.
Sorry. Yeah, but when we fell in love with it and got a chance to be on the board, I was saying the students, these 3,000 kids, particularly during the war, are bivocational. They've got families to feed and spouses to take care of and daily living expenses, gas for their cars. And some of them have lost their jobs.
And their jobs have disappeared because of missile attacks and in the war. So UPF, our foundation, we fund about 85% of the cost of operating the seminary, paying faculty, staff, turning on the lights, everything that goes on at a school. Do most of those students receive scholarships? Or do they pay into the program? Or does that scholarship come from UPF? Or how does that work? Yes, we don't award it individually. We give the money and the school gives the scholarship. The cost of a bachelor's degree for one year of study, this is kind of an amazing number for us in the United States, is about $1,500 to get a master's or a doctorate.
It's a little bit more expensive, but it's under $2,000 for the year. But most of them cannot afford even a few hundred. Scott, I just have to interrupt you just a second, just to consider just the sacrifice that people are making in a culture, in a time in history that's so difficult for the Ukrainian people. And these people see the Great Commission. They see the lostness in their country. And they're like, it's not like it's easy to do this, I'm sure. And I'm sure it's a huge sacrifice for their families because, you know. But I don't know. It makes me love these Ukrainian Christians who are like, please equip us, please help us, teach us so that we can take the gospel to our people in a really dark time in history for your country. So keep going, I'm sorry.
Things just are coming to mind as we're talking. That's a great point. It's not like life is easy right now. And you're just going to go take a university pathway or something. When they feel called, some of our students travel all day, hundreds of miles to get to Lviv to five times a year to come to class. And again, we ask them to pay 250 of the 1,500 if it's a bachelor's degree. But I would say 10% can afford to do that.
Some pay lesser amounts, and many pay nothing. And particularly, again, because of the struggle and the severity of the war and what's going on in their home communities and around Ukraine. They've got sweat equity. They're putting their time in their hearts.
That's right. And they're coming at great sacrifice to be at school. And so anyway, our job at UPF is to support all that and to raise the money to operate the school. Interesting part of all that is after the war started, we closed down the school for about five months. And we became a refugee center. Thousands and thousands of people came west. And we called them IDPs, Internally Displaced People. We had thousands come to our seminary. And we took out all the chairs and everything in a classroom and put in beds.
Not beds, mattresses and sheets and pillows. And we fed them. We got medicine, hygiene supplies, clothing.
Many of them had walked tremendous distances. So we tried to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And when I say we, I wasn't there. It was the people at UBTS. And we also shared the gospel and prayed with every one of them.
And most of them were non-believers. And then we took them to the border of Romania, or particularly Poland, to help them cross the border and get out of harm's way. But we went from that to- That's when you started the care centers. That's when we started the We Care centers. We now have 19 We Care centers all over Ukraine that do nothing but help people.
We do not own them. We help fund them. Probably about 35, 40% of the funding comes from us. The rest comes from local churches and non-profits and local government. And it feeds people, clothes them, trauma counseling, education, art therapy for children.
And they're all over Ukraine. Scott, I'll give you a break for just a second. But I want, Alaina, I want you to tell me what you enjoy teaching at your seminary, how you, like what's your favorite thing about leading a seminary program for women?
Thank you. This is a really great question because when I told, seminary is my life. I see, you just light up. Like when I ask you these questions, your eyes get a glimmer and you smile.
I'm like, I know this is your heart. Yes, of course. My team, women, our faculty, all these women are great, great, graduate.
No, no women. They're all alumni. They've been through the seminary program. This is all our people with our values. They know what is vision of the seminary. All our people.
And it's easy to work. And many time I spent with my team. In the past, I was alone.
And this is God's blessing for me. Because you said you are so people-oriented. So it would be hard to do alone.
Yes, my hands are short. Many hands make light work is what we say. Team we can cover needs our students.
I really like be with students, share my story, share experience, build relationship. Because they are with us only one week, five times per year. And after that, they came back to their churches, to their families, to their ministry, to their organization. And they continue to share that, what they heard during session. Knowledges, experience, relationship.
They reflected all experience they have became. They learn from you and the other faculty. And they will learn that mentoring relationship. Of course.
And then they go back and they replicate that. Yeah, in their churches. Because one of our mission is build mentoring culture in church. And we start to build this culture in UBTS during our time with students. And hope, pray about that, that they will come back to their churches, their families and organization, and continue to build this mentoring culture. You know, which is so great. Because sometimes you can teach someone about mentoring. But if you mentor them, then they actually have the experience, not just the knowledge. And it's so much easier to replicate when you've experienced something.
So that's a great model. Of course. And I like really teaching process. We have this one session per year, we have not in the campus.
We are going to retreat. Oh, wow. Yes, and I help with my students all week, all days and all nights.
And I spent really 24 hours. This is great time, build this relationship, not during study. Right, away from a classroom. Yeah.
Well, that's really neat. When we come back, I'm going to ask you because I heard that you can stay up later than anybody else. All right, let's talk. Today we're in the studio with Elena Dub and Scott Reed.
And we're talking about things that God is doing across the world in Ukraine. And so when we left off, I was making a little joke with Elena. She was saying that some of her students get tired of her teaching, but why do they get tired? Because you love to teach and you don't want to stop. I think they love your teaching. Tell us what you love to teach. What makes you, what just gets you going?
What's your favorite thing to teach? It seemed when I was with my students, I have not 100% energy. I have 200, 300% energy.
So, okay, do you hear that out there? She has 200, 300% energy versus their 100% maybe. And she just has so much to teach and so much to share. I'm not sure when you get them a week at the time, you feel so compelled to teach them so much. And do you teach the online classes as well or primarily when they're there in person?
Of course, at first it's in person because I have, it's a really great opportunity to see people offline and spend. Create those relationships. Yes, yes. And have a really conversation during study, during teaching. So I, for me, it's really important to spend this time with first year students. And the first subject that I teach is introduction into women ministry. Right.
And it's really important for me to explain what is Jesus calling identity gifts from God. We do many practice things and they prepare different projects. I start to train their brain. Brain.
Yes, yeah. How to think, how to study, how to interpret scripture. This is not easy to think about this. Theology. Theology, yes. And I have, you remember, I have 200 energy. And they, in the end of the day.
The pastor at our church, he speaks very fast and people always are like, slow down, slow down. And we study from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. Long day. Yes, and I can continue. I am able to continue. You're like, let's stay.
Remember, Paul preached too long and they fell out of the window, so. But always, after teaching time, we have a simple time together. Right.
Different conversation. That probably means the world to them. Just to be able to learn from you and have that relationship. Because we are outside from seminary and I have, I can, I don't, I have no. I don't need came back to home in the evening and I can spend every evening with them. Right.
And it's their greatest idea to build relationship and at first, with first-year students. Because I know a long way ahead. Right, yeah. And in the beginning I did. You can see what's coming. Yeah. And prepare them.
And I do this session and build a relationship in the beginning with students. Well, there are several more things that I wanna get to, but very quickly, I wanna know who is your favorite woman in the New Testament? Who is your favorite woman in the New Testament?
Faith. Not women, but Paul. Oh, Paul. Oh yeah.
Excuse me. Paul is incredible. I, I just. Maybe Deborah. Oh yeah, Deborah, yeah. Deborah. Yeah, yeah. Well, I love Mary Magdalene.
I love the Samaritan woman at the well, because we don't even know her name, but she, Jesus revealed his identity and gave her a new one and she ran off to be a missionary. Okay, but there's a few things we wanna talk about before we close out. I wanna ask, what do you wanna tell people listening, either about the seminary or the foundation? I also wanted, I wanted you to share what's happening in Ukraine with Christians. So maybe Scott, start by telling me a little bit more about the foundation and how people can get information, because you've put together just some beautiful, you know, information online and in brochures. And so how would people access that? Well, we have a, what we think is a very informative website. It's upfmissions.org. And if you go to our website, you can learn a lot about the seminary and about the foundation. Something about the foundation that always pleases me, we have no paid employees. We are all volunteers from the president, our board, people that help with publications and videos that we send out biweekly to our donors and anybody on our email list. That shows you the passion of the people who are involved.
This is not a job to check a box or to get a paycheck. It's a labor of love, a gospel passion. And we love Ukrainians and we love people from all over Eastern Europe, and we want them to hear the gospel. And we think the best way is through UBTS, the seminary, and it's educational resources. And then also our 19 WeCare centers that are spread out all over Ukraine. That's the best way to reach people. I shared with you during the break that there was a poll done before the war. Okay, everybody, listen up to this.
This is very important. We were told there were about one to 2% of all of Ukraine, and there were about 40 million Ukrainians, but one to 2% were evangelicals. There was another big segment of Catholic and also a big segment of Ukrainian Orthodox, but only one or 2% evangelical. Since the war started and our 19 WeCare centers have spawned 50 church plants, they took a poll in the last couple months, and that's now five to 6% evangelical. So the gospel is spreading, and God's building his kingdom over there, and that's what we care about.
Absolutely. Well, it's the Great Commission, and it's exactly what we're called to do is to make disciples, baptize them into the life of the Trinity, teach them to obey what Christ has commanded. And it sounds like God is using this seminary to do exactly that, to raise up lay people to go into ministry and to maybe work in their communities while they're also ministering and leading churches and ministries. And so tell from your perspective, Elena, what do you see in Ukraine? How can we pray for Ukraine? How can we pray for the Christians? And how can we pray for you?
Oh, thank you. I start from bad news. During war, 400 churches was closed. So many, our territory is under occupation, and so many leaders relocated into Europe or US. They just left.
Yeah, fled. So many are military. So many died. And this is really bad news, but good news is this year we recruit. We have church planting faculty, and this year we recruit more students than last year. So that you're- This is hope.
Definitely. Yes, this is hope for us. And we believe that our students will organize new churches, plant new churches. And this about Vicar Centers, yes, they are planting right now new churches. 400 is closed, but we hope God will give us 500, 600 new churches. Wow. And we believe that- And you're gonna have those pastors ready.
Yes. Yeah, those leaders have been trained as you're waiting for those opportunities to open up. Sometimes God has not opened every door, but we are preparing for what he's going to do.
And that sounds amazing. Of course, we have different challenges. For example, we continue to still live in war, and our people continue to relocate into another country. And our men continue to be on front line. And never before than now I have students, they lost their husband. Their husband are on front line. And our family need take care about them. And our women are alone. Some of them lost work because they need be with children.
And it's this hard circumstance. The war has changed the fabric of your country in a very dramatic way. It changed our life. War has deeply affected everybody. But war don't stopped our life. We continue to serve people. We continue our educational process. And people continue to live, continue to have passion to do something, have passion, serve. Why I know this?
They come to UBTS. It's miracle for me because we live in war. We need to live simple live.
But they decided to study. And I think- That's so inspiring. Yes, God changed our mining, our life, our vision. And I believe that we are doing something great, great ministry, God's ministry in UBTS.
Give people hope and the power to continue to live. Well, to God be the glory. Thank you for being with us today. Thanks again, Scott, and take care. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you. Thank you.
