On October 6, 2009 we had a regular meeting of the DCU Board of Trustees. It was the first meeting after DCU’s new ministry development plan was accepted, with program of reforms of the administrative, financial and educational structure of the school. Among the people attending the meeting were the leaders of Evangelical Baptist unions, pastors and church ministers, and new candidates for the Board of Trustees: Nellie Nikonchuk-Klimenko and Alexander Kirichuk. These candidate board members are influential in government and business circles, and have been prayer and financial supporters of Donetsk Christian University for a long time.

After Board Member Vadim Yurchak read from the Scripture (Rom. 9:1-11) and shared a word of instruction, the participants of the meeting listened to a report made by Oleksii Melnychuk, the Head of Donetsk Christian University. He spoke about the changes that have taken place in the administrative structure of DCU, and the actions taken for the financial improvement of the university. He also described a strategy of collaboration with other Christian organizations that are developing educational-training programs. One of the top-priority collaborations, which plans are to be developed in the near future, will be establishing a partnership with the Donetsk Regional Association of Evangelical Christian Baptists in the framework of a “Higher School of Spiritual Education.” Another top-priority collaboration with be with the International “Association for Spiritual Renewal” in large-scale educational project called “School Without Walls.” Besides that, DCU’s collaboration with the missionary organization “Connect International” was noted in the project of educating church leadership for Slavic communities abroad, as well as cooperating with the missionary organization “Ministry to Blind People” in its project of preparing missionaries for a comprehensive ministry to blind people in Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Board of Trustees made a special emphasis on discussing the perspectives of licensing educational programs of Donetsk Christian University in accordance with the requirements of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science. During this discussion, an opinion was stated about the strategic necessity of the development of such educational programs and majors which would allow future graduates to be helpful and actively involved in churches, religious organizations and in the whole of society.

At the Board meeting new employees of Donetsk Christian University were introduced, particularly, Administrative Director Olexii Navchuk and Vice-Rector for Research, Olena Panych. They were employed to carry out the program of reformation. On the whole, the Board of Trustees positively estimated the work that has been done by the new leadership of DCU and expressed the desire to call regional evangelical churches to support the working team by praying for implementation of the difficult tasks that have been set for them.

The Board has also expressed their gratitude to Sergey Rybikov for his seven years of ministry at DCU as its President. The Board delegated its representatives to express to Sergey Rybikov its appreciation and give him a present at a special meeting of students and employees of the university.