From March 10th to April 10th 2009 Sergey Rybikov, the president of DCU, and John White, the North American Director of Public Relations, were in the U.S.A. The purpose of their trip was the development of relationships with partnering Christian churches and organizations.

As a presentation of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Bible and an opportunity for DCU teachers to share their experience with one another, the DCU seminar “The Bible Studies and Theological Reflections on the Gospel of John” was held on April 2nd through 3rd , 2009. The participants presented their research on the Gospel of Jesus’ favorite disciple through the lens of exegetical analysis and biblical, historical, and dogmatic theology. This seminar was designed to be a unique attempt to look at the diamond of the Gospel of John from different sides and perspectives.

A marvelously productive “Eastern European Summit for Children at Risk” took place at Donetsk Christian University (Donetsk, Ukraine) on March 17th through 19th This meeting was organized by “The National Network for Children at Risk in Russia” (also known as “The National Network of the Christian Organizations Working Among At-Risk Children in Russia”), and “The CoMission for Children at Risk”, along with a number of Russian and Ukrainian missions who help the local Churches with orphan care ministry.

On March 3rd through 4th the International Missionary Conference took place on the campus of the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary (UETS) in the town ofPushcha-Voditsa, near Kiev. This event was a continuation of the Euro-Asian Lausanne Forum of Evangelists, which was held on October 30-31, 2008, in Irpen. It was also a preparation for the Third Lausanne Congress planned for 2010 in Capetown, South Africa. DCU students and staff members actively participated in this conference, as did young practicing evangelists who represented various Christian unions and denominations from twelve countries of Europe and Asia.

What has become a traditional March meeting of evangelical Christians interested in their own history took place on March 6th through 7th, 2009, at Donetsk Christian University. Once again DCU hosted an historical–theological conference, this time entitled “Remember All the Way III”. The conference was devoted to the overview and analysis of the main events in the history of the Evangelical Christian-Baptists in the pre-revolutionary period (the beginning of 20th century). The main theme of this year’s conference was “Evangelism in the History of the Evangelical Christian-Baptist Movement”.