Lvivis a beautiful city in western Ukraine, very close to the border of Poland. It is an old city—more than 770 years old! Today, 725,000 people live in Lviv—including more than 99,000 children who are 14 years old or younger. That’s a lot of children! There are many schools for the children, but until recently there wasn’t a single Seventh-day Adventist school in the entire city.

Then one day an Adventist pastor in Lviv and two church leaders started talking about how wonderful it would be to have an Adventist church school in Lviv. They wanted a place where children could come and learn about God, a place where they could have worships and sing and pray. A school that wouldn’t have classes on Sabbath. After they talked and prayed together, they decided to start a church school in Lviv.

Starting Small

They started small, with just three students in the first grade—Nastia, David, and another child who has since moved away.

The children were so happy and loved their teacher and school. “At the beginning of each day our teacher would read a story to us from the Bible,” said Nastia. “Then she asked us some questions, and we answered. Then we would pray.”

Praying for Students

As much as the three children enjoyed the school, they felt lonely. “We were only three students,” Nastia said. “There was nobody else to play with. We decided to pray about our school because we wanted to have more students to play and to learn with them.”

David added, “Every day when we came to school we would pray about this before our lessons, during our breaks, and even during long vacation breaks. We prayed every day about it.”

Now the school has grown to 48 students! Nastia and David both say that God did this. “We prayed for more students, and God answered our prayers!”

Continuing to Pray

The Lviv church school now offers grades 1-5, and the students and parents are pleading for more. “It’s very important to study in a Christian school,” David said. “God is here with us, and the teachers tell us about God and His character. This is very important in our lives and in our studies.”

The Adventists in Lviv are hoping to expand their school so that students can study there through high school. The problem is that there is not enough space for more grades, so they will have to build an addition to their school.

Nastia and David are now praying about the expansion for their school. “We are sure that God hears us and will give us all we need,” they said, “because he heard our prayers about more students, and He gave us more students. We believe that He will continue to help us and our school.”

We can help build a bigger school for Nastia and David and the many other children who would like to attend the Lviv Adventist School by giving generously to the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on September 27.