Slavic

For maybe 6 months now, Slavic has been faithfully attending services and taking Bible lessons.  We have mentioned him in almost all of our recent prayer letters.  We met Slavic through Yuri.

Yuri came in contact with Slavic at the local train stop.  Because of drinking problems, he was homeless and looking for work and a place to stay.  Yuri invited the man to work and stay with them on one condition - no drinking.  Except for a short period of time, Slavic has kept that agreement.

He has been involved in a charismatic group and believes himself to be saved because of different "experiences" he's had and also because he was baptized in the charismatic church.  He has testified that before meeting Yuri and our church, he disliked his life and had contemplated suicide.  We praise the Lord that God saved his physical body from death, but we pray that God will also save his soul.  He is reaching the end of the salvation Bible Lessons (only 3 left) and our prayer is that he will see, it is not some experience or even baptism which saves us but only the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

For an update on Slavic click here.

Coming Soon

 

We have decided to start a series of posts introducing you to the people we come in contact with.  We will try to weekly highlight someone we are ministering to (a neighbor, someone we meet on the street, someone we are doing Bible lessons with or a church member) so that you may better know how to pray for them and us.  We trust that this will be a blessing to you and look forward to giving you a better glimpse into the lives of the people God has called us to.  

Prayer Letter

Church & Bible Lessons

The past few months have brought us many witnessing opportunities.  For one, I have started meeting the train—the gate of our city– a few times a week passing out tracts and brochures.  Then, God turned the problem of a broken vehicle into an opportunity to witness.  As we walked to and from church we passed out tracts to those we met and introduced ourselves.  We know that work here will be slow. Many here are either very hardened to anything outside of their Orthodox church or so superstitious and afraid of something bad  happening to them if they attend.  Even with that, God has blessed us with a few visitors as a result of passing out tracts and our testimony here in the village.

Baba Maroosa is one of those people.  She has started coming to church, but is still a little shy about taking Bible lessons.  Jessica had her over for tea one afternoon and talked with her about salvation.  Maroosa believes that she is saved because she has had some visions and also how God has kept her over the years.  Please be in prayer for this lady as she is already in her 80s.

Valodia has continued coming to church off and on, whenever he is not working.  He is still interested in finishing his Bible lessons, just after he is done working.  We have found that to be the greatest hindrance to our ministry here during the summer months—work, even with the Christians.  It has been an answer to prayer this summer to see Yuri and Kristina put God before work.

Slavic has continued his Bible lessons and we are praying that God will convict him and show him his need of salvation.

We still have not had contact with Ruselan, but continue to pray for his salvation.

A while ago we mentioned a lady named Sveta.  Since she works for Yuri and Kristina and her boyfriend has been working on the church yard, we have regular contact with her.  But she still has not started Bible lessons or come to church due to her drinking problems.  They are both frequently drunk.  She also is a drinking partner of Yuri’s mom.  Alcohol has such a grasp on many of the people here, young and old, and would be among the top things keeping people from God.

For those who have helped with the purchase of our building, thank you.  We are now down to $ 12,150.

Family, Health & Registration

Jessica is 6 months pregnant now and, besides exhaustion, everything seems to be going pretty well.  She has had a more difficult time with the doctors as they keep finding things “wrong” with her, only adding to her exhaustion.  We have decided to meet with the previous doctor for private consultations, which will help us know how to handle situations which arise with the doctor who she needs to be registered under.  Please continue to pray for a healthy mom and baby.

As a family, we are still dealing with the parasite problem.  We have tried both natural and medicinal things, changed our drinking water, etc., but it continues to be a problem.  We have been especially concerned about how this will affect Samuel as he has only had a few normal bowel movements.  So far this has not affected his weight and or growth.  We are thinking it is in our water system and have started not only using purified drinking water, but have started boiling water for dishes and washing our produce as well.  We are starting another round with a natural parasite medicine we found that helps the best and appreciate your prayers.