On Sunday I had the blessing of baptizing Maxime, the first Ukrainian I had the opportunity to lead to the Lord. We look forward to seeing how God will use this young man for His honor and glory. Yuri and Christina have also said that they would like to be baptized, but were not able to make it because of Yuri's health. Please pray that Yuri, Christina and Vladamir will soon follow in baptism.

Also, tomorrow our church is having a "Family Day". We have rented out a room with two ping pong tables and look forward to spending time with family and friends. More than that, we are praying that God will work upon the hearts of the many attending who are not saved.

Trying and Strengthening

The past few months have been an exciting, trying, sad, and strengthening time for our church. We've been excited about the professions of faith made, the spiritual growth amongst the believers, Yuri and Christina choosing to get married...but like always, when God is working, satan is also at work. We found out a few weeks ago that during all of this, Tamara had been trying to practice fortune telling, healing, and other forms of witch craft amongst the believers at the church - sometimes even during the middle of the services! We pulled her aside and talked with her, showing her from the Bible that this is not of God. She still insists that it is a "gift" and has not been back to church since. Pray for her, as only God knows her heart. Through it all, we have seen God work on the heart of the believers and strengthen our little group.

Valentine's Banquet 2010

This year we had our 2nd Valentine Banquet. It is not a usual Valentine's banquet because it is open to everyone, not just couples. This year's theme "The Most Important Relationship". We didn't get as many pictures as usual because Jessica was busy serving and handed the camera over to me and Valentina. The women all worked very hard and not only was there more than enough food, but it was all excellent.

Oksana, Lina, Anna, Jessica and Lydia - the main servers (the girls brought the bread baskets to the tables)
Unsaved: Oksana, Anna and Lydia

Alla, Boris, Constantine, Olea and Pasha (Dema, Lina's husband, also came but requested that his picture not be posted due to the fact that he is in the military. This is the first church activity that he has attended. What a blessing it would be to see this man saved!)
Unsaved: Constantine, Olea ?, Pasha and Dema

Valentina and Elena
Unsaved: Elena ?

Evan, Yuri, Christina, Lela (Christina's mom), Max and Vladamir
Unsaved: Evan and Lela

During the banquet, we had a few activities and contests. Pictured below are wives from our church holding "portraits" that their husbands drew of them. After the husbands who wanted to participate drew the pictures, the wives had to guess who was who. They all guessed correctly.

Please be in prayer for the unsaved who attended. We praise the Lord for those saved in 2009 and are excited to see what the Lord will do in 2010. We ask that you pray for the ministry here as satan would like nothing more than to stop the unsaved from coming to Jesus, but also to destroy the work here and hinder the growth of the believers.

Bible Lessons

We have sent Ruselan his first through-the-mail Bible lesson. We ask that you will be praying that the Holy Spirit would work upon his heart showing him his need of salvation as he reads the Bible.

Also, Tamara's mom (Baba Shura) has agreed to start Bible lessons. We were supposed to start today, but she was sick. We are planning on meeting with her next Wednesday at 3 PM (8 AM EST).

On Sunday, we had two new visitors to church, a man named Constantine and a woman named Oksana. Both have expressed an interest in Bible lessons, but we have not been able arrange them with them yet.

Prayer Letter - January 16

Bible Lessons

For many months now we have been requesting prayer for an elderly gentleman named Vladamir. On Sunday, December 6 after finishing our last lesson, Vladamir bowed his head and asked Jesus Christ to save him. He admitted that he could not do it on his own, but that it was only through the blood of Jesus that he could be saved. We greatly appreciate all of you who have been faithfully praying for him.

We were able to visit Ruselan in prison, though not in November. We had a good visit with him and he has agreed to start Bible lessons through the mail. Also, while we were there, we met a lady who was very interested in learning more about us. She gave us her phone number and address. We have contacted her and hope to meet with her sometime and start Bible lessons.

Tamara's mom has also started coming to church. We are very excited about this as she has convinced others in the village not to come. Her name is Baba (grandma) Shura.

It seems like God is opening many doors for Bible lessons right now and we are praying that some of the "older" Christians would be willing to teach as well. Pray as we work to not only see others come to Christ but teach those same people to lead others to Him.

Church

God is continuing to work upon the hearts of our little group of believers. Not only are they faithfully coming to church, but we have noticed a growth in their spiritual walk with the Lord as well. They are seeing the importance of putting Christ first in their lives. God has also been doing a work in Yuri and Christina's hearts and they have their paperwork almost complete for marriage. They go to sign papers to officially be married around the 13th of February.

Tatiana has also started to be a little friendlier towards us, but still has not come back to church.

Registration

We received our registration with no problems and will be able to stay in the country until we have to renew our visas in April. As we mentioned in our last letter, it may be possible for us to receive a 3 year visa. We would greatly appreciate your prayers concerning this.

Family & Health

After about a month of the flu, we all seem to be doing well. Jessica's breathing problems and cough have gotten better. Not only is she doing better, but is also pregnant again! The baby is due July 2nd.

Thank You!
Lastly, we'd like to say thank you to all of those who sent Christmas cards, to Albemarle Baptist Church for the card with little goodies in it, and for the boxes our church family and Bill & Carol Curtis sent. Thank you all so much. It was such a blessing to know you were thinking of us!

"Baba" Shura & Tamara

We have been excited and waiting to tell you about an answer to prayer for a few weeks now, but have been unable to because our computer has not been working.

For more than a year now, we have been praying for a man named Vladamir Vonovich to get saved. Ever time someone questioned him about his salvation, he always pointed to his good works. He agreed to do Bible lessons. It did not seem like we would ever get through them. His wife is sick and bedridden, so he was not able to attend when he couldn't find someone to watch her. When we only had one lesson left, he did not come for at least 4 weeks. What a blessing it was on December 6th when he bowed his head to accept Jesus Christ at the end of the lesson. Now if you ask him about his salvation he will tell you that it is ONLY through the blood of Jesus! Thank you for your faithful prayers for Vladamir.

Today, Eric had the opportunity to visit Tamara's son, Ruselan, in the prison. When Eric, Tamara and Lina got there, they almost didn't let them in because of the holidays. Praise the Lord He made a way! Ruselan was very humble and open to talking with them. He feels like no one cares about him and has been very grateful for all the help we have given him. He does have a wife and two boys, but since he has been in prison his wife has lived with other men and hasn't visited him in a long time. We had given him some food and a Bible earlier (here the prison does not provide food). He said he was reading the Bible, but didn't understand anything. He said that he was interested in continuing to meet with us and willing to take Bible lessons through the mail. Please be praying for Ruselan.