IBS Seminar in Yosser

In November Olga and I were glad to be able to send Alex and Luba to a rehab center in Yosser to teach an Inductive Bible Study Seminar. Pastor Viktor Dudin ivited ICM, Russia to come bless the rehab center with this powerful course.

Everyone at the center were blessed as they learned how to study through the Word of God for themselves. Rehab leadership and occupants received the teaching with great eagerness and joy as the seminar unfolded and were eager to put what they learned into practice.

We are blessed that God has allowed us to do these seminars month after month and year after year. It would not be possible without your prayer and massive support.

God is using those of you who support us financially and in prayer in mighty ways to further His kingdom and grow bigger people around us as we go in Jesus' Name!

Thank you for your continued faithfulness and I pray that the Lord would continue to provide for us to minister through our partnership. Our prayer is that you would be filled with the joy and peace or our Lord in this Holiday season, Amen.

Jesus Is a Reason For the Season!

Dearest Partners and Friends and Family,

Olga and I want to just send our love to you this Christmas season. Hopefully you are doing well in the Lord!!! He is good to us! As He spoke to his people in Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. The same is true for each and every one of us. As we look at the state of our economy and the state of our world, we can hold onto his promises to us. Remember we are not of this world, but in it to shine His light and be the salt of the earth. We are ambassadors of Christ to a lost world. He has great plans for you. It amazes me that the Lord calls us his own and he forgives and chooses to forget all of our failures. What a wonderful and loving God we serve. So, this Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ let the world see Him through us! Once again we thank you for your friendship and your love. Olga and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year if the Lord tarries. We are so grateful to the Lord that he has put you in our lives.

With much love,

Igor and Olga

ICM, Russia

Mom Went Home to be With the Lord...

Dear Friends and Partners,

As you may know my mother has been fighting cancer for a couple years now. I would like to thank those of you who have kept her in prayer and even helped financially at times. It has been a huge comfort and help.

It has been a long fight and the Lord has finally brought it to an end. Mom was taken to be with our Father in Heaven on Sunday the 15^th at 11:30am. She passed away in her sleep, in peace and without pain. It was a strong testimony to see her joy and peace to the end. We were all together as a family the night before she died and she was in great mood, making jokes and smiling. Praise the Lord that He made it possible for my sister Olga to come visit and be with mom for a week before she passed.

At mom’s request, we buried her in Anisomovo, where Olga’s parents live, on Wednesday the 18^th. This is a hard time for our family, especially dad, but we are filled with peace and joy to know that she is with her Lord and no longer in pain. Dad will be living in Anisomovo until it is possible to get him a visa to go to my sister Olga in England, while Olga and I are in America. I ask that you please keep us and my dad in prayer in this time.

Teaching the Word at Good News Church

This last Sunday I had the great pleasure to teach the Sunday morning service at the Good News Church in Cherepovets. Pastor Vladimir was out of town and asked me to teach in his place. I love it every time I get a chance to grow bigger people in the Lord by teaching the Bible inductively, watching the effect of the Word on people’s lives, and hoping that it will catch on causing people to study the word for themselves. I preached a message from Mathew 24, 25 about being ready in the end times as we wait on the Lord and not to get complacent like the wicked servant who started beating his fellow servants and getting drunk. I had a lot of fun and the congregation was blessed and encouraged by the Word!

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First Light Of Hope Church Service

I am very excited to say that we have finally been able to start a Light of Hope Church. Abner and the ICM Russia / Light of Hope team have been praying for a couple years now about starting a church and this last week we had our first service!

The excitement has been growing more and more over the past months as this day approached. We have been doing home studies and prayer groups for over a year now and have gathered together a good group of people. Everyone is hungry for the word and on fire, ready to spread the gospel and word around Cherepovets, Russia, and the ends of the earth.

I am excited because it is the first and only church in Cherepovets that will actually be teaching the Bible inductively.

The atmosphere of the service was great! We all felt like close friends and family, worshiping and praising the Lord. Abner taught from the last two verses of James, explaining that we need try to bring back our brothers who fall into sin, but not judge and misuse our authority. The word was uplifting, the worship was inspiring and the fellowship was close.

Abner asked me to start the book of Mark next week and I am excited! I know this will grow into a strong church, full of the Spirit, and firmly grounded in the Word. I look forward to watching the church grow and to growing alongside it as we become more and more united in the Body of Christ.

I thank all of you who support and pray for ICM Russia, allowing us to take part in this great work of God. Please join me in continued prayer for Light of Hope Church: that Abner would have the wisdom to lead the church, and that the word would work in the hearts of people to grow bigger and stronger Christians. Amen and God Bless!

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Seminars in November: urgent request for support

Dear Friends of ICM-Russia,

It is my great joy to let you know that I have the privilege of sending a small team of missionaries to the town of Yosser, Russia. The services are going to be held on rehab center premises. For our ministers it is going to be an unforgettable experience because the living conditions are very poor there. But we are expecting 55 church leaders at the conference. During the day Alex will be teaching rehab occupants how to study the Word and listen to the Lord and in the evenings he will be training cell group leaders, children ministers on how to study and teach the Bible inductively. Olga and I would like to make it possible for our missionaries to travel to the seminar site. Full time missionaries can hardly afford to stay full time these days. We need some $600 to fulfill the task. This monies will cover travel expenses, foods on the train, communications, teaching manuals for the students, foods on site, writing paper and pens for seminar participants, and a little monetary blessing for ICM-Russia missionaries.

I would like to leave you with a testimony of one of the seminar students who recently wrote us a letter. She shared with us what she had experienced with God at the seminar in Moscow. "This is my first time at IBS seminar and I loved it a lot! I came to the seminar in a very bad mood because I was in a very difficult period in my life. I was down and didnt pray and read the Word of God. My relationship with my parents was a disaster. I was making many mistakes in my life and I couldnt admit that I was doing wrong in many ways. I didnt know what IBS seminar was all about. When I entered the room I was amazed by the gentleness of the ministers, by their kindness and especially by their freedom in expressing their love to God's Word and Jesus himself. I was shocked by their committment to the Lord. He was the most important thing in their lives. God was speaking to me through them. One day I came to my room after the service and started crying and praying... I felt that I had found something that I had lost long time ago and been looking for in my life. That night I decided I want to love God and his Word more than anything else... since then Jesus has been healing and changing my heart... thank you for coming over to Moscow to minister to us..."

Olga and I hope that many will be able to experience, like Sveta, the gift of God's love at IBS conferences. May the Lord bless you!

Mega huge peace to you all,

Igor and Olga Prokopyev

Our Prayer Needs

1.Permanent Residency for Nate

2.Financial Support

3.Wisdom to follow and listen to the Holy Spirit

4.My mom and dad as they go through tough times

5.The kids at the shelter – that they would receive and grow in the Word we are giving them

Praise Report

Dear Friends, Family, Partners - Loved Ones,

Last couple months have been truly a growing experience for Olga and I. The more we do the work of the ministry, the closer we get to the Lord, the more we learn, and the more we see how much we need to learn from the Lord. And our growing experiences aren’t stopping any time soon.

In September Olga and I had held our Annual ICM-Russia Leaders Forum. This was Nate’s first time he met the rest of the team of pastors and leaders spread out all over Russia and the former Soviet Union. Olga and I also had the pleasure of hosting our friends and partners Lewis and Adrian from Northern Ireland. They have known us and been working with us for about eight years now. These guys are on the board of the Light of Hope Shelter and have been instrumental in the ministry. They share our same vision and a very close relationship has developed over the years. These guys are fun, refreshing, encouraging and on fire for Jesus! Everyone of us who participated in the Forum learned a lot from the short week of fellowship we had.

In October I told Nate I was going to send him and a small team to a town called Veliki Ustyug to teach an Inductive Bible Study seminar and Sveta would be translating for him. That's what Nate shared with me the other day: "This was a little sudden for me and I didn’t really take it very well. I am not used to the sudden planning of Russian culture, and Igor is still getting used to how to communicate his plans to me. I was glad that Igor wanted me to get involved with IBS seminars and was grateful that Sveta was willing to help me with that, but I did not feel ready. I had gone through the course a couple times, watched the DVD seminar a couple times, and been to a seminar on how to teach the course, but had never taught a seminar, or even been on a team and watched it action. Now I was going to have to do it in Russia, with a slightly different manual I can’t read, and in a culture where I can easily get into big problems because of easy misunderstandings. In short I was not ready to go out on my own, at all! And this sudden thrust out of the nest was not going to fly with me! Igor felt for me and asked if Sveta and I would join him back to Moscow so we could watch him teach the IBS course to the students in the seminary where we held the ICM Forum. This put me at ease and I was glad to go. This trip to Moscow was again interesting. It was a good learning experience to watch Igor in action, specifically how he interacted with the students. At first the students where rather resistant and prideful, but I was impressed with the way Igor handled the situation. It did not take long before the students were very receptive. I learned how to be patient, loving, and gentle as I let the Word itself change their hearts through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The key is to be sincere and real, without shoving it down their throats. Then, when they see the pure motives of your heart towards them and the Word, they will receive the teaching..." After the trip to Moscow Nate and Sveta were ready to go to Veliki Ustyug. So two days after I was back from Moscow, I sent Abner, Valentine, Sveta and Nate to spend three days teaching people how to study the Bible. When they arrived there they were greeted by some of the most hungry, lost and needy people they have seen. The people there needed good solid Bible teaching and they needed it now. At first they were a little hesitant, but that is just the Russian nature. Pretty soon they where joyfully digging into the Word. However, the more we got into the Word more apparent it became that they had been fed a lot of false doctrines. I strongly believe the only true way broken people can be set right again is through the study of the Word in a balanced way that will teach you the whole counsel of God in a deep yet understandable manner coupled with the ministry of the Spirit. In other words, through the IBS method of studying the Word and the working of the Holy Spirit, lives will be changed!!! I was encouraged when I heard a couple weeks after the seminar that the people there were on fire for Jesus and it had been noticed by the pastor of the church who wants us to come again and teach a bigger crowd. Praise God for his misterious ways!

In November we are sending a small team to rehab center to teach IBS, Level 1. Also pastor Victor called me and asked to send Nate and Sveta to his church in a city of Vologda once a week to teach English, so Nate and Sveta help Victor to grow bigger people in his church. I am already trying to find more seminars for Nate to teach, and the Light of Hope Church we are starting here in Cherepovets is starting to gain momentum little by little.The other thing that I really need to do in November is to help Nate get permanent residency so that he can live here long term without worrying about visas, so he can work and travel more to do more seminars. Nate now has all he needs to file the paperwork so I am going to help him do that this week. This is my first time I am filing paperwork for residency, so I am not sure at all what to expect and would ask that you all would keep this in your prayers. Thank you for your prayers and support. As you can see you are enabling Olga and I to do things we would never have imagined possible, and could never do on our own. We together are working as the living body of Christ to build the Kingdom in the hearts of men. God bless you all, and may you be filled with His eternal grace and mercy, bringing peace, joy and righteousness!

IBS Seminar in Vorkuta

It is my joy to let you know that Olga and I were able to send Alex to Vorkuta to do a level two IBS seminar. He taught a group of about 50 people from different churches how to study and teach the Bible inductively. People came from the churches: Church of God, Sun of Truth, Siloam, Harvest, and Resurrection. Pastors Maxim Potapov, Fyodor Velichko, Miroslav, Valentine were blessed to have Alex there teaching them and the leaders how to use the word of God to bless and grow God’s people.

I want to thank all of you who pray and support ICM-Russia! It is through your help and prayer that we are able to send people out teaching this life-changing and powerful course to different denominations in Russia and the former Soviet Union. It is through our partnership that we will be able to impact this world and do our part to build Christ’s church!

Helping the Shelter Reach Street Kids

Dearest Friends and Partners,

I would like to let you know that Andrey is taking another group of street kids on a camping trip. We have experience great success in reaching the hearts of the kids with the Word of God in the forest. We have found that as the kids get out of their usual habits and spend time in the woods they begin to really open up to the Gospel. We have done several camping trips this year and are now doing one with the older kids. This will be longer trip, more like a backpacking trip. In order to do this we, at ICM-Russia, decided to spend $400 to buy backpacks, sleeping mats, and a couple compasses. The kids will be leaving tomorrow on their camping trip. Friends, we want to thank you for your support which allowed us to help share the love of Jesus with these kids. We ask that you please keep the trip in prayer so that they would be safe on the road and the kids would be impacted by the Love and Word of God!

Andrey and I standing with our new camping equipment.

Mission Trip to Belozyersk

Last week I led the mission’s team on another mission trip to a city called Belozyersk. Pastor Vitaly asked us to come and do an evangelical event like the one we did in Kirilov a couple months back. Vitaly and his church are going through kind of a hard time lately. In order to provide for his growing family Vitaly has been trying to split his time between pastoring a church and running a plumbing business as well as helping his wife run a thrift store. Over time both Vitaly and the church have started to feel worn out. It is our vision and desire to grow bigger people thru the IBS training.

We spent five days in Belozyersk, walking the streets, in the cold wind and rain, sharing the gospel and inviting people to our evangelical meetings. It was hard because of the weather and the hardness of the people. Never the less, several people came to our meetings and listened to testimonies and a gospel message. It is a joy to see the Spirit working through His people. I take a lot of pleasure in watching the mission team grow as we work to further the kingdom.

During the week I was able to sit down and have a real heart to heart with Vitaly and his wife Julia. And through this meeting the Lord has laid it on my heart to do what we can to help build up a team here in the Church and try to make it strong again. I am convinced that if we invest a little time and effort into this church they can and will be a great partner to ICM Russia. I see a lot of potential in the church.

Sunday we had a great service. I felt led to have Nate, our missionary friend from America, lead the Bible study and I translated for him. He is still getting used to life in Russia and this was a little trying for him. But the Spirit moved and people where blessed by what he said. Later we went to a rehab center and there Nate shared about abiding in the vine. Again this was hard for him but the Spirit blessed the guys there and one man took a step of faith.

We are most likely going to be spending more time here in Belozyersk helping them in any way we can. We are blessed to be able to have done this trip and look forward to what God has for us later. We thank you all for your prayer and support, without which we would not be able to do any of this. I would ask that you join us in praying for the church in Belozyersk and pastor Vitaly, that they would have wisdom and strength to follow where the Lord leads. I really believe that through you’re and our prayer the Lord will do mighty things in Russia. May the Lord’s grace abound in you, that you may be filled with His peace and joy as we fight to build the temple of the Lord.

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Thank You Letter From Moscow

We received this letter of thanks from the Seminary in Moscow. They where blessed by the training we gave them. It is our great pleasure that they received a blessing from us. We pray that they will be able to apply what we taught them in their ministries as the go out and build a strong and healthy church.

IBS Seminar in Tchaikovsky.

Alex just got back from a successful seminar in Jesus Christ Church in a city called Tchaikovsky. Pastor Victor Baranov and around 100 people came and listened to the Word. The presence of the Lord was very strong as people showed sincere interest in the studying of the word. Many were inspired and renewed. Here is what some of their comments:

There is a huge need for this ministry in the church. Many people just read the Word and do not really meditate on it. However we need to listen to the Word because it is living and active. Thank the Lord for this seminar. I received many revelations during this seminar. I saw that I have many things lacking, and learned a lot. May God bless your team as you continue to serve the Him. - Brother Jura

Your ministry is very timely and huge help. I received many useful tools from this seminar. I hope to apply this very practical doctrine in leadership and in service. Praise the Lord for your work! - Grigory Abdulin

Intensive Care Ministries is a blessing and a very timely help. I learned how to search the Scriptures, get to know the Lord personally and grow closer to Him. We received the answers to several questions through this seminar. - Family of Nazmutdinovyh

The seminar was very understandable and clear. My understanding was deepened. This ministry brings new a encouragement and motivation to listen to the Word of God, and to do it. - Family of Satinyh.

I thank God for this service. Because of this seminar, I have learned how to successfully interpret the Bible. I learned that that by doing observation, interpretation, and application, I can comprehend the Word of God to its complete fullness, rather than simply reading. - Alexander Sazontov

I thank our Lord for the ICM seminar. Through it we are inspired, strengthened in our belief and simply blessed. I am very glad to have been able to participate in this seminar. - Brother Gleb

The depths and beauty of the sanctity of the Lord are opened to us by this seminar! I wish you successes and longevity in Christ! - Michael Mihajlov

Through this seminar the Scriptures became even closer, clearer to me. I have new understanding what it means, that Word is for us today. I have learned how important it is to look at the context and to dig deep into the text. - Alena, Tchaikovsky.