Serving Jesus in America, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Africa, India and to the ends of the Earth... this is a blog of our family life, ministry experiences, and thoughts relating to ministry Jesus called us in to... "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations... teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you..."
Monday, August 24, 2009
IBS Seminars at Good News Rehab Center
5 Reasons I Want to Equip the Youth... Reason #5
#5 – I Love Our Youth!
I love our youth leaders… Dima and Sasha Batin are amazing!
And, our volunteers are TROOPERS! Seeing them serve Jesus challenges and inspires me!!
One of the evenings in Kirilov, Pastor Yuri and I were standing at the back of the auditorium watching the kids worship and preach the Gospel and he said to me, “Hey man, what if you had said ‘no!’ I looked at him and asked what in the heck he was talking about. He said, “What if you would have told God ‘no’ when He asked you to start spending more time training youth to become missionaries? Forget everything else that is going on – you would have never gotten to see this.” These kids are worth every single dime and every ounce of time we can give them…and I am so glad that God has allowed me to be a part of this.
I have decided in my life that when cuts need to be made in my budget… I take away from the adults before I take away from the youth… and if I do not do a good job and they get mad – I let them LEAVE and go another church that will organize their missions trips to preach the Word and do worship where they can view the Kingdom’s largest ball of twine!!!
Friends, I can’t wait to see what happens in our ministry this next year…and next ten years… and beyond. We have some amazing youth who love Jesus and are going to accomplish far more for HIS Kingdom that we’ve ever dreamed.
5 Reasons I Want to Equip the Youth... Reason #4
#4 – It Allows Me A Chance To Develop Relations
I don’t have a ton of conversations on Sunday because I am trying my best to make sure that I have all my i’s dotted and t’s crossed. BUT…when I go ahead and spend time with the youth I am able to focus and spend time with these kids… hear their stories, their struggles, answer their questions, pray for them, encourage them… and so on. I love it! And…when I see them throughout the year there’s a bond there... that is absolutely priceless!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
5 Reasons I Want to Equip the Youth - Reason #3
#3 – Youngsters Are An Incredible Predictor Of The Future!
If I think ICM-Russia or the church is going to look the exact same way it looks right now in ten years and still GROW…I am STUPID!
The question I am constantly facing is, “What’s next?” A new thing is on the way that is going to revolutionize the ministry! Something is going to happen to radically transform thousands of lives in the future. I believe youth ministry is going to unlock that “NEW THING” that will impact the next generation.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
5 Reasons I Want to Equip the Youth... Reason #2
#2 – I Believe In Our Youngsters!
First of all, let me clearly explain to you why I am doing that. I love teenagers! Seriously, I love them and believe that they ARE our church and not the future of our church!
Second of all, I honestly believe that the next ICM-Russia director and senior pastor of our church could be in this room! I am not going to be the head of the ministry forever. One day I will die and pass the leadership reigns over to someone else…and it could be one of them who is here participating in the project! I believe the next Billy Graham could be here. Or the next Kathryn Kulman! I believe that one of the greatest missionaries to ever live could be here… and so I want to spend as much time with them as I can!
5 Reasons I Want to Equip the Youth... Reason #1
Mom's out of the hospital and on the ROAD to recovery...
Friday, August 14, 2009
Kirilov Mission Trip - Part 1
Abner and I have been spending the last few month training and equipping youth from the church so that they know how to study and preach the Word, give their testimonies and getting folks saved into the Kingdom. These kids shared with me about their desire to become missionaries and go in Jesus name to the ends of the Earth. Finally, last week I had the great privilege of leading a team of about 15 youth to the missions field where we did an evangelical outreach in a small city called Kirilov and a small village Torzhok, which is about 20 km. away from Kirilov. There is a Christian couple there in Torzhok who have been praying for a church for a while so we were hoping to get something started there. And the small church in Kirilov pastored by a great friend, Yuri, has a hard time preaching the Gospel and getting people saved because there is an old Russian Orthodox monastery there that has a pretty tight hold on everything. We went all around the town handing out invitations to evangelical meetings and sharing the Gospel with the help of four spiritual law tracks.
The first day in the village was great! About 15 teenagers and 5 adults came to the evening service and we sang worship songs, had a skit, Sveta and Andrey gave their testimonies, Yuri preached the Gospel and gave an alter call. All the youth prayed Jesus and we played Frisbee and loved on them afterwards. Nate, my missionary friend from America, did a short martial arts presentation on how we need to stand on the Word and trust in the Lord, and it was powerful! The youth just loved the Gospel presentation! That night a lady, Olga was her name and two grown men, Pasha and Kostya accepted Christ. Praise the Lord! The second day we were doing the same thing when the the Police, FSB, and the Migration Department showed up and started giving us a hard time. Apparently there are three informants in that village that had reported we were handing out tracks and that there was an American preaching. The police were saying they hadn’t given us permission to do this and that we had to stop, because we were on public property. This was bad for Nate because he is on a tourist visa for now and technically shouldn’t be involved in evangelism so we had to take him to Kirilov in secret to avoid the police.
We shared the gospel and prayed for healing for this man
Preach the Gospel to every creature... we tried to tell this cow about the Creator ;0) she just loved it and said a loud good bye in the Cow language as we were leaving. We asked her to chew the message over till we come back later... hahaha
Boldly knocking on doors till people came and listened to the Good News
Our sisters helped an elderly gentleman weed his garden
and he taught Nate how to use a scythe...
Both ladies accepted Christ during the service
Sveta gave her testimony
So did Andrey
These kids gave their lives to Jesus... hallelujah!!!
Nate's little martial arts evangelism, I loved it!!!