This past month Olga and I were tremendously blessed to experience one of the best missions outreaches ever! The team the Lord put together was amazing! There were six people from JVC Northern Ireland, one sister came from Word of Life Church of Kirov, one from Transformation Church of Vologda and a couple of pastors from Light of Hope Church of Cherepovets as well as Olga and me. We could not have asked for a more cohesive group of people! Every day was a new adventure as the Lord was talking to us about His plans for that particular day... because that is the way He operates! Almost a year ago the Lord laid it on my heart to host a tree day conference in Cherepovets, Russia where people would come and taste the goodness of our Lord. We invited all the churches to come together and participate in "Celebrating the Life of Christ" Conference. More than 150 people attended the services each and every day. Our team was focused on serving the Word of God and praying for people and leading them to the Rock of our salvation. Pastors of different churches and their wives attended the conference and really enjoyed the presence of God as His powerful Word had been preached! A lot of people rededicated their lives to Jesus, some of the participants confessed their sins and believed in the Gospel afresh. That first week was real full, we all worked really hard and had a great great time serving people of God together! It was huge blessing for me to watch each of the team member teach the Word, pray with people and see the people respond and very often in tears of repentance or joy! For that, we praise the Lord! On Sunday Olga and I divided the team into three groups and sent them to serve three different towns where our ICM of Russia partners pastor their churches. We are blessed to receive letters, emails and facebook messages about how blessed the people became in Vologda, Cherepovets, Belozersk and Kirillov. It was a long long Sunday but every one of us had an awesome time!!!!!
After we were done ministring there in Cherepovets, Vologda, Belozersk and Kirillov we as a team traveled to Moscow to hold our annual ICM of Russia Forum 2012. More than 30 pastors, worship leaders, children ministers and their wives came to spent three days in the Word of God, prayer, and fellowship. The church leaders we have ministered to, have so much in common; they love the Lord, they love God's Word, they adore people of God and they want to know and understand God's will for their lives and walk daily in His presence! Everyone of us realize that we need to work on our ministries from a Biblical perspective rather than just cultural, but how do you break away from decades if not centuries of Russian Orthodox Church dominance? The answer is with God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit! By the last day of the Forum we saw pastors being encouraged and renewed and refreshed to teach through the Bible in their churches and bring life of Christ as they serve people in their communities. The Word convicted and encouraged many to reconsider and keep up with good works in the Kingdom of God. We praise the Lord that His Word doesn't return void and He is faithful to complete that which He has begun!
After we were done ministering there in Moscow, Olga and I came back to Cherepovets to do some work at the Light of Hope Street Children's Shelter and Light of Hope Church of Cherepovets where we were able to bless the ministry with the funds and encourage ICM of Russia friends and partners to replace the old windows at the shelter. It is a huge project but it is a working progress! Praise the Lord! We were able to buy a new laptop and fix an older machine so that kids can learn to use computers to do their homework and play educational computer games. Kids really enjoy coming to the shelter to get some physical and spiritual food, computer and social skills. Olga and I were very blessed to see how God is using Tatyana and Abner and Nelly as they serve the Lord and street kids who come to the shelter on a regular basis.
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