Alex and Nate came back to Cherepovets all excited and blessed by the time they spent with the church in Izhevsk, Russia teaching an IBS seminar from Oct. 29th to Nov. 4th. The seminar was held at a seminary at the Works of Faith Church. On Sunday Alex preached about Cain and Abel at their three services, and Nate introduced himself at each of the services. It went really well.
The guys had five morning and evening sessions from Monday through Friday. The beginning of the seminar is always a mixture of
confusion and excitement. The first assignment leads them through Mark 2, the healing of the paralytic and gets them digging into the word finding things they have never seen before.
This gets the participants excited. However, it usually takes a while for them to get the hang of outlining and charting on their own. Most of them are not used to digging for themselves or thinking about the scriptures on their own. By the time they got done with the second assignment they were getting it. By the end of the seminar the students were tired, but they caught the idea and many expressed their intentions to continue using this method to study the scriptures at home.
This gets the participants excited. However, it usually takes a while for them to get the hang of outlining and charting on their own. Most of them are not used to digging for themselves or thinking about the scriptures on their own. By the time they got done with the second assignment they were getting it. By the end of the seminar the students were tired, but they caught the idea and many expressed their intentions to continue using this method to study the scriptures at home.
Alex and Nate were most encouraged by a message Alex received on Vkontakte (the Russian Facebook) the week after the seminar. A woman wrote to thank Alex because before the seminar her husband did not take an active role as spiritual leader of their family and didn’t read the Bible claiming it was uninteresting and not understandable. However, after our seminar he was encouraged to study the word and has been gathering his family to study the Bible. This is a great example of how giving people this study method can change the lives of Christians, setting on fire those that were previous in a lukewarm stupor... (click on READ MORE)
Alex and Nate were also invited to speak at two different home groups. Alex went to a group with business men and politicians and Nate was invited to a home group for the leaders of the youth ministry. Alex taught from Romans 13 and encouraged the men to change the way they do business if they really want to make an impact in Russia for good. Nate taught from 1 Samuel 3 about the calling of Samuel. This was the first time Nate has tried to lead a Bible study in Russian. It went rather well. He still has a long way to go, and would not teach a study on his own in a larger group, but it is till encouraging to see that he is that much closer to being able to preach and do seminars in Russian without a translator.
This trip has opened the doors to come back and do more seminars in some of the smaller churches of the area, as well as to go to a different church farther east. The Lord is moving us forward. Pease help us bring this life-changing course to wherever the need is! Olga and I are excited to see what the Lord is doing in and through ICM of Russia Crew!
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