Partnering Together

Genady and Vica have a new baby boy. He was born sometime in the early morning on Saturday, Oct. 28. Both Vica and the baby are healthy. He weighs approx. 6.1 lbs. They named him Mark. Please pray for Vica and the baby as they will be in the hospital for a few more days. Pray for Genady as he patiently waits to meet his son. Pray for Melena (3) and Stefsha (2) as they make the huge adjustment to having a new baby brother. Praise the Lord for the birth of little Mark.

Rejoice with us, please, that another step was taken in the development of our church plant in the Golovinski Region. Through Genady’s leadership with his team of committed believers, this group recognized on Sunday, Oct. 22, that indeed they are really a church!! They have felt like a church since the baptism in August, but on Sunday they decided to take the step of introducing membership. Nine people were immediately ready to commit to this, and a few others are praying about it.

I bless the Lord that He has put on the hearts of these folks to not just look inwardly, but to feel the burden for reaching the lost in their region. They want to do this through the development of cell groups, meeting in the homes. Please pray as God continues to piece the mosaic together.

Blessings, Brad.

Sasha called just a little while ago and said, "You can congratulate me now. I just became a Papa". Katya delivered by c-section a healthy baby boy this afternoon. If I understood correctly and did the calculations right, I think he weighs 9.2 lbs. They have named him Ivan Alexandrovich - Vanya will be the Russian nickname that they will call him while he is little. Please pray for Katya and Vanya as they will be in the hospital for several more days. Please pray for Sasha to be at peace as he waits to meet his son and to see his wife again. Praise the Lord for a safe and healthy delivery! Praise the Lord for Vanya!

Just wanted to post a special thanks to Jim, Carol, and others from FBC Charlotte who sent a footlocker of chocolate our way. As Jim was preparing to travel this way, he wrote to ask if they could bring us anything. I told him that my brother had brought over many things to us recently so we didn't really need anything, but that if he had space, he could throw in some hot chocolate and a brownie mix. Well, he showed up with a footlocker full of brownie mixes, hot chocolate and other goodies. THANKS so much! We've already enjoyed some delicious brownies.

Please pray for Katya today. She started labor about 1:00 p.m. our time - 5:00 a.m. Tuesday EST. This is her first baby, so of course, she is very nervous. Pray for Sasha too as he waits for news. He is not allowed in the hospital, so he is waiting for a phone call. Please pray for health for Katya and for their baby boy. We'll update as soon as we hear news.

Please pray for our friend, Valentina. She is an elderly lady who started coming to the Gulovinsky Church when it was meeting in the library. She came regularly and was interested in studying the Bible. When we had to leave the library and started meeting in Genady's apartment, she said that she would not be coming anymore. Well, when the Crestview team was here, she started coming again. No doubt, an answer to prayer. She is coming to worship on Sundays and to Bible study on Wednesday nights. She talked with me this past Sunday and said that the more she reads the Bible, the more confused she becomes. She can't understand the trinity and when she sees God the Father and God the Son as separate, she can't understand how a father could allow his son to suffer as God allowed Jesus to suffer. She is confused, but she is seeking. Pray for her to clearly understand the true nature of God. Pray for her to understand the depth of the love of God for her personally. Pray for her to understand the reason for Christ's suffering and to be able to accept God's gift of grace. At the home group on Wednesday night, they will not have their normal study, but will be doing a special study to help Valentina understand the nature of God. Please pray for God to speak to Valentina's heart. Pray that the Holy Spirit will speak through the Word and through every Believer to make things more clear to the precious lady.

God has been so good to allow our latest volunteer team, from Shelby, N.C., to cross paths and minister to the following people during their trip to Moscow. Please join with them and with us as we continue to pray for these individuals ( those in RED have not been born again in Christ ).

Natasha (whose husband left her)
Tamara
Oleg, Arkadia, and Irina
Sasha and Katya
Pasha
Svetlana and Vitalic ( not baptized yet )
Olim
Misha (missionary / pastor in Rzhev)
Anastasia (pray for her son)
Vitalic
Sergei and Vitaly
Misha and Dema, sons of Rosa
Dema’s neighbor and daughter
Valentina


Children at the Children’s Shelter in Rzhev:

Clava, Vasya, Sergei, Nastia, Alexander, Christina, Sasha, Stas, Leon, Axana, Kolya, Adrei, another Sasha, Anya, Lugene, Kerill

Thank you for joining us in prayer!!
Blessings, Brad.

It's been another great day. The team enjoyed worship and then a special time of fellowship with the Goluvinsky Church. Then they came to our house for dinner and a time of reflection. God answered your prayers and we really had a great time remembering God's blessings of this past week. We made lists of people, places, and experiences that have been a part of the week and it was fun to see how God put it all together. We shared stories, testimonies, and lots of praise.

At the end of our time together I received a huge surprise. I was given a BEAUTIFUL quilt made by the women of Crestiew Baptist Church in Shelby, NC. Many different women in the church made squares and then they had them put together to form an incredibly beautiful quilt. My sister-in-law, Deana, even made one. This is a special gift that I will treasure forever. It's even more special because I know of the love and prayers that are a part of the gift. I KNOW that these women pray for me, my family, and our ministry regularly and it means so much. THANK YOU, ladies, for making me feel so special and loved with your kind gift. I will use it as a blankie, as I was told to and I know that it will comfort me on difficult days and keep me warm on cold days.

So now we've said goodbye and Brad is taking them back to the hotel. Brad will meet them in the morning to get them off to the airport. Please pray for their safe travel. Please pray for us, as it is always hard to say goodbye. It never really gets any easier. When I came back inside from saying goodbye, Mark said, "Momma, you know how you sometimes say that I have a tender heart - well, I can just imagine how you must feel right now since your brother just left. Are you okay?" He's so sweet! Yes, I'm okay, but it is always sad to say goodbye to family.

Crestview, THANKS SO MUCH for sharing this incredible group of people with us this week. It was a wonderful week and only God knows the results that He will bring from all the seeds planted by the team.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen! Ephesians 3:20

After a long week of ministry, we had a fun day of shopping and sightseeing yesterday. We ended the evening with a trip to the Moscow Circus. It was a fun day. My boys have really enjoyed being with this team. They have been a blessing and encouragement to our whole family!

Today we will attend church. 1/2 at Good News and 1/2 at Genady's. Then the whole group will go to Genady's house for a goodbye fellowship with the Goluvinsky church. After that they will come to our apartment for dinner and debriefing. It will be fun to look back at all that God has done during their time here. He has worked in some incredible ways and they will have lots of stories to tell when they return home. So be ready to listen.

Attached you'll find some more photos. Justin let me download some of his photos, so I will share some of them.

Please pray for our debriefing time tonight. Pray that God's Spirit will be present and teach us as we remember all that He has done this week and give him thanks and praise. Pray for safe travel tomorrow and for sweet reunions with family members.

Wow! We just returned from a wonderful trip to Rzhev, Russia. I'm too tired to write much tonight, but will try to write more later. The team can also fill in the details for those of you who live in Shelby. We traveled about 4.5 hours by van to get to this little city. We were greeted by the pastor and a few members of his small 19 member church. They served us a delicious meal that first evening and fed us several more very delicious, Russian meals during our stay. We then drove about 1 more hour to get to the children's shelter. This is a shelter for children who have been neglected or mistreated in their homes and have been removed from their homes for a time. Hopefully these children will be able to be reunited with their families but if not, they will be moved to orphanages. The children were soooooooooooooooooooo happy to have visitors and even though the team only spoke English, they were able to communicate love to these children. With hugs, smiles, gifts, games, stories, and laughter, much love was shared. We pray that we were a blessing. We KNOW that we were blessed!

In addition, the men were able to help with building a roof for the little church there. They worked this morning to help nail some boards on the roof that is being built. The pastor and others were so thankful for their hard work and help.

We were able to spend the night in Russian homes and were treated with incredible hospitality. Janice and I spent the night with a 76 year old lady named Lida. There was no heat in her apartment and it was about 40*F outside. So it was pretty cool inside too. Last night, she gave us the feather blanket from her own bed. She used a much lighter blanket. This morning, she made us sit with our feet on a little stool and put a hot water bottle on our feet to keep us warm. She fixed us a huge breakfast and just served us constantly while we were in her home. The others had similar experiences of amazing hospitality as well.

We're all so thankful to God for allowing us these experiences. It's fun to see how He is at work in different places. He is so good! Thanks for praying for this trip. God heard and answered.

After several day of hard work, the team enjoyed a day of sightseeing today. We visited Red Square, the Kremlin, Lenin's Tomb, and several other places. Then this afternoon, the team hosted a party for all of the International Mission Board MKs who live in Moscow. I think we had about 22 kids there. We played games with them, shared American candy with them, and then had a pizza party with them. They all had a great time. They are all such good friends. When parents picked up their children, we gave each family a gift bag filled with baking items are not available here in Moscow. They were so thankful to receive these bags. Thanks to all who helped to make this possible. This was a fun way to encourage the IMB missionaries and their children.

Yesterday the team passed out about 2000 tracts and 2500 invitations to receive a free Bible. They were tired at the end of the day, but excited to think about what God will do with these tracts and invitations. Pray with us that as people check their mailboxes and find these tracts and invitations, they will read them and respond.

Tomorrow we head to an orphanage several hours outside of Moscow. This will be a big adventure for all of us because we have never been there before. Pray for safety as we travel and for God to use us to accomplish all that he desires while we are there.

Thanks for lifting the team and us up.