Tuesday, December 30, 2008
All 5000 invitations are given out. Praise the Lord! Ask Him to use these invitations for His glory.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Team Update
Crestview Baptist Church, you have sent us an awesome team! Thanks so much. Our time together has been so special. The team is so flexible and has worked so hard.
They have been out in the freezing cold weather with no complaining. So far over 2000 Gospel tracts / invitations to a special Russian Christmas service (on Jan. 7) have been given out. The cool thing about these invitations is that they clearly present the Gospel. No matter how many people come to the Christmas service, still many will read the tract and we've no doubt that God will use it in the lives of some. Please pray with us that these invitations will fall into the hands of people who are seeking and open. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work through them to draw people to Christ. Pray that many will want to attend the special service. Pray specifically for Alexander, a man who called Genady today to say that he wants to come to the Christmas service. This is the first concrete response we've received. Praise God for how He is going to work through this effort to bring glory to himself and draw people to himself. Tomorrow and Wednesday the goal is to hand out 3000 more. Pray for energy, strength, boldness, and love as we do this.
Brad has been spending lots of time with the team and I've been home with the kids, but tonight he stayed with the boys and I was able to attend a party for the elderly Christian women at Good News Church. What a blessing!!!!! The sweet ladies were so thankful and just loved having fellowship with the Americans. Margie shared the story of the candy cane and they gave each lady one. We sang songs together. Each lady shared prayer requests and team members wrote them down and promised to pray for them. Almost every single lady asked for prayer for salvation for family members. We shared some food together and also testimonies of how God is working in Russia and in America. It was such a sweet time. At the end the team gave each lady a gift bag with little gifts and fruit. The ladies were so happy and thankful. Thanks to all who gave financially to make this party possible. I know some from Poplar Springs Baptist Church gave towards this and probably many others. I'll post some photos so you can see the joy on the faces of these dear ladies. Enjoy!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Crestview Volunteer Team
A volunteer team from our home town of Shelby, NC is here with us this week. We are having so much fun ministering together with them. They have already been an incredible blessing to us. My brother, Jeremy, is team leader. It's been so great to see him and catch up a little with him. Actually everybody on this team has been to Moscow before, so they're pros. Please pray for them the rest of this week. They will be doing many different things. Lift them up and ask the Lord to work both in and through them during their time in Moscow. Here is a partial schedule of what they will be doing. They will be very busy. Please pray for strength, boldness, opportunities, health, and more.
Sunday - worship, fellowship with the Goluvinski Church - the team will lead in worship through songs and testimonies.
- 3 will go to Svetlana's home group - 2 will go out with a church member to pass out
DVDs of the JESUS film - 2 will go to shop for items to be given to elderly Christian women at Good News Church.
Monday - full day of prayer walking and evangelism - giving out Jesus film DVDs, candy canes with the story of the candy cane attached, invitations to a special Christmas service that will take place on Russian Christmas (Jan. 7)
Tuesday - a.m. prayer walking and evangelism - p.m.meeting to discuss personal evangelism with Goluvinskiy church members.
Wednesday - New Year's celebration with Goluvinski Church and evangelism until 4:00. Bring in the New Year at the Stamey's apt.
Thursday - Since it's New Year's Day and this is the biggest holiday in Russia, everyone is busy and everything is closed on this day. Russians will be spending time with family and friends. So the team will be with us all day. We're hoping for snow so that some of us can go sledding. Also Rhenn Cherry, our new strategy coordinator for Moscow will be with us for the day. The team will get a chance to hear about his plans for Moscow and pray for him and his ministry. He may also share a little about his plans for involving Deana and Jeremy in this work in the future. We'll have some great prayer times together asking the Lord's blessings on this coming year.
Friday - Sunday - At 9:00 a.m. on Friday the team leaves for a small village several hours outside of Moscow - Rzhev. They will meet with the church there for fellowship and encouragement and minister in two different orphanages. They'll also be sharing both through testimony and song in the Sunday morning service.
Sunday - travel back to Moscow - debriefing.
Monday - Travel back to NC
I'll try to update an post a few photos later in the week. Thanks Crestview for sending this team! Thanks for co-laboring with us!
