At first they said, “Maybe about 40 ladies will be coming.” Next they said, “We should prepare for about 70 ladies.” Well, the conference hasn’t begun yet and we are all making changes and rearranging rooms for the ladies to stay the night as the latest count is over 100 ladies and more phone calls are coming in. Praise the Lord that Gini and Renee have already been able to connect with some ladies and built a relationship. Also, I shortened my teaching from 5 days to 4 so that the men could all return home and be sure that they relieved their wives to attend the conference. One man, Nadir, lives about 5 hours away. He returned home and his wife will be traveling 12 hours by bus to attend the conference. Ivan is returning home, a four hour trip, picking up his wife and four ladies and returning to Ufa. These are the kind of stories that are taking place – the men are rising to the occasion. So, please pray…and here are some ways that you can:
1. For Gini and Renee – that God would use their preparation and minister through them in whatever way He wants to. For freedom to allow the Holy Spirit to take over, for strength and endurance to keep up with the women. For wisdom as they are asked questions.
2. For Emilia, our interpreter, who is the coordinator of the whole conference. She has been buzzing around making sure that all things are in order. Pray for her strength, stamina and leadership and that in all of this she can be a learner too.
3. For the Ladies in attendance – that they would be encouraged and strengthened in their faith and embrace the message being given through their American sisters.
We need your prayers…!
Tuesday was a great day of ministry as the team broke up into two teams to serve the Lord on different fronts.
In the evening Rod had the opportunity to visit a leaders Bible Study with Surgei Interesov who is the pastor of the First Baptist Church and where Emilia, our interpreter, attends.
Rod taught from 11:00 to 6:30 with a break for lunch in between. Realize, however, that our Russian friends love their tea and biscuits, so every hour or so they take a break to refill their mugs and stack up on cookies. The class is going well, with about 25 men in attendance and more to be coming today (Tuesday). Rod is teaching on “Preaching on Difficult Issues” and there is an eagerness for the discussion on these issues.
Both Kenny and his mother, Renee, were asked to work with the street kids tonight. Only two could go as they were going to go find the children in different hiding places so taking the whole group would have been very difficult. When I see Ken & Renee I’ll get an update and share their experience with you.
Thursday – The Team will be serving with the street kids again and Rod will continue to teach from 9:30 to 6:30, however, this will be his last day of teaching as the men will need to return to their homes so that they can watch the children as their wives come for the ladies conference which begins on Friday.
Saturday – The ladies conference will continue until about 5:00 p.m. after which the team will all head out to the rehab center in Sterlatimak again for an evening service. They will all stay at Sergei Loshak’s home and serve in the Sterlatimak region the next day, being divided up into two teams.
Chris’ group visited two churches. In the morning they went to Grace Church, a new church that is beginning in a home and where one of the street kids ministries takes place during the week under the leadership of Marina. They enjoyed the small fellowship. Chris preached and Renee shared a testimony. In the evening they attended the Light of the Gospel church, a favorite of everyone who comes to Ufa, whose pastor is Surgei (I know, there are a lot of Surgie’s) and the youth pastor is Arturo. Christ preached again and Steven shared a testimony. The group was extremely encouraged by the ministry and the relationship renewed and established.
After the day of services we all rendezvoud at our translator, Emilia’s, home where her mother – “Mamma Usmanova” as Rod calls her – put out an incredible 5 course meal. We fellowshipped and we laughed…and we laughed until it hurt…then after a “LUL” we took some serious time to share what God was teaching us. We are amazed at the graciousness, the friendliness and the seriousnees of these believers. We are making immediate friends who are now our brothers and sisters in the faith. We recognized that they are hard workers and not concerned with materialism like we are. It was a great time for growth.
After lunch Nail, a national pastor, spoke on the issue of obedience. Now, you think that Rod preaches long – sheeesh!! Then, immediately after he spoke, we had three songs and Stephen & Kenny along with the help of Svetlana and Indira (Emily’s sister who helps with interpreting) shared a skit on the struggles we go through trying to be cool and fitting into the world when we don’t need to. Then Rod, immediately finished out the conference speaking on Psalm 37:4, which is actually Psalm 37:5 in the Russian Bibles as they give a verse to the title of each psalm.
Now, the interesting thing is how long these young people sat without breaks. We American are not used to the endurance that they had and during Nail’s sermon were dropping like flies, bobbling heads and yawning like lazy lions on the prarie. We were doing all we could do to stay awake, but lunchwas hearty, the sermon was long and residual tiredness was sitting in. Fortunately, none of us made any major scene — we came close, though.
In the evening some of the team went out for a walk with the interpreters, but Rod, Gini and Renee stayed back to rest. Rod is still struggling with a fever, so please pray for him. Gini and Renee are already being swarmed by the ladies of the churches and are answering lots of questions. I think that their Women’s Conference will be outstanding and will be a great encouragement to the churches here.
Well, this morning as I met with Piotr Zhuk and Emily, Piotr shared with me that there has been some difficult setbacks in the ministry here. He shared of division within the church body and that he will be meeting with some key pastors who have all had a part to play to seek restoration. That was a big bomb to take, but we gathered together as a team, prayed for the church here and committed our time to the Lord. There is no coincidence that we are here and only want to be used by Him to help minister and heal where we can.
Marat, the Youth Director wasn’t too confident that many youth would attend the conference beginning this evening. He chose to use the classroom here at the office to host the meeting, expecting at most 20 people…well, the good news is that we had to leave the classroom and move over the Central Church (aka the International House of Prayer – or IHOP) where a total of 70 young people gathered. It was amazing and there was an eager buzz among the people. Now, you should understand that when I say “Young People” I am using that term in a Russian way. They use it to describe people from that ages of 12 to about 30.
ere taking place. The church was guarded all around by soldiers.
So, it has been two nights in Moscow and now we have finally arrived in Ufa. We were charged in the neighborhood o f $500 for the weight of the bags. The domestic flights in Russia only allow you to bring on 40 lbs and we each had two suitcases of about 50 lbs each… So, we were expecting it. Tonight we are resting and tomorrow we will spend time preparing for the weekends activities: Purchase of Guitars, Preparing Lessons, practicing skits, etc.
