At the “Word of Truth” church, we decided to take part in
the needs of people and show concern for those around us. During the month, we
have delivered over 50 food packages. Some greeted us with joy and others cried
from happiness, for receiving help from us. Nobody remained indifferent,
everyone thanked us and God for the care and participation.
We brought a food package to a woman who is raising her
teenage son, Danil, all alone. Her name is Evgenia. The boy has been disabled
since the age of five due to a medical error. Evgenia has been trying to suppress
pain and resentment by regularly drinking. We have known each other for a long
time since they were visiting the Church more than once.
A few months ago, Evgenia turned to the Lord with a prayer of repentance during our meetings. After that, she began to attend the fellowship of believers and started to read the Bible.
But with the start of quarantine, and the inability to have constant support, she returned into her old and sinful life. When we brought her food, she burst into tears. She said that she was tired and could no longer live like this. We invited her to go to rehab. She hesitated in the beginning but after praying with us she agreed. Danil stayed with his grandmother, and Evgenia is recovering in the rehab now. We continue to pray for their repentance.
We not only had blessings but also difficulties. Our car began to fail and at the most unfortunate moment. It stopped driving forward and only could go backward, then the ignition system fails, and the car stalled in the middle of the road.
You are part of the team and we ask you to pray from the
bottom of our hearts for our ministry!
Last week, an incident occurred in the children’s ark that
not only surprised us but made us see the greatness of God. After many warm
days, a light rain began. A few minutes later, the rain intensified and hail
with the size of a tennis balls began to fall from the sky.
While we were observing this natural phenomenon, one of our
employees shouted: “The basement is flooding with water! The Kurmaevs and the
Kireevs family possessions are getting wet.” Going down to the basement,
we saw that the floor was already covered with water. The sewage pumps couldn’t
handle that much water. All the employees and children of the “Children’s
Ark”, grabbed the containers that were at hand, began to collect the water
from the basement.
Other went outside to open the sewage system but this did
not help either, since the streets were also flooded. The whole process lasted
four hours, and we continued to clean until the next day.
Over the next few weeks, we expect rain again and pray that
our basement will remains dry. In addition, we will have to buy stronger sewage
pumps. We cannot afford them at the moment. Especially now that we are forced
to do it without government assistance due to the pandemic. Please help us
raise $2000 for our children at the orphanage and buy new pumps.
Tong* was born into a big family where everything went well until his parents divorced. His parents moved to different cities. At a young age, Tong moved to live with his aunt and cousins, hoping to find acceptance there. For a few years, it was a good time, till one of his cousins got married and before moving to the house with his wife, he asked Tong to leave and to move somewhere else.
It was not easy for him to accept the new reality with all these changes. Tong was in middle school when he started to live with his relatives in a big city. During all this chaos, God was there! Not far from the place where Tong stayed, was a Church. Tong started to attend the Church and learned about the One who loves him. Tong learned to play guitar and made new friends. But it didn’t last long. After a year he needed to move and he started to live with his grandparents, where the whole family stayed in one room. His sleeping place was under the TV. God didn’t make a mistake this time either. That was the place we met Tong. He started coming to Church and made new friends. Despite all rejection in his life, God accepts him and he tries to live his life for Him. Since he loves to play guitar and joined our worship team. He shines when he plays for God. God gave him the talent to write songs. His biggest dream is that one day his family will be together.
Your prayers and support help young people like Tong, Few, Tiew, and many others, to see the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to accept Him and grow in knowing Him more and more. When we talked with our youth we asked: How do you see your life in 5, 10, 15 years? Tong answered that he would like to be a policeman, learn the law, protect Christians and support the Church, that Og (our other young men) wants to open up in the mountains, where there are not many Christians.
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During this time when young people have a lot of free time, we were able to purchase some digital learning programs, and they can come to church and learn guitar, piano, ukulele, typing on the computer, and more. They also learn the Word of God and find wisdom for the Christian life.
Thank you very much for your prayers and support, we
can see God’s hand in it.
Please pray for every young person in our church to grow in the faith and make the right decisions and for the project “letters from God” which has been created for every child to learn about the bible through the mail. Please pray for us as leaders, we need God’s wisdom and guidance.
Samuel Santam is 6 years old. He lives with his mother, three sisters, and four brothers. He has no father, who died when his mother was four months pregnant. They all live with their grandmother. She is in old age, sick and very weak. A year ago, she broke her leg and became even more dependent on others.
Samuel’s mother usually goes to the nearest town to sell tea and chapatis (fried cakes) on the market. With the proceeds, she buys food and other necessities for her children. Samuel started coming to my school because his mother has no money to send him to a public school. When the boy received his first shoes donated by you, he was so happy. He also received a school uniform as a gift. There was no end to his joy because he had never received anything like it. Some children, unlike Samuel, are from wealthier families. Their parents are able to pay for their lunch, school fees, and benefits.
After the opening of the school, only a part of the children came to class. A week later, I saw all my students. We are allowed to work from 5 AM to 6 PM since we are not indoors. According to the terms of the quarantine, we are prohibited from going outside at night. I am glad that the children are happy to be in school again. Thank you so much for the support of our children. May God bless and reward you!
We are having difficult times, and with self-isolation, there are benefits and disadvantages. The benefit is that people have become more sensitive and more inclined towards the Gospel.
My team and I took this opportunity and delivered food packages and medicine to families in need. Savely and his mother Ulyana are especially thankful. Thanks to you, we were able to participate and bring warmth and light into their lives!
Also, in St. Petersburg after a bone marrow transplant, there are four children from Omsk, whom we help. The head physician of the department once again said that “we are a team and without you, I cannot imagine the work of the department”. She blessed us and this is a breakthrough in the development of the ministry. Since May 1, the department has a girl Lera with her mother Maria. Lera is seven years old. She has lymphoblastic leukemia (blood cancer). She urgently needs a bone marrow transplant, and on May 23, I took them to the airport. Maria herself, Lera’s mother, had a difficult life. She was brought up in an orphanage and, although she has a husband and another child, their family lives below the poverty level. We fully clothed Lera and her Mom so that they could fly to the surgery. Doctors say that there is only a small chance for her, everything needs to be done quickly. We took them under our care, and will we help them in any way possible in Omsk and in St. Petersburg.
Please pray for Lera’s family. We will need to help them with housing, food, and purchase medicines. Thank you for your concern!
What can we do? There is a riot in Lebanon, and all services
are already planned. Local people are used to the unrest in the streets and are
calm about it. But we were worried, afraid to put our lives in danger, but it
was unacceptable for us to refuse to serve; the Lebanese would not understand
us. For them, the most important thing is to trust in God. Those who have
accepted the Lord understand that every believer is worthy of Christ if he is
ready to give his life for Him.
Relying on God and His mercy, we decided to go to Lebanon. At the airport, no one met us, and only by morning, it became clear that the greeters were blocked by the protesters. On the way to the place of worship, we had to bypass some streets because of the protesters. The services were held among Syrian and Iraqi refugees. More than 500,000 children live in Lebanon who are deprived of adequate nutrition and do not have access to education. Once, having gathered for prayer, I noticed that all the brothers had recently come to the Lord and that each was from a Middle Eastern country – Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan. And they all were united in their understanding of the Gospel, confessing Jesus despite the persecution and oppression from their fellow tribesmen.
After completing one of the services, Syrian women came up to us saying: “We are very glad that you have come to us.” The Lord has his own plans for these nations. We appeal to brothers and sisters with a request to pray for the awakening of the peoples of the East and also ask you to support our evangelistic projects and pray for our music group so that the Lord will continue to give boldness to carry out the ministry of preaching the Gospel.
