Dear Church! Thank you very much for your prayers and support! God is faithful He helps us to continue!
“And howcanthey believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And howcantheyhear without someone preaching to them?“Romans 10:14
Can you imagine living in a world with little understanding of what is going on around? Hear the sounds, words, not able to read on your own and speak a language that not many people around can understand? This is the life of many elderly people in our tribe, and many other tribes who live in Thailand. The young generation speaks Thai, not many are using the Mien language anymore.
God put a desire on our hearts to visit the elderly people in our village to show them the love of Jesus and His care. Our challenge was to communicate with them. The vocabulary that our children use is enough to greet and ask simple questions, but not to translate the songs that we sang about God. This particular lady was very touched that we came to visit her, and her eyes were happy when children tried to speak Mien to her, but we realized that she didn’t understand what we were singing about. When we turned on a Christian song in Mien for her to listen, she was happy and excited. She held the phone close trying to hear every word of the song and said: “I will give it back to you when you will go home”. She was desperate to hear and understand. Can you imagine living in the world with a little understanding of what is going on around, being spiritually blind? They are worshiping spirits, bringing sacrifices to them and trying to please them. Yes, many elderly people in our tribe don’t know God and what did He for them. They need to hear the good news! This is one of the ways we can do it.
Thank you, everyone, who is supporting this project, because now we can give not only small present of some food and towels or pillows but also to put God’s Word and some available Christian songs in the Mien language on a small device and share it with the elderly who live in our village. As our children are practicing songs and prayer in Mien, we are asking you to pray for the elderly in our tribe – that their hearts would be ready to hear the Gospel as we continue to visit them.
This month is also the last of this school year and we had a get-together on the last day in our school before the summer break. Some children who came have very special life stories, and some of those we would like to share with you.
Vigo, is a little boy, whose grandma brings him on an old bicycle to school. She is very glad and thankful that he can come and learn. Every Sunday this boy comes way earlier before the church starts.
Aan, is a four-year-old boy, who is living with his grandma, and often making troubles in the neighborhood. When we brought him to the church, the first half an hour he was very quiet, and probably analyzing what is going on and why do these people look happy when singing songs. He really enjoyed playing with the boys and having a snack. He listened to the Bible story with other the children and we saw his interest. At the end when his grandma came to pick him up, she was very thankful that he was able to spend this time at the church and was glad seeing him behaving very well. One of the Sundays she said: “Aan really likes to come here and reminds me when Sundays are approaching”
Atua is another boy who is living with his grandma because his dad is in prison and mom got married to another man. Atua is a happy and smart boy who keeps on coming to every evening school and doesn’t miss a single church service where he learns a lot about God.
“When Nok Young started to learn with you, she became more confident and happier in learning another language.” – said her mom. She also learned how to pray and does it daily now since then.
And there are many other names and stories of children who need to continue to learn about Jesus and how to follow Him. We would like to invite you to join us for the new school year and If God is touching your heart and calling you for the long term, you would take a significant part in continuing helping these children grow in Christ.
Please pray:
For our summer camp, the team and every child who will join.
For the elderly at our tribe and outreach program with them.
For our health as air pollution reached a new high in the last few months.
For God to send the right people here for the long term.
May God richly bless everyone, of you as you follow Him!
God has shown us mercy to be His preachers in the Yamal Peninsula. Being in God’s hands, we experienced many blessings. The initiator of this journey is, of course, our Savior, who said that His followers would be witnesses of the Good News to the ends of the earth.
Starting the trip with a prayer, we used the all-terrain vehicle “Tracola”, to drive a pre-planned route. We heard about difficulties in traveling for others and were surprised how the Lord helped them in those circumstances. But at the beginning of the road, we still did not know what obstacles we personally had ahead of us. But still we will value it, because of our experience of trusting in God, He has the solution to all problems!
Seeing the power and strength of our Lord through hard times strengthens our faith and it encourages us to continue on our way, visiting missionary families and groups of believers, as well as believers of the Nenets and non-believers living in tents. When preaching about Christ, we encourage some and also encourage ourselves.
Our path led us through the national villages in which there were churches. After more than 700 km (435 miles) we ended up in a village, in which a church exists and a family of missionaries lives with their five children. We were greeted with a lot of care, attention, and warmth, and enjoyed being with our friends.
How nice it is to be around people who have dedicated their lives to the altar of the service to God! Our hearts are especially pleased when, in these last times, we come in contact with simple Christian families who are living openly a sacrificial life in Christ.
We are back in Iraq again. Before the trip, we experienced worries as like always. We understood that this is an opposition of spiritual forces, because our enemy is not with flesh and blood! But the inner call from God and the affection of the Holy Spirit, to go and preach in these countries, helped us overcome our anxiety.
We served the refugees as well as the locals. At one of our events dedicated to teachers at a higher educational institution, the Minister of Education was attending as well. After the meeting, the Minister invited us to visit Iraq in the spring of 2019 and take part in a national holiday.
People came together with big interest to listen to the western Christian music and the sermon. The service was also attended by medical staff. Men and women filled the auditorium and listened carefully and curiously to every word we said.
Going into the sermons and meetings it was obvious that the people needed some encouraging words, most of them had survived the horrors of war and starvation. Because of this the people were more open to the Word and us.
In the cities, with the help of the army, the peaceful life of the population is preserved. However, in the villages and on the roads, it is very dangerous. Extremists continue to wage local partisan wars in some regions. Through the prayers of God’s people, the Lord protected us. We have seen the gracious hand of God in all. We ran out of money for food expenses in Iraq. And it was not convenient to ask and talk about it, but the Lord arranged that a few brothers, who didn’t know our need, took care of it.
We prayed for the opportunity to visit Cambodia and Laos for a long time. Driving there with my Christian brother Jonny we talked about the first place where we had planned a meeting, the utmost, southern point of the border between Vietnam and Cambodia.
Waiting for us was a friend with his family. Arriving at their house, we were welcomed by two more families, who came into this country to serve God and the people. Thanks to their puppet show they have access to all the schools and are able to introduce the kids to the love of Christ. Our next meeting was in Siem Reap. In the morning we went to one of the Cambodian prisons. One passport was enough the four of us to enter it. The Russian man, who we kept in touch with, was in prison for the second time.
His sister who visited him often started reading the Bible with him, where he accepted the good news, and he shared his knowledge of Christ with three other prisoners, who now come together regularly to read the bible. Alex was very inspired by the visit. The Lord affirmed him in the rightness his way and showed the ripe fields of his harvest. Praise God for His blessings. Next, we went to Laos. Unfortunately, the meeting that we had planned did not take place and because of the distance, we were forced to return. We devoted our day to fasting and praying. We visited some villages and saw the poverty of Laos and its residents, and we saw how they live. We pray for a revival in this country and the turning away from idolatry. Friends, brothers, and sister in Christ, we heartily thank you for our joint work that we are able to accomplish in the name or the Lord!
Grace and peace to you friends, brothers and sisters! This was the first year of our ministry in Vietnam. As we wrote to you, the Lord has blessed us with a missionary home and now we live in this house, host guests, hold meetings and services.
We are having the usual rainy season, and so it rained all night. In the morning I recorded a beautiful video of it from the balcony. And when I wanted to ride the moped on the street, a neighbor showed me that it wouldn’t go far. When looking around, I saw that everything around our house was flooded. We went to the back of the house, and everything was flooded there as well. The flood swept everything in its path away.
Many houses are flooded, destroyed, or washed away. Thank God our house remained untouched at all. It was impossible to get out because everything was under water. On this day, 19 people died! One family of four is still buried under their house that was destroyed by the landslide.
In the evening before, we visited the family that we regularly take care of. We brought them food, and the rain continued, then we visited them the other day and we found out that their home was also flooded, but without too much damage. We handed them clothes and were told that they had a need for school supplies for their granddaughter.
No matter how unafraid we were, but the Vietnamese tropical dengue fever caught on to us too! My wife, Irina, being here all the time, tried to protect herself from it. We have some friends who have had this disease. The fever didn’t pass by us unfortunately and my wife fell ill 2 days before I did. The fever rose to 38.5C, our bones were hurting, the lymph nodes were inflamed, and dizziness and eyes were hurting. This disease caused deaths before.
Our God allows us to become ill, and He gives healing. Irina called this time: “The baptism of fever”. Yes, of course, it’s easy to endure such trials with the Lord, because His burden is easy.
From the heart and soul, we thank you for your prayer and material support. We were moved to tears when we heard and felt how many other believers from different parts of the world were interested in our health and prayed for us!
To be united as believers all over the world is very important to us! May the Lord reward you and bless you for your open heart!
It was one of the evenings when we talked with children on how we cannot measure Gods love with a measuring cup, scale or time because His love is beyond our understanding and is immeasurable. We asked the children; how do they know that God loves and cares for them? They were thinking about it and couldn’t really explain it, then few of our older girls (13-14 years of age) took their courage and shared how God shows His love to them through answered prayers “God is helping me in school … It was hard for me to learn to play musical instruments, but I asked God to help me and now I can play guitar and ukulele in Church. Before I was very scared especially at night, when we moved here, I started to come to Church and learned about God and, now when I am scared, I pray to God and I am not scared anymore.” You might think: Such childish testimonies, what is so special about them? The amazing thing about this is that not that long ago, these same girls were very shy to pray out loud in a small group of three, and now they are glad to stand and share about God’s love in their life in front of 50 children!
In addition to it, when they are asked to pray at the end of evening school, they are not shy anymore and their voice is strong enough to be heard by all the students. Praise be to God!
When you experience God’s love, you cannot stay the same! One of our teens shared: “From the time I was little, my mom encouraged me to go to church in order to get some help for school uniform and supplies, also it was nice to have a good meal together with my friends every Sunday. My family is not Christian, so everything that I learned about God was in Church. I should say that I was not serious about reading the Bible or praying on my own. Later, when I grew up, I went to Bangkok with my sister looking for a job during our summer break. My sister encouraged me to take a Bible with us. At that time, we didn’t find anything but had plenty of time to read the Bible and pray, we asked God to provide a job for us, and God answered! We found a job and not only for that year but the next 3 years. This experience helped me to see God as my personal Helper, and later as my personal Savior.” This person is one of our main helpers in the ministry now. Glory be to God!
Every Sunday, church life starts early in the morning, a group of teens is preparing lunch for church, another group of young children is wiping and preparing our room for Sunday service, there are also few ladies who are cleaning the property outside and they are being accompanied by the singing of worship songs, by teens who are preparing for the Church service. Not long ago, there were only a few people, who cared about all these things, God is working in the hearts and is encouraging to participate in His work. Praise God!
We also had an opportunity to visit children in other projects of Avoda. Together we studied first chapters of the book of Proverbs. We learned about wise and foolish decisions and that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. It was such a blessed time to worship, play, learn and work with other children who believe in God, and to have fellowship together. As we were saying goodbye, there were many tears and hope to see each other again. For some of them, it was the first time seeing other Christians of their age.
Please pray:
ForNok-Young youngest brother, who has problems with walking and hearing. This is a Buddhist family; whose daughter comes to evening school and really believes that God can help.
For Ing and Gick as they are teaching children to understand the Bible and also help out in evening school
For Eak, Sen and Meak spiritual growth. These three boys are helping us out a lot.
