Thank you before the Lord for your prayers, your sacrifices, and your open hearts.
We live in Nha Trang that has a population of 500,000 people. My wife and I are now meeting with a mother, (Huanhan, 41) and her daughter (Hihua, 17) on a daily base. It is 35°C/95°F, we are sitting on a bench and it is clear that they have nowhere to go.
My wife Irina started to serve them food. The next time met with them at the market and saw their broken shoes so we bought them a new pair. One month passed and we still kept praying for them. We continued meeting and blessing them and finally asked if we could visit. With our brother Shawn, an interpreter, we came to their family and told that God Himself had brought us to their house.
They live in a village 160 miles away from Nyachang. Their life is very hard, it is hard to survive. When the Hihua was 3 years old, her father left the home, and their life became even more difficult. Hihua did not visit a school, because there was no possibility.
She suffers from pain in her liver, but due to the fact that they don’t have money, she can’t seek treatment. After a while, she began to smile a little during meetings with us. Today, on behalf of Christ, we once again blessed them with items for living, and most importantly we gave them a bible.
Thank you for your compassionate heart. May God bless you.
We are worried that because of our low budget, we are missing the main thing –to tell people about Christ. We urgently need a driver’s license, which costs $150. We are also looking for opportunities to buy health insurance. We are here on a tourist visa that’s why we have to leave the country every 3 months, the annual visa costs $250 per person.
I was given an opportunity to share Gods word with people suffering from leper. But, unfortunately, it did not happen due to lack of finances. We can always participate in helping the needy with daily bread, like in orphanages, but this requires a monthly budget of at least $150 – $200. Dear brothers and sisters, we write about the experience and we understand that the opportunities for serving Him in Vietnam will grow day by day, but without your support, we will miss one opportunity after another.
From May 13 – 30, we are going to visit the Thai prisons. We want to bless the prisoners who are eager to meet with Russian speakers. We currently have four contacts, but we plan to expand to 15 people. We will work with women who are in rehabilitation after prostitution.
We would also like to help refugees from Pakistan. There is a fire for God’s love, but there is not enough firewood. Please support us with prayers with all our worries. Thank you very much for your participation in our work.
After two months of our ministry in Vietnam, we made some observations about the people, their habits, and practices. One thing we noticed that they pay a lot of attention to their families. At 4 am, they go as a family to the gym and devote between 30-60 min to physical exercise, which includes games. At 7 am they are already at work, and those who don’t work go to coffee shops that are located along the streets and eat breakfast and socialize there. They are very patient and can sit for hours and just watch the life on the streets.
Something else is standing out, the way they are driving on the streets looks quite chaotic from the side (the laws are not always followed). They mostly ride mini-bikes, from small to large, and once I saw five people at once one bike. In any given situation, when we think it’s appropriate to express emotions, they don’t do it, they just look neutral and calm at all things. Not a single muscle moves in their faces. But at the same time, they are very sympathetic when you embrace them, hug them or smile at them.
Like we write before, 80% of the country are Buddhists. Our friend Nyam, who owns a tourist business, has an altar in her office. To the questions what this is, she said: “This is Buddha, we have him everywhere. He sees everything so that everything would be good. He guards us and protects us.”
Theft happens quite often here. They drive on the streets and quickly cut off a bag with a blade or sharp knife and drive off. They usually say, either they will never find the thief or the police doesn’t look for them at all. We had $100 stolen from our suitcase, there was a total of $400. To make it not noticeable they only took two $50 notes from the pile. When we found out and started to investigate where the money went and wanted to call the police we were told that we have to pay for the police investigation. We prayed about it and turned it all over into Gods hands.
When I saw a girl crying I came up to her and asked her if I can help her, she yes and started telling me:” When I was walking with my husband and two children, somebody drove by from the back and pulled off the backpack off my shoulders and left.”
In another situation, just as surprising, friends came to visit us. We went out to eat dinner and after we were done I wiped my hands with a napkin and did not notice how my gold ring slipped off my finger. When we came home I noticed how it is missing. After already being used to the loss we returned back to the same restaurant and I asked the owner if they found any ring here. She seemed full of joy like she was looking for me, called her husband and he came and took the ring from his hand and gave it back to me without any charge. Here are the Vietnamese, unclear to us.
From 11 Am to 2 Pm the Vietnamese have an afternoon nap, called the “Siesta”. At this time, it is better not to bother them. In the evening they get more coffee and sing, play and socialize. We continue to pray for the people here and for an awakening. Thank you very much for your prayers and sacrificial hearts in the ministry of the Lord, turning people to Christ.
Grace and peace to you our brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord and Savior. God’s love flows into our hearts and we rejoice in the ministry for His glory and want to fulfill His mission.
As we reported before, my wife and I moved to the Northern Part of Vietnam (Nha Trang, the capitol of the Khanh Hoa province) to get to know the culture and habits of the population. Very close to our house, around 650 feet away, we saw a territory that was fenced in with a playground on it.
We began to wonder what this place was. After asking around we found out that this is a home for orphans. We started to pray for this home. Every time we passed by, we prayed for this home so that we would be able to serve this home. When we were preparing for the Christmas Service, our first thought was to go there. We went to the orphan’s house and told them about what we were organizing a Christmas service for children, but we were not able to understand each other because we didn’t speak the same language.
We decided to visit another home for orphans as well that was around 12 miles away. However, on Dec 24th, when we arrived for the Christmas service we were surprised to see them here arriving on their bicycles. Again, we were not able to communicate (our interpreters were supposed to arrive later) and we thought how can they come with us driving 12 miles on the bicycles. It turns out that God had heard our prayers and had opened the doors to the orphan’s home in our neighborhood that we were praying about. Halleluiah! We had 16 people in our group, eight from our team and eight from Vietnam. Two were unbelievers but seem to be on the way to find the Lord. One of them, her name is Nyam, burst out in tears when we prayed for her and gave her the Gospel. When we arrived at the Orphan’s house the children were standing outside and waiting for us. They are abandoned by their parents. In this home, they live within a group that simulates a family with around 8-10 children with one mother who is the head of the group and also responsible to nurture them.
Dear friends, we were able to bless around 60 children with a toy, candies, and juice. I am not able to put it into words how greatly God blessed us. Thank you very much for your prayers and your sacrificial hearts.
We visited them to see how they live and saw that according to the circumstances the conditions are good. But what they need is love – the love of Christ. We promised to visit the one family that we met, every week and have discussions with them. Please pray for us and the family, they have 8 children. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your eagerness for the Lord, the prayers and the support of our ministry in Vietnam.
Peace to you and grace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am 53 years old, married to Irina and I have 2 children and 2 grandchildren. Our children are members of the local church here. Since 2005 I have been serving in the United Churches of Omsk. Four years I served as a mentor in the Counseling Center and was a coordinator for the social ministry in the Central Church of Omsk. Dozens of people turned to the Lord through this service. Irina works in a women’s consultant’s office against abortion.
We heard the call from the Lord to minister in Vietnam on a trip there. As we began to pray and became surer that this is God’s call. Now we are seeing first generation Christians. We minister to drug addicts from low income families. During the winter, we went to the slums of Vietnam again and were assured now that this is God’s will. In May 2017, we made a trip there again and the call to minister here still remained with us.
In the province of Khanh Hoa, where we decided to start the ministry, we met with Russian speaking people. We realized that our fellows citizen are like in a desert, they need God.
On November 22nd we are flying to Vietnam to live there permanently and our needs are:
Please pray for our arrangement there, that God would protect us and for His guidance in this ministry.
Please support us financially, we need $400 a month to be able to live there.
… for You were slain and redeemed us to God from His blood from every nation and tribe … Rev. 5: 9.
In Cam Ranh, we met with brothers and sisters at Ho Chi Minh City Airport. The next day we had a conference for ministers in the morning, and we shared the Word of God with our Vietnamese brothers. I was asked to give my testimony and this changed all our plans. I talked about God’s love for me, how he changed me and about my ministry in the church. After my testimony, a sister in Christ approached me and solemnly said: “Thank God, we are on the right track.” She reacted that way because I talked about the fruits of the addicted people ministry.
I confirmed them to be on the right path by ministering to drug addicts, alcoholics, and homeless people through opening rehabilitation centers. Mimi is the name of the sister who was relieved to be on the right path, she called her brother and asked us to meet with him. That’s how we ended up in the Capitol of Vietnam.
In one day, we visited 3 rehabilitation centers, to study the Bible with the workers and help people in need and see that they are on the right path. On this journey, we saw that we can do a lot since we have experience with addicted people.
In December 2016 we visited Vietnam again. at how people live. Some houses don’t even have a floor and we wanted to see the slums and the people who live there. The Lord gave us an interpreter which is one of our brothers and with him we visited villages and looked saw homes where kids go to sleep hungry.
Vietnam has a high percentage of poverty, only veterans, civil servants and disabled people receive a pension which is around 3-10 Dollars a month.
Please pray for our family and that God would lead us, please pray for the people of Vietnam whom we want to serve by bringing them the Gospel. Blessings to you in Christ.
