Recently, some brothers from Russia called us and said that there was Denis from Russia in a hospital close to us, who had been in an accident. They supported him financially for the surgery, and we were asked to bring the Gospel to him. We came to Denis and prayed with him. God blessed him, and he quickly recovered. He and his wife Olga have not turned their life’s to God yet, please pray for them.
Our friends Eli and Sergey are in trouble. Eli called and told us: “Sergey has been in a coma for a week now and doctors are demanding payment, or else he will be disconnected from the device, please pray for him.” We prayed a lot. After a couple of days, she called again, and says: “This is it, there is no money left, they will probably turn it off tomorrow”. We prayed even more, and my wife Irina did not sleep all night. In the morning we prayed at the meeting and soon after we received a video message from Eli showing that Sergey comes out of the coma and is now recovering. Thank God, He is not late!
When we were at the hospital, we saw a young man reading the Gideon bible. We got to know each other closer, his name is Vasily and he got in a moped accident which shattered his knee cap. We prayed with him, agreed to meet, after the surgeries and rehabilitation. The hospital building is 10-stories high. We go up the 10thfloor, we walk to each room and pray on each floor, we also pray with the Vietnamese and bless them with small surprises.
Recently I met Larisa, she has an allergy, but the doctors can’t make a correct diagnosis. When we offered to pray for her, and she gladly agreed. We went further along the corridor, and a Vietnamese called us to his room and asked us to pray. Thank God, we are already known here.
We thank the Lord that He has opened the doors for the Gospel. We thank you from the heart for your participation in our common ministry!
Peace be with you friends, brothers and sisters! Thanks be to the Lord for having the opportunity to work with you here in Vietnam. We also thank Him for the fact that we can celebrate Easter twice this year. Although Vietnam (Southeast Asia) is in the east, they still celebrate according to the western calendar. We and our group prayed and decided that we would give presents to our close circle with whom we constantly have contact and make friends. These are neighbors, hairdressers, vendors, a bike washer, a bike mechanic, a cook, and many others. We counted around 50 people altogether.
On April 21st, we got up at 5 am, prayed, and at 6 am were already at a meeting in the Vietnamese church. We put the gifts in a motorcycle started to hand them out. The greetings were warm and friendly. We said in Vietnamese “Christ has Risen” and everyone happily accepted our gifts, it seemed as if they were believers.
The Vietnamese are in very tolerant people by welcoming any beliefs, as long as there is peace. We see the principle of God: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” By giving, we accept God’s power, His love, His perfection … May God bless us all.
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!
“City in the cemetery” – that’s how we called the place of our evangelism. This place is located in the city of Nha Trang, and if a person doesn’t know one would not even think it’s possible that people can live like this among the luxury of the tourism industry and in the age of modern technologies.
Since May 2018, we have been carrying the Gospel there, organized play hours, and participated in material assistance. People turn to the Lord. And, it would seem for us that we are used to all this, and nothing can surprise us, but the Lord shows us such things that we cannot look at it without having tears in our eyes.
Recently, we were introduced to a family. They are an elderly couple who collects cardboard and bottles, take them back for recycling and receive a few pennies for it. They finance their lively hood for themselves and raise 4 grandchildren (2 girls, 2 boys) this way. Their father is in prison, the mother is dying in the hospital. We came to their “home” and were heartbroken from what we saw. Directly in the cemetery, among the many graves, is their shed. In the middle of it are two beds, they cook food on the fire. We began to pray and sing hymns with them, praising Jesus Christ. Then we went and bought food for this family. We thank God that we can share the good news with these suffering people!
For the past year, we have been working in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Just recently two teams visited us, and we went to kindergartens and boarding schools together! We had the question of where to place our missionary guests. My wife Irina and I lived in an apartment which was 45 square meters (484 sf) We had everything we needed. The inconvenience was that at 11 PM in the doors to our house get locked and open up only at 6 in the morning.
Recently, we and a team of missionaries returned from the ministry at 0:15 am, and we didn’t know where to spend the night. We were able to find a place, but we were also in situations when it was necessary to leave before 6 am and again we had an inconvenience.
The owners of the apartment are watching us, they see all the guests coming and going. We cannot organize a home group or sing a hymn together. The Lord himself helped us to and gave us a large, comfortable house. Rent is only $150 more expensive, but it does open up other opportunities for our ministry. It can host the church, the school and visitors but also it is our base of operation.
Thank you for your prayers and heartily ask you to support us so that the “Father’s House” will be open for ministry!
