The Lord always provides

After our detour from our plans yesterday we were wondering how we could finish our last night and have an opportuity to share with our friends about Christ. As always, the Lord provided. One of our friends called the pastor of a local church and he agreed that we could have our 'goodbye' party there. So Tim and Masha waited outside the hotel to greet those who came and told them how to get to the church while the rest met them at the church.

We had a great time singing songs and then each of our team had an opportunity to share with our friends about our relationship with Christ. It is always so wonderful to tell all of our friends about God's love for them. We had many come and ask us to talk more about God with them, and we were able to share more one on one. Please pray specifically for a young lady, Veronica, who asked how God could fill the emptiness in her life. Our plan is to talk with her again today and continue our conversation with her.

One of our friends got us an attorney, and he will file court documents challenging the Immigration Service about our visa and our right to have our English groups. He feels like he can win this case, and in so doing make it easy to continue to come in the future without issues. Please pray for wisdom for him as he represents us in the coming days.

Our biggest prayer is for all of our friends here. We want all of them to have the same joy and relationship with Christ that we have. We want them all to have salvation in Christ. Pray that the Holy Spirit will remind them of what we shared with them last night, and that they will accept His most valuable gift.

We leave Murmansk this evening for Moscow, then back to the states on Sunday. We are sad in leaving our friends, both because we have come to love them and also because we know many still are not in a right relationship with God. Please pray daily for them. We know that God desires ALL of them to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, and that is our greatest desire.

Temporary setback

Last night, Thursday, we encountered a setback. We had just finished the large group meeting and singing our songs when 4 guys who were there idenitified themselves as officers of the Immigration Service. They looked at our passports and visas and then informed us that because we were on a tourist visa that it was illegal for us to have these English courses. We explained that everything was free, that we offer it as a way to meet people, but to no avail. Our friends from the classes were noticably upset that we were being taken away, but we encouraged them to stay and practice and that hopefully we would pick up again this evening.

After about 3 hours at the Immigration Service office we were allowed to leave with only having to pay a small fine (around $60 each). We were told that we should not have our classes tonight, and that we could not go to the university. They said that to do what we are doing we must have a teaching visa or a charity visa.

Obvioulsy this has the potential to prevent us from sharing with our friends tonight about our relationship with Jesus. We desparately want them all to know that God loves them and desires a relationship with them. Please pray right now as you are reading this for wisdom for us to find a way to share with those we have met.

We know that our struggle is not against the Immigration Service or those who called them and told them about us. Our struggle is against the evil one. And we know the One we serve has not been surprised by this and the He has a plan. Pray for us to be led by the Holy Spirit, to know how we should act, to know how we should share. We know that our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than all we think possible. We want our Lord to be glorified through this, knowing that what some have intended for evil God will use for good.

We look forward to telling you the rest of this story, but as we mentioned above, we need your prayers now more than ever.

Seeing God's Love

Sorry for not posting consistently, but fortunately our schedule has been pretty busy. Our classes continue to go well, over 100 in attendance each night and we are enjoying getting to know each other.

We were at the university yesterday for several classes where we come in and let the students ask questions and practice their English with native speakers. This gives us a chance to meet new people and invite them to our classes while at the same time helping them in their studies. Pray that these students will come to our classes in the evenings.

Yesterday Tim, Jeff, and Peter had an opportunity to go to Irina's home to teach some of her children. If you followed us last October you will recognize Irina as the businesswoman who has 12 children. She has really helped us this trip with the printing of our English workbooks. After teaching her children she fixed a meal and we had a chance to talk. Irina is a believer!!! One of the challenges she has is that in one of the cities nearby there are many jehovah witnesses which are always trying to tell her lies about Jesus. Tim and Peter had a chance to show her in the Bible the truth about Jesus and that He is indeed God. After that we had a chance to share the Gospel with her children. We used an EvangeCube which was a big hit. Please pray for her 3 youngest children to hear God's Spirit speaking to them and to accept His offer of salvation.

Jay will be meeting today with another of our friends, Dennis. Dennis also has been involved with the jw and has difficulty accepting the truth about Jesus. Please pray for God to reveal the truth about Jesus to Dennis, and for Dennis to be able to accept this.

Remember our classes on Friday evening (Friday around noon for most of you). Pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us as we share the Good News. Pray for hearts to be open. Pray for the Lord to send those who need to hear His message, and pray for satan to be bound and kept away from our meeting. Our desire is for everyone to hear God's call, please remember this most important time of our trip.

First night success!

We had over 100 people show up for our first night of classes! While we had some trouble with the room setup and not having enough course books for everyone, all things worked out for a succesful night. It is so great to see the excitement in our students faces, and how appreciative they are. It is still very difficult for most of them to understand why we come, but that opens the door for conversations about God's love. Please pray for us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when we need to talk specifically to an individual.

One of the great connections God made was with a young lady named Oxanna. She was our waitress at lunch on Sunday, and we invited her to class. It turns out that she was fired from her job that same day because one of her friends came to the restaurant and was carried out drunk. She showed up for our class last night and told us about her situation. Pray that we can speak with her and get her connected with a female believer that can help direct her towards Christ.

We will begin our time at a local university tomorrow. We always have a chance to invite others to come and also explain why we are here to curious university students. Pray that God would open doors for us to meet new friends and to invite them to our classes in the evening.

Weather is supposed to get colder at the end of the week. I think our team is looking forward to it! We are having a good time together, and the guys are really enjoying the 'Murmansk experience'! Thanks for your continued prayers.

Registration night

We had registration for our class last night. We had over 50 come, and probably 2/3 are first time attendees. We expect to have many more tonight for our first night of classes, as many who have come in the past do not come to our registration. Please pray that the Lord will send many more to come spend time with us so that we might share His love with them.

It is good to have the new people come. Our desire is to share with as many people as possible, and this expands our base. Of course having repeat students is great because it means they are hearing the Gospel now for 2, 3, 4, 5.... times. Pray that as all of our friends hear us share that the Holy Spirit will speak to them and that they will respond to Him.

We had a time before our class yesterday to speak with our Sunday School class back at Carmel. Good time to help people hear about what we are doing. Also had a chance to let our wives know we love them and thinking of them on Valentine's Day!

Thank you again for your prayers. Our schedules get really hectic for the rest of the week. We need stamina and patience to make it through. Your prayers are what sustain us. Keep it up!

We are in Murmansk!

Our flight to Moscow went pretty much without a hitch, except for a small problem with Delta not having our tickets set up properly with KLM. But after a few minutes working with the ticket agent all was fine. Moscow was pretty cold, but we still had a good time walking around and seeing the sights. Jeff, Jay, and John took a tour of the Kremlin while Tim stayed warm in the mall next door. After that we did a little shopping then back to the airport for our flight to Murmansk.

We arrived in Murmansk early Sunday morning because our flight was delayed leaving Moscow. Got in to the hotel around 1:00. After too short a nights rest we went to worship this morning at a local church. It is always a great time seeing our friends and worshiping together, even if we only understand very little of what is being said. We recognized the tunes to a couple of songs and sang along.

Tonight we will have registration for our English course. Please pray that many will come. This week of courses allows us to build relationships so that by the end of the week we can share our relationship with Christ to those who know a little about us.

We may have found a lower cost option for our meetings. Tim visited the location today and we think it will work. Just need to find a way to get more chairs and tables there. Pray for wisdom as to how to solve this problem.

No pictures today because I can't get this computer to recognize my camera. Hopefully I can figure this out soon.

On our way

A group of four leave today, Thursday Feb 11, on our way to Murmansk. Joining me on this trip will be Jay Hancock, Jeff Gaskin, and John Lewis. These are all friends from Carmel Baptist here in Charlotte. Yesterday's snow storm in the east forced us to reschedule our flights. Fortunately we still get to Moscow today only 5 hours later than originally planned. This will cause us to miss our time at the seminary which is very disappointing for me.

The start of the trip is always filled with excitement and expectation. Please pray that this will follow us through our trip. Please also continue to be in prayer for us. We are counting on you to pray for those we will meet and to pray for the Holy Spirit to speak His truth through us.

Please remember to post comments to our blog through the week. It encourages us to know you are remembering us.

I hope to have another post by Friday, and then again on Sunday. Stay tuned!