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!

We have scattered the seed

Friday night is the highpoint of our week. While we love making new friends and being with old friends, our joy comes from sharing how they can have a relationship with God. Last night we had class for about 90 minutes, a short break, then sharing. Fred shared from the Bible about Christ coming to earth (John 1) and also about the need to focus on God's Word and not 'silly stories' (my translation from the scripture he used in 1 Timothy). Then I shared my story and told about how God pursues us because of His great love for us and of our need for redemption. While no one accepted Christ last night, many came up to us afterward and told how they felt 'something' move inside them as we shared. They are very interested in hearing more and meeting with us again. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to draw them to Himself, and for protection from the evil one.

This leads me to our next prayer request. Our desire is to help these friends who attend our class come to a saving relationship with Jesus. It is hard to do that when we are not here, and we do not speak their heart language. I have told you about Peter and h0w he has been with us for a few days. Please pray for the Lord to lead him and his wife Sveta in deciding whether to come to Murmansk. It would be so wonderful to have someone here full time focused on following up with our friends, inviting them to their home, having small group discussions, and prayerfully to a relationship with Christ. Please join us in seeking God's will in this matter.

We will have some time today to follow up with friends. We leave for Moscow this afternoon, then back to the States on Sunday. It is so hard to leave. We love our friends here, and we know most of them do not yet know our Savior. Our prayer is for Murmansk to become a city of light, shining with the hope of Jesus. Thank you for praying with us for all that live in this area.

Spiritual warfare

Yesterday I told you about the lady we were meeting with who has such a large family. Yesterday Peter (our Russian seminary graduate) and I went to her home again for lessons, and she had a friend join us. We had a good lesson, and then after the lesson we were eating and talking in the kitchen. Before we ate I asked a blessing, and this started the conversation. As it turns out, her friend is a Jehovah's Witness, and we had a long conversation about that. She had all the typical jw response, Jehovah is the name we should worship, Jesus is not God, etc., etc. I was reminded again that our struggle is not against people but with the evil one, that we are in a spiritual war with him and that we must constantly be in prayer for the Lord to destroy these strongholds. Please pray that we would be able to clearly show these people that have been deceived by the lies of the jw the truth of who Jesus is. There are several in our class who were formerly in this cult and are still distrustful of anyone speaking to them of God.

While I don't think we made any progress with her, it did open the door for us to talk more with Irina. As it turns out, she believes in God and has been reading the Bible to her family. Her children have begun asking a blessing before meals. But the problem is that while she believes in God and reads the Bible, she does not know how to have a relationship with Him and what she must do to be saved. Honestly, I felt like Philip talking to the Ethiopian eunuch. I explained to her how to trust in God and be saved, and I feel like when we talk again tonight that she will accept Christ. Please pray RIGHT NOW for her heart to be open and for this to be the day of her salvation. As I said before, she can have a huge impact in her family and around this area.
I don't know why these things continue to amaze me, but they do. By now you would think that I would be accustomed to God bringing these people who are searching across my path. But each trip I am amazed at how He orchestrates these meetings and I am humbled that He would give me the opportunity to share His Gospel with them.

The highlight of our week will be tonight when we share with our class about Jesus. We build relationships all week through teaching English, and tonight we pray that this relationship will cause them to really hear us as we share about Christ and salvation. Please pray RIGHT NOW that many would come to our English class tonight and that nothing would hinder them. Pray that God would speak His truth through us, and especially through our interpreter. Pray for hearts to be changed and for people to be saved THIS DAY.

I know that we accomplish nothing on our own, but that God's Holy Spirit draws people to Himself. We love these people, and our hearts break when we think of them being without the relationship with Christ. Our prayer to God is to be used by Him to accomplish His will. But we also pray that ALL would accept Him as Lord. Thank you for joining us in lifting these prayers to our heavenly Father who is faithful and just to forgive all who seek Him.

The Lord provides

We had a good day yesterday. We started at the university, then lessons at one of our students home, then our normal classes in the evening. After our classes we met Peter, the seminary graduate I mentioned before, and then went our friends home for a birthday party for one of our friends from church. Our day was packed, but rewarding.

One of the issues we have been dealing with this week has been our conference rooms. Tonight the hotel did not have space for us, so I have been trying to find an alternative. Our friends at the university arranged for us to be able to use one of the rooms there for our class tonight. This is a huge blessing for us, and allows us to continue our meetings uninterrupted. It is great how God provides.

Our class yesterday afternoon allowed us to get to know a local business woman and her family. Please pray that the Lord would open her heart to the Gospel. We will meet there againg this afternoon. She has a large family (12 children!) and can have a big influence on others for Christ.

After class last night we celebrated a birthday for one of the ladies from church. It was a great time to sit around and talk, eat, and share fellowship with other believers. This is such a great family, and they have been such a blessing to us. Pray for God's blessing on them as we partner together to reach people with the Good News.

As we look toward Friday, please earnerstly pray that God would send many to hear about Jesus. Pray for us to have the right words, pray for the interpreter to be able to communicate clearly, and pray especially that the Holy Spirit would convict those there of their need for a Savior.

Expanding relationships

We have had a unique opportunity to build a relationship the past two days. One of our students, Nikolay, has stayed with us at our hotel because he lives a long way away. He loved it because he and Fred could stay up late practicing English. During this time Fred has been able to encourage this young man to seek God. This man was previously in the Jehovah's Witness cult, and have been very hurt by this experience. Please pray that he would be able to trust the real savior Jesus, and be released from the lies and hurt he experienced.

Our classes are going well. We have just the right amount for Fred and I to handle; our God has again answered our prayers and helped us when we did not know what we would do. Today we were at the university, and now on our way to one of our student's apartment for class for about 15 people. Then to our classes this evening at the hotel.

The man I mentioned yesterday from the seminary will be arriving here later tonight. Please pray for our time together and for the Lord's leading us as we discus potentially partnering here in Murmansk.

Off to a good start!

Our classes started last night, and as expected, we had many more come than had come to our registration night. We had around 50 students show, about half of which have not been to our classes before. Because there is only me and Frec, we divided in to two levels of advanced and beginner. It seemed to work well, and we will be adding an afternoon class beginning on Wednesday because there are a large number of who want to attend in the afternoon but can not come in the evening. Pray for wisdom for us each night as we seek to quickly build relationships so we can share Christ on Friday.



One other prayer concern is a place for us to have our meetings. The good thing about having a large response is that we have many opportunities to introduce people to Christ. The problem is having a space large enough to accomodate us. The hotel where we have been renting conferenece rooms has more than doubled their price since last May. It now costs us over $200 per night for the conference room and refreshments. Please pray for a more economical place for us to meet and one which people would feel comfortable coming to for the first time.

A graduate of the Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary and his wife are also feeling a call to minister in Murmansk. He is coming to meet us tomorrow evening so he can see Murmansk first hand, meet with us and other believers, and see how our English classes work. Please pray for the Lord to make clear to us His will concering this couple moving to Murmansk to work with us in building up His church.

We appreciate and need your prayers.

We are in Murmansk!

Sorry to be so long in posting to our blog, but we have not had time to get on a computer until now. Tim and Fred met in Washington for our flight to Moscow, good flight but unfortunately Tim's bags did not make the flight with him. Under Russian customs I had to go back to the airport in Moscow the next day to claim my bags. And of course, this was not the same airport as the one we were leaving for Murmansk.
When we arrived in Moscow we went straight to the seminary and met with the head of the seminary and some students and shared with them about our work in Murmansk. There is one couple from the seminary who are open to God's call to Murmansk, and the husband may join us here later this week! We are excited about the possibility of having someone here focused full time on mentoring and discipling those who come through the English courses.
Saturday was a whirlwind; we got up early and went to a local market, then took the metro to a stop close to the airport where we met our driver. He took us to the airport for Tim to collect his luggage, and after a long bureaucratic paperwork challenge we left for a different airport for our flight to Murmansk. We made a quick stop along the way to drop off a footlocker full of supplies for the seminary students, then made it just in time for our flight to Murmansk.
We were met at the airport by one of our friends from our earliest meetings here in Murmansk. He was kind enough to meet us and take us to the hotel. We are staying at a new hotel in Murmansk this time, as the prices have increased at our previous hotel due to new ownership. This place is a converted apartment, so it is much larger and very comfortable. However it is much less convenient to the bus stop and there are no places to eat which are close by.
On Sunday we worshiped with our friends at church, and celebrated the Lord's Supper. It was a great time of worship and celebration of what Jesus has done for us.
We had our registration last night, but had few show up. We think it was primarily due to the fact that yesterday was the celebration of the founding of the city, and practically the whole city was in the center for a concert and fireworks. Please pray that we will have a larger response for our first night of classes tonight.
Today we will go to the university to meet with those in the English department, then to our classes from 7 to 10. Pray for wisdom for us - it will be challenging due to the fact that it is only Fred and I teaching, and we will have to adjust our approach to our classes because of this.
Please pray for the Lord to guide those He wants to hear His Gospel to our classes.

Prayers Answered

We had an awesome day on Friday. After our afternoon session at the church Ben and I had a great opportunity to talk with two of our friends, Nikita and Dennis. They had so many questions about God, about what it means to be a Christian, about why there is only one way to God. I was praying like crazy for the wisdom to be able to answer their questions. They are so close to accepting Christ, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to draw them and for their hearts to be ready to change.

After our class at the hotel we had similar responses. Everyone was so attentive as we shared our story, and as we told them how to come to Christ. After we shared we had so many come up to us and want to know more. I had one lady who came and poured out her heart to me. She has been so hurt, and feels desperate. We prayed together and she agreed to come to the church today so I could connect her with a lady who could be a spirititual mentor.

Nancy will be presenting Love and Respect this afternoon at the church. There has been a lot of interest in this, and it gives us an opportunity to invite our friends to come to a church. Please pray for the seekers who will come and for opportunities to continue to share the Love of Christ.

We will be off to Moscow this evening, then back to the States on Sunday. Please pray for ease of travel and safety for us. But most of all, please continue to pray for Murmansk. Our God is an awesome God, and He loves us. Pray for the people of Murmansk to see this great love and accept Him.

Pointing to Jesus

We continue to have great turn out for our classes. When we are having our evening classes at the hotel we use every bit of space available, and then some. We fill two conference rooms, then spill out into the lobby areas. Please pray for us as the evil one has been sending one of the workers in the hotel to hassle us about being in the lobby. Pray that we can have the space we need to have our classes without interruption.

Today is the culmination of our week of teaching, where we point our friends to Jesus. Please pray for us as we share our hearts. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to speak through us directly to to our friends hearts. Pray for the interpreter to be able to speak words clearly in the Russian language. Pray for our friends to accept the gift of Christ which we share.

As we share today, we appreciate your prayers. We pray that as we share today with our friends that you will have opportunities to share today with your friends, family, and coworkers. God uses us all, wherever we are, to tell His story.

Seekers

We can tell that the Lord is moving in the lives of some of our students. One of our friends, Dennis, who is one of our advanced students came early to our class at the church yesterday afternoon. He normally comes to the evening classes. It was a beautifull sunny afternoon, and as we were waiting for others to arrive he began to talk to Ben about the Bible and how difficult it was for him to understand. Ben was able to engage him in conversation, help him see that most of the Bible is very clear even to unbelievers about what it means, and then walk him through the need for Christ to die as our sacrifice. It was great to see both Dennis seeking and Ben laying out for him the path to Christ. Please pray for all of our students to have this same desire to know about our great God, and pray especially for Dennis.

The class picture is from our afternoon class at the church. We have a much smaller and intimate environment here. I love being able to teach in the worship room because as the students are looking at me they can also see a sign in the background that says ¨God is Love¨.

We continue to have about 100 come each night at the hotel for classes, and the Lord sends new people each night. Thank you for your prayers! Please begin praying today, if you have not already, for our Friday afternoon and evening classes. This is where we will each give a personal testimony and then in our large group share the need for salvation and how to come to Christ. Please especially pray for our interpreter, as it matters most what she says not what I say.

The other picture shows the view outside our hotel window. You can see in the background a little bit of snow which is still remaing on the hilltops. Our weather has been great. Very comfortable with just a light jacket, and yesterday it was very warm and sunny.

Thank you again for your prayers.

The Sun (and Son) is always with us!

Our pictures today show the team last night around midnight on our way home from class. As you can see, the sun is out 24 hours a day here in Murmansk at this time of year. The other pictures are the advanced students in Nancy´s class.

We had a great day yesterday. Becuase we have had so many coming at night, Ben and Tim taught a beginner and intermediate class at Golgotha Church in the afternoon. It is great to be able to have these classes there because it gives our students a chance to see the inside of a church. Most have never been inside a Protestant church, and it helps break down misconceptions.

Part of our strategy of reaching Murmansk includes covering the city in prayer. Linda, Nancy, and Rob were doing this by prayer walking yesterday. It gives those who are here for the first time an excellent opportunity to see up close the day to day life here in Murmansk, to see the people and where they live, to look for strongholds that need to be broken down.

Our classes in the evening continue to grow. We had a large number of new students come last night, so we were thankful that we were able to add an additional meeting room. We know our students appreciated being able to hear each of us as we teach and to better participate in the lessons.

After class the team was invited to a cafe for a late night snack. It was quite funny as the restaurant arrange the tables to accomodate us, handed out the menus, then informed us that the kitchen was closed and all that was available was ice cream! But we had a good time building our friendships with our Russian friends.

Please pray for our students. We quickly develop a love for them as we spend 3+ hours with them each day. They have such an enthusiasm for learning English, pray for them to have an entusiastic heart for the Lord as we share Christ for them. Pray for us to truly show them the love of Christ, and by our witness to prepare them to hear the Word. Our greatest desire is for them to come to the point of repentance. Pray that the Holy Spirit would give us the words so that they can understand their need of a Savior.

Great turnout!

WOW! I told you yesterday we had 57 sign up for our class on Sunday, and that we expected more for our first class on Monday. We had 94 come to class last night! This is both wonderful and a challenge at the same time. Our conference room can really not accomodate that many, so we were spilling out into the halls and lobby area. We have offered to have classes this afternoon at the church to help us with the capacity, but we have only 10 who can do that. So, we have rented an additional conference room on another floor of the hotel and will also use the lobby of that floor. Our desire is to be able to share with as many people as possible, but we also want to deliver a quality English course. Having 26 people being taught by one person in a room with 50 other people is a challenge. Please pray for each of us to know how to modify our plans so that all who have come will have a chance to experience not only a good, relevant, English experience but also an opporunity to hear the Word proclaimed.

It has been a real joy to see those who have come to our classes in the past eagerly come again. Please pray that we continue to show the love of Christ as we teach, and that the Holy Spirit will be preparing them to hear as we share on Friday. We believe that these relationships are key for us as we earn the right to share Christ with them. Pray that we daily remember our role as ambassadors, regardless of how tired we are or how we may need to modify what we have already worked so hard to prepare.

Please post comments as you read our updates. It is such an encouragement to know you are praying for us.

Thats all for now, we have an afternoon class to go to!

Off to a good start!

Sorry for the delay in posting to our blog, but travel plans have not allowed me to acces a computer until now. Nancy and Ben are safely in Murmansk after a visit in Petrosadask with a local church and missinary friends. They survived two overnight train rides, and Ben has had a quick immersion into Russian culture and travel! Tim and Linda met in Moscow on Friday evening, met Rob at the airport on Saturday, and arrived to bright sunny skies around midnight on Saturday. It is a little hard to get to sleep at night with a the light coming in the window, but other than that we have all adjusted.

Sunday morning we went to worship at Golgatha Baptist Church, and had a wonderful time. It is always good to see our friends that help us so much with our English classes. The worship experience was great, reminding us of how we will be in heaven worshiping our God in every language. The service was a mix of traditional Russian hymns and some contemporary songs which were sung by some of the younger members of the congregation. We had a time of tea and fellowship after the service.

The Lord is continuing to bring our team together and blessing us. Ben was ready for some guy time and Linda and Nancy were ready for some female companionship, so our first day together as a team has been a time of bonding.

Last night we had registration for our English classes. We had 57 come, but expect more to come to our first class on Monday night. Many of those who attended told us they had friends who will come, and many who have come before chose to skip the registration.

Please pray for the Lord to send those He desires to hear His Word to our classes. Pray for us as we teach to show the love of Christ, and to build new friendships and renew old ones. Pray for stamina as our bodies adjust to the time difference and different schedules. Pray for us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit guiding us.

Today we start out at the university in the English department, working with first year students. This afternoon we will prepare for class tonight and also meet with a local pastor. Then we will teach from 7 until 10pm.

The first picutre is the outside of Golgotha Church in Murmansk. The others are of graduation ceremonies at the Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary. My Nashville friends may recognize two of the ladies that spent the summer in Murmansk and worked with us in the summer of 2007, Evgenia and Maria. They are so happy to have completed their degrees. Evgenia will also marry Artum this next Saturday. Pray for a wonderful day for them.

A team brought together by a love for Russian people

We will have another opportunity to use English classes as a way to bring people together in Murmansk and share the gospel with them. The Lord has put together a team from 3 states for this trip, and it has been amazing how he has brought us together.

I was a bit disappointed that only two came to our informational meeting at Carmel Baptist for this trip. Nancy Brown and her husband Steve came just to see what our plans were. I spoke with Nancy a few days later and she indicated she was feeling led to go, but that Steve was not. The good news was that her son, Ben, was interested in coming. But that would still leave us with only 3, and I like to have a team of at least 4. So, my friend Tim Wicker sent an email to his VSC teams and through friends of friends he connected us with Linda Hargett and Rob Greathouse. Linda lives in Summerville, SC and has been to Russia many times, and better yet has used the same English teaching material we use. Rob lives in Mishawaka, Indiana and will soon begin ministering in another city in Russia. Rob has lived in Russia, and his wife is Russian. I love how the Lord connected us all together, and how each one of us love Russia, the Russian people, and have a desire to see all of them come to a saving relationship with Christ. Our God is AWESOME!!!