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!!!

The Word was shared

Sorry for the delay in telling how our Friday went. Let me tell you, it was awesome!! Friday afternoon we shared with the English class which had been meeting at Golgatha Church. Each of us shared our own testimony, then Tim shared the Gospel and how to have a relationship with Christ. We could tell by the looks on the faces and tears in the eyes that the Holy Sprit was moving in their hearts. We gave each of them a Bible and invited them to church. Three of these were especially interested in our 4 spiritual laws tracts, and what a relationship with Christ is about.

We had a similar response in our Friday evening course. After teaching for the first 90 minutes, we each shared a testimony and then came together as a large to group for our Gospel presentation. Our friends were all very attentive during the presentation, and were expecially excited about getting a Bible. Many wanted more than one Bible to share with a family member or friend. There were several questions about how this Bible differs from the Orthodox Bible. One man, Nikolai, was brought to tears when Bryan shared a testimony and tract with him.

We also gave an invitation to attend an 'Alpha' course which the members of Golgotha Church teach, which is a type of discovery class for those with questions about what it means to be a Christian. Four people will start this class next week. We invited them to attend a service at Golgotha Church, as well as to begin meeting together as an English club in between the times we come. Some English speakers from Golgotha Church will lead this club. Over 25 signed up for this club, giving the folks from Golgatha a chance to cotinue to build relationships with them.

A couple of students from the evening English classes came by to visit Golgotha Church while we were there. They stated that they were very curious about what the church was like on the inside, and that they had previously been afraid of this place. They were surprised to see that it was a 'normal' place, and indicated they would like to come to a service there. We had many instances of people sharing with us how surprised they were to learn about Christians, and how we were normal, fun, people.

Almost all of the students indicated that they would want to attend another class in the future. They inidcate that learning English was fun, but also they indicate that the message we bring about Christ is encouraging to them.

Thank you again for your prayers - don't stop now!! Please continute to pray for all those who attended and heard about how to have a realtionship with Christ. Pray that they will read their Bible, pray that they will remember what they heard about how God loves them and wants a relationship with them. Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to convict them of their need for Him. Pray that we can maintain contact with them through email and through the members of Golgotha Church.

And now, what about you? Have you been touched by the response of our friends in Russia? Would you like to be a part of continuing to sow seeds of the Gospel, and hopefully a part of seeing the harvest? Please pray about joining us on an upcoming trip. Our next trip is planned for May, and we would love to have you as part of our ministry team. Please contact Tim Wishon if you are interested.

PRAY!!!!

We are starting our last full day here in Murmansk. We have had a wonderful time meeting new people, visiting universities, and teaching our conversational English classes. We have made many new friends, and reconnected with old friends. Now comes our most important day. Today in our English classes we will share our own stories of what Christ means to us, and we will share the Gospel and how they can have the same hope that we have. Please, wherever you are right now, pray for us. Pray that the Holy Spirit will speak through us, pray for wisdom in knowing exactly what to share, pray that those who are listening will hear with their heart and mind, pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their need for a savior.

We know that we do nothing other than share. We know that God does the convicting, and calling, and changing. We trust Him, and know that He is faithful, and that He desires that none perish but that all come to a saving knowledge of Him. This is our great desire today. To be used by the Lord as His messengers, to share the greatest gift in the whole world. Pray for us to boldly tell this story.

Our pictures today are a combination of our classes in the afternoon at the church and the evening at the hotel. We are so thankful for the Golgotha Church. We had planned on having all our classes there, but the Lord brought us more than we could accomodate there. But it has been a blesssing to have the afternoon classes there, and it has freed up some space for our evening classes.

I am not sure if we will be able to have another post to our blog while we are in Russia. We will finish up our classes late tonight, then have a 7am flight to Moscow. We will have an afternoon there, then a 6am flight back to the states. I hope to be able to post from the dorm where we are staying in Moscow, we will see. If you do not see any updates, please pray for safe return travel.

Thank you again for your prayers. We have seen the Lord answer them while we have been here. We praise God for you, and we offer all the glory to Jesus our Lord.