Technical Difficulties

I am posting on all of our blogs to let everyone know that all of our photos were accidentally deleted from all three of our blogs. Please forgive this error. I am working to get them back on as they were before but it will take lots of time to get this accomplished. I will start with the most recent posts and work my way back. Thank you for your understanding!

"Suffer the Little Children..."

This past Thursday evening, Nov. 15th, 2012 as we were holding services at Lena's apartment for her and her family, Yosya, her youngest son, expressed his desire to accept Christ. David, our daughter, Rebekah, and Lena were in their Bible study while I taught our boys, Rita, and Yosya a Bible lesson in the other room. Once our lesson was done, I talked more detailed with Yosya and asked him several questions about salvation. He clearly understood and was more than ready to accept Christ. Once his mother, Lena, was available, I shared this news with her. I also asked Lena about Rita because the week before Rita had told me that she had accepted Christ as her Savior on her own in her bedroom a few weeks prior. I was curious if Rita had mentioned this to her mother and sure enough she had.

Lena and I confirmed with Rita that she understood and she calmly and confidently answered all of our questions and was 100% sure that she would spend eternity in Heaven! At first, Lena was a bit shocked by Rita's confidence but I reminded her that Rita had been attending services for at least a year longer than Lena herself had been! She then smiled and understood that it was totally possible for Rita to know exactly what to do to be saved!

Once we finished talking with Rita, Lena and I took Yosya into his bedroom where we sat him down on the chair to talk more with him. When asked about why he needed to be saved he too was very confident in his answer that Jesus was returning and he needed to be ready to spend eternity with Him. He talked about how strongly he would like to be in Heaven with his whole family. He also quoted me telling him before that, "Now is the day of salvation," as the Scripture says in II Corinthians 6:2 - "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." As I asked him if he believed that Jesus died to pay for his sins his voice began to break and huge tears fell down his cheeks. 

It was such a precious moment for Lena to see her son's tender heart and understanding of what Jesus did for him on the cross! Lena wanted to remind Yosya that this was a very important decision that changes your whole life. I shared with little Yosya and Lena what a great thing it is to trust Christ as your Savior at such a young age. Momma was in tears as Yosya kept his reassuring her that he was ready to be saved!

I told Lena that I thought it would be a wonderful blessing if she could lead Yosya to Christ and pray with him. She agreed and they knelt together on that same chair where her friend, Marina had accepted Christ a few months ago. 

Listening as Lena led her son in the Sinner's Prayer was one of those moments you never want to forget!

Afterwards, Yosya had a smile on his face that you could not take away! He was thrilled to be a new creature in Christ!

Lena and I with Rita and Yosya just after they shared the news with our family that they had accepted Christ.

(I apologize for the poor quality of this photo. 

It was taken with a phone and therefore the lighting was not the best!)

PLEASE continue to pray for them and especially for Lena's husband who is a Muslim.

 Lena also has an older son, Sasha, and she is praying for her Mom and stepfather to come to Christ as well.

Praise the Lord for the work He is doing in this family's life! 

Another Soul Receives Christ!

This has been an amazing week for us here in Russia. We both are so grateful for how the Lord has worked and the doors He has opened for us here. As you read in our last post, Lena accepted Christ on a Monday. That day, just before she left the village to return to live in the city, she was so excited as she told me of a neighbor with whom she wanted to share the gospel. We supplied her with a New Testament, several "God's Simple Plan of Salvation" tracts, a few other tracts, and a Roman's Road bookmarker. Lena was equipped and ready to witness to her neighbor! 

The next day, Lena called me to share that she gave her neighbor, Marina, the tracts and New Testament and that she wanted to thank us for these precious gifts. She then proceeded to explain how she had shared with Marina that she herself accepted Christ's free gift of salvation and that now Marina wanted to get saved! She asked if I could help tell her what to do next in order to help Marina come to Christ! I quickly shared this news with David and we excitedly told the ladies that we could come to them to talk further with Marina.

Due to some family difficulties, Marina explained that it would be better for us to come during the day on that Thursday. So, we arrived at Lena's sometime in the afternoon.  Marina came up from her apartment to meet us and talk with Dee. After talking with her for several hours, Marina had to return home to prepare lunch for her live-in boyfriend who would returning home on his break from work.

In that time we were able to hear about Marina's current relationship with the father of her youngest son. He is from Dagestan and claims to be a Muslim. She had been previously married and has one older son from that relationship. Marina was completely aware that she was living in sin and she had been searching for a way to change her life. 

Marina returned to Lena's apartment to continue talking with Dee and she soon realized that the first thing she needed to do was to accept Christ. Her family relationship would take time to sort out but she understood that she needed Christ in her life before anything else could change for the better. So, right there in Lena's children's bedroom, Marina bowed her head and asked for forgiveness of her sins and accepted Christ as her Savior! 

At that point, we called Lena into the room and the three ladies rejoiced together at what God had done in these two ladies lives! We realize that there is a long road ahead with dealing with the family situations but God will finish the work He has started in them! 

After much rejoicing we all decided that we would continue our meeting weekly with David teaching the ladies and Dee teaching the children as a Sunday school class. The first week we met we were so happy to meet Marina's two children who came to Sunday School for the first time in their lives. Marina was so happy to be able to bring them and know that her children would begin learning about God.

Here is a photo taken by our daughter, Rebekah, of our newest Sunday School class.

Please be in prayer for Marina, as well as, Lena as they strive to live for the Lord and be a light in their families.  Marina is well aware of the many important decisions she has to make some of which are in the immediate future. 

We are so excited and actually surprised by this new ministry God has opened up for us. These ladies live on the right bank of our city which is a good drive for us each week. We would have never guessed that God would have us work in this part of town after we moved out to the village! Pray for these new opportunities and for the others that God wants us to reach in this area of Krasnoyarsk!

What a wonderful Savior is Jesus My Lord!

During the week of VBS held here in the village we were paid a visit by a mother, Lena, of two siblings who began attending our Sunday school last summer. She was very grateful for our ministry and thanked me multiple times for teaching them the Bible and holding VBS as a way for them to have fun and learn more about God. During the summer, Lena travels back and forth from their apartment in the city to her parent's house here in the village. The children stay with their grandparents (Lena's parents) as much as possible so that they can get a break from the city and enjoy playing with their friends here in Elita. 

Last summer, Lena was still working and was hardly free to come out to the village therefore we only had the opportunity to meet her this summer when she came by to see what VBS was all about. 

Lena stopped by to watch the children one day and then she came again on the last day of VBS to watch her children receive their medals. 

On the last day I told her about our services on Sunday and Wednesday and invited her to come. She was very interested in the fact that we had services for adults. That was a Saturday.

Then, she walked to our house with her children on Sunday morning all dressed up and asked if it was alright if she came to services! She really enjoyed the service and said she would come again. From then on, she has come to every service when she is in the village. One day, her daughter relayed a message to me from Lena that she wanted to talk with me. I told her that I could have her over the next morning and she came to visit with me as we had planned. During that time She explained to me that she had come to "make friends" with me. You see, she and her husband, who is from Tajikistan, are building a house down the street from our house. She said that she really enjoyed talking with me and wanted to make a point to be friendly so that later when we would practically be neighbors, we would already be friends.

The Lord opened the opportunity for me to learn more about Lena and her life. She is a very intelligent lady. I learned about her education. She studied to be a geneticist. She is a very well read lady. But more importantly than all this, she shared a secret with me that has been tormenting her for years. 

Approximately 20 years ago, Lena had an abortion. As she shared this burden and explained how it has affected her life, I saw a broken soul who has been searching for forgiveness from God for a very long time. As she explained it she realized herself that forgiveness was exactly what she needed but she didn't know how or exactly where to find it.

She had since learned through attending our services that Christ died on the cross. However, she didn't understand that through Christ we have redemption and forgiveness of our sins. 

She wondered why Christ died. 

She said to me, "He must have died for himself."

 Then she and I took a walk through the Roman's Road and I explained to her WHY Christ died. 

He died for me. But most importantly for HER! 

When I explained to her that Christ died to pay for her sins through the shedding of His blood on the cross. And that when a person accepts Christ as their personal Savior, as far as the East is from the West, he remembers our sins no more; she started sobbing. 

Then she asked if she could hug me. 

It was a very special moment I hope I never forget.

As we parted that day, Lena shared how she would still need to "weed" out her thoughts and think more about what all we discussed that day. I was amazed that we actually were able to go through the Roman's Road. I knew how much reading she had done. At times she also seemed so confused about spiritual matters that I felt we would have to sit down many times together before I would even be able to begin sharing the Roman's Road with her.

Since that day, Lena continued to come to services. 

We were able to find her a whole Bible. Then through some difficulties with the building of her family's house, she came to my husband to ask some building questions. Long story short, she has spent a lot of time at our house and David has helped her in the redesigning of their house plans. During this time we have been able to spend more time with her mother, as well as meet her husband. 

Just yesterday, as she stopped in to ask about coming back for more help she shared with me through tears that she wanted to talk to me because she was ready to accept Christ. She tried to make it back to our house yesterday evening but she was not able to get away from her family after dinner. 

So, this morning I receive a phone call from Lena asking if she could come over to talk about the building and about salvation. The day was very gloomy with lots of heavy rain and fog but I was excited and looking forward to what I had prayed was about to take place. Lena came in and we sat down on the couch together. I had written down a few verses which the Lord brought to my mind this morning to share with her and we began reading those verses. She explained to me some of her thoughts and about an hour and a half later we knelt by our couch to pray together. I prayed for her and then she prayed and accepted Christ as her personal Savior! I wish you could have heard her prayer. It was beautiful. She cried as I shared some things with her as we knelt there together for a moment. 

As we sat back on the couch Lena immediately began talking about a friend of hers, a Russian lady, who is also married to a Muslim man. She has already told this friend about us and about attending services. Now that she has accepted Christ Lena wants to share more with her and even try to invite the friend over so they can "attend" our services through Skype. David and I have already talked about driving to Lena's apartment to visit their family and hopefully be able to study the Bible with her and maybe even her Muslim husband. She shared with me that her husband is very interested in the Bible and that he even downloads Christian films off the internet and watches them over and over again. Thankfully, I had an audio disk of the gospel in the Tajiki language that I was able to give her to give to her husband. Please pray for his salvation as well. I will not give his name on here at this point.

This picture was taken a few minutes after Lena accepted Christ. 

We had been crying and enjoying the moment together so it is maybe not the best photograph we could have taken. 

But it is a picture of another soul that found forgiveness and mercy through Jesus Christ. 

That makes it beautiful! 

I love this picture and I will forever cherish these moments. 

This is why we came to Siberia. 

We came for Lena and the many others like her searching...

I can't wait to meet the next soul we came to share Christ with. 

VBS 2012 - Day 5

Thankfully, we were rained out only one day this week of VBS and that was Thursday.  So, we picked up again on Friday and ended the week of VBS on Saturday this year. Saturday was also the holiday called Ivana Kypala. Ivana Kypala is "Water Day" which is the day when young people have a free "pass" if you will to throw  water on complete strangers and, of course, friends and relatives. When we first arrived in Russia it was considered much more fun to throw full buckets of water at public transport buses as they drove by (hopefully with a few open windows). However, I believe today this holiday is a bit more civilized with less water being thrown at complete strangers and more of just soaking your neighborhood friends with whatever vessel holds the most water. Our VBS week has been held during this holiday for some time now but this year, Ivana Kypala, fell on the last day. With all the other "final VBS day" activities planned, adding Ivana Kypala to the schedule made the day very full and lots of fun!

One of my favorite photographs of the day was this one. I, Dee, invited this boy to come to VBS along with a friend of his. Neither of them had ever attended VBS or Sunday school. Both of the boys came the first day but this boy told me that his aunt would not allow him to participate. He watched as all the other children enjoyed the first day of VBS from the side of the soccer field. Over the next few days, his aunt allowed him to participate, along with his friend who was able to come all but one day of the week. On this last day, he invited another boy to come as his guest. In this picture he is telling Nancy the verse he memorized at registration. Amen!

So, what would a water day be without water balloons!!?? 

One of the most time consuming events of water day is preparing all those water balloons. 
Thankfully, we had help to ensure we had a good supply of balloons to last through several rounds of games.

Aren't they pretty?

Opening prayer.

This is another one of those great photos that Katie took during the last day. The arm on the left belongs to the oldest sibling in this family of three children. Isn't this picture adorable?

Tallying up the team points.

Ryslan leading the lesson while David keeps the little one busy and quiet 

and I tally up points for the week's end.

Here come the water balloons!!

Yes, this is our visitor, Bessie! 

Cow encounters are a common thing in the village!

Katie Northcutt and Hannah Crawford made 
these beautiful and colorful cupcakes 

as the snack for the last day of VBS.

Wanna bite?

We brought back the infamous water balloon slingshot this year! 

The kids love it as you can see in these photos.

Standing in line anxiously awaiting their chance at the slingshot!

Then there is the fun water games which could go on for hours 

provided we had filled hundreds of water balloons!

Water balloon toss!

Jesus Loves Me!

Water Balloon Showdown!

Free for All!

Oh, yes, there was this intern from America that thought he would pour some water over David's (my husband) head. As you can see it didn't work out that well for him. Another missionary saw what he was up to and doused him with a larger bucket of water!

Then one of the girls decided she could probably get Matt Northcutt with a water balloon or two and so she tried several times to catch him off guard. 

This was one of  several "paybacks" for throwing a water balloon at Matt.

Then it was tackle Matt time!

Since it was our last day of the Spirit week activities and we had many kids participate by wearing their team colors, we gave out Snickers candy bars to those who were dressed in red or yellow.

The big moment the kids had all been waiting for had finally arrived! It was time to hand out the medals! Even though they were pretty soaked the kids were all excited to receive their rewards for working hard.

The first individual medals were given out to to the kids who had memorized the most Scripture verses throughout the week.

First Place (Gold) - 38 verses memorized 

Second Place (Silver) - 26 verses memorized - our daughter, Rebekah

Third Place - 16 verses memorized

The second category of individual medals was for those children who invited the most visitors.

Throughout the week, the two teams competed for first and second place medals.

Although they held the lead throughout most of the week in points, the yellow team took Silver in team points.

Yellow team receiving their silver medals for second place in team points.

Love this picture! Big brother allows his sister to wear his medal
and he gets to wear the pink sunglasses.

The red team was so excited to receive GOLD for first place in team points!

Brothers!

Once the medals were received the children were able to spend their individual points in the "store" to purchase toys and other goodies. This has become a tradition and a highlight of the week for sure!

A little more soccer and home everyone went with smiles on their faces and medals around their necks!

We praise the Lord for another great VBS! 

Now we begin planning for next year!