Photo of the Week - 11/8/2015

I really love this photo. It was taken several years ago when myself and another missionary who so kindly offered to help me plan a Ladies' Tea for the 8th of March, Woman's Day, here in Russia. The goal was to invite mothers of our Sunday school children, as well as, ladies in our village in order to introduce myself to them and help them feel more comfortable with what we are trying to do here in the ministry. 

I won't go into the details of the party but, I share this photo to ask for your prayers for us as we head into the holiday season. Christmas is such a wonderful opportunity to invite our neighbors into our home and get to know them better. Building relationships is very important here. We must gain their trust before ever being able to share Christ with them. 

Now that our house is a little more done, we are looking forward to opening our home in the coming weeks to precious friends and families. Join us in praying that we may reach them for Christ.

Prayer request regarding our vehicle

Just today as we were returning from evangelization, and were about a 1/4 of a mile from our house, the engine of our truck blew. We already knew it needed a new transmission and other major work but with other important items on the priority list we have had to put that off for the time being. It would have been the second time our truck has needed a "new" transmission". We purchased it back in January of 2011. We had taken it in a few months ago to have some other work done on it and the mechanics talked David through the possible variants to repair it completely. We had decided it was more economical to repair the truck than to try to replace it with another vehicle. We wanted to get it painted as well. We just didn't expect the engine to blow before we got to the other repairs. 

This is a stock photo. This is not our actual car. :)

The timing was good for us to be near our house and not out with all the family, but, not so good in that tomorrow we are holding services early here in Elita so that we can then go into the city to attend services at Krasnoyarsk Baptist Church as the church celebrates their 20th anniversary. We really wanted to be able to attend since we worked in that ministry almost seven years upon our arrival in Russia in 1999. We also have our church family here in Elita who would like to be a part of the day. The others were planning on going in other vehicles since our vehicle could only our family.  We now will be calling a taxi to get our family into the city and back. 
We would like to ask you to please pray for us in this new need. It is very challenging here to exist without a vehicle.  Praise the Lord this did not happen two weeks ago during our Vacation Bible School preparation and program. 
We would have loved to have already purchased a newer vehicle but with the cost we felt it was best to repair this one. Now, the cost of the repairs has grown and well into the amount of money we would need for a new vehicle. Please pray for wisdom for our family and for the Lord to work in this situation to meet our need as He sees best.

Photo of the Week

Okay, so this week there are two photos of the week. I had to show both. :) We have had a good week although we barely remember it. It was the first week after VBS so we were all striving to get back into the "usual busy" and try to rest off the exhaustion of the previous week as well. Before we knew it, it was Friday and none of our family could really tell you what we did on Monday. :) One day this week, our daughter and I were invited to a Tajiki (from Tajikistan) friend's house where they were preparing for a big feast the next day where they would have over 100 men in their home. This young lady in the green loves our daughter and the Momma loves to visit with me. So, they often beg us to come over for tea and to chat. They asked me to bake their favorite chocolate cake and come over, so we did. We never go home empty-handed and were given some of these "lepyoshky" and other sweets to take home to my husband and the boys. They are a sweet family and we are grateful for the relationship we can have with them. We pray they come to know the forgiveness and freedom only Christ can give. 

"Lepyoshky" in the process.

"Lepyoshky" ready to eat. :)

Vacation Bible School 2014 Daily Themes

I have so much I want to write about using Vacation Bible School as an outreach ministry on your field of service, whether it be in the States or on the foreign field. I truly believe that as a result of the prayer, sweat, and tears we have put into this part of our ministry, God has blessed and allowed us to see the fruit we have seen during our time here in Russia. I love VBS programs and organizing them can be lots of fun. One major challenge in the planning is figuring out what your theme and lessons will be. It often seems like that is the part of VBS planning that I spend the most time on. Not all ideas you find online will work on every field so most of our themes and lesson plans are developed by us in order to best fit the spiritual needs of the children to whom we minster. Once the theme has been chosen and the daily lessons developed, the rest seems to flow together more smoothly.
I would like to begin sharing our VBS themes/ideas in hopes that it would inspire someone else to be able to put these themes to use in their churches/ministries and see fruit that will remain as a result!

Theme for the Week: Tis' So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Idea: To have a daily sweet treat to give away at the end of the program.
Goal: To help the children learn more about Jesus and His saving power and grace.

Day 1: Theme: Jesus is the only foundation on which we can build our lives.
Story: Wise Man and Foolish Man
Verses: Matthew 7:24-29
Sweet Treat: 

I don't have a good photo of the kids eating their sweet treat of cotton candy on Monday but you can see the little buckets of cotton candy here in our stack of supplies to take for the first day of VBS.

For each day, our talented daughter made signs which we hung on the registration tables each day so the kids could see what the "sweet treat" was for that day of VBS.


Day 2: Jesus has the power to give sight.
Story: Blind Bartimaeus
Verses: Mark 10:46-52
Sweet Treat:

Chocolate bars!

Day 3: Jesus has the power to give life.
Story: Lazarus
Verses: John 11:1-44
Sweet Treat:

Cupcakes, glorious cupcakes!

I can not tell you how much mileage we get out of cupcakes! My SS kids LOVE my cupcakes!



Day 4: Jesus has the power to forgive sin.
Story: Man with palsy let down through the roof.
Verses: Mark 2:1-12
Sweet Treat:

Bubble Gum!

Day 5: Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven!
Story: Wide and Narrow Gate
Verses: Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23
Sweet Treat:

Ice cream! It sure was a hot enough day for ice cream! A perfect treat!

 I have yet to post the daily photos from VBS 2014 and plan to do that to give you an even better idea of how the week went. So, watch for those photos coming soon!

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!

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!