"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!