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.