StreetCry Ministries

2012-01-18T04:15:00.000-08:00

New Year has arrived. New hope, new joy, He makes all things new. It is so wonderful to know that God can make all things new.

Dear friends, we hope you and your families had a wonderful time during Christmas! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. We can't thank you enough for praying for Katya and her health as well as for us to be strong during her sickness. It has been a time of real desperation, but God is faithful and He was always so near.

We are happy that Katya is with us now here in Tallinn. The Lord has provided a temporary office job for her until she starts university here. Her headaches have not returned which is a very good sign of the two surgeries being successful. Praise God! We continue to pray for complete recovery and restoration of health.

COFFEE HOUSE

When we first came to Estonia people used to tell us jokes about things being done slowly here. We had to laugh, but now we see that to a great degree it is true. We have experienced it first hand with building a student coffee house for reaching young people. But at the same time, we know that our God is in control of everything and we have to trust Him and His ways in every situation. He often does things differently so that we trust Him in new ways and do not only go by past experiences with Him. He is the One Who knows and sets times and seasons.

The Coffee House renovation is going slowly but surely.

Brethren from Mantorp church in Sweden bought and delivered table bases. A mission organization here in Tallinn donated more dishes and a couch and an arm chair. The tiling of the kitchen and the small room floor was finished. A dear brother from a Methodist church who has a construction company arranged for one of one of his workers to come and put in the tiles. We provided the materials and he did the work for free. It was a joy working with this man. His name is Volodya. He had a sweet spirit and very good work ethics. He was very diligent with his work and didn't try to rush, though by the end of the second week he started getting phone calls from his boss to hurry up.

A YWAM team here in Tallinn are a big blessing to us in doing some of the construction work in the coffee house. Since Christmas they were able to put insulation material in the main room, cover the ceiling with coffee sacks (as part of design) and build a bar, put the light fixtures on the walls and work on other things. Currently we are working on finding the right equipment for the kitchen and putting it in the right places to pass the health inspection.

Over Christmas time we had several visitors in our home. John turned 60 on Dec. 29. Who could imagine! Last Sunday a young man who was preaching in church said that when he first met John he had one wish to look as young as John did at his age. It was a wonderful compliment! God has blessed him!

Over the years he has never wanted a birthday party, but this year was special and he wanted to be with dear friends. Some of our closest friends from Russia and Finland came to visit, people who we personally know for several years, who came to the Lord through StreetCry. Vera and her husband Marco came from Finland, Lana came all the way from Africa. We were able to bless him with a nice espresso maker since he likes coffee very much. We missed some of you, but I know you were with us in the spirit. A few days ago John mentioned that it was the best birthday of his entire life. Thank you for coming and being with us, and praying for him. It was a joyous and blessed time for all of us and especially for John. Thank you!!!

The Lord has given us some friends here with a zeal for reaching the lost. Knowing that some of our evangelist friends from Russia were coming for the New Year, they invited us to lead street witnessing with their trainees on New Year's eve. We gathered together at church for a time of worship and prayer. Several of us shared message and testimonies about evangelism, and the importance of having God's heart for people. Some of the youth from church and also other churches joined us in going out that night.

Witnessing to people who have been drinking all night can be a challenge, but the head of YWAM here, whose name is Kuzaan was won to the Lord while drunk in a bar - so he has a heart and faith for drunks. The woman who witnessed to him later became his wife. They have a beautiful family and have been missionaries for a number of years.

The teams went out to the streets around 10 p.m. For some of the team members it was the first time going out to the streets and witnessing to Estonians about the Lord.The main square and streets in old town were filled with people. Fireworks were supposed to start at midnight; so people were just waiting or meeting up with friends.

One of the girls with my (Sara's) team was home for Christmas from MorningStar School of Ministry. They are taught to use their prophetic gifts in ministering to non-believers. She was asking the Lord to show us a specific person to come up to. We passed some people, then she mentioned that she felt an urge to talk to a young man on crutches, but while she was fighting her fears the guy was gone. When she told me about this, I felt we needed to go after him. He could not have gone far on crutches! He was right around the corner. We asked him about his life. He was an orphan and a drug addict for some time but has stopped using drugs since he got HIV. We shared with him about God's love and hope for him. He allowed us to pray for his leg and also against HIV. He said he felt unworthy to let Jesus into his heart. Partially he was right but he was missing the point of Jesus wanting to come into his dirty heart and cleansing it. He couldn't comprehend the fact that Jesus shed his blood for him to be cleansed and wants to live in his heart.

Another young man came up to us while we were out. His name was Elvis. Estonian Elvis! He didn't look like Elvis (second on the right), his mom is a music teacher and is fond of Elvis's music. We spent quite some time talking to this young man. At the end of our conversation we asked if we can pray for him. He admitted that he is looking for the 'right way ' in his life, he wanted to find it this coming year. I was amazed at his words and gladly agreed to pray, because THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE was waiting for him to ask!

During this outreach we met some precious people who are really looking for answers. And we have the words of life, all we have to do is share them with the ones who need and want them.

Lana (who has spent one and 1/4 years in Mozambique as a StreetCry missionary) has a friend named Nastya who does not know Jesus yet. She also came to Tallinn during holidays and spent a couple of nights with us. She has visited Lana in Mozambique and helped the ministry there for two weeks. She has a heart to help people in need yet she is in need of salvation herself. We spoke to her about giving her life to the Lord and prayed for her when she went back. She later told Lana that she was very touched that we prayed for her. She also came to our Christmas feed-in in Russia. I invited her to participate in worship with us. She pulled herself back and said that she is not worthy to worship Him. It seemed that she had such a revelation of her sinfulness but lack of revelation of God's love and acceptance. Please join Lana and us in prayer for Nastya's salvation and revelation of God's love for her.

FEED-INS

ESTONIA

We held our third annual Christmas feed-in in Tallinn, in collaboration with the Vineyard Church and a local Social Department of the city. For several years Tallinn Vineyard had been working together with the Social Department and giving Christmas packages to the neediest people of the city. This year we ministered to and primarily fed families with many children, single-parent families and families with financial difficulties. Overall, 102 people were invited with 59 children under 16.

We saw God’s hand all the way through our preparations for the feast. Vineyard Tallinn offered its rooms for the event, a restaurant managed by one brother from church let us cook the hot food there, another company offered tables for the feed-in. As usual, several Estonian and Italian businesses donated food and we were able to purchase the rest. With generous help of church members and sponsors, Christmas gift packages were distributed among children of all age groups Tallinn Food Bank offered 60 boxes of food for the families to take home after the feast. Brothers and sisters from Youth With a Mission organization helped us with cooking the meal.

This event turned out to be different from our previous ones in Tallinn before, since over half of those we fed were children, and on our hearts was a desire to serve and share the Gospel with both children and adults. Vineyard Tallinn youth took the responsibility of performing a skit, pastor Miguel Zayas shared the Gospel and his own testimony of how God provided for his family when it was in a desperate situation. We had three Estonian, English and Russian bands leading the musical part of the event.

We are very thankful to God for this opportunity to serve the needy around us and to share the love of Jesus with them. We are praying that the sown seed will bring good and lasting fruit in its time. We are also very thankful for your help, donations and prayers for the event.

RUSSIA

It continues to be a privilege to host the Christmas Feed-ins in Russia for Rehabilitation centers. We have been doing them for 16 years and we never get tired of them. Thank you to those who have been praying and faithfully giving to make these feasts possible. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The biggest highlight for me was having fellowship with a young man named Dema (see photo below, Dema is the young man smiling in the striped shirt) whom John and I met a few years ago while he was a drug addict. Before coming to our church several years ago he had received several of our invitations and tracts with testimonies, and then one day he decided to come and visit us. He was wearing a trench coat and had a metal pipe under it. He was homeless and an ex-convict, and used the pipe to beat people up and rob them for drug money. While the worship was going on he was on his knees; after it was over he stood up and he was a different person. He was changed and freed from drugs simply by being in the presence of God. After the service he stood up and went towards the door, but John rushed to stop him and talked with him. He didn't have a place to go and that night we took him into our students' dorm. Since then a lot of things happened in Dema's life and he made some bad decisions. But he is now back with the Lord and it was so good to see him again. It is a blessing to be able to feel and experience a taste of God's wonderful love for people. What a joy it was to see him back, his face was shining with the light and love of God. We pray that he holds on tight to the Lord and faithfully follows Him.

During the evening we had a powerful time of prayer and worship. It's so exciting to worship together with people who have been saved literally from the grave. There is such an atmosphere of God's love and compassion, and joy. As we prayed we declared new levels of victories for the guys in rehab, closer relationship with the Lord, new territories for the Lord, new souls to be saved and delivered from addictions. We feel 2012 will be a year of deliverance and salvation for many in Russia.

A couple came up front during worship and asked for prayer since they were going to a new city to start a new work there. They are former drug addicts and who have a heart to preach the Gospel and establish God's Kingdom in new places. We prayed a prayer of blessing and God's leading and protection over them in that new city.

As usual there was an abundance of food! Everyone received a hearty and delicious meal and fellowshiped together. It was also good to see and talk with some of old friends, former Bible school students, who are serving God in different ministries and churches. God continues to raise up leaders and faithful followers of Jesus Christ in Russia.

Over the past months we have come across several people whom the Lord opened doors for us to share His love and salvation message with. We continue to receive phone calls from addicts expressing a desire to be free from addiction. Some people got our phone number from a police inspector who dealt with one of the boys that went through a rehabilitation program, others have gotten it from their friends. It seems that the information spreads by word of the mouth....no advertising necessary.

A very special young man is Grisha. He has given our phone number to several people whom he met due to his addiction to drugs. He referred them to us and we helped them to go to a rehab center in Finland run by Vera's husband Marco.

Vera writes:

A beautiful present for our one year wedding anniversary was the arrival of 2 new addicts sent from Estonia.

Both Sasha (pic. left) and Grisha (pic.right) are doing good, showing a seriousness toward the Lord and rehab. On the Sunday following his arrival Sasha recommitted his life to Jesus during our worship service. Grisha is still in the process of making a decision – please pray that he would open his heart to the Gospel and come to the saving knowledge of Christ.

LANA

Reflections from Mozambique:

I am very thankful to the Lord that He brought me here and for the time spent here. I am very happy to be in Mozambique and to be used by the Lord in this wonderful country with wonderful people.

I am very thankful that the Lord has brought me to the Iris Mission school. It was a great miracle of Him bringing me here. He continues to do wonders in my heart. Every day we wake up with sunrise because we don't want to sleep. God is teaching us to love people and to serve them from your heart. He is teaching me to abide in His presence and to be sensitive to His Holy Spirit. At the same time the Holy Spirit is showing me my real nature and who I really am. I continue to be amazed at His mercy and goodness as He shows me things that are inside of me that need to be healed, changed or to be free from, so that I could reflect Him more.

Almost every day is full of testimonies of what God is doing here. People are being saved (even Muslims), being healed, delivered or just see how much God loves and blesses them. Across the road from us there is an ocean but unfortunately there is no time to swim and enjoy the hot African sun. Every day we eat rice and beans; for a couple of weeks we had problems with water supply, so we bathed in the ocean. But it is nothing...

A few weeks ago a family who lived in a province of Zambezi in Mozambique suffered persecution. Their main ministry was to raise up pastors in Mozambique teaching them in Bible school. One day bandits broke into their house threatening their children with machetes and guns, and took everything from the house and told them to leave the province. Praise God nobody was killed! The children though are still recovering from shock. They left the next day and are now in Pemba. A day later the same bandits came into their house again and beat up a local pastor and some guards that were looking after the house. It took quite some time to overcome the experience, especially for children it was very difficult.

This family is thinking about going back so that they can continue to minister to the pastors. They feel that the plan of the enemy was to scare them and if they leave then the enemy will win. Please pray for this wonderful family and their children so they can fulfill the will of God without fear and that the Lord would restore everything that the enemy stole. May the Gospel of His Kingdom be established with more power and grace.
For me: I want more and more of the Lord.
Thank you,
With love,
Lana

PRAYER REQUESTS FOR OUR MINISTRY

For closer relationship with the Lord in the year 2012

For greater release of the Holy Spirit over our ministry and us personally

For physical and spiritual protection, divine health and strength for all of us

For our hearts to be broken for the lost of Estonia

Ability to see things with spiritual eyes

Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, increased ability to follow Him and be obedient to Him

For divine appointments

Unity, love and wisdom for those in our ministry

For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, addicts delivered and placed in rehab centers

For the coffee house to be completed before April and obtaining govt licenses

For people to be drawn to the Lord through the work of the Holy Spirit

For Lana Moroz. She is seeking the Lord for her future. She is interested in going back to Africa but also has India in her heart for a long time. For leading of the Holy Spirit, wisdom in decision making

For an abundant financial supply for the year 2012 for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support! We love and appreciate you and thank God for you!

John and Sara Russell
for StreetCry & KrossRoad Ministries

August 2011

2011-08-09T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

A big thank you for all who joined with us in prayer in our last newsletter as well as to those who helped financially. Of the 21 prayer requests for items for the coffee house, 8 of these have been supplied, including new front door (on the left), outside tiles for steps, 40 chairs and 10 tables (on the right), coffee cups and glasses, freezer (see picture below), office desk, 2 oil heaters, and outside sign.

Right now, we are at an impasse with the cafe, as we have no more funds to purchase materials or to pay workers. Please join us in prayer for all of the following items to be supplied and or funds to pay for them. We need $14,000 to be able to finish the work and open the cafe. Thank you very much. If anyone is in a position to help, it would be a huge blessing!

Here are the items we still need:

linoleum for kitchen, coffee bar and office

acoustic materials for walls and ceiling

carpet for cafe rooms

27 light fixtures

music equipment including drums, 3 mics, guitar, bass, mixing board. speakers and amps

sound system for recorded music

projector and screen

stove and exhaust fan

microwave oven

refrigerator

plates and utensils

20 gallon water heater

What has been happening

In June we had helpers from a ministry called "Serve the City" who sent 6 people to help do repairs at the cafe. They were a tremendous help for a day. Three StreetCry brethren came from Russia for a week each to help work on the cafe as well. Two of them had come to the Lord through our ministry there, and one of them had returned to the Lord because of it - so all knew and appreciated the value of the cafe and the urgency of getting it set up so we can minister more effectively here.

The local YWAM ministry has had teams from Norway and Finland visiting this summer (see picture on the right). They asked us to help, so John was able to share a class on evangelism and then we were able to take 18 of them out doing personal witnessing and prayer for young adults. We took them out in teams of 3 and they were amazed at the openness of the Estonians and how easy it is to engage them in conversation about Jesus.

Two more people were sent to a Christian rehab center in Finland. These were addicts that Sara and Natasha met on the street. You can see one of them - Maksim, in the picture on the left with Vera, already going through rehab in Betel.

John preached on Living a Supernatural Life at Tallinn Vineyard Church, sharing some of His experiences in evangelism and God's supernatural protection, leading and supply.

A company donated 2 tons of frozen fish fillet to us. We were able to pass most of it on to the city food bank, run by a dear man who we met a few months ago. The remaining fish will be distributed to rehab centers and feeding programs. The laws in Estonia regarding companies donating food to non-profit organizations are very restrictive and soviet-esque. Please join us in prayer so that good food that is being thrown away can get into the hands of the poor. We are also seeing an increase in sharing food between rehab centers, the food bank and feeding programs. It seems that more and more, when anyone has more than they can use, that they are passing the blessings on to others. This has caused quite a free flow of food between people that don't ordinarily have that much contact with each other. This is wonderful.

We received about 100kg of used children's clothes which we were able to pass on to others. Neither the food or clothing distribution are part of our regular ministry, but we want to try to be faithful with whatever He passes our way.

As everyone knows, the entire world is in a recession and we know that those who give to our ministry are effected. We want to thank you for your faithfulness in spite of the difficulties and we are also very grateful for a couple of new givers to the ministry. Giving to the ministry is down to where we have about 1/3 as much funds as previously. We desperately need $2000 additional each month in pledges for the coffee house ministry. If you could help, or if you know others who could, it would be a very significant help to us.

News from Lana Moroz in Africa

Hello Everyone!

It is winter here in Mozambique, but we feel it only during the night, when the temperature goes down to 10˚C (50 F) sometimes even lower. It is still hot during the day and can go up to 30˚C (86F) or higher.

Unfortunately, the reopening of our clinic is still in the process and for now we don’t have any information when it is going to open. Please pray for wisdom for the leaders and others who are involved in this issue. Due to the absence of our clinic, we are limited in our abilities to help people outside of our orphanage compound. We have no right to give even the simplest assistance as, for example, putting a band-aid on a cut finger, although of course we cannot stop helping the needy .

We are only two nurses here who are permanently on the territory of the center taking care of 267 kids. We are in great need of your prayers for health of children and for strength and wisdom for us.

Little Inácio feels excellent. He is growing fast and gaining strength! Next week, a Mozambiquean family that cannot have kids is planning on adopting him. God bless them!!!

Last week, an 11-year old girl here named Helena died. We took her to the city hospital 5 times, but each time she was released without any treatment. When we went there for the fifth time, we insisted that she would undergo a lumbar puncture and thereafter be left at the hospital. Next day we were called and told that tests showed she had meningococcus and that she was diagnosed with meningitis. This is what we had been telling them since the first time we took her to the hospital. Three hours later she died. We were shocked! The good news is that one day before Helena died, one missionary felt that she should pray with her. Helena loved to worship the Lord, to dance and to sing for Him. She also loved to pray. We were convinced that she experienced His presence and that she knew Him. So, when this lady prayed with her, Helena started repeating the words and declared Jesus Christ to be her Lord and Savior. Nobody could imagine that within two days she would be dancing with Jesus in Heaven.

The greatest shock was the attitude of doctors to patients, and a medical system that is worse than anywhere I have ever witnessed! People wait in 2- 3 hour lines to see a doctor and finally they are prescribed things that have nothing to do with their illness. On rare occasions they are sent to undergo medical tests. But this also requires waiting in lines for several hours. In majority, doctors don’t even examine patients, at the best they just ask questions. In general, every time we need to take a child to the hospital we run into difficulties where we have to fight and persevere on their behalf, for them to even be examined. It scares us a lot, when we think of all the other local people, because we are “white westerners“ with medical education, it’s harder for the local doctors to get away with certain things with us that they do every day with the local poor. Those who come to get a doctor’s help don’t even know what a thermometer is. Each week, and even more often, we hear that somebody died. Medical care here is on a very low level. And if somebody is in hospital, usually he is on his deathbed. They don’t have ambulances at all. When people get sick, they use public minibuses (the only transport they have). However, minibus drivers don’t like taking sick people, becuase of the fear they would die on the bus and bring a “curse“ on them. This is the capital city of Mozambique!

While I was writing this letter, we received more news. This week, the ministry of public health is coming to inspect us and they already have questioned us about few things. They demanded that we provide them with time-schedule of our staff because they are convinced we break their legal regulations. According to new laws, doctors and nurses are allowed to work only 8 hours a day. But as you understand, in the children's healthcare center, we have to look after kids 24/7.

Generally, we see that local government is jealous about our work. We are a thorn in their side. But, if God is for us, who can be against us? Please, support us in your prayers, especially now. Our leaders, directors and a lawyer need your prayers. Please pray for God’s peace in their hearts! For His wisdom how to talk with authorities. Let God open their hearts so that they could see what God is doing in our center and His love that is poured out here.

This time my letter seems to be sad, but actually we rejoice because every day we see what He is doing here and how He pours out His Holy Spirit. Recently, we prayed for one very old woman, that lives on the garbage dump where we weekly go to evangelize, and she received her eyesight back after years of blindness due to diabetes. She was blind because of diabetes but now she sees again!

Two days ago, we visited a nearby village where we met local children. They were so interested in our visiting them, we told them about Jesus, and the children wanted to receive Him as their Lord.

My last news for now is that I had an opportunity to receive a visitor from Russia for two weeks. Her name is Nastya, and we worked together as nurses in Russia. She doesn’t know the Lord yet, but I saw how God was touching her heart while she was here with me. Two times she even cried because of His touch. First time, when children were praying for her at church, and, second time, when she went to the garbage dump with me. We entered into people’s houses to pray for them, and after we prayed for the first woman, I opened my eyes and saw Nastya laying hands on the lady the same way I did, and she trying to pray for her. And after our last visit to a paralysed lady, Nastya was literally wailing. That day God healed many people and I believe He was healing her heart as well. Can you imagine – an atheist Russian doctor (that is how she calls herself) is crying while she prays for sick people on her vacation visit to a city and village in Africa. Now, when she is back to Russia, so often she asks me in her letters to pray for something or she tells me that she prayed for something. Lord, save Nastya!!!

Thank you very much for your prayers!!!

With love,

Lana Moroz (My nickname from Svetlana was previously Sveta, but Lana is easier to pronounce here)

June 2011

2011-06-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

As many of you already know, we now have the keys to the building for our evangelism cafe and we are busy repairing it in preparation for opening. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

A few weeks ago we sent the following info:

"In the second week of April we received a phone call from a Tallinn television station. They wanted to do an interview about our new coffee house. We told them we had not heard back from the government yet, regarding final word. We asked how they heard about it, and the interviewer said they had read about it in the newspaper (newspaper article is above)! We called city hall, and they said, "Yes, the project received final approval on April 6, the building is yours." We asked how it was already in the newspaper, and how it happened that we had not been informed. They said the press was on hand at city hall for government announcements and that is how they heard. They said they were planning on telling us the next week!

This is so much how we have seen God do things so many times. He gets the word out, He arranges the advertising and inspires interest and hunger regarding what He is doing. All we have to do is watch and marvel at His ways and go through the doors He has opened!

We are excited, thrilled, overjoyed about this - to the point of tears of thanksgiving. We have so much confidence in God's love, ability and desire to reach the Estonian youth. Now, the next phase begins. Meeting with Christian musicians, evangelists and other volunteers and have a larger base of people in on the prayer and planning meetings, as well as building repairs and equipping the building."

On the 20th of April we signed a contract for a 5 year lease on the building and were given the keys.

Since then we had the blessing of hosting a team of three (Sven-Inge, Timo and Victor - picture on the left) from Elim church in Sweden, who came to help with some of the work. Over the two full days they spent with us, they built a stage, outside steps, a wall and poured a cement floor (see photos below). They purchased the tools and all of the materials needed to do the job. Their trip was short but very fruitful. They came with one purpose only, to see some of the construction work done. They busily worked night and day for two days to see their goals met.

Our local team worked on spackling, cleaning, mixing cement and being their assistants. After that, Jaanus from the local church Toompea 3 came and did painting and plumbing work (picture below).

We have purchased paint for the entire building, carpet for the office, stainless steel sinks for the kitchen and coffee bar, snack sized plates, and have had counter tops donated from a local firm and a new industrial dishwasher donated by Village of Hope rehab center.

We still have many things to do before we can open, and a YWAM team and a brother from Russia will be helping us with work next week. Our money is exhausted, we are down to $30.00 (20 euro), so please pray with us for the finances to continue what we know the Lord has begun; and skilled workers to do the necessary jobs that still need to be done.

We need the following, so please pray with us for the provision of 18,000 euro ($24,000) for:

new front door

outside tiles for steps and wall

linoleum for kitchen and coffee bar

acoustic materials for walls

ceiling acoustic material

12 tables and 40 chairs

carpet for coffee house and stage

27 light fixtures

music equipment including drums, 3 mics, guitar amp, bass amp, speakers, mixing board, guitar and bass, etc.

sound system for recorded music

projector and screen

cash register

cups, glasses, bowls, silverware, kitchen utensils, pots and pans

microwave oven

stove and exhaust fan

fridge and freezer

office desk

new 75 litre boiler

pump heater

outside electric sign

a God inspired name for the club that students can relate to

Thank you again for your prayers. We are so thankful for your hearts of love toward our family and ministry! Please help if you can!

Thanks and blessings to you!

John and Sara Russell

May 2011

2011-05-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

In this newsletter we are featuring Sveta Moroz who is a StreetCry Missionary at a children’s orphanage with Iris Ministries in Maputo, Mozambique. She is supported through the financial gifts given to us at StreetCry. Her monthly support is 1/3 of the western missionaries she works with, and still decides to give much of her $500 month personal support for medicine that is lacking for the children. She can use your encouragement, prayers and financial support.

Here is Sveta:

Hello dear friends!

Time flies swiftly and imperceptibly. The days here are very eventful and seem very short.

Do I miss home? It is more “No”, then “Yes”. It’s probably God’s grace that works because of your prayers. I am very happy to be here! God has given me so much love towards these people.

One of the things that we do here is help mothers who have children under one year old (photo on the right). We help them on a regular basis providing milk and food.

Another thing is we hold crusades in the villages and prepare meals for the homeless. During one of these feed-ins I had such a great desire to witness, but my Portuguese is not very good. I just prayed for an opportunity and a divine appointment. That day we made a meal of chicken, home fried potatoes, salad and lemonade, and went to the streets where we meet homeless people.

On the street we started singing worship songs and preaching the Gospel. After that we asked people if they wanted to pray with us and later gave them food. At the end of our meeting a man came up to me. He was not a homeless person, but he was very inquisitive. I started to explain to him what we are doing here and asked him if he believed in Jesus. He said he does not. At this moment I understood that my Portuguese is very limited. I didn’t want to let him go but I could not do anything on my own. All of a sudden he asked me if I spoke English.

Thank God! This was my answer from the Lord. I started telling him about Jesus and what He has done for us, why it is important for us to be reconciled to Him! He came to this world for our redemption and to forgive us, and how it is important that we would be born again.

I asked the man if he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart and he gladly agreed. We prayed together and after prayer I looked at him and saw lots of joy in his eyes. God is wonderfully answering the desires of our hearts especially when our desires are His desire to save people.

Our God continued to do miracles. My friend went to a village far into the interior of Mozambique, where they held a three day crusade. After the first meeting, the pastor offered prayer. A girl who had a speech problem came up to them and asked for prayer for her speech to improve. Afterward she thanked him for prayer and left saying that is seemed to get better. The next day she came again and asked for prayer. When the team started praying they received a word of knowledge that the girl is deaf.

They tested her hearing and found out that she could repeat only words when she can see their lips moving. They prayed for her but nothing changed. The next day she came for prayer again, the team members prayed for her and tested her hearing. They spoke so that she could not see their lips. All of a sudden she started clearly saying the words that they spoke. Because of her perseverance she received healing. Ask and it shall be given to you! My friend also got healed from ringworm that she got from some of the children and could not get rid of it for along time.

A little girl was brought to us who was three weeks old. Her mother died three days after she was born. The baby girl was born premature, she was 2100 gr. As a result of all this she spent three weeks in the hospital and then was sent to our home. When she was brought to us she was 1900 gr, could not suck milk put of the bottle, and had a respiratory infection. We were very concerned about this little thing and prayed hard for her. A month later she gained weight and now she is 2800 gr, is eating well and has a beautiful smile. She is growing before our eyes, we can’t recognize her. A month after she came, another girl was brought to us. She was ten months old and 3.400 gr in weight. She is also gaining some weight but not as much as her little friend.

Also I started going to a village to help with evangelism and classes for new believers once a week. Please pray for the salvation of more people. There are only eight adults here with more than 200 children for us to care for.

A week ago we had troubling news. One of our friends, Katy, who helps with the work to the prostitutes and kids here in Mozambique, was taken to a hospital with an emergency to have an operation on her brain.

Two thieves got into her house not realizing that anyone was home. Katy heard noise and came out of her room and was struck severely on her head by one of the men. Her mother also was in the house and came out and the robbers then fled. Katy was immediately taken to a hospital in Maputo (the capital of Mozambique) which is an hour away from her house. Doctors said she needed an urgent brain operation but they could not perform it there. Praise God, South Africa is only two hours away from Maputo! She was taken to a hospital in the border city of Nelspruit, where they immediately operated on her. People in our center prayed for her since her life was really in danger. Every day we received good news from her. It was a miracle! She was out of the hospital in a week. I personally having worked in intensive care as a nurse in Russia, and I have never seen such a speedy recovery! It is awesome! Our God is more than just Almighty!

We continue to have classes for new believers. In our village two of the girls have decided to be water baptized. I went to the city dump where we hold church meetings once a week. Before the meeting we always go around and evangelize people at the dump and also go from house to house (shack to shack) that are built right there at the dump. It is the poorest district in Maputo. We met a lady who was sitting in front of her house. She told us that she was sick for several days. She had pain all over her body, especially in her legs and she could not walk. We prayed for her and after prayer she said she felt better and decided to come to church with us.

Iris Ministries also has a prison ministry here that until recently, I had never been able to visit because of my very tight schedule. One day I was able to go with a team. It is a women’s prison and there were about 30-35 women at the meeting.

Since my coming was spontaneous I had not prepared a message to share, I was the last one to say something. I came up front and didn’t know what to say. I started by saying: I came from Russia. The chaplain jumped out of her seat, pushed away my interpreter and said she wants to be my translator. She was very interested and asked me to tell them more about myself. I felt I needed to share my personal testimony with the women.

I noticed how all the eyes were fixed on me, they were very open to hear and receive. I told them how I came to Jesus, then shared about the first commandment and the blessing following it if we serve Jesus and not the idols, about forsaking all to follow Him.

After my testimony our pastor came up and shared from the passage Philippians 3:8-14. My message and his came into one whole idea. Holy Spirit was moving in a strong way at that place. Many women were crying, God was really touching them. This trip impacted my heart so much, I am praying for that ministry and women regularly.

Life in the center is in full swing. Days are going by fast here. There are five nurses right now in the center and we are very full out with work. One of the nurses just left for a holiday break and after that she is going to another center that has been just started. During the summer months there will be only three of us.

Please pray

That God would bring nurses to our center. We have so much work that we hardly have days off.

Unity between missionaries, for understanding and love among us. We are so different, from different countries, different backgrounds. Lately this area is very vulnerable.

One of our children is in the hospital right now. The doctors can’t find anything wrong, but he has a high fever and very weak. Pray for wisdom for the doctors, so they can find the cause of his sickness, for his healing.

Release of the Holy Spirit over the Iris Ministries and over me personally.

For the grace and rest, since there is so much work needs to be done here

Fruitfulness

For people to be saved especially the kids that live in our center, so they can experience God in a personal way and know Him as their Lord and Savior.

For healing of the sick: we have a lot of kids with HIV, diabetes, neurological diseases. For healing during evangelism meetings on the streets, hospitals that we visit every week and during church services

For the mercy of God to released on Africa, repentance and deliverance for the people of Africa

For signs and wonders, creative power, for open heaven and angels of God to be released upon these desperately poor and needy people whom God loves and died for.

For my heart to be more broken for the lost and sick

So I can know His will and His goals for every day of my life

Ability to see things with spiritual eyes

Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, increased ability to follow Him and be obedient to Him

For the spiritual and physical protection from all the plans of the enemy

For the release of the gifts of the Spirit and flowing in God’s love

For improvement of my English and Portuguese

For divine appointments, new contacts

For the enlarging of my vision for my future

For the things God will show you to pray for

With love,
Sveta

P.S. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! If you receive anything from the Lord concerning me or ministry, please let me know! It is always timely!

JANUARY 2011

2011-01-20T02:45:00.000-08:00

Dear friends!

Happy New Year to you all! Our hope is that you all have the most joyous, most fruitful year of your lives in 2011!

The Christmas feed-ins in Estonia and Russia went well, with several coming to Jesus (see picture on the left) and a bunch more inquiring about rehabilitation. The Christmas event in Harku women's prison also went well. All together, about 650 people were ministered to and at least 6 came to Jesus. There were testimonies and the salvation message from the stage and we passed out written copies of the Christmas story in tract form.

Special thanks to the pastors and helpers from Toompea 3 Church for the use of the building, equipment and staff for the event. To Victor and Anna Avdiakovy, Sven-Inge and Elim Church of Mantorp, for sending funding for gifts for the women in our prison ministry and gifts to many children we minister to including the ones from two orphanages! The chocolate was a big hit at all 3 events! You truly made the Christmas special for them and us!

Also to Ruthe Brookshire, the MacAnanny Foundation, Colleen Sherman, Jason and Kathy Roberson, New London Bridge Church, Marko Priks who all gave special donations for the feed-ins. They would not have occurred without your help. Also to the Bios band, Toompea 3 worship band, Ülo Lepik, Roma and Ira, Sergey and Zhenya, Katya, Tanya, Dasha, Olga and Natasha for the huge help they were! And thanks also to all who have generously helped the ministry this past year! We appreciate you and thank God for you!

It was our second annual Christmas feed-in in Estonia and fifteenth in Russia. Fifteen years ago, the Lord put it on our hearts to bring together the rehab centers from the St Petersburg area, to worship Him, marvel at His goodness over the past year and proclaim a harvest for the coming year. Over this 15 year period we have seen the vision for rehab centers grow and consequently the number of centers grows as well. Every year, we see more and more dedicated, praying, witnessing, on fire, Christian brethren being raised up to continue reaping the harvest. We know that running a rehab center and caring for ex drug addicts and alcoholics is a difficult, demanding and often thankless job, fraught with setbacks, lack of finances and much time spent on the knees! We have seen centers close down because of a lack of vision or lack of faith to continue. But we are excited by the Biblical faith and determination of many to continue with the vision that God has given them. We won't be rewarded by starting the race before us, but by finishing the race. And anything we can do to help each other finish, is something I believe the Lord is interested in promoting!

ESTONIA

The Feed-in was held in the same facility as last year, Toompea 3 Pentecostal church. Local church members again helped us with cooking, preparation of the food, setting up of the room, equipment, ushers, and greeters and so on. All a big blessing!

At the feed-in to help minister were pastors; former drugs addicts from the local Christian community and representatives of most of the drug rehab centers in Estonia. This year a lot of people responded with the desire to be involved in helping with the event. Drug rehab centers helped with providing ushers and greeters and food. We had a group of brethren from Russia as well as our daughter Katya that came and ministered with us.

We also invited poor, needy, lonely, and hopeless people from the streets and drug addicts from the five local methadone centers so we could share the joy of Christmas in the warm family atmosphere which most of them could not experience otherwise. Altogether more than 250 people were present. It was a beautiful time of worship and fellowship, bringing unity to the different ministries in the area; a time of giving hope to the needy who heard testimonies of lives transformed by the power of God. Three of them made a decision for Christ right there! Others received prayer and more than 20 inquired about rehabilitation.

Some brethren and an anonymous donor from Sweden donated gifts and knitted socks for the children. We were able to send some of the gifts to the children of the women that are presently doing their sentence in prison, also to an orphanage and to some poor families in Russia. This year a lot of people who came to the feed-in brought their kids with them (see picture above). Amazingly there were enough presents left to give to every child that came to the feed-in. Praise the Lord!

Besides that, our ministry team had a chance to conduct a concert in Harku women’s prison (see the photo below). This year the atmosphere was very different as the girls got more involved in worship. By the end there was such a strong presence of God as almost every woman got involved. There was such a release of joy that the place could have exploded in spontaneous praise if there were no guards. They were literally roaring for more worship - it was amazing. The guards who are usually very strict, let the worship team do one more song, after they had already said the event was over. We were able to give Christmas gifts to all the guards, which included a new book by Pastor Ago Lilleorg about the true meaning of Christmas. We shared several testimonies and the Christmas message with the girls assuring them in the love of God. We were able to give the girls nice presents as the Lord provided money for gifts and free chocolate from Sweden (which they were all craving for).

The day of the concert in prison our sister Olga Ryazhskikh went to meet some friends in Tallinn. As they were walking, they saw a car that was stuck in the snow and stopped to help. Afterwards the driver offered them a ride. They accepted and on the way the woman driving started asking Olga about her life. Olga briefly shared her testimony and how the Lord has saved her from a life of drugs and criminal activity. She also mentioned that she is here in Tallinn to help with the feed-in and the concert for the girls in prison. The lady’s heart was touched since she herself had a husband who is now in prison. At the end of their ride she gave Olga money to buy fruit for the girls in prison. It was an amazing divine appointment as we had just used up all the funds designated for the prison, and had bought fruit, but wished we had more. God sees it all and supplies! Olga came with two shopping bags of kiwis to add to the tangerines and other food we were taking to prison. The girls in prison responded quite positively when we shared this testimony of God's love for them.

We had the blessing of having our daughter Katya with us during Christmas and New Year! She helped us with the feed-in and concert at the prison. Some of the girls in prison know her from her previous visits. Katya was able to talk with them and encourage them to pursue the Lord.

On the way back to the States her flight from Chicago was delayed and she wrote us an e-mail:

“I’m in Chicago airport right now. Surprisingly I am not tired at all. I’ve been here for about 6 hours now. While boarding the plane in Sweden I met this girl, her name is Kiarra. She was super sweet and we started talking about what we were doing and where we were going to school. She was visiting her grandparents that live in Sweden for two months. We talked about everything from cultural stuff to parents, to school, to mission trips. She was Mormon, so I told her about Jesus. We had a great time together on the 9 hour flight. We landed in Chicago, went through the whole airport together, so I wasn't alone for the most part. We did get separated in customs, and security checking. Her flight was in 8 hours and I didn't get a seat on mine. So I had to wait for 6 hours for another flight. It went by really fast. This older black sister from a nondenominational church in Indy got a food coupon from the airline as her flight was canceled as well, and she had to spend it all at one place, so she went and got us food. It was so nice of her, and then later I got a coupon too. I had to use it all as well, so I went and got drinks from Starbucks for the whole row of people that were sitting next to me. They were thankful, and then everybody just started talking and getting to know each other, and the 6 hours passed really quickly. All of us were tired and completely exhausted but we had great conversations. I especially liked talking to Kiarra about Jesus. I love spending my Christmas like that! Serving people and loving them.”

RUSSIA

The Christmas Feed-in in St. Petersburg was held on January 7 (Russian Christmas is celebrated on January 7 and the holiday season goes all the way to January 14).

Compared to how things flow smoothly in Estonia, it was hard work and faith and determination by our Russian Christian brethren to make the feed-in a reality this year. Two families in our ministry in Russia really worked hard to make it happen. Basically, although the feed-in was the result of many people believing God and working together, it was ultimately the result of their personal faith. It was Sergey and Zhenya Abezin and Roman and Irina Kurshonkov (photo of all four of them and Sara above). There is such a strong vision for the harvest released at the feed-ins in Russia and a lot of intercession goes up to heaven for lost souls to be won during the coming year.

This year there were 8 Christian rehab centers represented. There were a lot of new people in the centers who were at the feed-in for the first time. Many were amazed at how many former addicts are now serving God. Their vision was hugely increased by seeing God work outside of their own environment. Several of the centers helped with transport and making food, as well as setting up and decorating the rooms. It was very encouraging to see everyone’s involvement and participation, the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The men and women from rehabs were such a blessing in helping to prepare for the feast! Several local churches also helped with equipment, greeting and serving food. It was the most participation we have ever had in Russia as far as other churches and ministries being involved.

The leaders of the rehab centers came forward and led the time of prayer. This year worship was led by Bios band who are our friends from a small town near St. Pete. It is so hard to adequately describe the atmosphere in the hall where more than 250 people are gathered who know only too well that if not for Jesus they would definitely be in the cemetery today but instead they are alive. Such a joy to worship the Lord with the ones who were forgiven much and now love Him much! Several people from different rehab centers shared powerful testimonies! We also had a powerful time of intercession for the harvest of souls in the year 2011.

Irina invited a group of homeless people from the street (picture on the right), arranging with the local police for them to ride on the subway for free to this event. The policemen were surprised, asking if it is true that people who want to feed the poor still exist. The homeless came, but some at first felt out of place being among redeemed and saved, even though all had similar backgrounds. How sad to the heart of God it must be that people would be among former drug addicts and prostitutes, but because of a strong spirit of rejection, they still feel out of place, although showered with love and acceptance! After the time of worship we were able to introduce them to the leaders of rehab centers. One of them spent time talking and sharing the Gospel with them. As a result two of them gave their hearts to the Lord.

What these events do, among other things, is help people see that they are not just part of a rehab center, but also part of a big family of God and also gives added faith to them to keep on going further with God and to be used to help others get free from the clutches of the enemy. So, my personal feeling is that the feed-in is something God birthed, and important to Him. I felt that the Lord spoke to my heart saying that, "lives were saved because of the feed-in."

Sveta Moroz is continuing to minister to the kids in Mozambique. Christmas was quite a busy time for her and missionaries there as they had to prepare presents for all of the kids at the base. Please read news about Sveta in our next newsletter. Prayers for her health, well being, protection and wisdom are always greatly appreciated.

More next newsletter! It is so exciting to serve the living God, the maker of heaven and earth, who was and is and is to come!

PRAYER POINTS:

• For physical and spiritual protection for our ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold season

• Unity, love and wisdom for those in our ministry

• For Vera Saba’s paperwork (she has applied for residency in Finland)

• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there

• For prison outreach in Estonia, for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, freedom from peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus

• Some of the born again women in prison are having parole hearings soon. Please pray that they will be able to handle the outcomes with grace and trust in God. One sister is petitioning the President regarding her case. Please pray for His will to be done with this.

• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude.

• For Sveta Moroz and her work among orphans in Mozambique. That she would have wisdom in her decision making and that she would walk in physical, emotional and spiritual victory.

Thank you again for all of your help! We love and appreciate you and thank God for you!

John and Sara Russell

for StreetCry Ministries

December 2010

2010-12-01T07:11:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Please forgive the delay in our newsletter! We love you all and thank God for your prayers and assistance! We have had a busy, fruitful and exciting two months since our last newsletter!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Our annual free Christmas feed-ins in Estonia and Russia are again scheduled for this year. We are expecting to feed 300 needy people in Tallinn and 250 in St. Petersburg. Besides these events, we will be having a Christmas celebration in Harku women’s prison for the entire prison population of 150. We will be bringing musicians and helpers from Russia for these events as well as working with the local Estonian church and musicians. We need to purchase food, rent equipment, rent a hall, pay for visas and transportation and purchase Christmas gifts for the women. We need $7,500.00 for all of these events and would appreciate your prayers and generous support for them. These events are always our favorites of the year, as we sense such a strong presence of God during worship, and see people commit their lives to Jesus and see new people getting free from their addictions. So far we have received one gift of $500.00 from Elim church in Sweden. Please do help if you are able!

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

We received visits from StreetCry church members in St. Petersburg who came for fellowship and to help us minister. Roman and Irina Kurshonkov (see picture on the right), a young married couple who were both saved from lives of misery, each had friends who died from the drug lifestyle they were involved in. Both are very gifted evangelists and musicians whose hearts are broken for the lost. They stayed in our home in Tallinn for a few days and ministered in the women’s prison with us. Roman lead worship, and Ira shared a message and her personal experience of coming to the Lord, then going away from Him because of the influence of her old friends, ending it with a story of how the Lord saw her in a different way then people, and spoke to her about committing her whole life to Him. A big part in her return to the Lord was played by her believing mother who stood in prayer for her soul. Some of the women in prison said that they were amazed that Ira, being so young, knew the Lord and the word of God so well and was preaching it.

We were also very blessed to have with us our dear friends and fellow graduates of StreetCry School of ministry from St. Petersburg Sergey and Zhenya Abezin (you can see their picture on the left). Being invited to preach in prison, Zhenya spoke about God’s ability to keep us away from sin when we don’t rely on ourselves but when we sustain close relationship with Him. The message was an encouragement for the inmates to continue their walk with the Lord. One of the new girls, Juliana, decided to give her life to Jesus and to forsake her old life, after the message.

After their visit to prison Sergey and Zhenya were very excited and amazed at the hunger of the girls that come to the meetings. They mentioned that it is very rare now in St. Petersburg to meet people who are so hungry to know more about the Lord.

On November 12th Zhenya gave birth to a baby girl, Lera. Zhenya had a safe delivery and she is now recuperating.

Recently we have sent another young man (Sasha) to Betel drug rehabilitation in Finland, where Marco and Vera Saba are leaders and caretakers of the boys. We met him while ministering to addicts at a methadone center. Sara shares about Sasha:

"As Natasha was looking out of the window at the center, she saw a young man coming towards the building. He had great difficulty walking and keeping himself stable, as he was partially paralyzed. Natasha’s heart was moved with compassion as she watched him struggle to walk. As he came in we asked his name and started talking to him about the Lord and His love for Him. Sasha showed no outward interest in hearing what we had to say. He came to the building with only one goal: to get drugs. We gave him some literature with personal testimonies of former drug addicts and prayed for him. He took the tracts just because he wanted to be polite to us. For some reason he was not able to get methadone that day. As he was leaving the building it started to rain hard. He asked us if we could call a taxi for him. We offered him a ride home instead. He looked surprised, but would not turn our offer down. On the way home we found out a little bit more about his life and told him about God’s power to save, heal and restore everything that the enemy has stolen from him.

It turned out that his older brother was also a drug addict and was the one who introduced Sasha to drugs. He was just EIGHT YEARS OLD when his brother shot heroin into his veins! He is now twenty seven. During those years of addiction Sasha and his brother injected bad drugs and it started the process of both of them becoming crippled. Sasha’s nervous system is now damaged; Sasha drags his feet as he walks, he slurs his words and one must listen carefully as he speaks very quietly and not too clearly. As Natasha and I took him home that day, something happened to us from meeting this young man. All the way back we interceded for his soul and his healing. We were a little bit sad that he was not interested in receiving the help he so desperately needed. From that day on he was on our hearts daily. We could just sense God’s strong fatherly love for him and his pain. Our hearts were broken for him and we prayed for him every day.

After a few days I received an SMS saying, “Sara, please help me. I cannot and do not want to live like this any more. We immediately called him back and said that we can come and see him. The next day we came to his house. He was having withdrawals, he was sweating and shaking. His mom made us some tea and we talked about God’s love and what Jesus has already done and can do in his life. He broke down crying several times during our conversation. He was very touched by the Lord, I think realizing that somebody can love him was too much for him. That night he received the Lord into his heart. Amazingly he had no trouble clearly speaking a prayer of repentance after me. He pronounced every word perfectly well. God’s presence and His grace were already there to help him. (of course, the Lord had ALWAYS been there, just waiting for Sasha).

We contacted our friends in Finland, in hopes of sending Sasha there. As we were waiting a couple of days for a response, Sasha’s mom told us that Sasha had overdosed on some pills the night before. When John, Sveta Moroz and I came to see him, he looked as if he was dying. Sveta who is a nurse, asked his mom to call the ambulance. He was taken to the hospital and later released. The next morning we received a phone call from Sasha’s mom saying that Sasha is ready to go to rehab center. We knew that he needs to go right away! We took him to the ferry to Finland, he was still going through withdrawals and didn’t feel well, but you could see that he was determined to try this new way of living. A week later we called the center to see how he is doing. We were told that he is very sensitive to the Lord; he plays soccer with other guys, and asks to put him on the schedule for washing dishes and clean up. Sasha has spent almost two months in rehab, but this week returned home. We are in daily contact with him and he is attending church with us. He has not returned to drugs, but we would appreciate your prayers for him (on the picture above Sasha is in the white sweater, free from his addiction).

TRIP TO SWEDEN

Sara and I had the blessing of travelling to Sweden for 5 days. We were hosted by Victor and Anna Avdiakov (former StreetCry pioneers in St. Pete) and their family. We were able to minister in their home church, Elim Church of Mantorp and had the blessing of fellowshipping with and breaking bread with a number of dear saints from their church. It is a very mission’s minded church that is involved with missions around the world. We were blessed by their gift of hospitality and their acts of love toward the body of Christ around the world. The Lord spoke to our hearts that He saw them as “persistent and consistent”, and that because of that they are reliable and dependable and that makes them trusted by others. They also generously passed on Christmas gifts for orphans and children of people in prison, and gave clothing and needed household items. We truly felt immersed in the Kingdom of God while with them.

FINLAND

Vera and Marko Saba got married on the 20th of October in Finland. It was an amazing, joyous time filled with excitement. Several brethren from Russia, Estonia and Sweden were able to attend. John conducted the ceremony.

Two days after the wedding Vera and Marko were on the way to Italy for their honeymoon. Vera shares their impressions about the trip.

What an encouragement and support and blessing and treasure you are for me (and for Marco)! We had an amazing honeymoon! To tell you the truth I felt and to a degree still really feel like I am in a dreamland: could all this actually be happening to ME?! (Ps 126:1 b) Since I can remember, I always wanted to be married and have a big family. Being born and having grown up in Togliatti, Russia (named after the head of the Italia Communist Party) I always wanted to visit Italy. So, lo and behold, here are both at once! Plus Riga! Plus Tallinn, which touched Marco very much. He keeps talking about the unique atmosphere of the Old Town and unforgettable lunch at the medieval restaurant and free spiced nuts at every corner.

In Italy, Marco’s family – his brothers and multiple in-laws, nieces, etc… were very happy to see us and stuffed us with tasty local cuisine. Besides us resting in the beauty of a resort area (Liguria), we spent a couple days in Betel-Genova where Marco first went for rehabilitation. What a joy our visit produced in the pastor and several leaders who 7 years ago helped him to take his first steps on the path of following Jesus. They haven’t seen Marco for many years since he went on serving the Lord as a missionary first to Betel-Madrid and recently to Betel-Finland and called the transformation God produced in him stunning.

Marco shared his testimony during the Sunday service in Betel - Genova to inspire about 30 men who are currently in the rehab program to get a hold of the grace God is abundantly pouring on us and to follow Jesus with all their lives. We also had quite a few very fruitful personal talks with different rehabilitants counseling, edifying and praying for them.

Our hosting family in Italy was Gianluigi and Camilla Magherini. Gianluigi is a very old acquaintance/friend of Marco. They knew each other when both were drug addicts – only then they did not fellowship much because they used different types of drugs which they bought from different dealers, yet they saw each other in places where the drug addicts hang out in the narrow streets of the center of Genova.

Soon after Gianluigi came to the saving knowledge of Christ he joined the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in Genova – a small but very lively, open and hospitable bunch of brothers and sisters in Christ from more than 9 countries and 4 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and South America). The church has an outreach in the historic center of Genova in a form of rescue coffee-shop named VeriAmici (RealFriends). So one day, newly saved Gianluigi met still drug addicted Marco who was living or I should better say dying in the streets after nearly 25 years of drug abuse – his family rejected him, he was weak and sick, in and out of prison many times, angry, bitter, trusting nobody, hopeless… It took months of patience on the part of Gianluigi and a couple other evangelists from the church – slowly, slowly talking about the love of God and what Jesus did on the cross over a cup of coffee and a hot meal and a chance to take a shower and get a place to spend the night melted the ice and Marco surrendered his heart and life to God and with the help of pastor Daniele Marzano applied for rehabilitation in Betel-Genova.

Pastor Daniele was moved to tears to see us. He said that with Marco it was his first meaningful conversation since many talks when Pastor Daniele tried to convey the Gospel to Marco, yet Marco was either incoherent (on drugs) or a hardheaded rejecter of the Word of God. He also mentioned that recently he was up against a lot of opposition in the area of evangelism and heard arguments like why should we waste time and money and efforts… the lost are not interested to hear the Gospel… there is no much fruit… But after seeing Marco he said – it was and is and WILL ALWAYS BE worth it even if only one person gets saved like this and follows Jesus, yet there are more than one! He asked us to speak in his church which we did with great joy sharing our testimonies and encouraging the people. Pastor Daniele said that our visit rekindled the fire for evangelism in the church and in him personally.

We thank God for the miracle of His provision! The church took a special offering for us that covered half of our hotel bill and the second half Gianluigi and Camilla paid as a wedding present from them to us! Isn’t God good? All the time! And He definitely does exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think (Eph 3:20)!

Since returning to Finland, we have lived in the men’s rehab center. Marco and I have a room to ourselves that we did our best to equip to be livable for a married couple . We are looking for an apartment. Over this past week we had 2 new guys who have come to the center – both alcoholics. Andrey (30 years old) came from Tallinn to Helsinki to hang out, relax and drink with Finns… But as he arrived at the central train station where the most of it happening in Helsinki he bumped into 2 Russian speaking evangelists and ended up hanging out with them instead, they told him about Jesus and about Betel. He repented and surrendered his heart to the Lord, poured alcohol out of all the bottles he brought with him and broke all the cigarettes. Then he decided to go for the rehab in Betel (picture on the left). Nevertheless after a couple of days he left the center… BUT! Returning to Helsinki’s drinking spot turned out to be a disaster – he spent the night sleeping in the street where it is getting pretty cold these days and almost got arrested by the police, so he decided to return to the center. Plus this time in Helsinki he met an old acquaintance – Vlad (37 years old) who has been in Finland for the past 4 months – drinking non-stop all this time. Andrei told Vlad about Jesus and the center and Vlad decided to give it a try. He repented at the past Sunday service we had in the home here.

Though both new guys are very young in the Lord and still very unstable – going through withdrawals due to alcoholism, we believe God for their complete deliverance and intercede for transformation of their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Please join us in prayer for Andrei and Vlad.

SVETA MOROZ IN MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE

On October 12th Sveta left for Africa for (at least) a year. She is working with 400-500 orphans with IRIS Ministries as a medical nurse. Most of the kids have “incurable” diseases such as HIV, various neurological dysfunctions, cerebral spastic infantile paralysis, blindness, and others. But she knows and walks in the power of God, besides being a nurse.

One of her prayer requests before leaving was for the Lord to get her through customs since she was bringing a lot of medicine and medical supplies for the orphanage. When she got to the customs line a young man volunteered to help her with the suitcases and they went through quickly and easily. Later Sveta said that the Lord has sent an angel because it was a miracle that she got through without any problems.

Sveta is responsible for a number of children there, and is also learning Portuguese and adjusting to a different approach to practicing medicine.
She would really appreciate your prayers for her.

Prayer points for December

• For finances for the Chritmas feed-ins - $7000.00 is still needed.

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold season ahead

• Unity, love and wisdom for those in our ministry

• For Vera Abezina’s paperwork (she is applying for residency in Finland) and provision of an apartment for Vera and Marko. (ANSWERED!! – they just got an apartmet!! Thank you Jesus!)

• For the new guys in rehab, Andrei and Vlad

• For strength, wisdom, obedience to the Lord

• For Sasha and his daily right decision making

• For Zhenya Kopushu and her work with abandoned children in Tsimbalina hospital, especially for complete healing and restoration of Masha Orehova

• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there

• For prison outreach in Estonia, for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, freedom from peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus

• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude.

Here are some prayer requests from Sveta in Mozambique:

• For the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit, so I can be sensitive and obedient to Him, walking in the gifts that He has placed inside of me

• For grace, love, peace, and joy for me in all areas

• To be able to make friends and be in unity with other brothers and sisters who minister there

• For wisdom how to use my knowledge and experience in medical field in Africa

• For healing and cure of sick children, and keeping them healthy

• For improvement of my English and Portuguese

• For good communication with everyone at the miistry base, for it is very vital in any relationships, for love and understanding between us

• For financial support for me personally and for the ministry here

• For the Lord to supply our daily bread

• For my safety and safety of the ministry from influences of witchcraft

• For wisdom and love in training the kids

• For evangelism on the streets, for salvations, deliverances, and healings; for the demonstration of His power and Spirit

Thank you, and may God continue to bless and keep you! Have a blessed, wonderful and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

John and Sara Russell for StreetCry

SEPTEMBER 2010

2010-09-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

God is so wonderful! We are so excited to be alive and to be part of God’s family! God’s wonder, beauty, glory, majesty and faithfulness never cease to amaze us!

We just have so much to be thankful for, and the future is as bright as the promises of God! He continues to be not only the God of the mountains, but the God of the valleys as well. We just can’t stop praising His Name and shouting about His goodness in the land of the living!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and financial giving to StreetCry. It is greatly appreciated and continues to be used to further His kingdom, saving souls and growing up believers, as you will read below.

We have been having a very exciting summer, with ministry at a summer camp, continued ministry at the women’s prison and at the methadone center in Tallinn.

TESTIMONIES FROM RUSSIA

Right now we have a small StreetCry church in St Petersburg and two full-time Russian missionaries. Although the St Petersburg church is small, they are faithful and dedicated to reaching the lost with God’s love. The Bible clearly demonstrates what God can do for those who believe. When his people place their confidence in Him, He repeatedly gives victory against overwhelming odds. The lesson, written time after time, is that physical circumstances don’t limit God, for "nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6).

Here is a testimony from Sergei Abezin (see picture of his family on the left), a faithful minister and deacon in our ministry for a number of years. It is a testimony of continuing to love people and follow up on them with perseverance. It is a privilege to have Sergei and his family in our ministry!

Sergei shares:

From the time when our church used to meet in another building (1998-2005), I stayed in close contact with the director of the building Inna Mihailovna and her husband Lev Davydovich. To tell you the truth, at that time, Lev Davydovich’s attitude toward us and our our faith in Christ was very antagonistic not only in words but also in deeds. The fact that he used to work as a soviet scientist played a big part in forming his beliefs.

A few weeks ago Inna Mihailovna asked me to do some repair work in their apartment. During one of the breaks I started talking to her husband Lev. Both are in their 60’s. To my surprise he started asking questions about Christianity. Besides answering his questions, I suggested that he read the Bible. The next day when I came back to work, Lev showed me his big Bible which he had made an effort to find among his books after our conversation the day before. He shared that since his childhood he heard about God and used to know the events of the Old Testament very well. He told me that his grandma used to take him to an orthodox church in secret. But as he grew up in a communist society those values were rejected with time. While we talked together, he would stop and cry about every ten minutes. We spent a lot of time talking about the Lord that night.

Later his wife called and said: “There was a double blessing from you coming to our house today: First of all, as a worker and second as a help to Lev. After your conversation with him, Lev said, ‘Inna, please don’t think I am going crazy but I have made a decision to read my Bible out loud every day’”.

These are precious souls that we continue to pray for. God is so interested in their coming to know Him. Please join us in prayer for Inna and Lev’s salvation.

ESTONIA

MINISTRY IN WOMEN’S PRISON

Over the past 3 months there have been 10 new young women who have received the Lord at the prison. Most of them are young - in their teens and early twenties, and this is very exciting. Normally the younger ones are more difficult to reach. These girls are very precious and so open to the word and love of God. Every week, we come home so excited after Bible school and church at the prison (John, Sara, Natasha, Olga on prison ministry day). God’s spirit is moving strongly among the women and it continues to be so exciting to see the changes in the women’s lives. They are true sisters and so precious to us and to God.

Olga Ryazhskikh (picture on the left), a graduate of StreetCry School of ministry, planned to spend her summer vacation ministering to the lost in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Holland is one of the first countries Olga visited after she understood the call of God on her life to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel. A few years earlier her cousin died there from drug abuse. His death only confirmed to Olga the urgency to share God’s love and His power to save and deliver. This time she will be joining with others that regularly witness to drugs addicts and prostitutes in these two cities.

On the way to Holland, Olga spent a few days ministering with us here in Estonia, on the street and at the prison. Here are some testimonies from Olga:

The first miracle that happened was that I was allowed to get into the prison. For some reason my name was not on the list of people attending the service on that day and under no circumstances do they ever make exceptions and let people in. Natasha had just heard a testimony of God doing extraordinary miracles and she prayed to see some in her life as well. So when Olga was refused entry, Natasha sprang into action, full of faith that God could turn this seeming defeat into a victory. As the guards were trying to make phone calls and find out what was the matter, we started to pray for God’s favor. After a phone call and some time passing, the guards told us that I was permitted in. Praise God that He is the One who holds the hearts of all people in His hands and He turns them as He wills. I was the main speaker that day and God touched their hearts to let me in.

Before coming to Tallinn the Lord put a message on my heart about complete trust in Him. During the service there was such a strong presence of God in the room. After my sermon a few girls came up and asked for prayer. They were asking to be closer to God. Two other girls came up and received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They have repented of their sins and asked Christ to come into their lives.

As I was preparing my sermon the Lord gave me a word of knowledge about a prison girl who is unable to forgive her father since her childhood. After the service I shared this word with the girls saying that the Lord wants to minister His forgiveness. Right away two girls responded to the call saying that the word was for them. At the very end we all got together, holding hands and praying. One of the girls started to pray out loud asking forgiveness from the Lord and the girls. She was crying and asking them to forgive her for hurting and offending them in the past. I felt that her prayer was very sincere and from the heart. After prayer, a lot of the girls came up to her and gave her a big warm hug.

We believe the Lord continues to do His work of healing in the hearts of many women in the prison, restoring there lives and broken relationships.
After the meeting in prison Olga was on the way to Holland and we will hear soon about her trip there.

RUSSIA

Vera Abezina

Vera is now a full-time missionary, sent out from StreetCry Ministries. She is presently living at the Betel Rehab Center in Kolosok, Russia and will soon be getting married and moving to Finland to work together with her fiancé, Marco (see picture on the left), overseeing the rehab center in Finland.

Here is a testimony from Vera. “Kolosok is a converted summer camp and is very spartan compared to normal Russian living..

Slowly-slowly I am adjusting to life in Kolosok. I am included into the preaching schedule, in addition to personal counseling which is going on everyday as I work with newly saved former addicts. Every co-worker usually shares her life story, and problems she is going through right now. We pray together over those matters and I do my best to answer their questions about the Bible. So far I have ministered at one of the girls’ fellowships and shared from Luke 4 about overcoming temptations and one time preached during morning devotions on Psalm 139. Both went great. Many (including leaders) came up to thank me. I am always happy to produce more hunger for the Word of God in people. With God’s help I want to always stay the same in this regard IN AWE AND AMAZED BY THE WORD OF GOD AND MAKE IT CONTAGIOUS TO OTHERS!

Then I had a fun week in St. Petersburg helping in girls rehab and going out witnessing with them and passing out information about the center. There was a team of four girls. Two of the four girls, Lena and Marina, ARE GIFTED EVANGELISTS – they are minestering non-stop… and people are attracted to them… So for me it was rather easy to flow in such a team – no need to break through.

We stood at Metro stations and big supermarkets and spoke to every passerby willing to stop for a minute and listen. Mostly we were informing the people about the rehab center. BUT DAILY GOD GAVE ME OPPORTUNITIES TO REALLY WITNESS! I spoke with a mother whose son was a drug addict and an elderly lady taking a little girl to the Zoo – the little girl was her granddaughter and the daughter happened to be a drug addict. I was sharing with them how Jesus can really change lives and encouraged them not to give up but to refer their children to Jesus – I left with them our tracts with testimonies of former drug addicts who were delivered by Jesus. One day as we were on the Metro the drug addict sat next to us and we witnessed to him for an hour. Another day we met 2 boys in their early 20’s touring St Petersburg from Murmansk. Both were drug users. One - a drummer named Elijah… At first they were just mocking us but I ended up speaking to one of them who was very receptive and even though he did not repent on the spot, I could tell that the Gospel was touching him – we had a real deep talk. Meanwhile Marina was cutting right through with the other guy using her personal testimony. The young man shared that he began using drugs to escape from the deep pain after his father’s sudden death and his mocking turned into tears by the end of the conversation as the Holy Spirit was touching him…

I spent one week in Finland visiting my fiancé Marco. It was a fruitful week. I interpreted for Marco as he preached on Wednesday night. It was about denying yourself and following Jesus with all of your life as opposed to just getting free from addictions and going back to the world to live for yourself. I was very inspired to interpret because I agreed with every word. Marco was happy to have me helping him.

Besides seeing Marco I was very glad to talk to the “two Alexei’s” two precious young men that Gosha ministered to in Tallinn and sent to Betel in Finland (see March 2009 and June 2009 issues of our newsletter). They are growing into good leaders, and raising up a second generation now. Very inspiring!

CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS, SUPPORT AND CARE FOR ME! Love, Vera”

Sveta Moroz

This month we are excited to announce that our sister, Sveta Moroz, will be moving to Moputo, Mozambique in October as a full time missionary working with Roland & Heidi Baker’s IRIS Ministries. Nothing could thrill us more than to see these two precious women of God, Vera and Sveta, forsake all and follow God’s call to minister to the poor and helpless. It always has concerned us that we did not produce more missionaries, although we are very thankful for all of the wonderful brethren saved and those that have gone into full-time ministry in Russia.

Here are Sveta’s vision and goals:

I have a call to missions on my life to serve the Lord in different countries of
the third world. God has broken my heart for the lost, orphans, street kids, drug addicts, prostitutes, and for the sick people with deadly disease like HIV, hepatitis, cancer and others. I spent one month in Mozambique and now I have been invited back to minister there full-time. My vision for the next year is to be part of the Iris Ministries team and serve with gifts that God gave me wherever there is a need, to care for the kids’ health in the ministry and for others.

I will be ministering, witnessing, and praying on the streets, city dumps and hospitals as I did previously. I want to see young people saved and delivered. I am dedicated to serve with God's love, to care for health and fight in prayer for healings and deliverances. I feel that these verses are a calling on my life.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified (Isa.61:1-3).

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mk.16:15-18)

Here is Sveta's testimony:

I was born in the Russian part of the USSR. I grew up in a poor family. My father was murdered when I was 6. As long as I remember, I always worshipped something or was someone’s fan. First I was a fan of ‘Alisa’ (famous Russian rock-group) and all my behavior, looks, fashion and even ideas were the expression of my fanaticism. I spent all my free time, hanging out in the sub-culture youth scene. We drank, smoked, stole people’s money, and beat up the younger kids who were new to the scene. Every week I managed to get into various rock-concerts, as a rule, without a ticket. I was fascinated by the life-style of my idols (rock-musicians) until one day I encountered their ungrateful attitude to the fans and was deeply disappointed in them. I understood, that they are people, just like us, far from perfection and, by and large, they could not care less for their fans. They were using us to make money and become famous. Disappointed in ‘Alisa’, I immediately found something else to worship and dove head first into the football world. Very soon my life was completely given over to my new idols. I shaved my head, began to go to other cities where my team Zenith played against other teams, getting on trains without tickets. Every year I could hardly wait for the winter to be finished and the football season to begin! All I dreamt about was to go to the stadium and receive adrenaline from each game shouting and going wild as much as the boys and men around me.

When we went to Moscow and other cities, we were very often opposed by fans of other teams. It resulted in cruel fights. I was quite tough and could defend myself well enough due to my experience in boxing, but nevertheless each time I was not sure if I would return to St. Petersburg alive. The probability to get my head kicked in was very high. I remember that during such life and death moments I could not think of any other help but to pray and ask God to save me. Each time I did that He was faithful to get me out of trouble without a single scratch. Then gradually I began to realize that around me there was no love, no genuine care of each other, only cruelty. Fans came to the games mostly to get drunk and to beat each other up. Even the score was determined not by how well the team played but by how much they paid bribes to the referee. All this was so fake, that I came to the conclusion that football is not worth my worship and devotion.

During this time my friends and I started to visit the StreetCry Christian coffee-house. They had free coffee and tea, live bands performing and the main thing a warm place to hang out in a dreary cold and wet St. Petersburg fall. I remember sitting in the coffee-house one day and someone came to my table, sat next to me, and started telling me about Jesus, how much He cared, how much He loved me, how much He has done, that He gave His life for me and went to the cross. We talked about the fact that deep down in the heart of each person there is - instilled by God - the desire to worship and how we all try to satisfy this desire but are so often misled into traps by the trends of this world while God is looking for those who would worship Him in spirit and in truth. He is waiting for us to take a step and open up to Him and He will take ten steps to us and reveal Himself in ways that surpass our wildest imagination! He is the only One who is really worthy of our complete devotion. I saw that worship of football and music groups did not bring any lasting satisfaction, but destruction and pain into my life, so I repented and dedicated my life to Jesus and discovered firsthand that He is for real - does not deceive, nor disappoint! Now I’ m 27 years old. I have been in StreetCry Ministries since my salvation in 1996.

To begin with I tried to help everywhere where I saw need. Soon the Lord has revealed to me, that my calling is to work with children and I started teaching Sunday school. I have graduated from StreetCry Bible School. For a while I worked at one of the Christian schools In St Petersburg teaching biology, physical training and ‘basics of security in life’ which is taught in Russian schools.

Orphans and street children were always on my heart. I worked as a volunteer in an orphanage for HIV infected children. I love to pray for sick people and to see the Lord heal them. I went to medical school for 4 years and became a certified nurse. I then completed another medical school program and became a physician’s assistant. I'm working in an intensive care unit for children and in ambulance.. At the same time I was helping in our children’s Sunday church.

StreetCry is now helping to support Sveta and Vera on a regular monthly basis. If you have any designated gifts for them, please specify. We appreciate your continued prayers for these women of God as they step out into the next season of fruitfulness in their lives.

PRAYER POINTS FOR SEPTEMBER

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold season ahead
• Unity, love and wisdom for those in our ministry
• For Sveta Moroz’s final preparations to move go to Mozambique in October
• For Vera Abezina’s wedding preparations, especially paperwork -red (as in Russian) tape
• For Zhenya’s work with abandoned children in Tsimbalina hospital, especially for complete healing and restoration of Masha Orehova. Zhenya is no longer part of our church, but we strongly identify with her love and care for the orphans and wish to continue prayer for her and her fruitful ministry
• For Gosha’s healing from hepatitis C and restoration of his liver
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there
• For prison outreach in Estonia, for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, freedom from peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude.

Thank you for your continued help!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

JUNE 2010

2010-06-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you very much for your continued prayers, friendship and financial giving to our ministry! We really appreciate you and thank God for you! Again, we are happy to share with you the exciting things the Lord is doing here in Russia and Estonia!

Sara and I just returned from a blessed and inspiring 3 months in the US. We were able to attend our daughter Katya’s graduation from Forerunner Music Academy in Kansas City and being with her for that was the highlight of our trip. We also were able to fellowship with a number of wonderful pastors and churches and speak in churches from Virginia to New Hampshire to Kansas City and places in between. It is always a privilege and honor to be with God’s people. Thanks to everyone who hosted us, we love and appreciate you!

While in Indianapolis, our car was rear ended by a truck, and Katya and Sara received mild to moderate back and neck injuries which has required regular chiropractic visits. Katya has torn ligaments in her neck and we would appreciate continued prayers for complete healing from God’s miraculous, loving, healing hand as torn ligaments do not heal naturally. Thank you. As she is a drummer, we believe that this is an attack from the enemy on her in an area where she needs to be pain free.

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

The local church has changed its name to the Russian version of “Open Heavens” which we all hope will be more relatable to Russians than the English name “StreetCry”. The church worship team has also just finished a beautiful new recording of songs, 10 of them written by them. This is the fulfillment of many people’s dreams and we are thankful for this milestone.

Vera Abezina, one of the founding members of our church and ministry since 1994 has passed on her School of Ministry leadership responsibilities, and is preparing to move to Betel rehabilitation center to work together with Marco Saba, one of the Betel leaders as preparation for marriage. Although they have known each other via correspondence and occasional brief visits for three years, they will now have the opportunity to work together closely and decide on their future. Vera is our daughter, sister and co-laborer in the Lord, and the most sacrificial and dedicated servant of God that Sara and I have had the pleasure of working with in all of our lives. We will truly miss her anointed teaching and her boundless spirit of joy. We wish to honor her as the scripture says “honor to whom honor is due” and she truly is a saint that will have great reward in heaven. Please pray with us that her time with Betel and working with Marco will be fruitful and that God will have his wonderful way regarding her future. If anyone would like to help with her wedding with any type of love offering, it will be greatly appreciated. We know no one who is more deserving.

There has been a significant shift with regard to the ministry in Russia. At present, there is a strained relationship between one of the 3 people we left in charge of the ministry, and ourselves. So far we have had 3 meetings to try to resolve issues, but things have not have improved. The root of the problem is difference in understanding regarding Biblical accountability, counseling and communication. It is our hearts desire for this not to be, so we would appreciate your prayers for God’s will to be done and for His kingdom to be manifest in this situation. We know that God is much bigger and greater than this difficulty.

There are a number of people who either were born, grew up or were trained in our ministry in Russia that have significant anointings and callings on their lives. Some are evangelists, some teachers, and others have strong healing and prophetic gifts. It is our desire to help them to reach their full potential and destiny, and we will continue to feature them in our newsletters and to financially donate to their work.

EVANGELISM

We started having the home group for new believers 2 times a week. Because most of its members are university students and live in a dorm we meet weekly to have a Bible study for the new believers and another time for evangelistic meetings - to invite unbelievers: friends from university and neighbors from the dorm. Vika (photo on the left) is a dorm neighbor. She visited our meetings and church several times and and listened with great interest. One evening in the midst of a spontaneous hot discussion on the topic of witchcraft (very widespread in Russia) Vika suddenly interrupted: “May I ask a question not on the topic? How do I repent and get right with God?” Ilya who leads the new believers’ home group prayed with Vika. She repented of her sins and accepted Jesus right there in the dorm room. Now she is an active participant in the church and new believers meetings.

Gosha spent a month in his hometown Vologda taking medication for his liver and resting. But he could not rest from sharing the Gospel and helping people in need to find Jesus. Yulia (with Gosha in the photo on the right) happened to be in prison in Vologda in the same cell with a girl whom Gosha witnessed to and helped to get into a rehab program a while ago. Unfortunately, that girl did not stay in the center and as a result of returning to the path of sin was put in prison. Nevertheless, she told Yulia about the chance to radically change her life right before it was time for Yulia to be released from prison and gave her Gosha’s phone number. Once out of prison Yulia found Gosha in Vologda and she came to Jesus after one week. Gosha shared with Yulia his personal experience of being transformed from a criminal and a drug addict into a dedicated Christian. As a result, Yulia made the decision to go to the girls’ rehab center in Ust-Izhora village near St. Petersburg run by our School of Ministry graduate Yura Bugakov (his testimony is published in the October 2006 issue of our newsletter). She has been in the center for about a month now. Please pray with us for her spiritual growth, complete deliverance from addictions and restoration of her life.

SCHOOL OF MINISTRY GRADUATION

June ended the school year in our School of Ministry. We are now moving on into the season of summer evangelism and putting into practice what was learned in the classroom. During the ceremony of receiving diplomas, several graduates shared what the Lord has done in their lives over the past nine months. Rejoice with us over their encouraging testimonials:

NASTYA SHTURMINA

“I am so grateful to God for putting the desire in my heart to come and learn from Him. I thank Jesus every day that His ways are high above my ways and His thoughts are not my thoughts – His thoughts of me are for good and not for evil, they are to give me a future and hope. He lovingly led me to this school and more than just that – He gave me a new family and I am so happy about that!

The time of study in the School of Ministry has been a great time of equipping and training for me. Over the past year, the Lord has so drastically changed my heart and He keeps leading me into even deeper relationship with Him.

The course of Foundations of Christian Growth was packed with revelations for me! I discovered a whole lot new about myself, about God, His amazing love to us – how we are accepted in the Beloved, about righteousness, which is in Jesus, not by our works, about God’s provision for every area of our lives!

Classes on prayer and spiritual gifts triggered me to practice what I have learned and created a deeper hunger to get to know Jesus personally, to fellowship with him daily. My faith grew and patience increased.

The school taught me a great deal to organize my time and to discipline myself. I greatly benefited by memorizing scriptures – it helped a lot to renew my mind!

I thank God for all the teachers who contributed materials, especially John Paul Jackson. I am gifted prophetically and his 101 Course was an eye-opener to me in so many ways! Thank you to all who invested their time and hearts to teach us and for all who donated finances to enable the study process!”

VALENTINA SHKOLENKO

“In the summer of 2009 I was in a dry season of my spiritual life – felt exhausted, defeated in many areas, desperate for God and His help. In response to my questions and prayers, Jesus led me to the StreetCry School of Ministry.

Over the past school year, God showed me the areas of my life where I still trusted in my own strength. He demolished the wrong foundation that I had built and laid down a new one – firmly founded on the rock of his Word. My faith got strengthened. Not only I have faith now but Jesus taught me to trust Him completely and rely on Him in every area of my life.

The past year was a year of revelation of God’s love – to me personally and to people in general. I discovered that His love is greater than my limited mind could contain and His mercy is much deeper than I could only imagine! It blew my mind and broadened my horizons. God reveled Himself to me in ways I did not know Him before. He drew me closer. He proved Himself a Provider like I never dreamt about. I experienced His attention and care continually and saw how attentive He is to our needs. I discovered that there are no details too small for Him to notice and no problems too big for Him to resolve. He does not slumber nor sleep - the One who keeps us!

Jesus also taught me that meekness and humility are my weapons.

I used to be rather lonely and did not have friends but a practical part of the studies in the School of Ministry helped me to build relationships with so many more people than I ever had before. And God gave new quality to those relationships. Doing things together in ministry helped me to feel a part of the Body of Christ and helped me to find my place of belonging. It made my life so much more abundant”.

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

Our team continues holding Bible School classes and services in women’s prison in Tallinn. And we are very thrilled by what God is doing among the girls! As they study the Word of God, He immediately gives them situations where they can practice what they learned from the Bible. Recently, one of the students named Aigi (see her testimony in the March 2010 issue of our newsletter) shared a testimony of how she is learning to forgive and trust God in the area of relationships:

“I am a friend with one of the ex-inmates, but it was not always like that. I shared a room with 8 other girls and were getting along with everybody pretty well. But one day, this girl became envious of me receiving clothes from humanitarian aid and as a result she started slendering me to others, saying that I was a liar and a thief. My first reaction was saying rude things to her but then God showed me my wrong attitude toward someone He loved. I repented in my hatred and from that moment on, I started praying for her. But the tension in the room was getting worse – once this girl even rose her hand to hit me, but I believe it was the Lord who didn’t let her do that. Finally, I had to move to another room. Some time later, this girl visited me in my new room. I offered her a cup of coffee and told her about Jesus. Time went by, the girl was released from prison. She sent me a postcard. I answered her with a long letter about God, choices, the way of life and the way of death. I did not get any answer yet, but I believe that God is dealing with her. When she was persecuting me, I forgave her as Bible tells us to forgive and bless our enemies. I know for sure that God resolves our problems and situations when we trust in Him and when we are open for His help. And my desire is that people would never lean on their own understanding but would give their burdens to Jesus”.

God is moving among the girls who come to the Bible School and the services and uses them to share the Gospel with other inmates. Every week the Lord draws many unbelievers to our services with hunger in their hearts. Last week two girls named Alyona and Marina in response to the altar call literally ran toward the front to repent before the Lord. Three weeks ago, one of the prisoners was openly mocking Christian girls. However, last week she came to church and sat in the front row attentively listening and asking questions about how to forgive and how to be forgiven.

PRAYER POINTS FOR JUNE:

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For the graduates of our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for finding their proper place of usefulness in the Body of Christ; discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; putting in practice all they have learnt in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
• For the outreach to the student’s dorms in St. Petersburg to be fruitful bringing many new souls to salvation
• For the home group for new believers - growth in faith, strong personal relationship with Jesus, hunger for the spiritual things and power to resist temptations that the world and the devil are constantly bombarding the young people with
• For new evangelism strategies for the summer season
• For Gosha’s healing from hepatitis C and restoration of his liver
• For monthly financial supply for the work in St. Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there
• For prison outreach in Estonia both in men’s and women’s prisons – more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for an infusion of $72,000 to cover ministry expenses for the next 6 months. Thanks so much!
Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask if you would prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. We need your help to help others! All help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

May 2010

2010-05-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you very much for your continued prayers, friendship and financial giving to our ministry! We really appreciate you and thank God for you! Again, we are happy to share with you the exciting things the Lord is doing here in Russia and Estonia!

As we also mentioned last month, John and Sara are in the US for a couple months visiting friends, churches and ministries that have been helping our work here. In order for our ministry to continue to bear more fruit in both Russia and Estonia, we need to raise our support base to previous levels. There is so much to do in both of these ripe countries and at present, we see that financial provision is one of the greatest needs in order for us to get more done! If you are interested in having John and Sara visit or minister in your church, or just for them to come and fellowship, you can contact them by email at john.office@earthlink.net or by phone at 603-322-3090 (John) or at 603-322-3089 (Sara).

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

Our evangelist and missionary Arkady Ledkov (photo on the left) recently took one more trip to the Far North of Russia joining an international ministry team uniting Canadian missionaries and local Russian pastors and evangelists (see reports of his previous trips in March 2009 and November 2009 issues of our newsletter).

This time the team targeted a specific village that during their previous trips was very closed to the Gospel. The village is called Laboravaya and is situated in Yamalo Nenetskiy territory. The place is controlled by depression, alcoholism and poverty spirits. Most of the adult men are heavy drinkers. Home violence flourishes. Food is brought to the village only a few times a year by helicopters and prices are too high for many to afford even the bare necessities. But the greater the darkness the brighter the light of the Gospel may shine!

One Christian nomadic reindeer shepherd recently moved to this area with his big family – besides his own children he adopted several orphans. He invited the missionaries to come and minister in the village and lodged them in his home.

The team went door-to-door and visited every house in the village bringing food packages to every family. That was very needed, received with great thanksgiving and melted the hearts of many. Lots of fruitful conversations about the Gospel followed.

In one home, the landlady was initially hostile but as they kept inquiring about the needs they found out that the lady’s daughter had complications after the gum problem and now her face was disfigured because the nerve was damaged. They shared about the love of God and offered prayer for the girl’s healing. She felt immediate relief and that opened the hearts of both the mother and the daughter to the Gospel.

Finally everybody got together in the local school for an evangelism meeting. In spite of -50 C degrees outside many villagers came. Holy Spirit touched the hearts during the time of worship, then Arkady shared his testimony – how he grew up in a very similar village, how he met Jesus and what God has done transforming his life! His story was a great encouragement to the young people not to give into depression, alcohol and other destructive lifestyles but to accept Christ and follow the path of life. As a result, many received Jesus. Arkady also had a lot of good conversations with the local teachers encouraging them and sharing insights gained from his own experience of working as a teacher in one of such villages in the past.

So the place that was closed to the Gospel before, now opened the doors and the hearts and invited the team to come back in August. Please pray with us for the greater harvest of souls and planting new churches in the North of Russia.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT – LIZA BACHI

In this section of our newsletter, we continue to introduce you to the new students of the School of Ministry. In the photo on the right is Liza Bachi, 26. She recently received her medical degree from a University in St. Petersburg and works as a cardiologist in Mariinskaya hospital of St. Petersburg. God often moves through her in the gift of healing. She has a heart of compassion and love, which moves her to intercession for the poor, needy, sick, for people who do not know Jesus yet. She is a big blessing for everyone she comes in contact with. Here is her story:

“I initially accepted Jesus in 2001 at the age of 17. Growing up in a Jewish family, I knew religion as a set of rules to obey. But when I began to ask myself questions like “Who is God? Why do I live?” that set of rules did not give me any satisfactory answers.

But one day my close friend Nastya Tsarevskaya (see her testimony in November 2008 issue of our newsletter) told me that she became a Christian. I saw drastic changes in her and wanted to know more about it. Thus, I ended up going to her church. Once the service ended in an altar call for repentance – I came out and prayed the sinner’s prayer led by the pastor.

Still for quite a while, I stayed religious as opposed to having a vibrant personal relationship with God. May be because I was always a good girl and even after praying the sinner’s prayer, I did not have an understanding that I cannot live Godly life by my own strength. Time went by. I attended church, prayers, outreaches – because it was proper. Not even noticing how I was turning my newly found faith into just a set of new rules to obey…

At the same time, I studied medicine in a university. One guy in our group was direct opposite of me. I was a believer - straight, good and righteous and he smoked, drank, partied and skipped lectures more often than not… Nevertheless, we kept company and were buddies for a year and a half. Sometimes looking at him, I thought that he was leading a more honest life following his basic instincts than I did trying to obey my rules. Then one day out of sudden, he told me he loved me… I turned him down because it was proper. However, somewhere deep inside I wanted to have a relationship with him. So several months later, I gave in to temptation and we started living together. Needless to say, I stopped attending church…

God did not stop speaking to me though and calling me to come back. Neither my friend Nastya who initially introduced me to Jesus stopped calling me and visiting me and reminding me of the right way to go and praying for me all the time. But I decided to go with the flow carrying me farther and farther away into sin.

Gradually our relationship grew colder. I knew I did not really love him. From time to time, I would turn to my Bible, to prayer, which usually left me in tears and my boyfriend furious. My heart was hardening more and more and I was becoming completely worldly. Half a year into this relationship, my boyfriend was diagnosed with cancer.

Then, on September 6, 2006 with my heart broken to pieces I really cried out to God! Not that I wanted God, not that I felt anything; simply I realized that there was nowhere else I could go for help. That is why I offered God a deal: “Please heal this boy! In exchange You can tell me to do anything and I will do it for You!” I knew that God heard my prayer because supernatural joy filled my heart in spite of the natural grief of the situation that I was in.

Actually, my prayer life became really deep at this season of my life and slowly-slowly I realized that I want God, that a relationship is developing between me and Jesus. At first, I was ready to sacrifice myself and do God’s will for my life with no regards to my own desires – just because He answered my prayer and because I promised Him to do whatever He would say. But very soon I realized that I wanted to be with Jesus because of Jesus Himself and for no other reasons!

God miraculously intervened into the situation and completely healed my boyfriend. But he did not want to hear anything about Jesus. And I found myself facing a choice – Jesus or my boyfriend.

But by this time Jesus stopped being just a religion for me. He became my Love and my Reason for living. Needless to say, I chose Jesus!

It was not easy to come back to the church where everybody knew my situation only too well. But to my great surprise nobody reminded me of my past sin and everybody was happy for my repentance and return. I completed my medical studies and went to the School of Ministry and am continuing to discover the will of God for my life and to follow Jesus with great joy”.

Since Liza put Jesus first in her heart, God put His man in her life – Arkady Ledkov. At the end of April, we celebrated their wedding. Please pray with us for blessing of this new family and for them to bring more fruit in the Kingdom of God together!

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

Our ministry team in Estonia faithfully continues with the outreach in the local prison and methadone center. Our evangelist from St. Petersburg Olga Ryazhskih often visits and joins these efforts.

In methadone center, we met and witnessed to a drug addict Lena (in the photo on the left with Olga Ryazhskih). She was touched by the Holy Spirit, took our phone number, and later on called and invited us to visit her at home for further discussion. We did so and as a result, Lena repented and accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior (in the photo on the right – at Lena’s home with her son). We are following up on her encouraging her to join the local church.

Galatians 6:9 tells us: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. This month God gave us a chance to see the fruit of our labors more than on one occasion and we cannot help but thank Him!

In our October 2009 newsletter, we wrote about Olga Ryazhskih ministering in prison in Sweden. A couple weeks ago, we received a letter from the family hosting Olga there. A young man approached to the husband in the street, happily greeting him: “Remember me?” He happened to be one of the former inmates who heard Olga’s testimony shared in prison. Soon after that meeting he attended, he was released from prison. All this time the Holy Spirit kept knocking on the door of his heart and finally he repented, dedicating his life to Jesus. As he came out of prison, he found a church where he became an active member and now is steadily growing in the Lord taking steps in the new life for Jesus!

Recently we got a call from a man named George (photo on the left), who told us he needed help from the Lord and wanted to go to a rehabilitation center. George is 46 years old and he has been an alcoholic for many years. Due to this problem, he lost his family and his life was completely broken. Last Christmas George attended our first Christmas Feed-in in Tallinn (see our January 2010 newsletter for the report on it).

„I was sitting in front and listening to Alexey (one of the first guys from Estonia whom we sent to rehabilitation center Betel in Finland) sharing his life story from the stage. I was sitting there and crying. Afterwards I came up to Alexey and started talking with him. Alexey introduced me to Gosha who also told me that God could change my life. They gave me a red tract with a phone number on it and told me that I can call this number when life gets really tough. The life got really tough and I did call. I realize that no one but God can restore my life. I want to turn over a new leaf and I hope God will help me“, – said George before boarding the ferry to go to Betel, Finland.

Now he is successfully going through rehabilitation process. Please pray with us for his complete deliverance from alcohol addiction, new heart, and new life in Jesus!

PRAYER POINTS FOR MAY:

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold season
• For John and Sara’s itinerating in the US – that it will bear much fruit.
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg as we are approaching the end of the school year – for growing in wisdom and maturity, for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
• For the outreach to the student’s dorms in St. Petersburg to be fruitful bringing many new souls to salvation
• For the home group for new believers - growth in faith, strong personal relationship with Jesus, hunger for the spiritual things and power to resist temptations that the world and the devil are constantly bombarding the young people with
• For our newlyweds Arkady and Liza – that God would bless this new family and help them to be fruitful in every area of their life together
• For Gosha’s healing from hepatitis C and restoration of his liver
• For monthly financial supply for the work in St. Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there
• For prison outreach in Estonia both in men’s and women’s prisons – more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for an infusion of $72,000 to cover ministry expenses for the next 6 months. Thanks so much!
Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask if you would prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. We need your help to help others! All help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

APRIL, 2010

2010-04-04T02:19:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends!

As we also mentioned last month, John and Sara are in the US for a couple of months visiting friends, churches and ministries that have been helping our work here. In order for our ministry to continue to bear more fruit in both Russia and Estonia, we need to raise our support base to previous levels. There is so much to do in both of these ripe countries and at present, we see that financial provision is one of the greatest needs in order for us to get more done! If you are interested in having John and Sara visit or minister in your church, or just for them to come and fellowship, you can contact them by email at john.office@earthlink.net or by phone at 603-322-3090 (John) or at 603-322-3089 (Sara).

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

Winter is in no hurry to leave St. Petersburg this year. We still had 10 degrees below zero all through March and seldom ray of sun to melt the mountains of snow. Nevertheless, our hearts are waking up to this new season – the spring and summer of intense evangelism is approaching. Young people from all over Russia will be visiting St. Petersburg and we want to touch as many lives as possible with the Gospel. Gosha has already begun! One day on a walk in St. Petersburg he felt led to stop and pray: “God send a person my way who needs You and is hungry for You right now”. Sooner than he finished the prayer, a young lady approached him asking directions. Gosha volunteered to help her find the way. While walking, he found out that Katya had just come from Habarovsk (Far East of Russia). Instead of Katya shopping, they ended up sitting on a bench for several hours talking about Jesus. At the end of the conversation Katya prayed with Gosha to receive Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. She then came to our service that week and we referred her to a good church in Habarovsk.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT – LEONID LEGKOV

We would like to share with you the testimony of a man who graduated from StreetCry School of Ministry. You will see not only how he came out of 18 years of heroin addiction to the saving knowledge of Christ, but also what the Lord has done in him and through him since. Here is Leonid’s story:

“I was born in 1958 into a normal family. At 13 I got very active in sports. At 16 I began to make money. Crime became a way of life for me. My “business” was to steal from tourists who came to visit St Petersburg. I came up with many ways of doing that. I was athletic and considered myself smart. It was easy to grab a handbag from someone and run. At 19 during one of these “operations” I ran into a dead end street where the police caught me. I was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

In prison I smoked drugs for the first time. Then later I injected heroin for the first time. All the horrible things I heard about drugs at that point seemed to me not true but when I got out of prison at the age of 23 I was addicted. I thought I’d be able to control using drugs but before I knew it drugs were controlling me. After 8 months I was back in prison for theft. This time for 4 years in a strict regime. When I got out I decided to live a different life.

I got invited to participate in a promising business. I had plenty of money and no need to get involved in crime. I thought I’d never be in prison again but I was in prison already – the prison of drug addiction. If you are a drug addict you can’t live a normal life. I tried hard on my own to fight this devilish affliction. At first I was hiding it from those around me and on occasion I invited doctors to my house, paid money, they’d clean up my body but in a few months I’d be back to the needle. Time went by, I grew older and in order to clean up my body I had to go through treatment in a hospital. I was ready to pay any amount of money but deliverance from drugs was just not a thing I could buy. I lost my job but I didn’t even care. I was going down, down, down. My wife lost hope that I’d be able to do anything with my drug addiction and left me. Very soon the only thing I showed any interest in was heroin.

Life made no sense, nothing gave me joy, I could find peace nowhere, no one really loved me, I loved no one. Finally, I told myself that death is the best way out. On October 31, 1998 - my 40th birthday - I went to my country house with enough heroin to kill me – more than 2 grams, plus a liter of vodka and a pack of very strong sleeping pills. I had no fear, no regrets. I wanted to die. I took this deathly mixture but in 2 days found myself still alive. I did not die physically but inside I was dead. I felt neither joy nor sorrow, I had no plans. I had no understanding how should I live any longer. I moved just out of habit I had no hope. Again, I paid to get myself into a detox clinic. In two weeks, I got out and went straight to buy heroin. I lost all emotions. I lived like a wicked wind up doll ready to commit any crime for a dose.

I was telling everyone about my attempt to commit a suicide. I told my doctor who’d been trying to help me for many years and asked him: “What shall I do?” He suggested a more sure way of quitting my life – He suggested I find a building as high as possible and jump off, he assured me this would work. One day I was sitting in the apartment of some other addicts I knew, when a men came in and after hearing my story about suicide suggested help. I did not believe my ears when he told me there is a Christian drug rehab center in the village of Sablino near St. Petersburg and he can help me get into it for free. In just a few days we went there. Most of all I was concerned about withdrawals. But the guys in the center told me I would not have any because they would pray for me. At first, I thought there was something wrong with these guys’ heads but when they suggested that I should pray too I thought: “If God really exists and will help me I will be with Him to the end. And if not – it can’t be worse than now”. So on that day, I cried out to God for help…

And guess what?! I DID NOT have any withdrawals. I slept like a baby. God did an absolute miracle. And it was just the beginning because God does exceedingly abundantly above of what we ask or think. One night in the rehab center, I was spending time in prayer, and the Holy Spirit touched me in such a mighty way that it is impossible to describe in words. He completely changed my life. He completely changed me. I was born again. Since then 11 years have gone by and I never had a desire to do drugs ever again.

My past was as hopeless as could be. Everybody wrote me off. I wrote myself off. I did not see any way out of my nightmare. I thought I had no chances to have a different kind of life. But there was a chance. And this chance is there for everyone! When the worst came to the worst in my life, when I saw no way out God was there for me. GOD ALMIGHTY!And He loved me so much that He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die! Jesus died but rose again and by His death, He paid for all my sins and mistakes. I cannot thank Him enough for this wonderful chance to receive forgiveness, to get set free from the bondages and start from scratch a new life without sin!

During my time in the rehab center, I fell in love with Jesus. It became my dream to serve Him with all of my life. So in August of 1999 I finished the course of my rehabilitation, got water baptized in September and in October went to the StreetCry School of Ministry for two years.

At the same time, I lived and ministered in the rehab center, which I graduated from.

In December of 2001 God gave me a wonderful wife Olga (in the photo on the right) – we are together already for more than 8 years.

At the end of 2002, I participated in planting a church in Sablino village near St. Petersburg and served as its pastor for a couple years, training new believers. Later I gave the pastorate over to my assistant (the church is thriving to this day) and in 2005 Olga and I went as missionaries to Dagestan for a year. It is a part of Russia situated in the mountains near the Black sea and is populated mostly by Muslims.

In Dagestan we served under the leadership of Ruslan Kornev - the man who originally brought me to the rehab center and was my overseer helping me to take my first steps in Jesus. In the past, we were buddies in the drug scene of St. Petersburg but now - co-workers in the fields of our Lord! During the first 6 months in Dagestan we helped Ruslan to start a rehab center and the other 6 months – helped to start a church in a small town of Kizlyar. While in Dagestan we not only served but also studied in a mission school “Gospel to Islamic cultures”

At the end of 2006, we returned to St. Petersburg and God really strongly put it on my heart in prayer that I must focus on helping drug addicts like I used to be in the past.

So in April of 2007 one sister in Christ offered her house in Chernevo village of Pskovsky region for these purposes and I began a small rehab center there. As we had more and more guys coming in for rehabilitation we filled the house pretty fast and in May of 2008 we opened another center - in Popovka village near St. Petersburg (see the photo on the left). We named it “There is a way out”.

In September of 2008, a church in Pskov bought another house for us and we started one more center and called it “Harvest”.

In June of 2009, we bought a house in a small town of Porhov in Pskovsky region and started the fourth center there called “Rebirth”. We also rented 2 flats in Pskov – one is now a home for men who went through rehabilitation and are continuing a drug-free life. The other is a newly founded and developing women’s drug rehab center. And I believe that it is only beginning!

According to the official statistics of the Federal Department for Preventing Illegal Drugs now in Russia every year more than 80,000 new people are becoming drug addicts. Every year about 30,000 people die of drug abuse. 4% of the Earth’s population lives in Russia, yet Russia consumes 20% of all the heroin in the world. The harvest is plenteous the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers, more support to this field.

Right now, my wife and I have 3 other leaders and 9 leadership trainees (some of them you can see in the photo on the right) helping us to run the existing homes and I believe that as the new leaders grow, we will be opening more new homes! Right now we are taking care of 50 men.

Our biggest needs are new buildings (it is possible to buy a village house for about 11 000 USD and we are currently looking for the funding for one house for this price – 300 square meters – see the photo on the left ) and vans (11, 000 – 17 000 USD per one)”. From John – if God puts it on your heart to help this fruitful ministry, please do so.

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

As we continue to minister in the women’s prison we would like to share with you the testimony of another one of our precious Bible School students there. Her name is Alexandra Kustova (see her picture on the right). Here is her story:

“I asked Jesus into my heart in 2007 during my first term in prison. But it didn’t go further than that. Though I asked Him to come into my life, I didn’t take any steps to maintain a relationship with Him. I did not read the Word, I did not spend time in prayer, I led my old lifestyle. I didn’t come to the full understanding then of how important it is to fellowship with God and how precious my salvation was.

After 5 months, I got out of prison and immediately forgot about the Lord. I went on consuming drugs and doing criminal things with my old friends. I wanted to live but unfortunately, I only existed. One day I met a guy whom I knew before as a drug addict. However now he was telling me about God. His words made me think. I believe Jesus pursued me and sent this guy my way to remind me of Himself. His words penetrated deep into my heart, but drugs were still dominating my mind. I continued consuming and selling drugs and stealing until I was caught and put in prison again.

During my second term, I took some time to think about my life and my future. Realizing how dark and hopeless it was, I started REALLY calling out to God. He delivered me from addiction and I believe He rescued me from death. Now looking back at the different circumstances of my life, I am sure, that God protected me by sending me back to prison. Everything worked together for good, because He loved me even though I was always rejecting Him. I was trying to escape from Him but now I know that it is impossible. He became the King of my heart and day after day I want to know Him more. He changed my life! I will never be the same!”

PRAYER POINTS FOR APRIL:

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold season

• For John and Sara’s itinerating in the US – that it will bear much fruit.

• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team

• For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for growing in wisdom and maturity, hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister

• For the outreach to the student’s dorms in St. Petersburg to be fruitful bringing many new souls to salvation

• For the home group for new believers - growth in faith, strong personal relationship with Jesus, hunger for the spiritual things and power to resist temptations that the world and the devil are constantly bombarding the young people with

• For Leonid Legkov’s ministry to drug addicts

• For Gosha’s healing from hepatitis C and restoration of his liver

• For monthly financial supply for the work in St. Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!

• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there

• For prison outreach in Estonia as we in addition to already flourishing ministry to women we began outreach to men’s prison – for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus

• We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $40,000 to cover debt and infuse the ministry. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask if you would prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. We need your help to help others! All help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,

John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

MARCH, 2010

2010-03-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you so very much for your continued prayers, friendship and financial giving to our ministry! We consider you a big part of what we are doing and are happy to share with you the exciting things happening in our midst in Russia and Estonia.

John and Sara just left for 2-3 months in the US where they will be visiting friends,churches and ministries that have been helping our work here. In order for our ministry to continue to bare more fruit in both Russia and Estonia, we need to raise our support base to previous levels. There is so much to do in both of these ripe countries and at present we see that financial provision is one of the greatest needs in order for us to get much more done! If you are interested in having John and Sara visit or minister in your church, or just for them to come and fellowship with you while they are there, you can contact them by email at john.office@earthlink.net or by phone at 603-322-3090 (John) or at 603-322-3089 (Sara).

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

THE HOME GROUP FOR NEW BELIEVERS keeps developing. Recently two new members were added. Both are university students.

One of them, Irina (photo on the left), came to our monthly worship and intercession night with a friend from another church. She was really touched by the moving of the Holy Spirit during that meeting and wanted to know more about Jesus. So we invited her to the home group for new believers. At first, she protested: I am not new! But nevertheless she changed her plans and came. As we began to get to know her closer, we discovered that even though she was in and out of different churches since the age of 10 she had no idea of what it means to be born again and have a personal relationship with Jesus. She thought that being a churchgoer guarantees her a place in heaven! Quickly that understanding was broken and Irina repented and accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.

Another student, Alyona (photo on the right), used to go to high school with Lilly from our church, in the city of Narian Mar (Far North of Russia) and met again as students in St. Petersburg. Alyona came with Lilly to a home group meeting where she heard and received the Gospel and opened her heart to Jesus accepting Him as her personal Lord and Savior.

The home group lesson both Irina and Alyona happened to come to was on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. So in addition to the salvation experience they are now baptized in the Holy Spirit!

OUR MISSIONARIES

In December 2009 issue of our newsletter we featured a report from the mission field by one of our School of Ministry graduates Sveta Moroz (photo on the left). After returning from a short-term mission trip to Mozambique Sveta is back to work as a nurse in the children’s intensive care unit, saving money for the next trip. She is planning to return to Mozambique - this time for a year -starting the coming fall. Please pray for her preparations and if God puts it on your heart to donate any amount towards the total of USD 5, 000 needed for the roundtrip ticket and her support for a year in Mozambique, Sveta will be really grateful. Meanwhile God keeps moving through her in the gift of healing at her workplace. Here is one of the recent testimonies:

“I always take the lives of the children we treat close to heart because God helped me to see much He values human life – He gave His Son Jesus to die for us! As I came back from Africa the cases we worked with were very hard. Despite of all our efforts a small girl died during my shift, another child was on the fine line between life and death and I was crying out to God – why?! And God spoke to me: “I want you to save lives – both physically and spiritually”. It inspired me not to give up and involve not only medicine but also the unlimited power of prayer! So the next child was brought in with meningococcemia, accompanied by septic shock. It is a very serious and dangerous condition – a patient can die within an hour since the mechanism of this sickness is triggered in the body. We had a similar case last May and despite all possible medical efforts, we lost that child. So the faces of all the doctors and nurses showed me there was no hope. He reminded us all of the boy we lost in May. But since I heard from God I could not agree to such an outcome this time. I began fervently praying for this boy to survive. The boy’s grandmother arrived to tell us that his Mom just died of a stroke in a different hospital – and it looked like the spirit of death hovered over this family. As I spoke to the grandmother, I discovered that she was a believer, too. So we joined our efforts in prayer. For a week, the doctors were fighting for the life of this boy. And a miracle happened! God touched the boy and he finally came out of coma. He will lose several digits due to the infection but his life is out of danger which is a great wonder for all the doctors and nurses. But his grandmother and I were not surprised – we were giving God the glory for His intervention and the miracle of His healing power at work in this situation! For Jesus nothing is impossible!”

NEW MINISTRY - TO ABANDONED CHILDREN IN THE HOSPITAL

Zhenya Kopushu (in the photo on the right) graduated from the StreetCry School of Ministry in 2004. Since then she worked as the Russian language and literature teacher in the Harvest Christian School, served as children’s pastor in our church and is currently heading intercession. This year the Lord opened doors for Zhenya to minister in Tsimbalina hospital for abandoned children. Here are some of the most recent testimonies from her work there:

“For several months we prayed for doors to open. The Lord touched the hearts of the doctors to receive us favorably, even though it is a rare case in Russia that hospitals would be open to Christian workers coming to help with the sick, to pray and preach the Gospel. Children are taken to this hospital from the streets and from broken homes of drug addicts, alcoholics, etc… Their parents do not care for them. Every child’s story is heartbreaking. It still takes a lot of effort on my part to hold back the tears while I am in the hospital – I do weep though a lot, as I intercede for the children later at home. Every child has experienced malnutrition, severe beatings, often times even rape. In addition to many sicknesses, they suffer from loneliness, rejection and fear of the future, which for most of them is uncertain. At best, it’s a Russian orphanage with very little true concern from the heart, for these children… They are hungry for love. When I come, they run to me, take me by the hands, call me Mom and do not let me go. At the end of every visit, they ask me to take them home with me and I just wish I could – I want to take them all.

Here is just one of many stories:

Masha Orehova, 10 years old (see the photo on the left) was brought to the hospital from a home where both mother and father are alcoholics. I first met her a couple months ago. She crawled to me on the floor, called me Auntie – her look was so miserable, and voice so faint that everything inside of me crumbled with pain. The same evening the doctors described her background. When she was 5 years old, her father being drunk threw her out of a 5th storey window. She survived but her backbone was badly damaged. She was bed-ridden for a long time and eventually lost her ability to walk. Nevertheless, she was given back to the same parents again. Both mother and father kept regularly beating her up and father even raping her. Finally, the authorities started the process of taking parental rights away from them, and Masha was placed in Tsimbalina hospital. Her first several nights in this hospital she refused to sleep in a bed but crawled under it to hide herself and slept there – she was bound by fear of everyone. In the doctors and nurses, she saw a threat rather than people trying to help her. She looked at them as if she were a small wolf, hungry and fierce, ready to bite. It is scary for me just to try to imagine the emotional and physical torment she has been going through all these years – I understood that only God could touch and restore her broken heart and broken body, giving her hope and a future. I began regularly praying for Masha and telling her about Jesus. I told her that Jesus loves her and wants the best for her. Slowly she started changing, fear was gone, and she began smiling as she saw me come. Every time I came, she asked me to tell her more about Jesus. Faith was birthing in her heart. Toys and games were not so important – all she wanted to do was lay there and listen to me speaking about Jesus. During Christmas, we brought presents to Masha as well as all the other children in the hospital. She was so happy – thanking God for all! She wanted me to read her the story of how Jesus was born over and over again until she was able to repeat it herself. Very recently, Masha received Jesus into her heart – I prayed together with her. Please join me in prayer for Masha’s complete restoration and for her future, for God’s will and plan to be done in her life rather than the devil’s plan for destruction.

God answers prayers! There was another girl in the hospital named Lena whose parents lost parental rights for her, too and she was supposed to be placed in an orphanage. But she dreaded such a possibility (very rightly so!). As she was sharing her despair with me, I suggested prayer and encouraged her that God can handle any problem. We were praying together, she was praying alone and guess what?! Her aunt showed up, did all the legal work to become her foster parent and took her home in addition to her own four children. Lena was thrilled and accepted Jesus, too!”

Zhenya is seriously considering and praying through the idea of opening a small family type Christian orphanage where she and several other girls from our church, driven by the similar concerns and currently involved in different capacities in ministering to suffering children, could live and take such children in who have nowhere else to go, providing them with the atmosphere of God’s love, salvation, restoration, healing, hope and a future.

SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST

One of our evangelists in Estonia, Gosha is now in the hospital for a medical check up due to hepatitis C. According to the doctors, the liver biopsy showed cirrhosis. He is currently undergoing more tests to have a complete picture. Please pray for Gosha’s healing.

At the same time, Gosha is Gosha! He preaches the Gospel to everybody in the hospital and conducts Bible studies with the rehabilitants from several Christian rehab centers whom he found in the hospital for similar reasons. As a result, one woman there already repented and accepted Christ and joined the Bible studies (her photo is on the left!)

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

As we continue to minister in women’s prison we would like to share with you the testimony of one of our precious Prison Bible School students. Her name is Aigi Otepalu and she is 28 years old (see her picture on the right). Here is her story:

“I never knew my father, because he died when I was a baby. My mother is an alcoholic. She is sick and bedridden. I started to live on my own when I turned 14. My education at that moment was only 4th grade. I still remember that before I left home I used to visit one small church in the other town with my brother who already believed in Christ. When he discovered that I smoked, he wrote the 10 Commandments on paper and glued it to the wall near my bed. Needless to say, it did not improve my condition.

I have lived with three different men. The first one was very cruel and used to beat me very violently. At that time, I was not addicted to alcohol yet but we broke up and I started to live with the second man. With him, the situation changed. I stopped caring for my life. I was always drunk. In one year, this man left me, too. To reduce the pain I decided not to sober up ever. I wanted to drink myself to death. I did not want to live because everything that was going on in my life was too much. I could not take it. Then came the third man. We were always arguing and at the same time, we were always drinking. Once I made a decision to commit suicide. I planned all the details, but something prevented me from doing it. Looking back now I think God did not allow it to happen.

In my heart, I always realized that there is God but I did not know Him personally. I even tried to read the Bible, though I did not understand anything.

Being in prison, I tried to kill myself again. I was in a bathroom when suddenly a bright light entered into the room and I heard a voice: “Do not do it. It is sin. I gave My life for you and I love you”. I could not do anything but cry and ask God for forgiveness. From that moment on, I knew how precious I was in His sight. God is real; I encountered Him and experienced His love. He is always near.

I received Jesus as my Lord and my Savior in April 2006. During enforcement proceedings, I met with a chaplain, who gave me a New Testament. God is constantly teaching me and He is showing me things and attitudes that are wrong inside of me.

I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters. When I was put in prison, they rejected me. It was very painful, but then the Lord showed me a Scripture where Jesus said that those who believe in Him are His family. This way He gave me a new family – my brothers and sisters in Christ. He took all pain away from my heart”.

PRAYER POINTS FOR MARCH:
• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold season
• For John and Sara’s itinerating in the US – that it will bare much fruit.
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for growing in wisdom and maturity, hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
• For the outreach to the student’s dorms in St. Petersburg to be fruitful bringing many new souls to salvation
• For the home group for new believers - growth in faith, strong personal relationship with Jesus, hunger for the spiritual things and power to resist temptations that the world and the devil are constantly bombarding the young people with
• For Sveta’s preparations to go to Mozambique for a year
• For Zhenya’s ministry to abandoned children in Tsimbalina hospital, especially for complete healing and restoration of Masha Orehova
• For Gosha’s healing from hepatitis C and restoration of his liver
• For monthly financial supply for the work in St. Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there
• For prison outreach in Estonia as we in addition to already flourishing ministry to women began outreach to men’s prison – for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• For John and Sara as they are traveling to the US
• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $40,000 to cover debt and infuse the ministry. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask if you would prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. We need your help to help others! All help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

FEBRUARY, 2010

2010-02-11T03:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends!

Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers, friendship and financial giving to our ministry!

“For God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them” (Hebrews 6:10)

Over the past several months, we have been active and inspired with evangelism. Teams have been taking the Gospel to the streets and student dorms in St. Petersburg. As a result, a new home group opened in our church for new believers with the goal to get them grounded in the foundational truths of the Bible and establish a firm personal relationship with Jesus. The apostle Paul emphasized in 2 Timothy 1:12 the importance of getting to “…know Him Whom I have believed in…”

Gosha Korovushkin – one of our missionaries to Estonia, visited his parents in Russia for a month of holidays sharing the Good News with his friends and acquaintances and bringing new souls to Christ.

In Tallinn in addition to the ministry in the women’s prison, we recently began outreach to men in prison.

Below are more details of the exciting things that God is doing in our midst in Russia and Estonia:

RUSSIA

As Gosha visited his hometown Vologda in central Russia, he had opportunities to preach in different churches, rehab centers and visit some of his old friends who are now in prison for drug related crimes.

One church was particularly open to his ministry. At the service where Gosha shared his testimony and preached on salvation from the Word of God there were two students Anna (with Gosha in the photo on the right) and Tanya who visited the church that day by invitation of their Christian friends. Gosha’s story touched them very much and they had many questions that they wanted to ask after the preaching was over. As a result of the long discussion, both Anna and Tanya (in the photo on the left) repented and dedicated their lives to Jesus. Immediately Gosha began new believer’s classes for them. The pastor asked for our School of Ministry materials on evangelism and work with new believers, and implemented them right away. The fire of evangelism kindled in the church with new strength. Now teams go out weekly to places where young people hang out, sharing the Gospel and power of God.

During a visit a year ago, Gosha was in line to get into a prison visitors meeting room. The line was long so to make the process of waiting more fun he decided to talk to a girl in front of him. Her name was Yulia and she was there to visit a boyfriend in prison for drug related crimes. Gosha began telling his own story of addiction and deliverance by the power of Jesus Christ and Yulia was open to hear it and left her phone number. But after talking to her boyfriend she was not interested to continue fellowship with Gosha any more. However, Gosha did not give up. He kept praying for her, writing to her, sharing prophetic words, words of encouragement, etc… A year went by and this time when Gosha called again, Yulia wanted to meet. For several hours, they sat reading the Bible together and finally she was ready to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior (see the photo on the right). Later Gosha introduced her to a local church. Yulia also brought her younger sister to a service, and she is now interested to know more about Jesus.

In prison, Gosha visited and encouraged his friend Roma (photo on the left) who repented a couple years ago and is now leading a growing church in the prison. Here is Roma’s testimony:

“I was born in Vologda in 1980 into an average Soviet family. My Mom was an accountant, my Dad a blacksmith. From the time of his youth, Dad held awards for achievements in weight lifting and wrestling. Until I was 10, my father was my idol. He was a huge 220-pound man without bad habits like smoking or drinking and besides – he was very honest. He kept us, his children under control and did not hesitate to resort to spanking if we needed it. Nevertheless, my older brother turned into a juvenile delinquent and was in prison by the age of 14. I was not interested to follow in his steps and tried to be good but in 1990, my father died in front of our eyes from an electric shock.

It shattered my world. Mom had to work more in order to feed us. My older brother who kept serving one term in prison after another became my mentor pretty much. Left to my own devices I rushed to take in all the trends of the youth subculture of the times. By 11, I managed to drop out of music school where I used to study accordion, began smoking, and started drinking. Soon I spent every night in youth clubs, most of the time in drunken fights. The 90’s were some of the most lawless years in Russia, and it was easy and common for 11 year olds to get a hold of and use alcohol frequently Without vodka, dancing was not fun. By the age of 13 in addition to cigarettes and alcohol, I was sniffing glue, solvents, gasoline, etc… At 15 a bright though entered my mind: “Why sit in a garage doing nothing but smoke, drink, sniff and fornicate? Let’s form a band and play music!” So, we began playing punk. Slowly we grew famous in our town and got invitations to different clubs. We played real well (=loud!).

In 1995, it was popular in Russia to go door to door. Everybody from refugees to Jehovah’s witnesses to politicians did it! One day I heard a knock on my door. To be honest, it woke me up the morning after another drunken party. To this day, I do not understand why, although I was angry, with a headache, and sleepy, I let this guy in instead of just yelling at him and kicking him out. He began talking to me about God, about Jesus. The times were stormy at that time In Russia, and some people lived sort of expecting the apocalypse… I asked the guy if he had any books about the apocalypse and he offered me a Bible and some other literature. As I began reading all the books, I was so fascinated that I even stopped smoking! I began sharing the newly found truths with my closest friends and the band members but they laughed me to scorn, so I put the Bible on the shelf and went back to the old life.

Writing new songs took inspiration and soon I began looking for it in drugs. At 17, I started shooting heroin and loved it so much that I preached about it everywhere I went! In reality, I did not receive any musical inspiration, but I did start encountering more problems with the police. I turned 19 in prison, serving a 5-year sentence. By that time, I already had a five-month-old son, but never married because of the drugs, irresponsibility and criminal habits in my life.

When I came out, in addition to using drugs again, I started selling them. That brought me back to prison in a matter of months. This time along with my older brother, we each got new five and a half year sentences. My girlfriend left me but I did not understand what my problem was. I blamed anything and anybody but myself and kept consuming all kinds of drugs to escape the grim reality.

Then an old friend of mine suddenly showed up (Gosha). We used to do drugs together and spent a lot of time together in prison. But one day he disappeared. They said there was some rehabilitation center in St. Petersburg that he went to. The rumors followed that he went crazy. When he visited me, I understood why people said that… Gosha came back a different man, totally transformed, happy, free from all kinds of addictions and was telling everybody about Jesus.

In prison, I read 2-3 chapters from my Bible every day – that very Bible I received from a stranger who knocked on my door when I was 15. I don’t know why but I took it with me to prison. So when Gosha started telling me about Jesus I could not disagree. He was right. But I thought that it is too early for me to repent, that I was not yet ready… Besides, I did not use drugs at the moment but drank, but who did not - in our whole country? So I considered myself rather normal. I rejected the conviction that came to my heart through Gosha and needless to say fell back into drugs.

Everything became even worse than before. My heart was hardened, I did not think of others, did not appreciate anyone, did not care for anybody – even for my new girlfriend. By that time, we got married and had a son but home meant nothing to me – I dropped in occasionally to spend the night, eat and change clothes, then woke up in the morning and went on in search of something to fill the emptiness inside. Often times I walked around our town filled with 2-3 kinds of drugs simultaneously while drinking beer like water. However, the more I tried to escape reality the more I felt the grips of depression.

Drugs and crime always go together. Two weeks after my 28th birthday the next judge sentenced me to 2 years of imprisonment. I entered the prison with a smile. What is 2 years for someone who has already served two sentences of 5 years?

Nevertheless, just a month later I was in deep trouble for illegally dealing in drugs inside of prison. Before when I did it, I was never caught, but this time… I knew that nothing good was going to come out of it and there was no natural way to remedy my situation. I was in despair and that moved me to prayer. With tears, I asked the Lord to help me. I felt the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit – my so-called friends could not care less what would happen to me now, the only people who cared were my close relatives, but it was to them that I brought so much pain over all these years. What an ungrateful swine I was! I cried out to God for forgiveness and deliverance from my selfishness, from all my lusts and all my addictions. “Jesus!” - I prayed – “I am tired of myself! I do not want to rule my life any longer, because it will lead to death or a huge term in prison. From now on, Lord, You rule my life as You please and all You tell me I will do!”

The days went by but no punishment for my crimes followed. I sort of relaxed and even used drugs one more time. But as soon as I did I… not that I heard a voice saying it… but just a very clear understanding filled my heart – if I continue living as I was the punishment will befall me but if I follow Jesus the situation will resolve itself without hurting me.

The next morning I woke up and at first, I thought that I lost my mind due to the stress – everything around looked different. I looked through the bars and saw the trees, the sky, the sun and suddenly realized that I was free. Free even though I was in prison! There were two words that kept going on and on in my mind: FREEDOM and LOVE! I felt the pack of cigarettes in my pocket and realized that God answered my prayer and set me free from my addictions – I quickly threw the cigarettes away. Overnight I was set free from smoking, alcohol, drugs, cursing and lying. Moreover, for 10 years up to that moment I suffered from systematic migraine headaches. The headaches were gone and never came back! Now He is restoring my relationships with my family.

I thank God for His mercy and patience in knocking on the door of my hardened heart! I thank Jesus for turning my life right side up! I used to live with the constant feeling that something was missing. Now I know – Jesus was missing! With Him, I found meaning; I found the reason to live!”

In April 2010, Roma is supposed to be released from the prison. Please join us in prayer for his further growth and strengthening in the Lord and everything to work out for him to go into an adaptation center as soon as he leaves the prison walls.

In addition, God opened the heart of the oldest punk rock musican in the city of Vologda – Tolik (photo on the right). He is the only one of Gosha’s friends of youth who is still alive but did not accept Jesus yet. For many years, Jesus inside of Gosha was trying to knock on the door of this man’s heart but all in vain – he was bitter, closed, resentful and mocking. However, this time as Gosha visited him in prison, Tolik confessed that he came to the end of his rope and asked for the Bible and was open to hear Gosha’s testimony. He did not make the decision for Christ yet, but said that he did not know whom to go to for help in his present situation except to God. Please join us in prayer for this dear man’s soul to be saved and life to be transformed by the power of God.

ESTONIA

We are continuing our ministry in Harku women’s prison, and God is continuing to add women. Our Bible school in the prison is also continuing and we are so excited to see the women growing and maturing as they study God’s word. They all have to continually make decisions for the Lord, and stand up for their convictions in an atmosphere of mocking and derision. It seems like every time someone takes a stand for the Lord in an area of their lives, the demons are stirred against them. But, “greater is He that is in us than he that I in the world” (1 John 4:4).

One of Tallinn’s men’s prisons just closed because of the conditions there, and the new prison has not been completed yet. So, some of the men have been temporarily transferred to the women’s prison. I know… it sounds strange to us too, but that is what happened. This has changed the dynamic, atmosphere and rules of the prison and things are much more restrictive for us with the women’s meetings now. It is also more difficult for the women, who can no longer walk on the prison grounds except in groups accompanied by a guard. Their access to the chapel has also been curtailed, but they seem to be adapting.

The bright spot is that we have been asked to minister to the men as well, which we have now been doing for a month. On our first day there, one of the men mentioned that everyone in our service was in prison for murder. He said, ‘between us here, we could fill a small cemetery for our crimes.” Among them, we have found a number of men who have truly found the Lord and are growing in Him and others who do not know Him yet. We are having services once a week and we are very happy to be able to minister to them.

This month we had a meeting with the vice mayor of Tallinn, introducing her to our ministry, and asking if the government could help with a building for us to use. Although they did not volunteer to help with a building, they emphasized several times that with our 14 years of experience in Russia, we could surely help them here. We have another meeting scheduled next week, will see if there is any fruit in it, and will let you know.

PRAYER POINTS FOR FEBRUARY:

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold, wet and dark winter season, especially for protection from flu
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for growing in wisdom and maturity, hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
• For the outreach to the student’s dorms in St. Petersburg to be fruitful bringing many new souls to salvation
• For the home group for new believers - growth in faith, strong personal relationship with Jesus, hunger for the spiritual things and power to resist temptations that the world and the devil are constantly bombarding the young people with
• For monthly financial supply for the work in St. Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there
• For prison outreach in Estonia as we in addition to already flourishing ministry to women we began outreach to men’s prison – for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• For John and Sara as they are traveling to the US
• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $40,000 to cover debt and infuse the ministry. Thanks so much!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

JANUARY, 2010

2010-01-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends!

We are SO GRATEFUL to all who donated towards our Christmas Feed-ins in St. Petersburg and Tallinn!

In the midst of crisis, Jesus is glorified and His people are edified and strengthened! May God reward your faithfulness and sacrifices and bless you a hundredfold!

Our special thanks are to Victor and Anna Avdyakovy and Elim church in Sweden, the leader of the mission board Sven-Inge, for sending funding for gifts for the women in our prison ministry and gifts to many children we minister to including the ones from a couple of orphanages! You truly made the Christmas special for them and us!

And to Ruthe Brookshire for not only helping financially but also coming all the way from the USA personally to participate in the food preparations for our feed-ins in Tallinn and St. Petersburg, to teach, to encourage and strengthen us with the Word of God and prayer. Fellowship with you was so refreshing! Thank you for sharing with us the caring heart of Jesus and for giving us, the young people in Christ, a beautiful example of true servanthood!

We also want to thank Pete and Angie Field, the MacAnanny Foundation, Christ Fellowship of Indy, Times Square Church, Apple Valley Christian Center, Colleen Sherman and the many others who have helped financially with the feed-in and who have generously helped the ministry this past year! We appreciate you and thank God for you!

The Christmas and New Year season is traditionally one of the busiest times for us in evangelism. We invite people to our special services and other events as well as go to the streets, students’ dorms, public transportation and places of festive gatherings with Gospel literature; to fellowship with people about the true meaning of Christmas and to tell them who Jesus is and what did He come into this world for. As the Holy Spirit touches their hearts, we are continuing to see salvations, miraculous healings and deliverances...

Below are more details of the exciting things that God is doing in our midst in Estonia and Russia:

ESTONIA

The Christmas Feed-in truly was the main highlight of our holiday season in Tallinn, with God helping in every way! This winter the record amount of snow since 1881 covered the area and the roads were rather dangerous for travelers. As our worship team went from St. Petersburg to Tallinn, the two vehicles collided right in front of them turning upside down and leaving people badly injured. Our guys immediately called for the local analogue of 911 and got involved in administering first aid to the victims including lifting the cars and taking people from under them and away from the zone of danger. One woman was thrown out of her vehicle’s window by the impact so far that she basically got buried inside of a snow hill on the side of the road and needed to be dug out. When they found her she did not show any signs of being alive – no breathing, pulse or heartbeat, no reaction of her eyes to the light… The only thing our guys knew to do was to lay hands on her and pray. Suddenly she came back and by the time the ambulance arrived, she was already talking.

The Feed-in in Tallinn was the first event of this kind in the local Christian community and gathered representatives of most of the drug rehab centers in Estonia, one from Russia and one from Finland.

We also invited poor, needy, lonely, and hopeless people from the streets and drug addicts from the three local methadone centers so we could share the joy of Christmas in the warm family atmosphere which most of them could not experience otherwise. Altogether more than 270 people were present. It was a beautiful time of worship and fellowship, bringing unity to the different ministries in the area; time of giving hope to the needy who heard testimonies of lives transformed by the power of God. Twenty-one of them made a decision for Christ right there!

Others received information about where to come for help and rehabilitation if they would be willing to in the future.

Besides that, our ministry team had a chance to conduct the worship service in women’s prison (see the photo on the right). As a result, four women repented and opened their hearts to Jesus. The time of heart to heart fellowship with new believers followed, encouraging them to get closer to Jesus.

RUSSIA

Over the holidays, our coffeehouse in St. Petersburg hosted a series of evangelism theater events done in cooperation with several churches. The place was packed with people we invited from the streets, the students of the local universities, colleagues from different workplaces of our church members and School of Ministry students, and unsaved relatives visiting for Christmas. The Gospel touched many lives and during follow up, we were able to gain more access to different students’ dorms where friendship evangelism continues with a new strength now.

The Holy Spirit continues to move miraculously in healing. Here are some of the most recent testimonies:

Aelita Kurilina (1st year School of Ministry student):

“I came to the StreetCry School of Ministry from a conservative church where there was godliness but not much power in operation during services. So for me the whole concept of practicing divine healing was rather foreign to begin with. With time going by I classified it in my mind as possible for others but not applicable to me. Until one day, in a meeting there was a word of knowledge about me that no one could have known anything about. The fact is that all this time I suffered from a bad case of maxillary sinusitis and the treatment given and medicines prescribed by doctors did not make much difference. On the opposite, due to moving from the south of Russia to the northern cold and wet St. Petersburg my condition drastically worsened. I was rather shocked but desperate enough to come forward for prayer. Kirill Borodichuk laid hands on me, asking Jesus to heal me and within one week, I was completely healed with the symptoms never returning! Praise the Lord!”

Kirill Borodichuk (School of Ministry graduate):

“During one of our monthly worship and intercession nights I got a word of knowledge that there is a person in the audience who is losing hearing in one ear due to a disease but as I shared it nobody came forward. Nevertheless, I prayed that God would touch and heal that person. How great was my surprise when the next day I received a phone call in our church office from a girl saying that the day before it was her first visit to our church and that in their church nothing like that ever happens, so when I named her situation out loud she was amazed and completely dumbfounded. However, the next morning she woke up hearing perfectly with no earache whatsoever! Isn’t Jesus wonderful?!”

Liza Bachi (1st year School of Ministry student and medical doctor):

“One of my elderly relatives developed a tumor on her face. No treatment helped, finally it was diagnosed cancerous and the doctors performed an operation. Besides the pain she constantly lived in, the whole process really disfigured her face and brought her a lot of suffering. But to make things even worse she discovered that the operation did not help – after a while the tumor returned! Arkady Ledkov and I decided to agree in prayer for God to intervene, do a miracle and deliver her from this sickness. We prayed for a while on a regular basis. Slowly-slowly, the tumor was shrinking until finally it disappeared altogether. Besides that God started to restore her face to looking normal!”

WOW, what a God!!!

The Christmas Feed-in in St. Petersburg was held on January 8 (Russian Christmas is celebrated on January 7 and the holiday season goes all the way to January 14).

There were 12 Christian rehab centers represented. The leaders of the rehab centers came forward and led the time of prayer. Exuberant worship led by Bethesda band and our worship team took us to God’s throne together! It is so hard to adequately describe the atmosphere in the hall where more than 300 people are gathered who know only too well that if not for Jesus they would definitely lie in the cemetery today but they are alive, loved, warmed, fed, given future and hope, ministries, gifts of the Holy Spirit, families, children… What a shout of joy, a roar of praise, a burst of dance before the Lord! What a beautiful atmosphere of sincerity and freedom! Words of encouragement based on the Parable of the Prodigal son uplifted many and strengthened the newcomers to hold on to God and His grace, which is enough for every situation in life! Several people from different rehab centers shared powerful testimonies!

One story was especially remarkable as it showed the fruit of the unity created between the rehab ministries here by events like this. Olga shared on how she met the Lord:

“… I first heard the Gospel when I sat on a curb in front of Lomonosovskaya Metro station (notorious for drug dealers and glue sniffers hanging out there) doubled over and practically gone from alcohol and drugs I had consumed that day. A young man named Gosha (our School of Ministry graduate and now an evangelist and missionary) came up to me and gave me several Gospel tracts. He talked to me about Jesus, His love for me, and His desire to change my life if I would only let Him do it. Gosha shared his own story of drug addiction, crime and transformation he experienced by the hand of God. In response, I mumbled something like “a-ha… I will think about it tomorrow…” to which Gosha firmly retorted: “Tomorrow may not come”. And he was right. The very next day I was arrested and put to prison for drug related crimes. But the Gospel literature I received from Gosha stayed with me. With hunger, I read over and over again all the tracts, telling the stories of salvation of drug addicts and slowly faith was igniting in my heart. Then evangelists from the Source of Life (a rehab ministry represented in our feed-ins) came to our prison and from them I heard the Gospel again and started taking my first steps to Jesus. They followed up on me when I was released from prison and fell back into the old life. A year ago, they brought me to this Christmas celebration fresh from the street – a newcomer to the rehab center. It was then that I dedicated my heart to the Lord fully and today I cannot help but praise Him for how He changed my life!”

We all enjoyed wonderful food and fellowship.

It was a tremendous blessing for the people who work so much and hardly ever have a chance to relax, get together, sit and talk to each other!

We made new contacts, strengthened already existing relationships, truly enjoyed Jesus and each other, sharing hearts, exchanging testimonies and plans for the coming year!

The spirit of intercession released during worship stayed with many as they returned to their centers. One of the centers continued the celebration at home with the all night prayer and the pastor shared with us the next day that he was amazed – even previously the most shy prayed so fervently there was no stopping them!

We would also like to thank you for your prayers for us to be able to find a new building for the ministry in St. Petersburg, including an office and rooms for School of Ministry because the one we rented before was put up for sale. God answered our united prayers and gave us a new hall for the services! So in addition to all the above the holiday season has been the time of moving for us, the time of transitioning in many ways, many things are changing in our church here. Please join us in prayer that all the changes would work together for good and help us grow in every way and mature.

PRAYER POINTS FOR JANUARY:

• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold, wet and dark winter season, especially for protection from flu
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg as we resume our studies after the Christmas break – for growing in wisdom and maturity and also hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
• For a building for rehab and a building for street ministry in Tallinn
• For monthly financial supply for the work in St Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there.
• For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from drug and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $40,000 to cover debt and infuse the ministry. Thanks so much!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

DECEMBER, 2009

2009-12-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you again for your prayers, encouragement and support for our ministry here! We continually thank God for you!

Many exciting things continue to happen here in Russia and Estonia. We are having a fruitful time equipping the saints for the work of the ministry in our school. The graduates are going on missionary trips. We are also continuing to see salvations, miraculous healings and deliverances from drug addiction.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Our 14th annual Christmas Season Feed-In is coming up in St Petersburg, and we are having our first one in Tallinn. We are also having a smaller Christmas celebration in Harku women’s prison for about 120 women. We have already had several organizational meeting with pastors and rehab centers leaders, and they are excited about the events. A hall has been secured in Tallinn, as well as volunteers to prepare food, and the date is set. Our worship team from St Petersburg will be joining us in Tallinn for this. We need $5,000 for each of the two feed-ins and 500 for the one in the prison. Please help us if you can. These events are very important, bringing unity, hope, faith and encouragement to hundreds each year who have turned from lives of drug addiction to serving Jesus. Besides our monthly worship and intercession nights for the churches of St Petersburg, the Feed-In is a landmark event with tremendous fruit each year with the 15 Christian centers that participate. If you could also spread our need to as many as possible, it would be a wonderful blessing! If your church could take it upon you to raise 1000 dollars for this event, we would be very grateful. Please help us to help others, thank you!

Below are more details of the wonderful things that Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit are doing among us in Russia and Estonia:

NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

Recently a member of our church and graduate of our School of Ministry Sveta Moroz (left in the photo) went on a mission trip to Mozambique, where she worked with Heidi Baker’s Iris Ministries. Iris plants churches in some of the most remote parts of the Earth and helps to shelter and educate thousands of children who became orphans due to poverty, natural calamities, civil war and the AIDS situation in the country. Here is Sveta’s exciting report:

“As the airplane approached Maputu airport I looked out of the window and saw the parched thirsty land crying out for water. It proved to be true both in the physical and in the spiritual realm. I soon found the people of Mozambique to be so spiritually hungry that my words fail to describe it adequately. During the whole trip, not one person rejected us when we approached them with the Gospel, nor declined an offer to pray for them and their needy situations.

The atmosphere in the country is bleak. Very many are sick with AIDS. Many children die from malnutrition before they reach the age of five. Crime is rampant – it is dangerous to go out after dark. I often woke up at night and could smell the spirits of witchcraft, murder, poverty, alcoholism, prostitution… which drove me to intercede with tears, pouring out my heart in prayer for the people.

And God was pouring out so much love on me and through me – I never experienced anything like this in my life. I was astounded by what God was doing in this country and every day I learned something new about His ways and His heart for the poor and needy, orphans, widows, etc. The Lord broke my heart and taught me to simply trust Him day by day, every minute and I saw His miracles of healing and salvation of souls.
Practically upon arrival, before I had time to unpack I was offered a chance to go out for street evangelism and joyfully agreed. One of the main goals of Iris Ministries is to train the children and young adults they shelter to become pastors, evangelists, and ministers who would win their own country for Jesus. And they are very successful in doing that. The street evangelism team I joined consisted mainly of 14-year-old teenagers. But they turned out to be already experienced on fire evangelists, filled with boldness and care for the people they ministered to!

Street evangelism, going out to evangelize in remote villages, and visiting public hospitals to pray for the sick was my main activity during the whole trip.

Iris Ministries has a church at the site of a large garbage dump – the poorest district of Maputu. The stench of decomposing food and other garbage is unbearable, except for the grace and love of God. Nevertheless, many people live and scrounge there, in the midst of the mountains of waste delivered from the capital and the surroundings in search of something to eat or sell.

Before the church service, the teams go out to talk to people about Jesus and to call them in. I joined one of these teams. We met many wonderful people who were willing to hear the Gospel. They wept as they received prayer and later shared that they experienced the presence of God and His loving touch. I especially remember one woman who had back pain and a disabled leg. As we began praying for her, she immediately felt the pain was relieved and started moving her leg. Very soon, she was walking around freely moving all her body, rejoicing and praising God for the miracle!

Later on during the service, an older lady came up and shared that she was blind in one eye. We laid hands on her and started praying and suddenly she said, “Oh, I can see your hand!” Her sight was restored partially but we knew it was just the beginning and encouraged her to continue to come to Jesus and believe for the complete healing of her eye.

Next time we went to the garbage dump, we met a woman who could hardly walk – her leg was wounded, swollen and badly inflamed. It looked like it needed the urgent attention of a surgeon but the woman did not have money to even pay for a medical check up much less an operation. But she had faith that God could heal her. We prayed for her. A week later we met her again - she was shining as she thanked us for prayer. She could walk now and her leg was healed, we could see only scars from the previous wound. Together we praised Jesus for the miracle!

We also went to the public hospital. One woman there suffered from a bite of a poisonous insect that resulted in her face being badly swollen. For three days, she could not open her eyes. As we prayed for her, the swelling went down in front of our eyes and the woman wept for joy – she could open her eyes again! God’s presence was so strong in the room that we wept with her in gratitude for the miracle Jesus did for this woman!

The next time in the public hospital, we were only able to enter one room but God did so much! It was a big room – 10 beds housing 10 men suffering from different illnesses. We prayed for the healing of each – one by one and the atmosphere of hopelessness and despair was replaced with the sweet presence of the Love of God. Then I started talking about Jesus, His cross, redemption and salvation and offered to all to accept Jesus who had never done it before. Four men decided to. After we prayed with them, another man approached me. He did not speak English or Portuguese or the local Shanga language – he was from a remote area where they had their own dialect but somehow he understood what I was talking about. By gestures and a few words in Shanga we prayed with him the sinner’s prayer, too. Then we encouraged them all to join the closest Iris Ministries church. They were saying goodbye to us with tears of rejoicing in their eyes.

Another case of divine healing happened when we went to evangelize in villages. A girl came up to us with a displaced thumb that was out of joint due to an injury. We laid hands on her and after prayer, her thumb returned to the proper position and the girl was able to move it with no pain!

In fact, healings were so many! Practically every day as we shared the Gospel with people God was confirming His Word with signs and wonders. I was so thrilled to be an eyewitness of His glory and power! God is Almighty! He really loves people and desires to set them free from the bondages of sin and sickness!"

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT – NASTYA SHTURMINA

In this section of our newsletter, we continue to introduce you to the new students of the School of Ministry. In the photo on the right is Nastya Shturmina. She is a passionate worshipper and a fiery evangelist preaching the Gospel at her workplace, on public transport, in student dorms and on the street as she meets people. She is very outgoing and God gave her a special ability to penetrate very hard hearts with His truth; destroying strongholds in the minds of those who do not know Jesus yet. Nastya is also gifted prophetically. She is a big blessing for everyone she comes in contact with. Here is her story:

‘I am presently 26 years old. I come from Novorossiysk – a port on the Black Sea, but I have lived and travelled all over Russia.

Together with my brother, I grew up in a family where our father was an abusive alcoholic tyrant and our mom a workhorse for our family. My conclusion about family life during those years of our father beating us all, and mother enduring, and trying to please everyone was that I WILL NEVER GET MARRIED. Why should I if the man in the family is a murderer and an adulterer while the woman is a silent slave who must endure everything plus keep four jobs to support the children and the husbands drinking habits?! If the world is such, I did not want to belong to this world. So I left home at the age of 11 and began my quest for a different life.

Joining different groups of young people, I traveled the country. If no one opened a home to us, we slept in the parks, or in abandoned buildings. We hung out at rock concerts and made money by playing guitar and singing on the streets and on the subway and asking for donations. From time to time, I visited Mom and Dad only to see that nothing had changed, so I had to go on the road again. I was really bitter and hated people, often using them for my own gain without any regrets for my behavior.

Life went on under the motto of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. At some point, I became really interested in the occult, literally sold my soul to the devil, and did rituals, etc. Sometimes I felt the horror side of it but curiosity won in every case and I continued on this road to hell. I did not think that hell in the afterlife could be any worse than the hell I was born into and grew up in.

When I turned 16, my Mom died. Finally, she was relieved! The last years of her life, she suffered from cancer – but no one told me about it! And I wasn’t even there when she died! I was deeply offended at all my relatives. I cursed God. I blamed Him for Mom’s death and hated Him.

The conclusion I came to after my Mom’s death was that life is fleeting and that I can die at any moment. This mentality drove me to even more dangerous experiments with my soul and body. Basically, I decided to waste my life to the full. I got deeper into consuming alcohol and drugs, practiced eastern religions, meditation, free sex and whatever came my way in order to fill the painful void inside – all in vain.

I expected death, but would come back to my senses again and again to find out that I am still on this earth and asking myself a question “Why?, Why am I here?, Why still alive?”

So I stumbled all the way to the year 2004 when after another suicidal fit I “coincidentally” found myself at a Christian rock concert. The songs of the “Sons of Thunder” band touched me so much that I stepped over my pride, left behind my loose company and started talking to one of the band members. He told me about Jesus and how He changed his life. He was telling his story but it sounded so much like mine, only his had a happy ending, and mine was still unresolved. He asked me how I came to the concert. I said – “I just did not have anywhere to go, so I came here…” He said – “Oh, it was for you we prayed!” and went on to explain that before the concert they prayed that God would bring people who were desperate and just had nowhere to go. He invited me to the church the next day and I went. They seemed like angels who came down from the sky; their eyes were shining with light and love. God was speaking to me personally but I did not have the guts to forsake my old life and really follow Jesus.

So I went back to my old ways. More drugs, more sex, more rock-n-roll… Only now I was sort of playing hide and seek with God. One day I was asking Him for help, and the next day I was foolishly running away from Him. But it was impossible to escape the Omnipresent!

In 2006, I badly overdosed on drugs that resulted in some of my organs shutting down and partial paralysis of my body. I went into what they call clinical death but God in His amazing grace and inexplicable mercy visited me at that time. I remember burning from the fire of His holiness and the great fear that came all over me and shocked me back to life…

Something changed deep inside of me as I found myself back to earth and doctors hovering around. I did not want to continue life as usual after that incident. I knew God had given me another chance and I grabbed a hold of His mighty saving hand! I really repented and dedicated my life to Jesus and He took me out of my pit and transformed my whole being. He took out that wounded, bitter, hardened heart and gave me a new one, alive, soft and loving. I became a new Nastya – a new creation in Christ Jesus! He gave me a new life – without sin, fornication, drugs, occult and hopelessness! I can’t thank Him enough for what He has done!”

DRUG REHAB PROGRAM NEWS

This past month our church has celebrated the graduation of Galya (photo on the left). In November, she completed the one-year program of rehabilitation from heroin addiction. Here are the words of gratitude she shared at the celebration:

“Thank you so very much for all your prayers and support during this whole year of my life. I am so grateful to Jesus for all He has done for me! He accepted me in the wretched condition that I was in, and gave me a complete new life, starting on the inside! He took out of me the heart of stone and gave a new heart – sensitive to Him and to the needs of the people around me! He gave beauty for ashes and joy for despair! I know I will never be able to adequately thank Him but I gave Him my life and want to serve Him all of my days on this Earth!”

This fall Galya enrolled in our School of Ministry and eagerly studies the Word of God to be an even more effective servant of the Lord. God has given her a beautiful teaching gift and she is a big blessing to the children’s Sunday school and to the new believers in our church. Please continue to pray for her growth in the Lord and fulfillment of His destiny in her life.

NEWS FROM TALLINN

This month we have been doing a lot of preparation for the first Christmas feed-in here. We have been meeting with pastors and rehab center leaders, laying the foundation for what we believe will be a fruitful yearly event celebrating God’s power to save, heal and deliver.

We have also begun a Bible school in the women’s prison, and we have 10 very hungry, on fire Christians in the school. Lena, a woman from our church in the prison, was released this month. She began witnessing to her kids and all 3 of them received Jesus. The oldest has a learning disability where he could not comprehend what he would read. He asked for prayer and afterward began reading, with comprehension. He gave glory to God and thanked those who prayed for him, exclaiming boldly that Jesus had healed him!

We have continued to meet a lot of young women who are heroin addicts and need to be in a center. At present, there are no Christian women’s rehab centers in Estonia. We are now working on appointments with officials to see if they will help us to open one here. We would appreciate your prayers!

Before closing, we would like to make another plea for financial help for Christmas. We need 10,500 dollars for our events. Please do help us if you can, and please let others know of our need. Thank you so much!

PRAYER POINTS FOR DECEMBER:

For us to be able to find a new building for our church in St. Petersburg – the one we are currently in is now put for sale by the owners
For finances for our two Christmas feed-ins in St Pete and Tallinn and fo0r the women’s prison event. We need $10,500 for all of these
For a building for rehab and a building for street ministry in Tallinn
For monthly financial supply for the work in St Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for growing hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there.
For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from tobacco- drug- and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold, wet and dark autumn and winter season, especially for protection from all kinds of flu
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

NOVEMBER, 2009

2009-11-01T23:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you so much for continuing to stand with us in prayer, friendship and financial giving! You are a big blessing and we are grateful to the Lord for each of you!

Lots of exciting things are happening in Russia and Estonia. Our School of Ministry students are going on missionary trips. We are continuing to see salvations, miraculous healings and deliverances from drug addiction. Actually, there is so much going on we can only share some of it here. But you will not be disappointed as you read about the acts of our great God here!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Our 14th annual Christmas Feed-In is coming up in St Petersburg, and we are having one in Tallinn. Our worship team from St Petersburg will be joining us in Tallinn for this. We need $5,000 for each of these two events. Please help us if you can. These events are very important, bringing unity, hope, faith and encouragement to hundreds each year who have turned from lives of drug addiction to serving Jesus. Besides our monthly worship and intercession nights for the churches of St Petersburg, the Feed-In is a landmark event with tremendous fruit each year with the 15 Christian centers that participate. If you could also spread our need to as many as possible, it would be a wonderful blessing! If your church could take it upon you to raise 1000 dollars for this event, we would be very grateful. Please help us to help others, thank you!

Below are more details of the wonderful things that Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit are doing among us in Russia and Estonia:

NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

Our School of Ministry graduate and missionary to the Far North of Russia, Arkady Ledkov (photo on the left; we wrote about his evangelistic work among the nomadic people of the north in March 2009 issue of our newsletter) spent the summer of evangelism with us in St. Petersburg actively participating in all of the street evangelism events. Then after the summer season ended here, he joined a team of Canadian missionaries for his next trip with the Gospel to the nomads of the tundra. Here is his report:

“This time we started from Salekhard city – the capital of Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region. The goal of this trip was to visit new believers who accepted Christ during our previous trips, encourage them in the Lord and bring humanitarian aid to them. At the same time, we purposed to visit new villages where no one preached the Gospel yet. Therefore, we rented a boat and went down the Ob River from one small village to another, from one camp of reindeer shepherds to another. There are actually no roads or way to reach them besides the Ob River.

It was a wonderful time! We fellowshipped with the reindeer shepherds; they hospitably received us in their tents (called “chooms” in the local language) and introduced us to their families. We showed the Jesus film and distributed evangelistic literature. God’s presence went with us. And the nomads opened not only their homes but also their hearts to us! In one place, we were guests of a family of seven and as a result of our visit, all of them repented and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. I cannot adequately describe the joy that we all experienced!

In one reindeer shepherds’ camp, we visited two families famous for possessing the most ‘powerful’ idols in the area. All the other shepherds used to come to them to worship those idols and bring sacrifices. Three times God destroyed the idols by lightning but the people did not learn their lesson and continued idol worship with sacrifices and wild parties. They just put the pieces of the idols back together by metal wire. After the third restoration of the idols the people restoring them suddenly died – the man drowned and his son got lost and nobody was able to find him ever since”.

Soon after that, a missionary came to these families preaching the Gospel and telling them about Christ. Two women from these families responded to the call, repented and dedicated their lives to Jesus. Their repentance was so deep and radical that immediately they went to the idols, poured kerosene over them and burned them in spite of the protests and threats of the other family members. As we visited these families now we found all the children saved – one woman has six daughters. And as we entered their choom, we felt God’s presence so strong that it seemed to us that we were in church rather than in a shepherd’s home. Just like in times past, many reindeer shepherds come to visit these families now. But instead of worshipping idols they hear the Gospel and receive prayer.

Visiting one of the most remote villages ‘Shuchye’ turned into an object lesson for me on the Biblical principle of sowing and reaping. In St. Petersburg, I was a university student at the Polar Academy together with a girl named Nadya Salinder. She was very instrumental in bringing me to Christ. ‘Shuchye’ happened to be her birthplace. Nadya shared the Gospel with me and God used me to bring the Gospel to her fellow citizens! Truly, His ways are past finding out!

From the trip, Arkady brought to St. Petersburg his younger sister Lilly (photo on the right). She finished high school this year and was accepted to the St. Petersburg Pedagogical University. While preparing all the documents needed for the University and the dorm, Lilly was staying with our church members. Arkady kept inviting her to every service. Thus in addition to her older brother’s testimony Lilly heard the stories of many young people coming to Jesus and even received a personal prophetic word during one of the church services. As a result, she repented of her sins and dedicated her life to Jesus. Now Lilly is an active member of our church, she lives in the University dorm and uses every opportunity to share the Gospel with her fellow students.

We believe that witnessing should be a lifestyle of every Christian so we share the Gospel in our neighborhoods and at the workplaces.

Our School of ministry graduate Ilya Volkov works in an antiques shop. One day an elderly woman dropped in distributing free advertisement newspapers. Since there were no customers in the shop, Ilya started talking to her about Jesus. She got interested. The following weekend she came to our service and brought her granddaughter with her. As the altar call was given, she came forward and repented confessing Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior while her granddaughter accepted Jesus in Sunday school class for children.

Another School of Ministry graduate Kostya kept sharing the good news of salvation and deliverance with his neighbor Anya. They used to be heroin addicts together before Jesus miraculously saved and delivered Kostya (see his testimony in the February 2009 issue of our newsletter). Anya was not receptive to begin with, and rejected and mocked Kostya. But several weeks ago Kostya visited Betel rehab center where he did his rehabilitation before coming to our School of Ministry and… what a pleasant surprise! Anya was there! She came to rehabilitation and is already saved and doing very good, growing in the Lord day by day (Kostya and Anya are in the photo on the left).

NEWS FROM TALLINN

Recently Gosha had a chance to visit Betel Finland - a drug rehabilitation center we are friends with. Over the past six months he sent four drug addicts from Estonia there for rehabilitation. All of the young men are doing good, growing spiritually. Gosha had a great time with them encouraging them in the Lord, answering their questions about new life with Jesus, sharing his experience, praying and studying the Bible together.

The very first young man sent by Gosha to Betel Finland - Alexey (photo on the left) is sharing his testimony:

“I am 29 years old now. I was born in and lived most of my life in Estonia. I grew up in a big family of a simple factory worker – father, mother, sister, brother. We were all unbelievers and I did not know anything about God except my great grandmother occasionally mentioned that there is God who sees everything that we do in our lives and we would be judged accordingly but I did not understand what she meant and did not care.

Because my parents were at work from morning until night, my main educator was the street. I learned to lie to my parents, to smoke, to drink alcohol and very quickly, drugs gained entrance into my life. Soon I was addicted and not only was I doing drugs myself but was involving all my friends in using drugs, sincerely believing that drugs are really cool and they are what life is all about!

However, later, as all the negative sides of drug addiction dawned upon me and I realized how deeply trapped I was, I began a quest for freedom. I turned to doctors, psychologists, even ESP and psychics – all in vain. Results of their “help” were at best temporary - repeatedly I would fall back into heavy drinking or doing drugs. I did not know what to do. My life was falling apart. I lost my job, home, and relationships with my friends and family. No one trusted me any longer.

Only my father kept looking for ways to help me out of my predicament. He happened upon information about a Christian rehabilitation center in Estonia. I went there and spent a year. The seed of the Word of God fell into my heart but I did not fully commit my life to Jesus. Upon returning home, I started pursuit of happiness in getting a good job, finding a good wife, etc. and stopped attending church, thinking: “Yea, God exists but I will provide better for myself…” Needless to say, I quickly slid back into the life of drugs and as the Bible puts it seven worse demons entered the empty house. Much worse things began happening to me than before rehabilitation.

In addition to that, I constantly walked under self-condemnation. I thought that I betrayed God and He would not be able to forgive me now, much less, the Christians and I was afraid to turn to them for help. I completely gave up, and as a last resort, went and subscribed to the lifetime methadone treatment. I had no money, no friends, and my family disowned me…

One day at the methadone center, I met a young man named Gosha from StreetCry, who saw my miserable condition because he went through a similar experience. He shared his life story with me and encouraged me to turn to God for help. He assured me that GOD WILL DEFINETLY FORGIVE ME and offered help in going to rehabilitation in a Finnish Christian center called Betel. He inspired hope in me and I agreed.

In Betel Finland, I saw such love! God touched me and spoke to my heart that HE DID FORGIVE ME! God started changing me, He is working a lot on my character now. And I see that He is the God who cares and wants to give me much more than I could do for myself in my own strength. I learned that unless God builds the house the builders labor in vain! I am so grateful to Him that I want to dedicate my life to serving Him!” (In the photo on the right is Alexey receiving water baptism this summer as the step of full dedication of his life to Jesus).

COMING IN THE NEXT MONTH'S NEWSLETTER!

Our School of Ministry graduate and now missionary Sveta Moroz will be sharing about her trip to Heidi Baker’s Iris Ministries in Mozambique.

PRAYER POINTS FOR NOVEMBER:

For us to be able to find a new building for our church in St. Petersburg – the one we are currently in is now put for sale by the owners
For finances for our two Christmas feed-ins in St Pete and Tallinn. We need $5000 for each of these
For a building for rehab and a building for street ministry in Tallinn
For monthly financial supply for the work in St Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the Gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
For the new believers who came to the Lord as a result of summer evangelism – to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and personal relationship with God; to have grace and strength to overcome the fear of men and temptations that often attack them during the first steps they are taking on the path of following Jesus; for more hunger for the Word of God; for finding their place in the body of Christ
For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for growing hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there.
For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from tobacco- drug- and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold, wet and dark autumn and winter season, especially for protection from all kinds of flu
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

OCTOBER, 2009

2009-10-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you so much for continuing to stand with us in prayer, friendship and financial giving. We are a big blessing and we are grateful to the Lord for each of you.

We are starting a new school year and have nine new first year students here at our school of ministry in St Petersburg.

We had a wedding in St Petersburg of two of our gifted musicians this past month.

Sergei and Christina Tovstopiat, leaders of our drug rehab program in Russia had twin baby girls in September.

Two more young men were sent from Tallinn to Finland for drug rehabilitation.

Lots of exciting things are happening in women’s prison in Estonia. The prison chaplain told us that more than half of the inmates are now attending services. This has never happened in the history of the prison. The chaplain went on vacation and asked us to take her counseling work while gone. More women are repenting and getting filled with the Holy Spirit each week. We are prayer targeting the “toughest” women in regular prayer. Two are already saved. We are happy for progress, but we want to see all of them loving Jesus fervently.

Olga Riyazhkih one of our evangelists, ministered in Sweden this past month at prisons, in churches and on the street, taking some of the local Swedish brethren out with her to confront the enemy head on. There were salvations and deliverance. One of the Swedes said about Olga, “most people go on vacation to relax. Olga saves her money all year so she can go somewhere and preach the gospel”.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Our 14th annual Christmas Feed-In is coming up in St Petersburg, and we are having one in Tallinn. Our worship team from St Petersburg will be joining us in Tallinn for this. We need $5,000 for each of these two events. Please help us if you can. These events are very important, bringing unity, hope, faith and encouragement to hundreds each year who have turned from lives of drug addiction to serving Jesus. Besides our monthly worship and intercession nights for the churches of St Petersburg, the Feed-In is a landmark event with tremendous fruit each year with the 15 Christian centers that participate. If you could also spread our need to as many as possible, it would be a wonderful blessing!

Below are more details of the exciting things that Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit are doing among us here in Russia, Sweden and Estonia:

NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

These past four months we have been witnessing on the street with our evangelism team and band, working also with teams from four other churches. We witnessed not only many salvations but also the strengthening of unity of believers in our city!

More than twenty united street evangelism concerts, indoor and outdoor drama performances, and evangelism coffeehouse events were conducted, and as a result hundreds of people heard the Gospel and many of them were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and added to the different churches in St. Petersburg and in other cities of Russia.

A couple weeks ago the school year began in our School of Ministry (you can see our 1st year class in the photo on the left). This year we have nine new students from six different cities, from various churches and ministries. Two came from Christian drug rehab centers in order to equip them for ministry. They previously finished at least 12 months of rehabilitation from heroin addiction and showed a great desire to dedicate the rest of their lives to serving the Lord and helping others. Four others came from different cities because they are interested to learn more about effective evangelism, worship and prophetic ministry. We are anticipating a good year of hungering after God’s presence and His power to transform hearts and lives, releasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and giving us many chances to be a blessing and make a difference in the suffering world around us by immediately putting in practice what we learn in class.

Sergei and Kristina Tovstopiat who for the past several years have been leading our drug rehab program are happy to announce the birth of their two daughters Dasha and Ksyusha. Born on September, 18 – two months premature. Mom and daughters are doing great! They were in different hospitals after birth due to Christina’s ongoing illness. Now she is reunited with the daughters and helps the doctors to take care of them, but they are sill in the hospital due to their premature birth. It really is a huge miracle for Sergei and Christina who both have long-term illness to give birth to healthy twins and we are praising the Lord together for giving life!

We also celebrated a wedding in our church! Roma Kurshonkov - evangelist and drummer in our worship team (click to see his testimonies in the May and June 2009 issues of our news) and Irina Smirnova, musician, journalist for TBN and a volunteer children’s worker in a hospital for kids dying of cancer (click to see her testimony in June 2007 issue of our newsletter) were married! Two are better than one and we expect God to do ten times more through their union than what He was able to do through them separately!

NEWS FROM SWEDEN

Olga Ryazhskih, our School of Ministry graduate and one of the leading evangelists and healing ministers in St. Petersburg decided to dedicate her summer holidays to visiting and helping Anna and Victor Avdyakovy in Sweden and John and Sara Russell in Estonia.

She loves to witness when she travels and God is faithful in giving her such opportunities. So on the way to Sweden by ferry, her one night Finnish roommate Sabina commended Olga’s good English and asked where she learned. Olga gave God the glory, sharing her life story of little education, in and out of prison numerous times, heroin addiction and new life in Christ and gift to learn languages. She continued to share the gospel, His power to deliver and transform life through the blood of Jesus, which really touched Sabina.

In Sweden Olga had many chances to share her testimony in church services and home group meetings (photo on the left), actively participated in downtown night witnessing to the subculture youth a local ministry.

Two times, she ministered in men’s prisons. Both times young men came up to her after hearing her testimony wanting to repent of their sins and give their lives to Jesus. One was a man from the Czech Republic and the other a Russian who immigrated to Sweden many years ago but never really assimilated into society there, but was consumed with the drugs and crime scene.

She also went to a government run social care center for alcoholics and drug addicts and received permission to speak to the needy there. One woman in particular drew Olga’s attention. They started to talk and it came out that she was a fallen Christian and it was her birthday. She viewed Olga and her message as a sign from God of His unfailing love and rededicated her life to Jesus in prayer of repentance (photo on the right).

NEWS FROM TALLINN, ESTONIA

We continue to go to the methadone center 3 times a week offering drug addicts a cup of coffee and sharing with them the Good News of salvation and deliverance though Jesus.

Several weeks ago, we met a young man named Dima (photo on the left). He was fresh out of prison and already back on drugs. He overdosed 10 times in September. One time an ambulance took him in order to save his life but as soon as he regained consciousness, he ran away. He applied for methadone because had no strength to continue in the lifestyle of stealing and heroin use.

Initially he heard Gosha’s testimony but told us that he did not need Jesus. However, when a situation with him losing his passport hit him and Gosha offered prayer he agreed. As a result, Dima’s passport was found and he experienced the reality of God answering prayers. He then made the decision to go to a rehabilitation center.

We helped him to get to the Betel center in Finland. The Spirit of God touched him in such a powerful way in one of the first services that he wept, repented, and gave his heart to Jesus. Now he is continuing his rehabilitation process with three other young men that we sent to Betel Finland from Estonia over the past few months.

On the day Dima was leaving for rehab, he met an old friend Alexei (photo on the right). Alexei had attempted to go through a rehab program in one of the Estonian centers but failed. His father died leaving him an inheritance and he decided to leave the center prematurely in order to put his life together himself the way he wanted to rather than trusting God. That quickly led back to drugs. However, when Dima told Alexei that he is going to rehab in Finland, hope was ignited in Alexei’s heart that he might try again. So he called us expressing the desire to go to rehabilitation and we helped him to get to Betel Finland, too. Praise God!

We also had a fantastic visit from Victor and Anna from Sweden, along with five other members of their church. Together we went out on the street, and to the methadone center preaching and praying for the sick, and Anna was also able to minister with us at the women's prison. Thanks guys for the wonderful fellowship!

PRAYER POINTS FOR OCTOBER:

• For us to be able to find a new building for our church in St. Petersburg – the one we are currently in is now put for sale by the owners
• For finances for our two Christmas feed-ins in St Pete and Tallinn. We need $5000 for each of these
• For a building for rehab and a building for street ministry in Tallinn
• For monthly financial supply for the work in St Petersburg and Tallinn. We need more regular support. We actually went into the red briefly with our StreetCry account. Every single person, church and ministry that gives to us helps our ministry to preach the gospel. Every single donation is needed and received with much gratitude. Thank you for your continued help!
• For the new believers who came to the Lord as a result of summer evangelism – to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and personal relationship with God; to have grace and strength to overcome the fear of men and temptations that often attack them during the first steps they are taking on the path of following Jesus; for more hunger for the Word of God; for finding their place in the body of Christ
• For the students in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – for growing hunger for God’s constant presence and power to transform the hearts and lives; for releasing the gifts of the Spirit; for discovering the callings and destinies God has for them; for immediately putting in practice all we learn in classrooms and for open doors for them to minister
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, and for establishing a greater, stronger presence there.
• For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from tobacco- drug- and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us during the cold, wet and dark autumn and winter season, especially for protection from all kinds of flu
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for a release of $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask if you would prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. Your help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

SEPTEMBER, 2009

2009-08-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

Thank you so much for continuing to stand with us in prayer, friendship and financial giving. We are grateful to the Lord for each of you.

The summer is over and it is getting cold and rainy in the streets of St. Petersburg and Tallinn but we are continuing to use every outdoor and indoor opportunity to share the Good News of God’s love with the desperate, the needy, the broken, the searching for whom Jesus poured out His life on the Cross. Yet He is risen! And we are witnesses of His miracles and His power to save, heal and deliver today!

Join us now for the exciting stories of what the living God is doing among us here in Russia and Estonia:

NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

We would like to thank Victor and Anna Avdiakov, from the bottom of our hearts, who visited our church in St. Petersburg and blessed us greatly by sharing the Word of God and contributing greatly to a fresh release of the gifts of healing, prophecy and the word of knowledge as well as worship and intercession!

Victor was a founding member of StreetCry in St. Petersburg in 1994. Anna joined the StreetCry ministry team as a missionary from Sweden and helped us for several years until they got happily married, had 2 children and moved to Sweden where they now serve the Lord.

Anna (photo on the left) shared a word of knowledge that there is a girl present, who had been battling with doubts to such a degree that she was almost ready to give up her faith in Jesus and make the wrong decisions in her life, but God wants to intervene into her situation and Anna went on to intercede for this girl not really knowing who exactly it was for…

Later, during our time of open mic testimonies, a young lady that none of us knew, came up to the mic in tears saying that she could not help but speak up. She said that the word Anna gave was for her. Her name is Ira, a former worship leader in a church in another city. The church went through a split deeply wounding her. While trying to get over the discouragement, she opened herself up to the enemy through backsliders who introduced her to philosophy undermining the Word of God. As a result, Ira could not lead worship any longer because as she put it “it is hard to sing when you are not sure any longer what you believe…” and almost stopped attending church at all. But after the word of knowledge she found out that Jesus knew exactly what she was going through and cared for her personal situation because, “He revealed it to this lady Anna who had no way of knowing any of these things about me”. So Jesus met Ira, touched her heart and renewed her spirit. She could experience His undeniable presence that wiped out all the doubts and pain and she rededicated her life to the Lord! We love the power and love of the prophetic word!

Our worship team was invited to lead an open-air worship night for the BETANIA CONFERENCE of BETEL RUSSIA drug rehab center – our close friends whom we cooperate a lot with.

In spite of the rain, we had a wonderful time praising the Lord together with many young people miraculously saved and delivered from drug addiction! The power of God came to the campground touching and changing lives. Here are some testimonies from Natasha Byvsheva – a graduate of our School of Ministry who now leads one of the BETEL Centers:

“This past February I was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst and had an operation which was a lot of hassle. They cut the tumor out but told me to come and be checked again. In July, I came to be checked and the doctors found another growth! I was upset, scared and not willing to go for another operation but it seemed inevitable. During the BETANIA conference, I asked for prayer for healing. I went to the doctor afterwards and the doctor was shocked to discover that the growth is shrinking and practically gone!”

“A girl named Irina is in our center for the second time. She applied for help as a heroin addict 2 years ago and spent 6 months with us but did not accept Jesus and left. A year later, she came again. This time we have not seen any improvement or hunger in her for the past 5 months. Even during the conference when many newcomers were repenting and dedicating their lives to Jesus, she was adamant in her hardness of heart until the last day when the StreetCry worship team arrived. The songs, the testimonies and the prophetic words touched Irina so deeply that she broke into tears and ran to me after the worship night asking to help her to pray the sinner’s prayer, which we did. Now Irina is a new creation. Her countenance and her attitude are totally changed; she has truly entered into a new life in Christ!” (Please pray for her growth in the Lord)

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

We continue to have meetings in a women’s prison every Friday night, preaching the Gospel to the unsaved and equipping the new believers by teaching on the basics of Christian life, praise and worship, prayer, and personal relationship with Jesus.

As a result, the girls who are the most serious about the Lord started getting together every day 2 hours before dinner for a time of worship, prayer for each other’s needs and reading the Bible together. They invite whosever will come! N. who got saved during one of the meetings, is now sharing the full version of her testimony:

“I was born into and grew up in a good, I would even say practically an ideal family. My parents were both doctors, very intelligent, with high morals and they did their best to instill positive things into my wonderful sister and I. Nevertheless, I remember growing up with a strange feeling that there must be more to life than what I had. I have always been looking for something... Something I could not even define, but I knew I would recognize it when I found it...

At 18, I graduated from high school with honors and then entered medical college to be a paramedic. After graduation, my parents helped me to get a good job and gave me an apartment. Soon I got married to a nice caring man and over the years, we had 5 sons. Life was going good, except for the feeling, ’there must be something more...’

Then I met another man... we had an affair, later he introduced me to methamphetamine... It all definitely felt very thrilling…at first. But before I knew it, I had turned into an addict and a drug dealer and everything else that goes with this way of life...

Being a paramedic, I had direct access to drugs and it was never a problem to get them or sell them, so I was going down deeper and deeper into the pit of this hellish trap. My husband tried to bring me back, to stop me, to help me change... all in vain... Giving up, he also became a drug addict.

One day I was caught dealing drugs and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. That sobered me up for a while, especially when I remembered my kids. I decided to change. For my good behavior, I was set free after 3 years.

Outside of prison, it was very difficult for me not to return to drugs. Temptation proved stronger than me, and I was soon back on meth, sleepless for weeks at a time just to crash for some hours and start all over again. Criminal activities inevitably followed. As a result, I lost all I had – my husband left, my parents took the children away, and I lost my apartment to other criminals who swindled me out of it.

But there was no stopping me. I found a new man to live with, had my sixth child – this time a daughter. One day this man suddenly died and here I was – on drugs and all alone again with a two week old baby on my hands and my husband in prison for 9 years.

As soon as I was caught doing yet another crime, my daughter was taken away and put in an orphanage (plus the government started a case against me to deny me parental rights) and I was put in prison again where I still am now.

At first, I looked at everything and everyone here suspiciously, as I was used to trusting no one, being a master deceiver myself. Then I met some girls who were different and discovered they regularly got together in a special room called the chapel and they were Christians. I attended their meetings just to see what it was all about. There I first heard about Jesus, but the Gospel was hard for me to comprehend, maybe because I was trying to figure out God in my mind rather than believing His Word in my heart. Still I was curious and took a Bible from their library to read. Immediately I had a million questions. It was amazing how patient some of the girls were – to stop in the middle of the workday and pay attention to me or to stay up late answering my questions and arguments, in spite of their obvious tiredness after tiring labor in the prison all day.

But after a while someone accused me of going to church just to eat sweets that the Christians bring for Sunday services. That hurt me deeply! ‘Who do they think they are?’– I thought in anger. ‘And how dare they judge my motives!’ For the next 5 months, I stopped going to meetings altogether.

Lilly (see August newsletter for her testimony) was concerned about me and inquired why I disappeared. I told her. She took the time to pray for me and explain to me that there is a difference between the perfect Jesus and His imperfect followers, so if I am really seeking God I should be focused on Him rather than being so overly concerned by what people might say or do. With that I started seeking God again and returned to services.

Soon after that, we got new worship CD’s from the StreetCry team that was having weekly services with us. I love to sing songs, actually I write poetry myself, but these songs were so different – they opened up a different world and created such an unusual atmosphere in the room when we listened to them...

One day I came to a prayer meeting conducted by Irina (see her testimony in our July newsletter), Lilly and some others during the spare time we had between work and dinner. They put on a CD in Russian and began worshipping. The song went, ‘Come! NOW is the time to worship! Come! NOW is the time to give your heart! Come! JUST AS YOU ARE to worship..’ Something happened to me. I was pierced through by deep conviction that NOW IS THE TIME FOR ME TO COME TO JESUS, TO COME JUST AS I WAS – with all my sins, my addictions, my questions, doubts, impossibilities... I grabbed Irina: ‘Do you know how to pray the sinner’s prayer?’ ‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘Why?’ ‘Please help me to pray it now!’ – I replied. So we prayed. My heart was immediately filled with joy unspeakable and with peace that I never experienced before. I found what I was looking for all my life but could never define. I found Jesus!

Since that day, the Bible has become so much clearer to me! It is actually alive! It gives the answers to my heart much more than provoking questions in my mind! In one of the recent Bible studies, I heard about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and asked Jesus to baptize me! The next morning I woke up at 7 a.m. speaking in tongues and praising God!

And He did not stop there but continues to do miracle after miracle in my life. I wrote to my husband who is in prison now, too, asking him to forgive me for all I had done and he responded favorably, so now we are together again! God is restoring my relationship with my parents and my five boys. The government closed the case regarding taking away my daughter, so now she will be returned to me!

I cannot really thank God enough for His mercy, longsuffering, forgiveness and His amazing care! I want to live for Him all the days of my life!”

Another girl, Tanya, (who looks about 13 years old but is 18), is in prison for a drug related crime. She just repented and accepted Jesus in one of our recent meetings. She became close to Katya Russell, who was spending a few summer weeks off from Bible School with us in Estonia, helping us to minister in the prison. Tanya asked for prayer for healing from urinary incontinence and Katya prayed for her. Up to that point, Tanya had wet her bed every night for many years. During our next visit, Tanya came running up, all smiles. She happily testified that after prayer her incontinence is totally gone. She is completely healed!

We are so thankful that God has given us hungry young leaders in the prison to minister to. When we teach them to evangelize, they do it, and have fruit in souls won, girls getting filled with the Holy Spirit, healings and relationships restored. 2 Timothy 2:2 “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men (and women!!) who will be able to teach others also”. We are always so thankful when God sends us to the hungry who put their Christianity into practice, even in difficult circumstances. These girls face persecution and mockery from other prisoners, but are motoring on with Jesus anyway! Please keep them in your prayers!

PRAYER POINTS FOR SEPTEMBER:

• For us to be able to find a new building for our church in St. Petersburg – the one we are currently in is now put for sale by the owners
• For the new believers who came to the Lord as a result of our summer of evangelism – to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and personal relationship with God; to have grace and strength to overcome the fear of men and temptations that often attack them during the first steps they are taking on the path of following Jesus; for more hunger for the Word of God; for finding their place in the body of Christ
• For preparations both of the students and the teachers for the new school year in our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg – as the students are adjusting their jobs and living situations to be able to attend the School and the teachers are working on the final details of the schedule and the curriculum for the coming year
• For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, for the chance to rent at the affordable price the building in the center of Tallinn for the purposes of the Christian coffee-house and working with the young people
• For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from tobacco- drug- and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
• For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us
• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
• For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray specifically for $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask if you would prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. Your help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family

AUGUST, 2009

2009-07-31T04:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

As we read our newsletters each month before sending them out, we cannot help but to weep with joy at the Lord’s wonderful and beautiful love for the lost. “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ’The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” Psalm 126:1-3

Thank you for continuing to stand with us in prayer, friendship and financial giving. We are grateful to the Lord for each of you.

Here are a few of the exciting things happening here in Russia and Estonia:

NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

Our School of Ministry graduates Natasha Bakshaeva and Kirill Borodichuk (you may read their testimonies in the March 2009 and December 2008 issues of our newsletter) have a burning desire to bring the Gospel to young people lost in homosexuality just like they were before encountering the transforming power of Jesus. So they go witnessing to the places where such kids hang out in St. Petersburg. Recently they met a girl named Nastya who came from Moscow to St. Petersburg University to study. Nastya was touched by their testimonies and genuine interest in her life. She came to our evangelism coffee-house, then to a mid-week service and repented of her sins and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. God is changing her day by day. Now she often joins us in witnessing during our street concerts.

It has become more ‘exciting and challenging’ this year to conduct street evangelism concerts – as the official permission from the government (which has been required for several years) has been declined numerous times, and when the odd time occurs that we do get permission, the authorities have come to the concerts trying to find fault in our permits. But with a lot of prayer, faithand perseverance the band and personal evangelism teams continue to go out preaching the gospel. As a result hundreds continue to hear the message of the Kingdom and many are responding and getting saved.

After one concert our worship leader Nastya Bosonogova (in the photo above on the right) spent 3 hours talking to a girl visiting from Murmansk named Yulia. Yulia is a vocalist, too and sings in her college band.

Here is some of her story:

“I walked from home to a store in a bad mood. I came to a big city in search of some bright impressions, answers to my heart questions, at least some excitement but was finding nothing but depression and black despair. I badly needed a way out from the situations of life that I was in… Suddenly I heard sounds of music not far away. I decided to go see what is happening. So I ended up at a Christian music concert, then the singer talked to me for a long time. I felt so much positive influence from all of you here… I came home that day, immediately obtained a Bible and spent the rest of the night reading it and talking to God.”

Later that week Yulia came to a home group for new believers and publicly prayed the prayer of repentance confessing Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.

Please support us in prayer for protection during and after concerts and favor with the authorities.

Recently we held a water baptism service. Oleg (his salvation and healing story is in the February issue of our newsletter) and Galya who is completing her rehabilitation in our drug rehab program for the girls were baptized.

Please continue to pray for the spiritual growth of all the new believers and for protection for them from devices of the enemy of our souls who always tries to bring his distractions in order to hinder the young people from keeping their focus on Jesus.

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

We continue to conduct services in women’s prison every Friday night, preaching the Gospel to the unsaved and equipping the new believers by teaching on the basics of Christian life, on praise and worship, prayer, and the importance and practical application of personal relationship with Jesus. Recently we received a letter from one of the inmates expressing gratitude to our teachers, which inspired us to keep up this work: “Thank you for coming to us and bringing to us the Living Word of God! It is like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room! I thank God that He brought you to us! And Jesus came with you! You are so full of His light. Thank you for sharing with us His peace and confidence, His blessings, refreshment and joy! After the Bible studies with you the Word of God became alive, real, vibrant… It feels like my eyes opened to the things that I did not see before. Since you came and encouraged us to practice what we learnt in the Bible studies we began to have our own prison meetings 3 times a week for a couple of hours before dinner time. We worship Jesus, pray together for each other’s needs and for other girls in prison, read the Bible and share what the Lord is saying to us and what He is doing in our lives. Day by day God is adding new seeking souls to our meetings and we are praying for more salvations and deliverances from addictions among us! We anticipate your time with us each Friday like it’s a big holiday! We hunger for more of Jesus…”

When we just began visiting the girls in prison we saw that for worship they used hymn books from the times of the Soviet Union when the Church was persecuted and mostly underground. The songs were mostly sad, depicting a Christian as one constantly fighting the feelings of guilt or dragging himself through the life full of sorrow… It really did not go good with the girls who are mostly in their 20s or early 30s but that was the only thing they had. So we brought in some CDs of fresh worship including the ones recorded by our worship team. It immediately took the girls to a new level, the difference was obvious, the presence of God much stronger during our times together. They decided to learn new songs on the days when we were not visiting. One unsaved girl, Natasha (photo above on the right), joined them - she is creatively gifted, writes poetry and was interested in new songs, too. Previously Natasha attended some of the services we conducted and carefully listened to everything that was said but did not yet make the decision for Christ. As the girls practiced new songs singing along with one of our CDs the tangible presence of God filled the room, the conviction of the Holy Spirit suddenly came over Natasha so strong that she broke into tears, asked the other girls to lead her in a prayer of repentance and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Here is the testimony of another inmate – Lilly (in the photo on the left with Sara) Lilly is an exceptional woman of God, mature and solid in Christ: “I am the oldest of four children in a dysfunctional family. My father left us when I was little. Since then Mom tried to put her personal life together leaving me in charge of the younger brother and sister. My only support and inspiration came from visiting my Grandma who lived far away and saw us rarely but always prayed for us. She believed in God somehow – in her way and she was the one who gave me a children’s Bible and taught me what’s good and what’s bad. When I turned 14, Mom went to a different country in order to make money and totally disappeared for a while. Visits from the educational and social care committees followed, trying to put us children in different orphanages. The thought of us losing each other was terrifying. I immediately got a job as a street cleaner and fought with the committee members for our unity as a family and the right to stay at home rather than to be separated and placed in the orphanages. I also became the object of mocking at school for my less than prestigious street cleaning job. It was a very traumatic time in my life making me into a fierce hawk not taking “no” for an answer. But my personal trials vanished from my sight as the responsibility of parenting my younger brother and sister (entering into the tough age of their adolescence facing a life of poverty and the challenges of the street gangs’ influences) fell on my shoulders. I did my best to cope but the results were less than satisfactory. They grew into delinquents. Mom returned and then remarried, and then gave me another child to raise. Her new husband turned out to be an alcoholic and our life did not become better at all. Finally she divorced him, too… I got married early. Not out of big love but because I was simply looking for help, protection, just somebody strong to be with me in life. But I ended up having to care both for my husband and the younger brothers and sister who continued growing into more and more of what you call difficult teenagers and later young adults… Despite the outer frantic activity me heart was empty and cried out for something to bring fulfillment. So I made multiple attempts at studying different things from sewing to psychology, philosophy, etc… Even read the whole Bible once in order to win an argument with some man and prove to him that there is nothing really worthwhile in it – just another history book… Then happened what brought me to prison: To make a long story short my husband was killed in a drunken fight that broke out between him and my brother during my birthday party and I failed to prevent or break up the fight or call the police… or do something to stop it before it was too late… The first thing I did after I was arrested and put in jail was to call for the chaplain. She came and we had a long talk at the end of which we knelt and I prayed repenting of my sins and accepting Jesus to be my personal Savior and Lord. It was only the beginning of a long and arduous road to healing my heart of bitterness, distrust, disappointment, self-reliance, depression and what not… Getting to know Jesus came slowly but surely and with every new revelation of Him hope, peace of mind, joy that does not depend on circumstances flooded my heart. After four years spent in prison I realized that the meaning of life was not lost – on the contrary it was just found by me here! All my life I wanted to be able to help people in difficulties – but I never really knew how to do it and often my attempts yielded the opposite results. I was like an empty vessel in a dry land but now Jesus fills me up every day with His love, mercy, grace and wisdom so that I may share Him with the needy”.

Natasha (photo on the right) who repented at one of our previous meetings (see July newsletter) expressed to us her concern about her 2 daughters. They live with their Grandma while Natasha is in prison. The elder daughter Anya is 15 – a vulnerable age when vital choices are made which way to go in life so her Mom was afraid lest Anya would take the path of bad companies, drugs and crime which previously led her Mom to prison. The younger daughter is 10 and her name is Nastya. Their Mom gave us their phone number and asked us to please contact them and tell them about Jesus. We called the girls and invited them to McDonald’s. Their hearts were open and we spent a beautiful day eating and walking in town together, went to a museum and just had fun. Later we invited the girls to church. As a result Anya accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior and continues to come for new believer’s classes and Nastya got interested in the children’s Sunday school which she now regularly attends. Please join us in prayer for her salvation, too and for spiritual growth and more and more hunger for God for both of the girls (in the photo on the left you can see (left to right) Anya, Nastya, our team member Natasha Schtembakh (she presently teaches new believer’s classes to Anya) and Sara).

PRAYER POINTS FOR AUGUST:

For more fruit that would remain from the summer of evangelism - we want to make the most of all the opportunities God gives us to touch as many lives as possible with the Gospel
For favor with local authorities during our street evangelism concerts
For the new believers – to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and personal relationship with God; to have grace and strength to overcome the fear of men and temptations that often attack them during the first steps they are taking on the path of following Jesus; for more hunger for the Word of God; for finding their place in the body of Christ
For God to bring new students to our School of Ministry in St. Petersburg
For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, for the chance to rent at the affordable price the building in the center of Tallinn for the purposes of the Christian coffee-house and working with the young people
For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from tobacco- drug- and other addictions, peer pressure and fear of men, for physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, for their spiritual growth and developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray specifically for $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask you to prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. Your help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
Your StreetCry family

JULY, 2009

2009-07-07T23:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

We continually thank God for your love, prayers, support, and interest in our ministry! You are a huge blessing to us for which we are very grateful! We are in the middle of summer with our street and coffee house evangelism, and have had a wonderful door opened to us at a women’s prison in Tallinn.

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

We are thrilled to pieces to have a part in what God is doing at a local prison. Jesus said that if we have done it unto the least of these, His brethren, we have done it unto Him. We never knew how exciting and alive and refreshing prison ministry could be. But when you have very hungry souls who put into practice what they are taught…well it’s just exciting, that’s all! We have continued to visit Rita weekly in prison (see the last two newsletters for her story) and met the prison chaplain, who invited us to conduct meetings with the girls every Friday. We gladly accepted this invitation and now every Friday we come to worship together with the girls, pray, share testimonies and study the Bible. About 30 girls regularly attend these Friday night prison services, and 8 including Rita have given their lives to Jesus since we started coming. Most of them get mocked and persecuted after repentance, so it is a true step of faith in God to give Him their hearts and lives. We see such a change in these wonderful girls whom the Lord loves so much. They truly hunger for fellowship and the word of God. They also constantly bring new girls who haven’t met Jesus yet and this past month Natasha, Tamara, Larissa (photos below – left to right) and Tanya repented and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Most of the girls come from broken homes, situations of home violence and are in need of not only physical (from drug addiction and accompanying sicknesses like HIV and hepaatitis C) but also emotional healing and renewing of their minds as you can see from the testimony below. We believe that God who has begun the good work in them will complete it according to Philippians 1:6. We continue to stand in prayer for the girls. We’d appreciate you joining us in intercession for more souls to be saved in prison, for the girls to be transformed and restored by the power of Jesus Christ and to find purpose and destiny in leading others into the Kingdom of God! Here is the testimony of Irina:

“I was born into a family of unbelievers and that is why I never heard about Jesus. The only godly thing I remember from my childhood is my grandmother telling me that up there, there is someone who would judge and punish people for their sins.

Violence ruled our household. My father was an alcoholic and constantly beat up my mother and myself. I grew up as a fearful little beast fighting everything and everyone around me. I quickly learned the principle that attack is the best defense which I actively practiced in school and in relationships. I was very aggressive.

When I turned 12 my Dad left me and Mom for another woman. In my heart I branded him a traitor and all my life hated him for the pain he inflicted on me and Mom. But moreover - this hatred was directed towards any male figure that would appear in my life. I lacked social skills and was not capable of building a healthy relationship.

I was lost as could be - lived in the street, started sniffing glue and at the age of 16 was put in a facility for juvenile delinquents. There I served my first 2 year prison term. It did not improve my character. On the contrary, when I came out at the age of 18, I was even more hardened, inclined to every kind of evil and hatefulness towards the people around me.

I tried getting married, but because I absolutely could not give or receive love, I took out my aggression on my husband. Any little trifle in his behavior kindled my indignation, and our marriage soon fell apart. I was left with a small daughter but I could not take proper care of her either because she needed love which I could not find in my heart however hard I looked.

I continued down the dangerous path of drug addiction and crime, constantly blaming my problems on the circumstances and people around me and becoming more and more skilled in the ‘arts’ of lying, manipulating, conning, etc. By the age of 26 I was a hopeless case – drug addict, witch and murderer. I had been in and out of prison many times but still I thought that I was right and the people around me were wrong and ‘owed me’…

At one point in my life though, as I was in prison again, I started having rather strange experiences. I would close my eyes and see something like a video of my past – all the instances of how I mistreated people and messed up their lives. I tried to escape the conviction of the Holy Spirit and forget about those visions but I could not - they haunted me for days at a time. It brought me to the deep understanding that I am not right and I cannot blame others for my transgressions and look for excuses for my unacceptable behavior in the circumstances I grew up in. I felt so sinful, so dirty, such a swine, I was so sick of my own self… Now I knew that I was the only one to blame for the crimes I committed and the downward spiral my life took. My heart was torn between God and the devil, the fight going on for my soul… I am so thankful for the conviction of the Holy Spirit, as it is a wonderful and necessary thing to lead people to true repentance and understanding of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness.

Later I discovered that there is a chapel in our prison and believers regularly come in and conduct meetings that end with tea and sweets. Well, who in prison does not want to eat home made sweets? I decided to attend one of those meetings. At first I took a seat in the back row and mostly mocked the preachers but slowly started listening to what was preached, met some of the believers personally and came to a painful realization that they are spiritually alive and full of love while I was dead and empty on the inside.

One evening as a pastor preached in the chapel and made an altar call. I responded. I came forward and repented of my sins, asking Jesus to cleanse me and fill me with his love and life. When I opened my eyes after that prayer I realized that the pastor was wearing a GREEN shirt and one of my friends was dressed in a RED jacket. Before that the world around me seemed to be shades of black and gray. I had not noticed colors in a long time! I started hearing sounds of the singing birds, smelling smells and having feelings that I haven’t felt for so long… It was like Somebody unwrapped my head, senses and emotions as if they had been covered with a plastic bag. It was like taking out plugs from my ears and nose and pulling a veil from in front of my eyes!

In the days to follow it seemed like I flew, not walked from place to place moving around several inches above the ground! I could not care less what others thought of me! My prison cell was divided into 2 parts – in one the unbelievers sat slandering each other, and in my part of the cell I and other new believers prayed together. Thus our cell is nicknamed ‘the house of prayer’.

I am so fascinated by Jesus who loved me in spite of all my iniquities! He is teaching me now to love people and to hate sin. I am learning to smile and open up to others. God also started changing my family - my Mom stopped doing witchcraft.

Building a personal relationship with Jesus I now consider the most important thing in my life. I know there is so much more that God has in store for me and I want it.”

Irina is now one of the most active members of the church in this prison – initiating prayer group, worship practices and evangelism… In one of our recent prison visits, Gosha was able to talk and answer Irina’s questions from the Bible for 2 hours. Close by, there was another inmate, Inna receiving a visit from the relatives. Inna overheard Gosha and Irina’s 2 hour talk on God, the Bible, etc… After the visits were over Inna approached Irina asking what that ‘God talk’ was all about. Irina explained to her more specifically about Jesus and salvation and Inna repented and accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. Inna now comes to our prison church meetings too. We are so excited to be reproducing evangelists who have a love and huge heart for the lost! God is wonderful!

NEWS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

The evangelism season in our coffee-house is continuing with more concerts by BIOS band and our own evangelism band as well as showing Christian themed films, doing live drama, and having open discussions on the topics that relate to the lives of the university students and young people. Alesya (in the photo with Gosha) received a coffee house invitation on the street. She is from St. Petersburg and up to this point has been a seeker. As she described it herself, she had questions like, ‘why am I here on this earth?’ and was thinking that there must be more to life then just making a living. Alesya was looking for truth, for purpose, for love, for something that was hard to define but was obviously missing from her life.

She went to a Russian Orthodox Church but did not understand what was sung or spoken at the services that are still done in the ancient Russian tongue. She tried all kinds of philosophies but they did not bring answers. She was into the occult but it did not bring her soul peace. She looked into yoga and eastern religious practices for a while but once as she was meditating and listening to some mantras given to her on CD, such tangible horror overwhelmed her that she decided to get out of it as soon as possible. Thank God the CD player broke at the same time! At some point her neighbors invited her to a Baptist church service but she was afraid to go. And finally she found herself at our coffee-house, which she did not realize was Christian; she just came for the show!

The drama really touched her heart. After it ended, Gosha came over to her table and spent the evening answering Alesya’s numerous questions about God (see the photo on the left). As a result she opened her heart to the Lord, repented and accepted Jesus as her Savior. She immediately began daily reading the Bible and found it extremely powerful. She said she finally found what she was looking for all along! She loves to come to our prayer meetings and new believers’ classes, and also desires to share the Gospel with others and actively participates in our outreaches (see the photo on the right – Alesya is third from the left). Please join us in prayer for her continuing spiritual growth.

At the altar call at one of our weekly services, the following verse was shared: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool”. (Isaiah 1:18) It so happened that a brother from another city was visiting our church that night – our worship CD came into his hands in his city and thus he found us while in St. Petersburg. He brought his friend Oleg to the service. Oleg served his compulsory army stint in Chechnya during the Russian-Chechen war, participating in many horrible incidents that left his soul severely damaged. His army term was long over but the visions of the atrocities he was a part of haunted him constantly and he was drowning his conscience in alcohol and drugs in futile attempts to relieve the pain. He immediately responded to the word of the Lord and came forward to repent of his sins and get forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of Jesus. Please pray for him to continue to follow God and for complete healing and restoration for his mind and emotions (in the photo on the left you see Oleg (left), Gosha (center) and Dalar (right) who brought Oleg to our church).
As you already know, we are so excited about evangelism and fruit that remains. We just wanted to proclaim that we are so thankful to the Lord to be able to be involved in Russia and Estonia, and to see lives changed, healed, and transformed on a regular basis. So, we just wanted to say, ‘Thank you Jesus, for the privilege of being here and partnering with you and the Holy Spirit in these very exciting times! Lord, you couldn’t have given us a more exciting or challenging job!’ And thank you dear friends, prayer partners and supporters for continuing to help make our work possible. We truly love, appreciate and thank God for you!

PRAYER POINTS FOR JULY:
We have received a positive answer regarding a building to use for evangelism, church and Bible school in downtown Tallinn. Now all we need is the finances! Please join us in faith and by faith for the funds to come through in whatever ways necessary
Gosha, who is a key member of our team in Tallinn, is presently working on his 2 year visa for Estonia. Please pray that it comes through quickly and easily
Please pray for adequate finances to support our office and ministry staff in St. Petersburg
For more fruit that would remain from the summer of evangelism - we want to make the most of all the opportunities God gives us to touch as many lives as possible with the Gospel
For the new believers – to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and personal relationship with God; to have grace and strength to overcome the fear of men and temptations that often attack them during the first steps they are taking on the path of following Jesus; for more hunger for the Word of God; for finding their place in the body of Christ
For God to bring new students to our School of Ministry
For the work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers.
For prison outreach in Estonia – for more salvations, deliverance from drug addiction, physical and emotional healing, renewing of the minds of the inmates who just got born again, developing steadfast personal relationship with Jesus
For physical and spiritual protection for our church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray specifically for $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!
Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask you to prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis. Your help is much needed and highly appreciated!
God bless and keep you all,
Your StreetCry family

JUNE, 2009

2009-06-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

We thank God for your love, prayers, support, and interest in our ministry! You are a huge blessing for us! We are entering the summer of evangelism with great enthusiasm and hunger for God’s presence to increase in our lives. We desire to see more of His miracles, more souls saved and lives restored and transformed by the power of Jesus. We are so glad to share with you what the Lord is doing with us here!

EVANGELISM

The evangelism season in our coffee-house is continuing with more concerts by BIOS band and our own evangelism band that also does worship in our church. During the concerts our coffee-house has been packed with youth from the streets and universities, and they are eagerly listening and staying for fellowship after the music is over.

We are planning to keep the coffee-house open all summer, showing Gospel movies, dramas, having open discussions on the topics that relate to the lives of the young people and thus leading them to Christ… Please pray that more fruit will continue to come from these times of sharing the Gospel.

BIOS band (where Roman Kurshonkov – one of our school of ministry graduates of this year is the drummer) played in an ARTCROSS secular club. They were able to sing about Jesus and share their testimonies between the songs. After the concert the musicians stayed to eat and had good fellowship with a local waitress Marietta. At the end of the evening she opened up her heart and prayed with them to receive Jesus as her personal Savior and Lord.

SCHOOL OF MINISTRY GRADUATION

The school year ended on May, 30th. But this is not the end for our graduates – only the beginning of a new stage of their growth in the Lord, the wonderful time to apply what they learned and bring forth lots of fruit in the Kingdom of God. We are praying for more open doors of ministry for each one of them and for placement in the Body of Christ, how the Lord sees fit, for the benefit of the Church.

While receiving their diplomas the graduates shared what Jesus has done in their lives over the past year or two.

Natasha Bakshaeva (1st year graduate):

"Jesus has done so much in my life over the past year - it is difficult to describe in words!

But the thing that I’m thankful for the most is the fact that my relationships with Him became so much closer and deeper. The Word of God we studied in school flamed the fire of love in my heart to the Lord!

I am really grateful that the study process was organized in such a way that we could immediately put to practice everything we learned in theory – prayer, evangelism, moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as prophecy and healing… I am anticipating a great summer season to continue to practice what I’ve learned and planning to go to the second year in the school of ministry after that."

Sergei Smirnov (1st year graduate):

"When I came to the school of ministry a year ago I still had a lot of baggage from my previous life of drug addiction - doubts, fears, lots of questions to God, and discipline and order were my enemies rather than friends. I was very inconsistent. I had a hard time figuring out what does it mean to build a personal relationship with Jesus, there was no stability in my spiritual life.

On the other hand it was rather challenging to find myself raising my 8 year old son as a single father, transplanted from a small town where we lived with my parents to a big city with no friends or relatives. While studying, I had to quickly find a job, a place to stay, and a school for my son to go to.

The first thing that happened to me in the school of ministry was that I discovered the meaning of having a personal relationship with Jesus and as this happened everything else fell in place in my life. The “giants in the land” were not scary anymore because I found victory in Christ. The revelations I received in process of studying the Word of God helped me greatly to overcome the doubts and uncertainties in life. The problems I encounter turned into the stepping stones to new heights in Christ.

God showed Himself as a loving Father and Provider to me and my son. Not only did I find a job in the construction field but He surrounded me with brothers and sisters who care! I received a lot of gifts of food and clothing for me and my son and I was able to pay the debts equivalent to more than a yearly income of an average Russian citizen that I accumulated while being a drug addict in the past. I can’t stop praising God for all He is doing in my life!”

Kirill Borodichuk (2nd year graduate):

"After completing the first year of the school of ministry I had a feeling that I am a loving, peaceful, righteous person with the Christ-like character formed in me. But during the second year of the school God has broken these self-delusions and I discovered that there is nothing good in me except for Jesus.

As I was trusted with more responsibilities I understood that being a leader means doing what God is expecting of you without necessarily hearing praises of men. The biggest lesson I learned is to find my identity in Christ rather than earthly position and to be led by God’s approval rather than the fear of men."

Roman Kurshonkov (2nd year graduate):

"I made attempts at studying in the Bible School in the times past but being a so called artistic personality found it difficult to complete what I had started.

But with time going by I realized that there are quite harmful habits in my life still which I must deal with unless I lose my relationship with Jesus. I was tired from walking in circles. I wanted to be more effective as an evangelist and a worship team member but instead my spiritual life more resembled a roller-coaster.

So this time in the school of ministry I made a conscious decision to fight and to change. I am very thankful to Jesus for revealing the depth and the treasures of His Word to me day by day and also for putting around me wonderful brothers and sisters who keep challenging and helping me to grow and mature in the Lord.

One of my friends, an artist once said: “It is easy to start creating a painting, but to finish it is a real art” This past year Jesus taught me to complete what I have started and I am very grateful for that!”

A young man named Sergei was present at the school of ministry graduation. A couple of weeks earlier, one of our last year graduates Ilya met him in a park. Sergei was sitting on a bench reading a book in preparation to his school exams. Ilya started talking with him about Jesus, shared his testimony and some personal prophetic words with Sergei. This touched Sergei’s heart and he decided to come to our church service. The testimonies of the students about what Jesus has done in their lives provoked in Sergei the desire to see Jesus working in his life, too. And after the graduation ceremony was over and everybody moved to the coffee-house for tea and fellowship, Sergei opened up his heart to repent of his sins and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

After the graduation was over the graduates and practically all of our church took the Gospel literature and went to the all night celebration of the city day of St. Petersburg sharing the love of Christ with our fellow-citizens and lots of tourist from all over Russia and abroad.

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

As we continued to share the love of Jesus in the methadone center we met Alexei (photo on the left) – a hardened criminal, 27 years old, married, with kids, but a heroin addict for 10 years, in and out of prison many times, having tried all kinds of ways to overcome his addiction including an Orthodox church rehabilitation program but all in vain. He attentively listened to the Gospel we presented to him, we exchanged phone numbers. The next day he called and confirmed his desire to come to Jesus for help and go to a rehab center. So we put him on a ferry and now he is in Betel Christian rehabilitation center in Finland. Alexei repented of his sins, accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior and is growing in the Lord.

While Alexei was getting on the ferry to go to Betel, we met a friend of his – a young female drug addict named Valya (photo on the right) who several days previously participated in a robbery with Alexei in order to get money for drugs. She asked Alexei where was he going and he explained about the change of his life and him going to rehabilitation. Then she expressed a desire to do the same and now is getting together to go to a girls’ rehab center. We would appreciate your prayers for both of them.

Thank you for your prayers for Rita (photo on the left) who repented in prison (see our May news issue for the story). God continues to do miracles in her life radically changing her and the situations around her. Jesus began to really change Rita’s violent character - she made peace with her Mom, as before they were at war with each other. In 4 cases where she owed money to people due to crimes she committed – the debts were cancelled. When we first met she was telling us that she hated the work they do in prison. Now we are discovering that God has touched her in such a way that she is working much and enjoying it, sometimes even 2 shifts. She has had HIV for many years but recently her immune system count rose from 300 to 1 000 without any medication – the doctors are shocked. And each week when we visit her in prison she tells us of new miracles of the Lord in her life. The most recent one is: she used to have a problem reading the Bible in her room for the fear of the girl’s opinion (it’s not very popular to be a Christian) but one day she felt a sudden compulsion to find in the Bible where it talks about love and dug in the Word for days without the fear of men. God honored her hunger and showed her in a dream one night to look up 1 Corinthians 13. Please continue to pray for Rita – this coming fall a committee will gather to consider her appeal for early discharge. Please pray for God’s will to be done in this situation.

PRAYER POINTS FOR JUNE:

Please pray for our intercessors - being often times engaged in spiritual warfare they need a prayer covering themselves
For unity, healing and reconciliation between Christians in the city of St. Petersburg and in Russia
For the graduates of our School of ministry – open doors for ministry, placement in the Body of Christ, growing and maturity in the Lord, bringing fruit that remains in the Kingdom of God, fulfilling their callings in Jesus
For the fruitful summer of evangelism - we want to make the most of all the opportunities God gives us to touch as many lives as possible with the Gospel
For the pioneering work in Estonia – more souls saved, drug addicts delivered and placed in the rehab centers, for the chance to rent at the affordable price the building in the center of Tallinn for the purposes of the Christian coffee-house and working with the young people
For physical and spiritual protection for the entire church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray specifically for $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask you to prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis.

Your help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
Your StreetCry family

PRAYER REQUEST

2009-05-19T04:17:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends, Prayer Partners and Supporters of StreetCry,

Two months ago we shared about the possibility of getting a building (for rent) in downtown Tallinn, Estonia. This building is in the most ideal situation for reaching the youth of the city. It is smack dab in the very heart of Olde Towne Tallinn, where many, many youth gather. Here we would be able to have a youth cafe, a Bible School, a 24 hour hot line, a music studio and living quarters. There was part of the building that was not in the negotiation. For us, it was the very best possibility for a cafe. We just found out that they have included this storefront in the deal. We don't have words to describe our excitement regarding how the Lord works everything out.

We said it would be a miracle if we were able to get such a building. This week we heard that the owners, a denominational church in Tallinn, are willing to rent the building to us starting in September. At present, they want 4 times more for the rent than we are willing and able to pay, but we feel that God is able to get the price to a place where all are comfortable. We don't think that it is a big hurdle for God. For things to get this far, we believe that God is in the details!

Please join us in prayer for God to touch their hearts to rent it to us for a rent that is reasonable and manageable for us during the present financial climate.

It is a 10 room, 3 story building, plus storefront with 2 large bay windows on a main street leading into the Olde Towne town square. The foundation and first floor of the building are a couple of hundred years old. It used to be the location of the main Bible training center for Estonia when communism fell here and Estonia got it's freedom and independence from the Soviet Union.

Below are some photos.

Photo 1 is of the main old town square itself. The building we are negotiating for is a taller yellow building in the middle left back of the photo, to the left of the gray building.

Photo 2 is an antique store in the foreground, and the prospective building (yellow or mustard color) is to the right of the antique shop.

Photo 3 is the storefront

Photos 4 and 5 are the prospective building from another angle. It was a bit of a bad time of day for the photos, but we wanted to get this out to everyone urgently.

The owners are open to short or very long term rent, even up to 20 or 25 years.

We are grateful to the Lord that we can share this exciting news with you, and share our prayer need with you.

With love from Tallinn,

John and Sara Russell
and the Estonia StreetCry Team

MAY, 2009

2009-05-07T04:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

We thank God for your love, prayers, support, and interest in our ministry! Truly God can do (and He does!) exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think! (Ephesians 3:20). And we are so glad to share with you His wonderful deeds among us!

WORSHIP AND EVANGELISM

Our 100th consecutive monthly Worship and Intercession night turned out to be an exuberant celebration of God’s goodness over the years, and the triumph of His mercy, grace and power to save, heal and deliver. It also gave us unexpected reasons to praise the Lord even more and inspired us to keep up our intercession by two additional amazing happenings:

Seven years ago as we regularly went out taking the Gospel to the students’ dorms and conducted evangelism concerts in our coffeehouse; we met a young man, named Alexei. At the time, he was a Polytechnical Institute student and a dorm neighbor of Zhenya Kopushu who now heads up intercession in our church, but back then was a school of ministry student and a student at the Polytechnical Institute. Zhenya kept witnessing to Alexei at the dorm and invited him to our coffeehouse. Alexei was a big fan of Marilyn Manson. In fact, he dressed and behaved so much like his idol that people around could not help but nickname him Manson. Together with his friend Dima, Alexei became a regular visitor at our evangelism concerts and in the coffeehouse. But every time he visited he provoked arguments about the Bible, blasphemed, cursed us and God, and obviously enjoyed doing it. Several of our evangelists spent hours with him and saw no visible change in him. But Zhenya (in the photo on the right) did not give up. Jesus put a tremendous burden on her heart to keep interceding with tears and supplications for his soul. In and out of our sight for a couple of years we discovered that Alexei’s friend Dima (who usually sat quietly listening as Alexei argued) got interested in the Bible, obtained one and began regularly reading it and his life started to change. Can you imagine our shock as the two young men showed up at our worship and intercession night! Our church had changed locations but they found information about us on the Internet and came. Zhenya kept praising the Lord for answers to her prayers - Alexei has truly been transformed, his eyes shining with a new light as he worshipped with us. Talking to Zhenya he shared that he too is reading the Bible now, and God answers many of his questions. Together with his friend Dima he attends one of the biggest churches in St. Petersburg called “Source of Life”, for which we are truly grateful.

Olga Ryazhskih - one of our evangelists and healing teams leaders was happy to see her next door neighbor Tatiana at the worship night. Olga’s friend from childhood, Tatiana used to try to prevent Olga going into the lifestyle of drugs and crime, but Olga did not listen. Olga ended up in prison and the girls were separated. Years later already saved and delivered by Jesus, graduating from our school of ministry Olga went witnessing to the prostitutes on the roads and there she met Tatiana who by that time herself had become a drug addict and a prostitute. Olga's powerful testimony gave Tatiana hope and resolve to take a step to Jesus who alone could save and change her life. One and a half years ago, Tatiana went to a Christian rehab center and now is free from drugs and prostitution and loving Jesus, too. And she and Olga are best friends again by the power of a redemptive Christ! To our 100th Worship and Intercession night, Tatiana brought her mother. At the end of the evening as the altar call was made, Tatiana’s Mom responded and accepted Jesus, which produced the tears of joy both from her daughter and Olga (In the photo on the left - Olga and Tatiana).

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

John writes:

We are encouraged to see more progress made here in Tallinn in a few months than in years of pioneering in St. Petersburg.

In Russia, the Lord would give us authority and victory in territories held by the enemy, but it was slow. First it was with subculture kids, then children, then drug addicts, then university students then prostitutes, then in prisons, etc, etc. It really took years before we had fruit from among all of these “unreached people groups” as we affectionately call them.

Here, while working together with very receptive local churches, our first convert was an Estonian fresh out of prison. After weeping under the power of God and surrendering his life, he is still doing great after a few months. Next were Russian juvenile delinquents from a special home for them... more souls. Then came several Russian heroin addicts, then four Estonian girls, women's prison inmates and now some foreign students. We are amazed at how God has given us access and favour into so many different groups of people so quickly, and to see them repent has been such a joy. We now need to make disciples and raise up fervent lovers of Jesus Christ. Jesus instructed us to pray for laborers and this is what we are doing.

John and Sara finished teaching a course on evangelism at Living Waters church in Tallinn, and following it have been taking teams out for personal witnessing. One of the hot spots in Tallinn is the “Viru Keskus” mall where God keeps giving many divine appointments with people hungry for the Gospel. Among them there is a teenager Masha (in the photo above with Gosha), Eric and Ruben - students from South Africa, who all prayed to receive Jesus right there in the mall. Several others, including Russians, Estonians and foreign students have prayed prayers of repentence. The harvest truly is ripe and ready here in Estonia.

Veronica’s (a drug addict who repented reading a Gospel tract received while she stood in line for free methadone - see our March news issue) friend Rita is now in prison for drug related crimes. Veronica told her about Jesus and came to visit her in prison with Gosha several times. Rita was hungry to hear the Gospel and repented of her sins at the end of one such a visit and was born again. Her countenance really changed. As Gosha visits her regularly, she keeps testifying of the good things God is doing in her life - protecting and blessing her in prison. Please join us in prayer for her growth in the Lord. She has gone from the prison troublemaker to a model prisoner with priveledges only afforded to the 5 best behaved inmates... all in one week! She is receiving persecution for her life change, so please keep Rita in your prayers.

Another methadone center attendee Anya recently accepted Jesus as Gosha continued to go there and preach the Gospel to those who are standing in line for methadone.

Recently Gosha received a phone call from a young man he has been witnessing to since February named Misha. Misha’s girlfriend left him and he remembered what he heard about the unfailing love of Jesus from Gosha. They met. Gosha invited him to church. Misha eagerly absorbed everything at the service, then he followed Gosha to an evangelism event in a small town called Mardu, where a pastor invited Gosha to share his personal testimony. As a result Misha repented and accepted Jesus as his personal Savior. That evening God touched another young man named Pasha. He had a drug addiction past and spent a year in a rehab center but did not meet Jesus personally. The Holy Spirit came upon him mightily, he fell on the floor screaming and writhing, then vomited, then saw Jesus in a vision, was delivered from demonic influences, baptized in the Holy Spirit, began speaking in tongues on the spot and got up a new man. The next day, free from his heroin addiction, he got a job in order to pay his debts and compensate for the things he stole from his relatives while he was an addict. Gosha is now connecting him to a local church.

SEMINAR ON CHURCH HISTORY WITH PASTOR CHARLES SCHMITT

We wish to thank pastor Charles Schmitt for a very encouraging, refreshing, challenging and revealing 3 day seminar on the Church and Church History. Pastor Charles is the author of the “Floods Upon The Dry Ground” book (we wrote about it being published in Russian in the October 2008 issue of our news) and Senior pastor of Immanuel’s Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has been John and Sara Russell’s pastor since 1992, and Immanuel’s Church has been supporting StreetCry from the very beginning in so many ways. People gathered from several churches and ministries from different cities of Russia for a powerful 3-day seminar on church and church history. We had a great time together touched by the Holy Spirit and are very blessed, refreshed, encouraged and envisioned through Pastor Charles’s ministry. Here are some testimonials from the seminar:

Natasha Chepushtanova - school of ministry teacher, worship team member:

“I got rooted even deeper in the Father’s love and the redemptive power of God as related to me personally in spite of all my imperfections which gave me fresh motivation for serving Jesus with my whole life. I desire to penetrate the darkness of this world that we live in with the light of the Gospel even more boldly now. When we receive a touch of God’s love we become capable of doing things that were impossible in our own strength.”

Nadya Patlasova - school of ministry teacher, intercessor:

“At this seminar church history came across not just as a bunch of information but as a spark igniting in me even greater hunger for God’s presence and for revival.”

Dima Patlasov – evangelist, worship team member:

“ In Pastor Charles I saw an example to follow – I want just like him to keep the passion for Jesus, the hunger for God’s presence and the desire to see people saved and filled with the fullness of God for many-many years and stay faithful to the calling of God on my life to the end.”

Kostya Protasov – school of ministry student, evangelist:

“I received a lot of practical help: new insights into relationships between people in the church – how to resolve conflicts and deal with anger…”

Dima Zadunaisky – worship leader:

“Pastor Charles brought a very timely message which I would call prophetic for our church and for me personally answering many deep questions of our hearts and meeting a lot of our needs. My understanding of who we are in Christ and what Church is called to be and to do became very clear which gave me a fresh vision and zeal for serving Jesus.”

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT - ROMAN KURSHONKOV: I SIMPLY FELL IN LOVE WITH JESUS!

Roman is 31 and a second year student in our school of ministry. He plays drums on our worship team and participates as a drummer and a passionate evangelist in a couple other Christian bands doing evangelism concerts in clubs and on the streets of St. Petersburg and other cities. Here is his story:

“I was 15 years old when a music group started forming in my high school and I asked to be a part. No one could really play an instrument but we all had a lot of zeal and a great passion for learning. That sufficed. As probably does every musician each one of us wanted to become popular and famous, have money and fans, especially if they are girls. At the same time, we had a more noble motivation, at least I did. I felt that there is power in music and it influences the hearts of people. I wanted to bring people joy, love... So one of us could play guitar - just a couple chords, the other studied bass. Honestly speaking, I really wanted to be a lead guitar player in our band but I was asked to be a drummer and so I agreed.

Somehow, our attempts to play music attracted the attention and touched the heart of one professional musician who began really teaching us. We began with "The Beatles" songs and became successful. But as it often happens among musicians pride entered in and hit a fatal blow at our unity. As a result, our promising band fell apart.

But I did not want to give up and continued in the realm of music. The type of music I played changed with the changes in my own character. Rock is not just a style of music. It is a way of living. So as I began playing rock, speedily my life began shaping accordingly.

We, young St. Petersburg musicians, did not just play, but we carried and promoted the idea, the lifestyle. The lifestyle that consisted of lots of occult, vodka, drugs, sex, motorcycles, fights and utter denying of and rebellion against everything that was not like us. The collective debauchery and high were followed by fits of depression and despair at the times when I was alone and had nobody to look cool in front of. Surely all that found its expression in our music. As for motorcycles, it is a sheer miracle that I am still alive - usually we resorted to driving them when we could not walk because of how drunk and drugged we were. The last such band I was a part of was called “Odin” according to an old Scandinavian “god” (demon) we worshipped. The music we played was pure doom, pain and cruelty. The adolescent ideas of bringing people love and joy by the power of music buried long before, I kept degrading further and further into satan worship. Strictly speaking, I did not consider myself a satanist, because I did not participate in physical sacrifices and rituals done by some of my friends. However, I certainly dressed like one, hated Christianity, as I knew it - mostly by people attending orthodox temples, kissing icons, burning candles and outside of that living lives that were far away from God. I considered it the utmost hypocrisy, so turning to Christ was never an option for me. Besides, now I can see that by playing the kind of music we played I definitely brought “the sacrifices” of praise and worship to demons that controlled our lives and music, thus empowering them to destroy us and our listeners even more.

One day my friends invited me to join them at a coffeehouse where the coffee was free. The fact that it was a Christian coffeehouse somehow escaped my ears. When we entered the place, I immediately felt an unusual atmosphere, like nowhere else we visited before. We sat at a table and fellowshipped over a cup of coffee, then a girl named Anya approached me and asked if she could talk to me separately. I agreed, left my friends and occupied a different table with this girl. At that time I had many friends, even close friends but for some reason I felt like opening my heart to this girl and share my life with her. In response, she very simply told me about the Lord. My first reaction was: “Religion?! No! Thanks! That is not for me! I am a long-haired musician, etc...”

That evening, I remembered it to the date - October 19th, 1996, I discussed many things with Anya, but the thing that stuck with me the most was the fact that God loved me. It blew my mind. How could it happen? How could it be? I doubted that anybody at all could love me the way I was... My friends were ready to leave the coffeehouse and called me to join them but I decided to stay and stayed until it was closed. After that, my new acquaintance and I went home together - I discovered that we were neighbors and lived closely. We kept talking and my understanding of God kept changing. I realized that there is a vast difference between the dead religion, I so hated, and the living vibrant personal relationship with Jesus, that Anya so brightly exhibited. Back home I could not go to bed and sleep, so I stood all night at an open window, smoked, looked in the sky and thought: “God, are you there? Do you really exist? Could it be that you really love me? Could you help me, please?”

In a couple of days I dropped in to the same coffeehouse again. Anya was there, she led me in a prayer of repentance, where I gave my life to Jesus. Maybe I did not understand all it entailed but I realized that I needed to do it: ask God for forgiveness of sins and dedicate my life to Him. I followed her in prayer. From that moment on everything began changing. I was coming from death to life. Out of the pain of rejection I was experiencing joy again that I had not felt for a long time and nearly forgot what it felt like. Out of the shades of gray and black, the world around me was turning colorful again.

Some time went by and one day my old friends invited me to a concert where they were the main performers. I accepted. Besides lots of friends, it was lots of vodka involved in the event. The party went on but I discovered that this kind of fun did not bring me any pleasure any more. I was different. Different on the inside. Some of my friends started a fight. It was literally sickening for me. As I walked home after this concert, I knew in my heart that I did something that was not pleasing to God. I immediately started asking Him to forgive me and help me to avoid such things in the future. The joy filled my heart after this prayer and peace flooded my mind, peace that I did not experience for a long time. Since then I never got back to the paths of old. I made a clean break with my old life.

Then I came to a church service. It transformed my view of Christianity - I saw people who took God seriously. I decided that if God is real with me I want to be real with Him. I wanted to dedicate my life completely to Christ and radically follow Him. I got rid of my old music, t-shirts with the images of the old idols, posters, magazines, books on the occult... I simply fell in love with Jesus!

On the outside I was pretty much the same - long hair and a leather jacket but I knew that God is looking on my heart. And my heart I gave to Him. I told everybody about Jesus! Many of my friends did not understand me, of course, many rejected me, and thought that I lost my mind or that somebody hypnotized me. But I was the happiest man on the face of the earth. If only somebody “hypnotized” me like this before! I could have avoided so many horrible events! But no, it was not hypnotism, neither a sect. I simply came to my Loving Father God. I simply met Jesus who loved me and went to the cross for my sins to be forgiven. My friends had a chance to receive new life too. But many of them rejected it. One of them, Kostya, who was a lead guitarist and a song-writer for “Odin”, died of cirrhosis of the liver. He was a heavy drug user and contracted hepatitis C. The doctors warned him of the grave consequences of his lifestyle. Once he was rushed to intensive care unit by ambulance and I visited him there to pray for his healing. In His mercy, God touched him and he recovered to the great surprise of the doctors but continued to reject and mock my newly found faith and shortly died at a drunken party organized for his 18th birthday. The pain I experienced still motivates me to relentlessly bring the Gospel to the young people - the kind like I was before. It is scary to watch how the devil is destroying the lives of many talented young musicians and literally killing them. Kostya was not the first and unfortunately not the last one. But he did not have to die. I have dedicated my life to making sure that as many young people as possible can get a chance to choose life with God instead of death without Him!” (In the photo on the right - Roma plays drums at evangelism concert in the park with his band)

PRAYER POINTS FOR MAY:

Please pray for our intercessors - being often times engaged in spiritual warfare they need a prayer covering themselves
For unity, healing and reconciliation between Christians in the city of St. Petersburg and in Russia
For the Christian schools for children in St. Petersburg, especially for the Harvest Christian school where many of our school of ministry graduates are now working as teachers - for wisdom in maintaining high standards, for protection against the enemy’s devices aimed at the children, for provision, for unity, for the love of God to rule and reign
For our school of ministry as the school year is nearing its end - our goal is raising up more evangelists, pastors, teachers, prophets, apostles and ministers in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit
For evangelism strategy for the summer season - we want to make the most of all the opportunities God gives us to touch as many lives as possible with the Gospel
For physical and spiritual protection for the entire church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For wisdom, direction, anointing, supply and more fruit in the evangelistic efforts in our pioneering work in the neighboring nation of Estonia
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God here. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray specifically for $37,500 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

God bless and keep you all,
Your StreetCry family

APRIL, 2009

2009-04-07T02:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!

We thank God for your love, prayers, support, and interest in our ministry! The spring reaches its peak in April when we all celebrate Easter! The resurrection power of Christ is definitely at work in our midst and we are happy to share with you what God is doing here with us!

EVANGELISM

We opened the season of evangelism concerts in our coffeehouse (it is still cold and snowy outside). BIOS band, with whom one of our school of ministry students is a drummer, and some of our evangelists, students, and church members got the opportunity to minister to the lost. The coffeehouse was packed with all kinds of young people coming from the streets, universities, dorms, etc… We spent the week before the concert distributing flyers and posters in the places where the kids hang out. There were a lot of divine appointments, beautiful times of personal fellowship and sharing the love of God. Alexei saw a poster in his university and came. Sveta got invited from the street by one of our students – together they came to the concert. By the end of the evening both Alexei and Sveta gave their hearts to the Lord and came to our fellowship the next day. You can see them in the photo on the right with our evangelist Gosha and our student Natasha Bakshaeva who led them in the prayer of repentance. Sveta – standing on the right. Alexey – sitting on the right.

In the October 2008 issue of our newsletter we shared that quite a few of our school of ministry students and graduates are active in children’s ministry. Some work at Christian orphanages and children’s hospitals, others are helping with children’s church – we have many kids from this Christian orphanage coming to our services now. Jesus is touching their lives in most amazing ways.

Dasha (in the photo on the left – with her Mom) was sent to this Christian orphanage by her district police station officer. Her alcoholic mom’s alcoholic boyfriend attacked Dasha with a knife. She managed to escape almost without injuries with her grandmother’s assistance. With no time to even get dressed properly, and without a coat or boots, this young child ran through the snow and frost to the police for help. As the police inspected Dasha’s home, they found a destroyed apartment, with almost everything sold in order to buy alcohol. There was no food and not only Dasha did not have a desk to do her school homework but she did not even have a bed where she could sleep. The court case began by denying Dasha’s mom parental rights. While the case proceeded, Dasha was placed in the Christian orphanage. Very soon, she received Jesus and began attending Sunday school at our church.

As the mom sobered up and realized that her daughter had been taken away from her and this may be forever, she began thinking… She visited Dasha at her new place to stay and encountered the atmosphere of God’s presence, genuine care and the love of Jesus… During her initial visits, she scared the orphanage workers with her appearance of a drunk – black eyed, broken leg, dirty…

Dasha told her Mom about Jesus and invited her to church. Her mom, Svetlana agreed rather reluctantly. However, it was her only chance to spend time with the daughter. She sat through the worship and preaching and fellowshipped with church members… Once, twice, three times… Then she began coming to church even straight from home independently from Dasha and finally at the March worship and intercession night Svetlana opened her heart to Jesus, came forward and received Him as her personal Lord and Savior.

The repentance was so real that she immediately got rid of her boyfriend, began cleaning her flat and equipping it to be livable for a child. The court case is not finished and the decision is not made regarding Dasha being permanently taken away from her Mom so Dasha cannot move back home but now the orphanage workers let Dasha stay at her mom’s for weekends – together they pray and read the Bible. Svetlana confesses that her daughter is more advanced in understanding the Word of God and is glad to learn more. Please join us in prayers for Svetlana and Dasha – for their spiritual growth and sorting out of their legal and family situation.

Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers for Roma and the developing church in prison. (see the photo on the left – Roma is sitting). New converts continue to join. Recently Gosha visited Roma’s family and shared the Gospel with them. Consequently, Roma’s mother Nonna and wife Masha repented and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior,and Gosha introduced them to the local church.

JESUS HEALS TODAY!

Olga Ryazhskih oversees healing teams in our ministry. Here she shares an amazing testimony of God’ intervention in the life of a former drug addict, Rain who is pictured here:

“In 2006 we hosted the worship conference Heart of God 2 with Suzy Wills-Yaraei and the team from MorningStar. During this conference a young man, named Rain (see the photo on the right) approached me and asked for prayer. He had HIV due to the drug addiction lifestyle he led before Christ set him free; he had a dangerously low immune count and suffered from hurting and enlarged lymph nodes. I prayed for him. Three years later, I met him again at the seminar on evangelism we conducted in Estonia this past winter. “Remember, you prayed for me?” – He exclaimed as we greeted each other. - “My lymph nodes returned to normal. But this is not all. Recently I was tested for HIV and the blood tests are showing the negative results. They cannot detect HIV in my blood. In any case, soon after you prayed for me my immune count grew drastically” ISN’T GOD WONDERFUL?! CAN’T HELP BUT PRAISE HIM FOR THE GREAT THINGS HE IS DOING FOR US!”

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: SERGEI SMIRNOV

Sergei is 32 and a first year student in our School of ministry, lives and ministers in a rehab center for alcoholics, drug addicts and men just coming out of prisons, at the same time raising his 8-year-old son as a single Dad. Here is his story:

“I was born and raised in the city of Vologda (central Russia) in a family of simple workers. At fifteen, I began rebelling against my parents and society. This was the time when I met subculture teens and adopted their lifestyle including lots of alcohol and all kinds of drugs. This brought me a sense of false freedom. I thought that now I am free to do whatever I want and I wanted to try everything that life had to offer. Soon enough I tried heroin.

Several months later, I had to go to the army. But even the army failed to discipline me. Two years quickly went by and as soon as I returned home, I got back to using heroin. Six month later, I was the enemy of everybody I knew. I was in love with drugs. Heroin occupied my thoughts, heart, emotions, body, everything, I lived for it. I considered myself free to do as I please while I was already a slave to my destructive habit – an obedient slave of drugs. The daze started clearing up only two years later. I realized that I was addicted, but could do nothing to help myself. I desired to die, but instead I had to live and face the police, the creditors, the gangsters… My relatives rejected me friends hated me. Even heroin betrayed me – I stopped feeling any pleasure from using it, but could not stop.

I got together all my will power, my heart crying out inside for help, and did my best to stop. Got a job and a girl and decided to start a new life. For a while, it looked like everything is working out just wonderful for me, but 2 weeks after our son was born, my girlfriend left me. She was not a drug addict, but had spent 7 years in prison for robbery, was very self-willed, capricious and hard to get along with. I was broken and immediately resorted to alcohol and drugs again and soon ended up in a narcological hospital.

Once a month an orthodox priest visited this hospital to tell all the patients about God. It was rather difficult for me to comprehend the meaning of his speeches but when he offered us to pray and ask God for forgiveness of sins and for help I thought: “Why not? What if there is God!” So I prayed the prayer. But the priest left and I forgot about it.

Nevertheless, God began His work in my life. Two things happened immediately. The court closed two cases against me. And my ex-girlfriend came to my parents and gave them our son to bring up. It was my dream – to be with my son!

But I kept on the lifestyle I lived. Half a year later in a drunken fight, my brother cut me with a knife really badly. Unconscious, I was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room. Later the doctors told me that I was very lucky that none of the life supporting organs were damaged. This made me start thinking about the reasons why I live and who could help me to stop being a “skunk”. I even turned to philosophy in search of truth but it did not give me sufficient answers. I wanted to live a different life but I did not know how.

Another attempt at a new life began when I started a small construction company with friends. It generated a good income. I tried to work on my character, provide for my parents and son, etc… Nevertheless from time to time, I fell back to alcohol and drugs. Years went by. I was becoming angry, unstable and suicidal.

In December of 2006, I met an old friend (Gosha who is pictured and mentioned throughout this newsletter) whom I had not seen for many years. I always thought that he was much worse than me but this time he was a different man – he had changed so much! Instead of talking about drugs, he talked about Jesus. I found out that he moved to St. Petersburg went through rehabilitation from drug addiction and was ministering to drug addicts, alcoholics and men coming out of prison. He invited me to their regeneration center.It was a hard decision to make. I had debts. I had a son. On the other hand, I knew I could not help myself – eight times, I went through narcological hospital detox treatment with no lasting results. No friend or relative could alleviate my soul pain. I started having cramps all over my body and my eyes and face muscles often jerked. So I decided to go. In the regeneration center, I met Jesus. Thank God for the people who constantly prayed for me and taught me the Word of God. Jesus forgave my sins and gave me the new life I tried to obtain so many times but always looked in the wrong places! Right after I met Jesus personally all my body cramps and eyes and face jerking ceased forever.

Often times I think that if only back then, when I first time prayed the sinners prayer with the priest in the hospital, if someone could have taught me the Bible, helped me build a prayer life, and introduced me to fellowship of believers, perhaps I could have learned some things earlier! Most probably my life could have taken a completely different direction and I would not commit so many more sins that I ended up committing!

Now I moved to St. Petersburg together with my 8-year-old son. He goes to a Christian school here while I go to the StreetCry School of Ministry. It is a huge challenge to combine studying with working and raising my son as a single parent but God is helping me every step of the way, lovingly teaching me how to proceed in life.”

PRAYER POINTS FOR APRIL:

We are 2 months behind in our church building rent, which is $1,900. We also have not been able to pay out full budgets for food and other needs for our ministers. Please join us in prayer for this and please help if you can. We know that what Jesus is doing here in people’s lives is extremely valuable and your help will be used to further the gospel here.
Please pray for our School of Ministry - our goal is to continue raising up more evangelists, pastors, teachers, prophets, apostles and ministers in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit
For evangelism strategy for the spring and summer season - we want to make the most of all the opportunities God gives us to touch as many lives as possible with the Gospel
For the new converts to come to Jesus and become His disciples
For Dasha and her mom and other children we are helping
For physical and spiritual protection for the entire church and ministry, divine health and strength for all of us in the midst of a flu flying around and hitting many in St Petersburg
Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team
For direction, anointing and grace in the pioneering work in the neighboring nation of Estonia
For a breakthrough with an abundant supply of finances for the advancement of the Kingdom of God here. We have debt, but are continuing to press on in spite of the difficulties. Please pray specifically for $35,000 to cover debt. Thanks so much!

Thank you again so very much for your prayers and continued support of our work! If you are not doing so already we would like to ask you to prayerfully consider helping us on a regular basis.

Your help is much needed and highly appreciated!

God bless and keep you all,
Your StreetCry family