DECEMBER, 2009

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!

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

NOVEMBER, 2009

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!

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

OCTOBER, 2009

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

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

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

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