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