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
