December 2010

Dear Friends,

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

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

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

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRIP TO SWEDEN

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

FINLAND

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


SVETA MOROZ IN MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE

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

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

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

Prayer points for December

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

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

• Unity, love and wisdom for those in our ministry

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

• For the new guys in rehab, Andrei and Vlad

• For strength, wisdom, obedience to the Lord

• For Sasha and his daily right decision making

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

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

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

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


Here are some prayer requests from Sveta in Mozambique:

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

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

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

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

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

• For improvement of my English and Portuguese

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

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

• For the Lord to supply our daily bread

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

• For wisdom and love in training the kids

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

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

John and Sara Russell for StreetCry

SEPTEMBER 2010

Dear Friends,

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

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

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

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

TESTIMONIES FROM RUSSIA

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

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

Sergei shares:

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

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

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

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

ESTONIA

MINISTRY IN WOMEN’S PRISON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RUSSIA

Vera Abezina

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sveta Moroz

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

Here are Sveta’s vision and goals:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is Sveta's testimony:

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRAYER POINTS FOR SEPTEMBER

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

Thank you for your continued help!

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

JUNE 2010

Dear Friends!

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

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

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

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

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

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

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

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

EVANGELISM

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

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

SCHOOL OF MINISTRY GRADUATION

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

NASTYA SHTURMINA

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

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

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

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

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

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

VALENTINA SHKOLENKO

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

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

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

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

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

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

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

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

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

PRAYER POINTS FOR JUNE:

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

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

May 2010

Dear Friends!

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

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

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT – LIZA BACHI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRAYER POINTS FOR MAY:

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

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

APRIL, 2010

Dear Friends!

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

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

NEWS FROM RUSSIA

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

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT – LEONID LEGKOV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

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

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

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

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

PRAYER POINTS FOR APRIL:

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

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

• Unity, love and wisdom for the leadership team

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

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

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

• For Leonid Legkov’s ministry to drug addicts

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

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

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

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

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

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

God bless and keep you all,

John and Sara Russell and your StreetCry family