February 11, 2010

FEBRUARY, 2010

Dear Friends!

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

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

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

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

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

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

RUSSIA

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


ESTONIA

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

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

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

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

PRAYER POINTS FOR FEBRUARY:

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

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