May 01, 2017

STREETCRY MINISTRIES NEWSLETTER, MAY, 2017



Dear Friends,

Greetings from John and Sara and the Living Room Fellowship! It has been a while since we shared what is happening in the ministry. Sara returned to the US a few weeks ago after spending three months in Estonia, Russia and Sweden.

Thank you for your prayers, especially for Sara, Katya and family at the time of the loss of Sara's mom who passed away at 85 on April 8th. While in Russia during the Christmas season, Katya and I (Sara) were able to visit my mom who lived a thousand kilometers from St. Petersburg. She had not seen Katya for 9 years. It was a short but good visit, and we were able to talk to her about the Lord and remind her about God’s love. Over the past years my mom had issues with her heart, and every time I came to see her she would say that it would be the last time we see each other.
Upon returning to Tallinn we got busy with the work at the café and the church. A few weeks later I was back on the train to Russia as my mom had a stroke, was partially paralyzed, affecting her right side and her speech. After spending two days in the hallway of the hospital because of the lack of bedspace she was finally transferred to a room where she received treatment for 15 days. Upon being released she was staying with my sister, and seemed to be getting better. I returned  to Tallinn and then to the US. Shortly thereafter she had another stroke, and was not able to recover.
Previously my mom had a dream of Jesus coming to her and calling her to follow Him. She had prayed with me years ago to receive Jesus, and I have hope to see her again. I want to apologize for not communicating with some of you about my mom's passing. During this time in my life the Lord has been reminding me that no matter what our troubles are, no matter what we are going through, His character is always LOVE, He doesn’t change! If He can hold this world by the power of His Word, then He can hold this moment in my life. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
I am very thankful that trials and tribulations carry God’s purpose into our lives. I choose to praise God in my situation, for He is good and His love endures forever.

GOOD NEWS

While in Russia the second time I was able to lead my Muslim aunt to the Lord. She had stage four cancer and asked me to pray for her to “my God”. I said that I would, but also told her that she can pray with me to Him because He loves her and sent His Son Jesus to die for her sins. He wants to forgive her and receive her into the life to come. As I was explaining this to her another relative interupted trying to end our conversation saying "we are Muslims". I told her that it is my aunt facing eternity right now, and there is a choice to be made by her now where she will spend it. At this moment my aunt said with a strong conviction, ” Sara speaks the truth!” After that I prayed with her to receive Jesus. She passed away on April 1st, a week before my mother.

THE LIVING ROOM FELLOWSHIP AND COFFEE SHOP

Since returning to Tallinn things slowly picked up in the coffee shop. Every day we get to serve a lot of people, talk about Jesus and pray for people. On the slower days in the winter months the Lord would still bring people to the café to remind us what we are there for: to reach people with God’s love, to be a witness of His power, and to let His name be known. 
On a couple of occasions the Lord brought people in who came specifically for prayer or for prophetic ministry rather than to eat or to have coffee. A Christain girl came and asked us if we can pray for her and if we get anything from the Lord, she would really like to hear it. Katya shared with her a specific word about a decision that she needs to make regarding school. The girl was very excited because she didn’t tell us what to pray for, Katya didn’t know anything about her praying to the Lord about a specific school. The Lord was assuring her that the school that was on her heart was the right one to pursue.

HEALING AND SALVATION TESTIMONY

It is always an exciting thing for us to be able to witness any miracle that the Lord does and especially one of salvation. One Sunday a family came to our church service from another town across Estonia. The father was asking if John was there since he wanted to see and talk to him. John had met this man (Tõnis) on the street several months ago and talked to him about the Lord. Tõnis came to church that day months ago and John had ministered to him. Now the man brought his whole family to church.

After the service we had time to pray for people's needs, fellowship, and get to know visitors. One of our brothers, Indrek started talking with Tonis' daughter Kaisa about healing. Kaisa mentioned that she had back problems because of one of her legs being noticeably shorter than the other. Indrek and Imre started commanding her leg to grow, and to the girls’ amazement in front of their eyes her leg started to grow longer. She was very excited as were the guys who prayed for her, she began shouting, “It grew, it grew!!!”

We started asking her if she had an experience with the Lord, and she told us that she had been to church a couple of times. I told her that the Lord knows that she is searching for the truth and she will find it. She said that it was true. Then I told my testimony of how coming to the Lord and giving my life to Him was the best decision ever. Then I asked her if she wanted to know Jesus and give Him her life, and she said yes. It happened so fast, she was hungry to know the TRUTH. The truth is in Jesus. Jesus is the truth. That day we and the angels, who are in heaven, rejoiced because one more sinner repented and gave their life to the Lord. In Lk. 15:10 Jesus said, “…I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." It pays to stop and talk to people around us when the Lord prompts us to do it. A girl’s soul is saved because somebody had the time months ago to talk to her father on the street.

SOMEBODY HAS TO HELP ME -  NIKOLAI'S STORY

Every morning we get together for prayer before we start work. As we were finishing I saw an older man walking back and forth in front of our coffee shop. I thought he needed help with directions. I came out and started asking questions. The man looked very disturbed, anxious, lost, I would say. As we talked, I found out that he was definitely LOST. He knew his name, but he didn’t have any documents or know where he lived. He knew that he left his home last night, police picked him up late at night wandering the streets of Tallinn, and they took him to a shelter for homeless people to spend the night there and in the morning dropped him off at the office of the Department of Social Help, next to our coffee house. His name was Nikolai.

We invited him to the café, gave him some food to eat and a cup of hot tea. Nikolai kept showing me keys to his apartment, saying the first name of the guy he was staying with, not remembering the name of the street or the area of town he lived in. The situation was quite difficult because it seemed that this older man had a serious condition of memory loss. He kept saying, 'Somebody has to help me, somebody has to help me!" I called the police for advice and was told that they have no way of finding out where he lived. We tried contacting Social Services but their office was closed that day. The poor man kept saying, "Somebody has to help me!" I was overwhelmed and the only thing I could say was, " God loves you and He knows where you live. We can pray with you and see if the Lord shows us where you live so we can find your home". We prayed together, and Nikolai and I got on the tram. We were praying as we were riding the tram. At some point he said, “I remember a grocery store that is across from my house. Here it is!” We got off the tram and there was his house! He was excited and almost running to the door to show me that his keys worked with that door. I made sure he got in.

We never know who we are going to meet and if we are going to answer a simple call: "Somebody has to help me! " My husband often says,  "We can’t get too busy "in ministry" that we don’t have time to minister to people!"

ANOTHER STORY

Two young men came to the coffee shop. One of them was familiar to us since he came a couple times prior to this visit. His name is Rauno. Straight away he asked to borrow 10 euros to buy gasoline. He said his car was around the corner, he ran out of gas and that’s what the 10 euros was for. I knew that his story was not truthful, but I felt I should do it and I said, ” Yes, we can give you 10 euros.” He promised that he would bring it back tomorrow. I told him that it is between him and God because the money I gave him belongs to the Lord. That led to a conversation about the Lord and how in times of trouble Rauno seemed to always meet people who tell him about Jesus.

Tomorrow came and went and Rauno didn’t keep his promise. A couple of weeks later he showed up at the café again, he was very troubled and asked if he can have a word with me in private. Rauno started to confess that he lied to me about the car, and that for a long time he has had this problem with lying and deceiving people for money. He told me that he didn’t want to do it any more, he needed help. He was in even bigger trouble. He “borrowed” $30,000 and the man he borrowed money from was now pressing charges against him. I was not mad at Rauno, I felt God’s compassion for him. He was deeply trapped in sin and didn’t have the power to break it. I told him that I forgive him for the 10 euros, and God will forgive him for his sins if he asks Him, and repents of anything he has done against God or people, and gives his life to Him. Jesus and only Jesus can help him to overcome lying and can break this bondage, and make him and his life totally new. As he prayed together with me to receive Jesus, he was crying and desperate to be different, to be free. We prayed that whatever God allows in his life from now on, whether it means being pardoned, get a job and start paying off his debt or going to prison, he will accept it. A few weeks later he brought a bouquet of flowers to thank me. He found a job and worked it out with the man he robbed to pay him back.

Rauno has a lot to learn, please pray that he would be able to choose the right path every day. Jesus said,” I am the way, the truth and the life…” We pray Rauno keeps choosing Jesus.

YOUTH CONFERENCE IN SWEDEN
 https://www.light-house.se/

On March 24-26th the Lighthouse Church in Vasteras, Sweden held a Youth Conference. The theme of the conference “IN HIM” was based on Ephesians 1. We would like to thank Daniel Steen and his church for inviting us to minister at this conference. Thank you for providing financially for this whole trip, thank you everyone volunteering at the conference and making breakfast for us every morning. We were very blessed. It was a blessing to have Victor and Anna, and also Natasha all the way from India to join us as team members, for their input into the ministry.

                    
                                          (It was sunny but very windy that weekend)

SATURDAY WORSHIP

Saturday morning our team was leading the morning session, sharing the Word followed by worship and prayer. We sensed the hunger and expectation from God among the young people.

                                     
                                                   (Anna Avdyakov interpreting for Imre)

Imre shared a short message of coming to the Lord when he was young, falling away from Him as a teenager, returning to Him at the age of 19, and his journey ever since. He talked about how after coming back to the Lord he was trying to serve Him as much as he knew how and as much as he can see and learn from people around him. He was trying to be like all those people and the people he read in Christian books, worship leaders that he saw on the internet and videos but still not being fulfilled and not knowing who he really was in Christ. Finally he met somebody that taught him the importance of knowing the Word of God, the priority of God’s presence in his life, loving to spend more time with God rather than people and trying to copy others' relationship with the Lord. Imre said, “That’s when I started to truly be changed, in God’s presence”. He loves being in the presence of God because only the Lord and His Spirit can change us. 2 Cor. 3:17-18 says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
After that we started worshiping the Lord and the young people responded to the call to use this opportunity to get closer to the Lord, to get to know Him better, to be changed. A lot of the young people  were face down on the floor, crying out to God, worshiping Him in the beauty of His presence (see the pictures below). His presence was very intense.

   
                           
One of the girls stayed on her knees for a long time weeping before the Lord. Anna and I came up to her to see if she needed prayer. "I am just so hungry for God", she said. We knew she was OK, because the Lord was answering her prayer and increasing her hunger for Him (left photo below).

                                  

After worship we led a seminar on prophetic ministry (right photo above), and had a group session to help activate people in their gifts. Many young people were encouraged in knowing that they can hear God and are able to use their gifts to serve others in the church and also outside of it. A lot of young people shared with us afterward that what happened during morning service influenced further worship services and the rest of the conference. They felt a different level of God’s presence. At the same time as we ministered to others we have been blessed also, people shared prophetic words that encouraged us.

FROM NATASHA

The highlight of the trip to Sweden was the opportunity itself to be there. I made a decision to fly to Sweden from India for two days of conference - and I believe that sometimes the Lord takes us a long way even if it is to bless just one or two people. The very first night Anna and I came up to a woman, and the presence of God was very thick around her. It's been a while since I experienced it in such a strong way. As we were praying for her the Lord showed me different things about her calling, gifts and anointing. One of the things I sensed was that she had a healing anointing and I saw a picture of her laying hands on disabled children and they were getting healed. We all agreed in prayer and declared those things over her. After we were done, she shared that all of the things were accurate and that she was actually a physiotherapist working with disabled children. WOW! God is amazing!
The second day we got a chance to share prophetic words one-on-one between sessions. I shared with about ten people and for  most of them it was either an encouragement or confirmation of things going on in their lives. I also got a word for a girl I saw in the crowd. I was reminded of a Scripture where Jesus called out to Peter to walk on water (Math. 14: 22-33). It says that the boat with the disciples was "a considerable distance from land" (v. 24) when Jesus told Peter, "Come!" (v. 29). I felt that a long time ago God had called her and she said "yes" and that currently she was in the boat in the middle of the sea and Jesus was calling her to come. After I shared it she told me that several years ago she planned  to go to the Philippines to be a missionary, however she had to postpone the move because she and her husband found out they were expecting a baby. This word of knowledge reminded her of the promise she gave to the Lord and confirmed that it was time for them to go.
I was very blessed and happy to be part of the team and minister to people prophetically!

ANSWER TO PRAYER

In the last Newsletter we were asking you to join us in prayer for our sister Olga from St. Petersburg, Russia. She had problems with her blood pressure. Since then Olga has been doing well, her blood pressure is now normal. She is very thankful to the Lord that He intervened in her situation and brought healing. Thank you so much for your prayers.

PLEASE ALSO PRAY WITH US FOR:

  • spiritual growth of every member of the church
  • growth of the church in membership
  • wisdom for leadership team how to pastor and lead the church
  • fruitful evangelism at the coffee shop and outside the church
  • salvation of Estonian people
  • provision of financial needs
  • protection from sicknesses during changing weather
  • strength for the staff of the church and at the cafe
  • finances for the staff to travel to the US during summer


NEEDS FOR THE CAFE:
  • coffee roaster for the cafe (this will help lower our costs considerably)
  • new (used) vehicle for the ministry (our once trusty 2002 Toyota has well over 250,000 km and needs to go into retirement)
  • new stove for the kitchen (ours is a used home stove, we need industrial)
  • electric fryer
  • furniture 


Thanks and God bless!
John & Sara Russell,
and The Living Room Fellowship team
for StreetCry Ministries & The Living Room Fellowship