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