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April 14, 2007
Greetings from Ufa, where the snow is almost finally melted off. We had a heavy snow on Tuesday this past week that paralyzed the city, and since our van is out of commission (as-of-yet unknown electrical problems), I was on foot or tram for several days.
Wanted to give you a quick focused prayer update so that you know how the Lord is working all around us:
1. Pray for Victor and Susan Bauer, new team members who are presently packing in Moscow toward an arrival in Ufa hopefully on April 19. Pray especially for Susan who has been sick this past week and is just now feeling better, just in time to deal with all the packing issues associated with moving to a new place of service.
2. Praise God with us for the two volunteer teams who ministered with local Ufa believers during two projects the 2nd half of March. God blessed the first team with an absolute open door into two local language university departments where the team was able to do cultural exchange and relational witnessing with scores of students during a 5-day period. This team worked hard to promote the ESL workshop that followed the next week. They also did a magnificent job of helping us interview potential participants for the ESL workshop. Kudos to Scott Hume and his team (from Weatherford, OK) for their exemplary spirit of servanthood and flexibility they showed during the week. We hope to have them back here again!
The 2nd week, Ray Burks led his team from Selmer, TN to present a top-notch ESL workshop attended by 200+. Although the team was confronted with lodging and transport problems, they showed tremendous patience and flexibility and did a stellar job of interacting with the participants in English. We are praying for God’s will in seeing a long-term partnership emerge with Ray’s church. Over 100 of the ESL participants have indicated a desire to continue their English studies with our team. Please PRAY for our team as it plans toward an April 28 start date to facilitate English classes at 3 levels of proficiency, using materials such as Jesus Film clips to support different weekly themes for English study. Pray for myself, my wife Eileen, Ola, Lily, Stas, Victor, and Susan as we facilitate these groups.
3. Pray for our team as we work with pastor Andrei and Roman (an emerging church planter) and 1st Baptist Church in Ufa to plant a new church in the Sipailovo district of Ufa. It is our hope that a volunteer team led by Mark Bordeaux (Westside Bapt. Church in Sumter, SC) will help facilitate some sports clinics in the Sipailovo district during June in support of this new church planting work.
4. Pray for Grace Church in Ufa as it continues to meet in our apartment on Sundays for worship. We’ve had some visitors of late, and are praying for their repentance and entrance into the kingdom of God.
5. Pray for me as I continue doctoral degree work. I have just finished one directed study course and am turning in course work by email this weekend. I will be going on a European Study Tour in England, Scotland, Wales, and Rome during the latter part of May and have already started the readings and writings for that course. want so much to strike the proper balance between family needs, church planting work and leadership, and doctoral work. Pray for the Lord to lengthen my days and Grant me insight and practical application into how to balance it all and still have margin in my life.
6. Pray with us in preparation of a large Int’l World Changers team to be in Ufa the last week of July to do a multitude of service and ministry projects, including ESL, sports ministry, prayerwalking, Bible distribution, etc. We are having trouble with their accommodation reservations, please pray for a breakthrough in this area. Pray for upcoming negotiation meetings with city officials, hotel officials, and travel agencies as we seek to address the lodging and transport needs for this very large team.
7. Last, we invite all of our prayer partners to consider participating in an extended time of prayer and fasting with our team and many of our Russia field colleagues May 1-June 10. We are praying and fasting for spiritual breakthrough, revival, and accelerate church planting in Ufa and across all of Russia. For more information, see our website (www.hope4ufa.com) for more info and download the 90 Days of Prayer presentation and also obtain the book “Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough” by Elmer Towns, which describes 9 different types of biblical fasts.
We are convinced of the importance of Jesus’ words in Matt 17:21. There are some very powerful spiritual strongholds in the institutions and society within Ufa that can be dismantled and changed only through persistent prayer and fasting. We want God to speak to our hearts, change us, enlighten us, and reveal Himself to us and Ufa in very visible powerful ways that will impact the city for the kingdom of God.
Would you please consider joining us in this very focused time of spiritual discipline so that you, we, and Ufa would be changed for the glory of God?
Thanks for standing with us and for us in prayer. We thank you for your sacrificial gifts through the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Int’l Missions in your local church. We thank many of you for your personal involvement in Ufa as you have come (and are planning to come) on volunteer trips to minister with our team and local believers. The Great Commission is God’s call on EACH of our lives and we all play some kind of ongoing role in the fulfillment of that Commission, so that all the people groups of Ufa and Bashkortostan have had a chance to hear the good news and make their choice whether or not to believe it.
Blessings and much love to each of you!
Chris
