August, 2005 Prayer Letters

 

 

Aug 3, 2005 

  1. There were 21 total USA participants on the IWC team (11 teenagers and 10 adults)
  1. They did volunteer work each morning in 3 different city-defined sites, cleaning up trash, bottles, glass, brick shards, tree limbs, etc;
  2. All 3 work crews were interviewed and photographed by at least one local newspaper or TV station in a pretty favorable light; the fact that they were even interviewed is miraculous and hopefully a big step forward in continuing a fledgling relationship with city officials.
  1. Each crew was involved in evangelistic ministry each afternoon and early evening; some ministry statistics:

A. Sipailovo crew -  distributed 10 Bibles, 200 light bulbs with worship invitations, evangelistic Frisbees (all crews handed out around 400 Frisbees), handed out several hundred promotional brochures giving info about our 3 evangelistic rehab centers for alcoholics and drug addicts.

B. Telecenter crew – distributed 100 Bibles, 150 worship invitations, 100 evangelistic tracts, evangelistic Frisbees, engaged in sports evangelism with multiple youth.

C. Nizhegorodka crew – distributed 50 Bibles, many invitations and tracts and shared daily with children and youth (60 or more) in a 5-day summer Backyard Bible club. 

  1. One grandma publicly repented in Nizhegorodka & we are attempting to connect her with an evangelistic Bible study in that part of the city 4 new folks attended a worship service/bible study in Sipailovo as a result of the IWC ministry.
  1. We saw the status of evangelicals (especially Baptists) raised with those city officials and local youth workers with whom we had contact 13 local believers work alongside the USA volunteers and thus showed a willingness to work as a multi-cultural team, taking new risks and trying new approaches; this is CRUCIAL for the success of future partnership projects.

 Praise the Lord with us for this important first step in trying yet another new approach to evangelism and church planting through service projects, sports, rehab ministry, etc.  We are hoping to have further such teams back to Ufa again at the end of 2006 and hopefully 2 or 3 teams in 2007.

 Please pray with us for the 2 seminary students who arrive in Ufa Thursday night to assist us in prayer walking and scripture sowing ministry, worship participation, orphanage ministry, and youth/kid’s ministry. They are Melanie and Suresh and they will be with us until Aug 15.

 Thanks for praying with and for us!

 Chris Carr  IMB Strategy Coordinator for Ufa, Russia

 

August 1, 2005

Dear Praying Friends, 

1) Team Ufa asks you to pray for two students from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary who will be joining us from August 5th through August 16th. Pray that God might protect them from sin and from all physical and spiritual harm during their sojourn with us. Pray that because of the summer missionaries’ obedience to Him and the Almighty’s great mercy that the Father might bless and confirm the work of their hands while they are in Ufa. Ask the Lord to work in them and through them to reach the Russian speaking people of this great mega-city. Ask the Lord to transform their lives and the lives of those that they come in contact with during the 11 days that they will be here.

   

2) Team Ufa asks that you pray for Victor Bauer, a potential future member of Team Ufa as he undergoes knee surgery on August 9th. Ask the Almighty to allow Vic's knee to quickly and completely heal up. Pray that the Bauers might soon get the IMB doctors' permission to proceed to the mission field as Master's program missionaries and members of Team Ufa. Pray that everything goes smoothly during Victor Bauer's surgery and that no complications arise after the surgery during rehabilitation.  

 

3) Team Ufa asks you to pray for a cluster meeting that will take place in Ekaterinburg from August 18th through August 20th. The Moons and Carrs will join co-workers from Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg for a few days of prayer and strategy. Pray that this meeting will not be marred by rancor and mistrust, but instead be characterized by cooperation, co-laboring, understanding, and love. Pray that the meeting might result in a felt sense of cohesiveness and unity and that the various team might leave the meeting with common goals.   

 

4) Team Ufa asks you to pray for Rima. While the International World Changers worked with children in the poor Nizhegorodka district of Ufa, Rima sat on the edge of the field and watched. Her grand daughter was one of the kids having a grand time. Finally, one member of the World Changers approached the old woman with an interpreter. In Russia, people most often come to Christ through relationships. They may be on the fringes of church life for years before they finally come to Christ. But Rima was atypical. God had already prepared her heart. After 20 minutes of conversation, Rima repented and became a member of God’s household. Pray that the old woman might seek fellowship with the only known evangelical Christian family in the region (we have taken steps to get them together) and that she might steadily grow in Christ. Thank God for the reconciliation with the Almighty that can be ours at any age. Thank Him for Rima.  

 
5) Team Ufa asks you to pray for an English as a Second Language (ESL) school that will take place in Ufa from September 23rd until October 1st. Hillcrest Baptist Church from Pensacola, Florida will be coming to work alongside Team Ufa in order to communicate the Gospel to the Russian speaking inhabitants of Ufa via the English language. Pray that this experienced, talented team will rely upon the Lord rather than their own strengths and past successes. Pray that their sojourn with us might translate into souls added to the Kingdom and brothers and sisters in Christ added to Ufa’s Christian churches. Pray that an outpouring of the Lord’s spirit on this ESL school might encourage the Russian brothers and give them a new and bolder vision for reaching the lost of Ufa.
 
6) Team Ufa asks that you pray for a mission team hailing from First Baptist Church of Laurel, Maryland, that will be working alongside Team Ufa from October 8th until October 20th. The Marylanders will busy themselves with prayer walking, Bible and literature distribution, orphanage and student work, recreational ministry, preaching, and church participation. Although they have increased their involvement the past few years, this church is relatively new to hands on missions. Pray that God will work in them and through them during their stay with us to the extent that they return to Maryland excited about planting the Gospel seed even to the ends of the Earth. Pray that both the lives of those on the Laurel Team and the lives of those they come to contact with in Ufa might be radically changed by the Creator as the result of the Maryland Baptists’ obedience to the Great Commission.   
 
7) Team Ufa asks you to pray for the Sipailovo (sea-PIE-lah-vah) district of Ufa. The bedroom district of Sipailovo is home to a populace of some 250,000 souls, several casinos and gambling clubs, a strip joint, and a mosque, but has no Christian church or witness. Church planting efforts there have never really gotten off the ground. The difficulty is that our Russian brothers believe that before there can be any ministry in Sipailovo, a trained and called Russian brother must oversee the efforts there. But, eight months after we rented an apartment in Sipailovo, with donated American funds, to serve as a base of evangelism in the area, no such leader willing to shoulder responsibility for ministry in Sipailovo has been identified. No one feels called to work there. And those few willing to do some work in Sipailovo typically only have a half a day a week to dedicate to the task. There simply are not enough brothers to go around. Except for cooperative efforts undertaken when visiting mission teams are in town, Sipailovo’s populace has not been substantially engaged with the Gospel. Very little ministry has been done. Pray that God might identify a Russian team leader for Sipailovo. Pray that despite our human frailties, God might glorify himself by planting a church in Sipailovo.  

 

 

 

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