December, 2003 Prayer Letters

Dear Friends,

 Greetings from Ufa!  We have had a wonderful Christmas time with family and friends here in Ufa recently...we were able to celebrate with a few other American evangelicals, singing Christmas carols/hymns, eating some of Eileen's wonderful cooking (including turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie!), sharing the good news with neighbors, etc.

 Chris finished teaching the first half of a Missiology course in the Ufa Bible School on Dec. 12.  There are 18 students in the school, and they recently had their first test.  The director of the school told Chris this past week that the Lord is beginning to put a passion for ministry and church-planting into the hearts of many of the students as a direct result of the Missiology course.  So we can all praise the Lord together and thank Him for leading the students toward active ministry and not just theoretical learning.  Thank you for praying with us and for us concerning the school, and continue to pray that the students would be led of the Lord to find their places of ministry as the second semester starts on Jan 13.

 Another key area for which we need you to pray:  we are in the very early stages of developing a new church planting team to  minister in the district of the city in which we live (Telecenter).  We have committed to working with a local believer who has a passion and call on his life from the Lord, to plant a new church in our part of the city.  We have the blessing of the local senior pastor on this effort.  We are beginning to pray for the Lord to reveal His will concerning this project, and we ask you to pray with us concerning the following needs:

1. For a place to conduct bible studies, worship meetings, and special events; pray that the Lord guide us in this search at a rental price that can be afforded and in a place that will be the most strategically located

 2. For the Lord to show us the right day and frequency in which the new team should pray and fast for the success of the new church planting project;

 3. For up to 5 additional local believers to join the church planting team; as mentioned above, we have already agreed to work with a local believer in this project, and additionally, another believer has committed to serving as a bilingual translator for both speaking and writing purposes; we are asking God for 5 more believers, perhaps some of the Bible School students, to join the team;

 4. For the Lord to reveal to us the time of the week to have weekly team meetings; 

5. For the Lord to show us which initial methods, approaches, and projects to use to gather people for evangelistic bible studies which will lead to salvation and the birth of a new church.

 6. Pray that the Lord will use us to infuse a church-planting mentality into the hearts and minds of the other team members; we are not content to merely add a new church; we want to birth a church that has a reproductive mentality, in which each member accepts their responsibility to be on mission with the Lord to start their own evangelistic bible study

I shared with the initial team members this past Friday, that it is a hope of mine to have an initial evangelistic project launched in order to have our first gathering for bible studies by Resurrection Sunday (April 11) here in Ufa.  I feel that folks are more open to spiritual matters during certain times and seasons of their lives and of the calendar year, hence my desire that we are operational in this new bible study group by April 11 if at all possible.

 Thank you for having a heart for the lost peoples of Ufa.  I was recently reminded of the spiritual and practical needs of folks here in Ufa; I was leaving the grocery store, and noticed an elderly woman standing right in front of me as I exited...she had her hand out begging, and when my eyes met hers, she began to cry and told me that she had to stand out there and beg for money in order to have enough money to eat...we are quite often exposed to beggars here in Ufa, and many of them are not legitimately begging; however, my heart was touched by this woman, who had no gloves on and her fingers were gnarled and she was in obvious discomfort because of the frigid wind and snow coming down...I gave her all the change in my pockets and told her I was giving to her in the name of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world; she again began weeping, but this time the tears were tears of joy and thankfulness.  Why don't you stop right now, and thank the Lord for His bounty in your life, and make a commitment that you too will be the kind of believer through whom God can bless others with both bread for the body and the Bread of Life for their soul? 

We thank you for your financial gifts through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering...your sacrifical gifts enable us to live and serve here and share the good news with the 99.8% of Ufa residents who have not yet heard the gospel in a culturally relevant way that enables them to respond to the good news. If you are not Southern Baptist and would like to know how you can further support the work here in Ufa, please write us at: chrisandeileen@iname.com and we will be glad to share with you about such possibilities.

 Again, we remind you to periodically check out our ministry website: www.hope4ufa.com

 Blessings!

 Chris Carr

IMB Strategy Coordinator for the megacity of Ufa, Russia