December 22, 2007

Greetings from Ufa and early Merry Christmas!  Temps here are about to nosedive and of course we have lots of snow on the ground for Christmas!

 Here is a brief prayer update to inform and guide your intercession during the Christmas week:

 1.       Our team conducted two Christmas parties at two different educational institutions this past week.  Pray for the many students and faculty who attended who are pondering and reflecting on what was said, sung, and presented.  We gave out almot 100 copies of the New Testament and Josh McDowell’s ‘More Than a Carpenter’ in Russian as Christmas gifts.  Pray for the recipients to open those New Testaments especially and read the Christmas story in Luke 2 and start on the road to salvation.  Our teammates Victor and Susan Bauer will be leading a Christmas party at another educational institution on Christmas Eve evening so please be praying for the Lord to work through them to build witnessing bridges to the hearts of those attending for the sake of the gospel.

 2.       We want to thank you for your support of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Int’l Missions and for your sacrificial investment in the Lord’s kingdom work…as you give, you are helping us buy Bibles/scripture portions/tracts/evangelistic films to sow the gospel, paying our salary/benefits, helping to mentor/train believers in evangelism/church planting, reaching street kids through giving them warm clothing & meals and real love, reaching addicts through 3 Baptist rehab centers in Bashkortostan, providing our team with a VW van for ministry/personal use, providing homeschooling materials for our children, etc. 

 3.       Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!  It has been a good year for our team and we are honored to serve the Lord here in Ufa, Russia!

 4.       Please be praying for a young teen named Sveta who is one of the street kids here to whom Grace Church is ministering through the efforts of members Marina S. and Marina T.   God is obviously dealing with Sveta, and though she is still quite rough around the edges, stubborn, and easily offended, her heart is slowly opening in response to the unconditional love she is being shown.  Pray for her to be born again for her own sake and also so that she will become a catalyst that leads to the salvation of other street kids.

 5.       www.hope4ufa.com website up & running: we want to thank the webmasters  for their sacrificial spirit and diligence in maintaining the Ufa website.  The webhosting company through whom they had maintained the site suddenly and mysteriously ceased operations several weeks ago, leaving the site in a lurch and non-working.  They put in long, long hours and much work to set up the site through another webhosting company and now the site is up and running again.  Thank you  for your commitment and investment in what the Lord is doing and will do in Ufa and across the Republic of Bashkortostan!

 6.       New DVD: Nearing completion  and release of a new advocacy DVD about the Lord’s work here in Ufa and Bashkortostan.  Please pray for the physical and mental stamina needed to finish this project and prepare for distribution of the new resource.  If you would like a copy, please write us and copy to the producer's email address (in the CC line above) so that we can start building a mailing list.  The DVD will come out hopefully within first two months of 2008 as the Lord allows. 

 7.       Microenterprise church member business:  please be praying for a microenterprise business run by several believers who are members of Grace Church.  The members have been selling small manual and electric tools as well as fastening materials (nails, screws, brackets, etc) and the business is growing by the week.  They are almost at the break even point after only 6 weeks of operation.  The purposes of this business: to maintain a stable source of income for the 5 believers involved in the business, thereby bringing more stable and predictable tithes/offerings into the church, thereby bringing increased funds to do ministry especially in the area of church planting in Ufa.  There are plans to assist other Baptist churches to open similar small stores, and collectively the churches will be putting part of the profits into a collection that will help pay the salary support for additional church planters across Bashkortostan.  The believers in the Ufa store are wanting to start larger volume and wholesale work in cooperation with local builders and construction companies, requiring add’l steps of faith and supernatural provision.  Please pray for God’s continued blessing and protection of these fine believers who are living by faith and utter dependence on God in this endeavour.

 8.       Rejoice with us as our oldest son Nathan turns 11 years old on Sunday Dec 23.  Nathan has been such a joy to us and we are the richer for having him as our son! 

Thanks for being part of our team as you pray with and for us and the Lord’s work here in Ufa and across Bashkortostan!

 Chris Carr

IMB Strategy Coordinator for Ufa, Russia