1) 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 20^th. 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 greatly increased their involvement the past few years, this historic and strategic 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. Pray that their mission contagion will rock their church to its core.

2) Team Ufa asks that you pray for Victor Bauer, a potential future member of Team Ufa as he recuperates from knee replacement surgery. Ask the Almighty to allow Vic's knee (mechanical though it may be) to quickly and completely heal up. Pray that his pain will subside and that he will be a bit more mobile with each passing day. Pray that his leg might regain a good range of motion and that the swelling around the replaced knee might go down significantly. Pray that the Bauers might soon get the IMB doctors' permission to continue the mission board’s application process with an eye towards proceeding to the mission field as Master's program missionaries and members of Team Ufa. An evaluation will be done in early November.

3) Team Ufa asks you to pray for apprentice missionary, Larry Moon. Near the beginning of August, Larry began to notice that his feet swelled every day around the ankles and on the pads of his feet. With the swelling came pain. We right away-expected heart or kidney problems, but tests here have almost ruled that out. The pain and swelling have subsided greatly since Larry began taking an anti-inflammation medicine called Nice. Larry can now walk as fast as he ever did. But ever day, especially when Larry has to stand or sit at the computer for very long, his feet swell in front of the ankles. Pray that we might be able to find the root cause of Larry’s swelling feet. Pray that whatever the ailment is, that it will be manageable, and that Larry will be able to remain on the mission field. Larry will seek further evaluation the last week of October if the problem is not alleviated.

4)   In the waning days of September, a team from Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, led a six day English school here in Ufa that involved some 250 Russians at five language levels. Most of the students were unbelievers. Some 65 students claimed Jesus as her heart friend during the week and we praise God for their salvation if their claim is true. Only weeks of follow up will tell the real tale. Thanks for all of you who prayed for God’s activity in and through the Florida team. Now Team Ufa, which already teaches English for advanced students, is preparing to launch classes for beginning and intermediate students as well. Pray that God will enable us to attend to our students’ desire to learn English and, at the same time, convey the Gospel. Pray that through our evangelistic English classes that God might allow us to reap a harvest of souls and that we might see tangible fruit as the result of this ministry.

5) Team Ufa asks you to pray for a team from West Side Baptist Church in Sumter, S.C., which will be working with us at Thanksgiving time. The brothers and sisters in Christ at West Side are great mission partners who have not only worked beside us on this side of the Earth, but have rented an apartment in the Sipailovo region of Ufa as a base of evangelism to the churchless area. Unfortunately, only two of their members will be joining us for Thanksgiving. Pastor Mark and Brother Dean, a man from his church, will be keying on ministry and evangelism in the Sipailovo region and then helping us give thanks to Almighty God for His bountiful blessings. Thank God for these two dear brothers in Christ willing to give up Thanksgiving with loved ones in the States to bless us and reach Sipailovo for Christ. Ask the Lord to bless them, sustain them, and give them tangible fruit in Ufa during their sojourn with us Thanksgiving week.

6) Team Ufa asks you to pray for Grace Church in Ufa, which will be losing its worship space at the end of the year. Grace’s worship space has been a great blessing to the church for over a year now. Grace has used it not only for worship, but for seminars, fellowships, and English Clubs. Losing the church’s present worship location is painful indeed. Pray that discouragement and anger over the landlord’s insistence on upping the rent to an unbelievable and unobtainable amount might be transformed into peace, joy, and reliance upon the Lord. Pray that the landlord might still have a God given change of heart. Pray that if Grace does lose its worship facility, that the church will either be able to find another facility that will be even better than the present one, or be able to thrive as an apartment church.

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, ten 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. Beseech God to call out two Russian brothers to work with Apprentice missionary Larry in the region. Pray that despite our human frailties, God might glorify himself by planting a church in Sipailovo.

8) Team Ufa asks you to pray for The Light of the Gospel Church in Ufa, whose church building will be bulldozed next summer. The church of 50 souls sought 10 years for a place to meet. Meeting in an apartment limited what they could do ministry wise. Finally they found an old building and over the course of two years, renovated it until it is now a nice worship facility. But, in Russia, you can own the building, but it is very difficult, especially for a church, to own land. And so, just as The Light of the Gospel finished their renovations, the government declared its right of imminent domain in order to build yet another apartment building. Pray that God might change the hearts of the government authorities. And should the bulldozing proceed, pray for peace and comfort for the church that does not know what to do next. Pray that the Light of the Gospel might, by the power of God, be able to do what is impossible here, buy land on which to construct its own building, or find an affordable existing building - and failing that, pray that the Lord might make them a vibrant apartment church.

9) Team Ufa asks you to pray that the loss of two of the Russian Baptists’ five worship facilities and the great difficulties (some say impossibility) associated with purchasing property in Ufa might lead our Russian colleagues, at long last, to consider the feasibility of planting cell and apartment churches and finally partner with us in church planting rather than insisting that everything is okay with the status quo.