December, 2  2004

1) As you know, we have a short term mission team visiting us from Sunday, December 5th until Tuesday, the 14th. The Team hailing from New Life Baptist Church in Broken Arrow/Tulsa, Oklahoma, will be assisting us in literature distribution, prayer walking, orphanage ministry, student ministry, English language ministry, Bible studies, singing, preaching, and the presentation of a Christian concert in one of our city's universities. I've already sent you a prayer calendar with an event that the Team will be participating in highlighted for each day. In addition, I will try to send you a prayer request every night that they are here. Remember that we are some 11 hours ahead of you. And so, if I say that an event is happening at 12p.m., that would mean at it is at 1a.m. your time.

2) Team Ufa asks you to pray for the Sipailovo (sea-PIE-lava) district of Ufa. The bedroom district of Sipailovo is home to some 100,000 souls, many of them new Russians, and yet has no Christian church or witness. A believer in the U.S. has agreed to fund the renting of an apartment which will serve as a beachhead for evangelism in the area. Beginning in January, Chris, Larry, and a number of Russian brothers will be braving the winter cold to distribute Christian literature and invite Sipailovo’s residents to evangelical films and Bible studies. Pray that God might protect them from illness, the authorities, and more importantly from the evil one and the spiritual wickedness in high places that he controls. Pray that God might bring seeking souls to the studies and fashion for Himself a church from amongst the tens of thousands of lost souls in Sipailovo.  

3)      Team Ufa asks you to pray for an excursion that the Russian Baptist Association of Bashkortostan will be undertaking in January. The plan is to drive north and east of Bashkortostan past the Tyumen oil and gas fields to the area around the Siberian city of Khanti-Mansisk. The excursion will begin on January 7^th and last for some 24 days. It will be divided into two parts with two teams each visiting remote village churches for 12 days. There are very few if any paved roads in the area and most dwellings lack indoor plumbing and/or electricity. Team Ufa’s Larry may well be among the brothers going. Pray that God might protect the men from illness, the bitter cold, physical harm, mechanical breakdown, and the schemes of the evil one. Pray that God might use them to encourage churches and reach the lost of the Tyumen Oblast’.  

4) Team Ufa asks you to please pray for Grace Church, a church plant in the Television Center District of Ufa. Like so many churches in Russia, Grace Church is struggling. At best, the small body has 9 members. But it only averages 4 to 5 members per gathering. Please pray that through evangelism and outreach events, God might add to Grace church’s numbers. Pray that Grace’s current fellowship might be more committed to gathering together for mutual encouragement and to joining God in His work. Grace is currently teaming with the Ufa Bible Church and Team Ufa in sponsoring an evangelical English class that centers on the Jesus film. Pray that when the end of the course approaches in early January, that a number of the students will not only have improved their English, but will have come to Christ in repentance having accepted the forgiveness of sins and salvation that can only be found in Him.