February, 2002 Prayer Letters

 
Greetings from cold and snowy Ufa! It is -4 and we had several inches of snow yesterday. But the cold does not reduce our love and warmth for God and the peoples of Bashkortostan. Here are some prayer needs to help you focus your intercession:

1. Chris will be moving the family possessions to a new apartment next Monday/Tuesday. Pray for decent weather, smooth loading and unloading, and plenty of help. We will be moving everything from the 10th floor of our present apartment building (with help of an elevator) across the city to the 5th floor of a 5-story apartment building (without an elevator). Pray for safety of all involved, as there are several heavy items to carry up those 5 flights of stairs.

2. Praise the Lord for His protection of Eileen and the unborn twins. They are developing well, and Eileen is doing well, mainly due to many friends and family pitching in to help her care for Nathan, Timmy, & Heather. The twins are due on May 4. Thank the Lord that Heather is starting to walk on her own now!

3. Pray for Chris as he makes preparation to speak at a missions conference in northeast Oklahoma Feb 23-27. It will be a wonderful opportunity to tell the story of what God is doing in Bashkortostan, what we are discerning to be His will for future efforts, and to mobilize prayer support, volunteer teams, and possibly even new team members. Also, pray for him as he preaches at local churches on Feb 3 and 10, that the Word of God would proceed from his mouth with the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit.

4. Continue praying for preparations for a major evangelistic campaign which will take place in late August of this year. We expect 50-60 volunteers to come here for two weeks to preach, visit, invite, and testify of God's goodness thru Jesus. For more info, see www.crusades.com and check the 2002 schedule link, then click on Russia to find out more info and how you can participate with us in this endeavor.

5. Pray for the development and enabling of scripture distribution projects throughout the region. We have heard from several believers here who have a burden to sow up to 170,000 copies of scripture within the next two years. Sowing God's Word is one of the most crucial components that will help trigger a rapid and exponential growth in the number of churches. If we sow little, we reap little. If we sow much, we reap much (Isaiah 55:11). Pray that as people interact and respond to God's Word, that there will be believers and leaders in place to help disciple these new believers so that they are quickly turned loose to help with the reproduction process.

6. Pray for new team members Larry and Josie Moon. Josie has applied for US citizenship; because of the events of Sept. 11, the process is more time-consuming and painstaking. Pray that the Lord would influence this decision to occur soon, as the Moons have much preparation for their new jobs as apprentice church planters here in Ufa. They will be in training/orientation in Virginia this fall.

7. Pray for continued fruit from the church-planting conference held here last November. Reports are starting to trickle in of the varied ways conference participants are using their training to help reach family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers with the good news, in order to start new bible study groups and new churches.

8. Pray for wisdom as we seek to discover the best materials and approaches for Nathan's home schooling needs once we return to Ufa after the birth of the twins.

9. Pray for the senior pastor of the Baptists of Bashkortostan, Peter Zhuk. He has a tremendous responsibility to oversee the work of about 30 different pastors, regional missionaries, and church planters. He also has a great heart and vision to reach the lost, along with developing an ongoing/indigenous system of education and theological training for all church planters and leaders.

Thanks for being a crucial and strategic part of what God is doing here in Bashkortostan.

For more information, check out our website at www.hope4ufa.com


Blessings to you!
Chris Carr
Ufa,Bashkortostan, Russia

 

Prayer Needs for the Ufa Team

That doors would be opened for scripture distribution projects to proceed for the next two years. There are great possibilities, but also satanic opposition to the spread of God’s Word. Pray for local believers who are involved in such projects; pray that any opposition would be overruled by the sovereignty of the Lord.

For successful re-registration of visas in May/June. Several other GCC groups will be trying to similarly register within a year if we are successful.

Tatar/Bashkort scripture translation projects:

-Tatar NT completed in August, full Bible hopefully in two more years

-Bashkirs have scripture portions (Gospels, Proverbs) available, entire Bible translation due to be completed in 2005.

Evangelistic campaign in August of this year. We anticipate up to 60 believers from America coming to serve in a variety of evangelistic approaches, with the goal of multiple church starts and evangelistic bible studies.

For new team members Larry and Josie Moon. They will be in training this fall and hope to arrive in Russia around Christmas/New Years’s time to serve 3 years as apprentice church planters

For Valentin K., a layman who is very active in prison ministry. He is using training and materials from the Brock conference to start evangelistic bible studies among 90 prisoners who have AIDs. Valentin also serves as the "public relations" man for the RBU churches when dealing with local/nat’l authorities.

Relationships with the spiritual head of Moslems in Russia ("mufti") and the archbishop for Bashkortostan. There appears to be some possibility of dialogue which could prove fruitful for humanitarian ministry and also to enhance our standing with local/national authorities.

We need to "mine" the data from our media survey, so as to do media mapping for the next several years. We need prayer to know how to effectively share the good news thru multi-faceted, strategically-timed media tools.

Opportunities to speak about American culture, holidays, religious beliefs, etc.,   abound, along with Bible distribution opportunities in the university and institute classrooms. We need wisdom as to which opportunities to accept on both short- and long-term bases, so as to maximize our energies in seed-sowing and relationship-building for future team members who will teach ESL.

Personal needs: for our soon move to a new apartment; for positive relationships with new neighbors; for our own language study options and needs; for more adjustment with two more babies and less sleep for a while.

Discernment about materials/timing/approach for Nathan’s home schooling needs, possibly in detski sad also. Also, Nathan has occasional problems in dealing with anger. We try to keep in mind that he has had a LOT of constant change in his five years of life.

For Peter Zhuk, senior pastor for Bashkortostan. He has a great vision & desire for church planting and also for training for the workers in B-stan. He works cautiously because of past problems with government, but is a bold preacher.