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May 22, 2003
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Ufa and from TeamUfa! We want to update you on what
the Lord has been and is doing here in the Ufa, so that you can be
informed how He has answered your intercession and so that you can
continue to effectively pray for His glory to be revealed among the
peoples of Bashkortostan:
1. In early April we assisted in the presentation of a Pioneer
Evangelism training. 132 individuals representing 32 churches (most
from the Ural Mountains region) participated and committed to starting up
to 181 new bible study groups within the next year or two. Pray
that the participants continue to gather their local evangelism teams,
train them, and send them out to start new evangelistic bible study
groups.
2. Pray for a lady named Azia whom we met recently in our
neighborhood. We loaned her a copy of the JESUS film two weeks ago and
she has already watched it. We made a return visit to talk with her about
the film and she was quite open to studying the Bible with us. Pray that
in the coming week or two we can arrange for her to meet with us for a
meal and to start an evangelistic Bible study with her and others in the
same building.
3. Pray for TeamUfa members Larry and Josie Moon, as they will fly
to Helsinki, Finland next week to renew visas. Pray that the Lord guide
every step of their journey and reveal to them how to find the embassy,
fill out the forms, get back and forth from airports and hotels, etc.
This will be their first time to renew visas on their own and they are
understandably concerned about visiting a new
area on their own. Pray especially for them on Friday May 30 when they
will attempt to get express one-day service and receive their new visas.
Timely reception and registration of new visas is becoming an increasingly
difficult and very expensive process for all of us.
4. Pray for our team as we hunt for places to conduct special
evangelism events and assist with new bible studies. Pray that the
Lord would lead us to 'persons of peace' (Luke 10) who will be sympathetic
with our work and help us gain entrance into places and spaces where folks
would feel safe to study the Bible and participate in special events.
Most folks here are not comfortable visiting church buildings here. Our
motto should be "go tell and make disciples", not "Come, hear!".
5. Pray for the Jesus film team here in Ufa, under the direction of
two men named Nikolai and Sasha. Pray that the Lord leads them to persons
of peace who will help them gain entrance to venues and places to show the
Jesus film, so that individuals will see/hear the gospel and respond in
faith, and so that new bible studies can be started as a result of
showings of the film.
6. Please write the following special events on your summer calendar
and pray for these events:
A. June 5-6 Partnership meetings with representatives of the
Evangecube (in Moscow) (pray that the Lord bind our hearts together as
we discuss strategies using the Evangecube for church planting and
personal evangelism training in Russian)
B. June 9-23 A
videography team from southwest Missouri will be in Moscow and Ufa
with us to produce an advocacy video. Pray for the safe arrival of Carl
and Arline Ryan and their equipment; for safety and favor with local
authorities as the film is shot and edited; for divine appointments from
the Lord to know when to shoot video and when not to; for physical and
mental endurance, as the work will require long hours and much patience;
for the finished product to be used of God to mobilize more workers (both
for short-term mission trips and for longer-term commitments to join our
team), strategic prayer support, mobilization of additional
resources for our church-planting strategies, & for new creative
partnerships with churches, associations of churches, and other Great
Commission believers and groups. If your church/class/group would like to
receive a copy of the video/cd/dvd (slated for availability by early
fall), please write to us at:
chrisandeileen@iname.com
C. July 19-26 Pray for two
ladies who will come from the USA to lead specialized English-language
training for our team and ten national believers. Their training will
help us be more effective in the use of English in creative evangelistic
teaching methods in the coming years.
7. Pray for a very creative evangelism strategy to take place in June...an
evangelistic float trip involving several of the local believers here
in the Ufa area. Pray for the Lord's guidance as they canoe into the
backwoods areas to share the gospel.
8. Finally, pray with us that the Lord would bless recent speaking
opportunities we've had in local schools and universities. Several
people requested copies of the JESUS film; pray that as we visit these
homes that the Lord would help us once again to locate persons of peace to
host bible studies in their homes.
Thanks for your crucial participation in the Lord's work here in the Ufa
area and for TeamUfa. Thank you in advance for your sacrificial
support of our work through your gifts through the Cooperative Program and
the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) for International Missions.
Remember to regularly check out website for updates concerning the work
here:
www.hope4ufa.com
Much love and thanks to you!
Chris, Eileen, Nathan, Timothy, Heather, Stephen, & Seth Carr
Your IMB workers in Ufa, Bashkortostan (Russia)
May 5, 2003
Update
1. Praise the Lord with us, that the Central Baptist
church here in Ufa has had 15 members involved in Pioneer Evangelism
training the past two weeks. Pray that they would burn with a passion to
do whatever it takes to gather people for evangelistic bible studies that
would lead to new churches. Pray for the Baptist churches in Salavat,
Voznesenko, Krevla, Sibai, Ufa, & Ishimbai which are also conducting
Pioneer Evangelism training, that their efforts will soon lead to the
formation of new bible study groups & the empowerment of the laity in
those churches to do church-planting.
2. Pray for Chris and Larry as they have been involved in distribution
of the JESUS film in a local building. We were able to meet several
folks in the building and loan them copies of the film and received
permission to return and visit with eight of them this next weekend.
During this week we will be visiting others who weren't home. Pray the
the Holy Spirit works in the hearts and minds of those watching the film,
that He would convict of sin, judgment, & righteousness, so that we can
have a good opportunity to have meaningful discussions with them and
involve them in bible studies.
3. Pray for our team (TeamUfa) as we develop a team covenant
together. Pray for us as we begin to mesh and gel together, that each of
us would complement the team with various strengths, giftings, and
capacities.
4. Pray for Larry and Josie Moon & Chris & Eileen Carr as they continue in
their language study. Pray that they find the right balance in
study, church-planting ministry, personal spiritual development, their
marriages & family life, and integration in TeamUfa.
5. Pray for our team as we explore the possibilities of doing church
planting among pockets of Russian-speaking Vietnamese and Gypsy
peoples we have stumbled upon on local open-air markets. Pray that God
would give us His wisdom as we seek the most effective ways to minister to
these people groups.
6. Thank the Lord with us that Nathan and Timmy have shown marked
improvement in their openness to speak in Russian!
Thanks for your strategic prayer support as we attempt to reach the 99.8%
of the population of Bashkortostan which does not have a saving
relationship with Jesus Christ. Without your involvement and intercession
for the lost peoples of Bashkortostan, they will die and enter hell,
separated from the God who created them and so much loves them. Thank you
for your financial support through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie
Moon Christmas Offering for Int'l Missions. We ask that our prayer
supporters consider making the transition from being a generous people to
being a more sacrificial people in their giving, so that the work of the
Lord can better flourish with greater sowing of the Word, more effective
church-planting strategies, and with more personnel to fill multiple
job requests for our team.
With much love-
Chris & Eileen Carr and family
Your IMB representatives serving in Ufa, Russia |
