Pastor Yuri Dimitriev

One of my roles here is to serve as a sort of liaison for a US ministry that supports pastors from the St. Petersburg area. Russians Reaching Russians looks for promising leaders, particularly church planters from among the Russians, and invests in them, including financial support and advise. They also send periodic teams over to help these churches. Since seeking and investing in leaders is part of my mission here, it was an obvious fit to work together.

My current task is to merely meet with several of their promising pastors and find out what they are doing, how they are doing, and what needs they can identify. Their two point men are Igor Sokolov, pastor of the church we attend, and Vladimir Osipov, pastor of a church in Pushkin where I served earlier this year helping Ilya Alyoshin (another RRR suported pastor) teach Biblical Problem Solving in their missionary school (which I wrote about in an earlier newsletter).

I met a third pastor, Yuri Troyanov, founder of a church to the east of the city, earlier this year, and it also turned into an ongoing relationship - with me coaching him on a weekly basis.

My fourth pastor came on August 28-29 with Yuri Dimitriev, who planted a church in Luga, 2.5 hours south of the city. We were going to meet here, but he invited me to come down and see his operation first hand, which I decided was a much better idea. He took me down in his van, and we got to know each other on the way, although communications were hindered by the noise of the roads which were so bumpy and pock-marked that I pitied his van immensely.

We have a lot in common. His two kids are almost the same ages as two of ours. (I stayed overnight with his family (left), including pregnant wife Natasha. He has done a lot of work in building bridges between congregations in the city, and he understands how hard it is to get real cooperation. He has a big vision for his church, but he also values teamwork, delegation, training leaders, and empowering the calling of those in his care. Although RRR supports him, he also runs a business (left) repairing and refurbishing cars, and, true to the values just mentioned, his two right-hand men are his two associates at the church. So he mentors them in business, leadership, and Jesus all at once.

He asked me to preach at the evening service (with three days notice), and moved it from Wed. to Thursday to accommodate my arrival. I was nervous, not only for the sake of the language, but also since I don't consider myself a public speaker, and I didn't know what to talk about. But God was good, and a couple of hours out it finally all came together in my head (after much prayer), and I hit upon my subject: teaching how to pray for each other, using some of the material I already had in hand from the Biblical Problem Solving class and a way to categorize prayers so that people could see that they almost never address the heart issues of the person requesting prayer. Yuri graciously let me lead the talk more like a seminar than a sermon - more my style. They seemed to be blessed (right) and thanked me, asking me to come back. Moreover, I enjoyed everyone there. They seemed open, warm, and mature in their faith.

The church has just built a building that they have recently moved into, though not complete. Moreover, it is only accessible by a muddy path through a field to the rear (right). Since it is outside the town, we first had to go around and pick most everyone up and bring them. Pastors have to play a lot of roles here!

Their mission to the community includes a ministry to drug addicts. Five men have been living in the attic of the church building over the last year, helping build the structure and farm the land around it as a part of their rehabilitation (left). The program is unusually simple. Participants get up and join the church for prayer each morning at 7am (did you catch that - the whole church gathers for prayer every morning!). Afte breakfast, they work all morning and all afternoon. Evenings are free for "self study," which means they can read any of the Christian literature in the church library. There is no formal education or teaching. Their method is work, closeness to the life of the church, and lifestyle mentoring through having mature men with them much of the time to guide and shepherd.
Their success is already visible. The guy above was their first convert. He was a wealthy Muslim from Dagestan, but Jesus has made such a difference in his life that his wife and three kids (feom whom he had been separated for two years) have moved up to Luga to join him. She is now attending church, and though she has not yet made a decision for Christ, she is open to it. He now is the apprenticing to lead the program. I was very moved to see their young children reunited with dad and now being raised to know the One who saved them all.

The meeting lasted until about 10pm, then we made two trips into town dispersing folk to their homes, interrupted by a man who needed his van pulled down the street. You don't see tow trucks much here, but it's not uncommon to see a car pulling another with a rope, and it's not illegal. So we tugged this guy a few hundred yards to his house, but it was a struggle, to say the least, his van being much larger than ours. In the morning we found the cost of being a Good Samaritan: the transmission had come out and literally dropped about 18 inches. In God's good humor, Yuri ended up being thankful; he had needed to replace a part that required removing the transmission, and that was so much trouble he hadn't done it yet. He didn't think there was any permanent damage, so it was a blessing. Go figure.

We stayed up late talking about church, leadership, his dreams, and his needs. So what would he like to have from a visiting team of American Christians?

1. a team who would help disciple the guys in the rehab program. He feels that they would respond well to outsiders caring enough to build relationship and take the time with them.
2. a team could help with their evangelization. The idea would be to pass out offers to rent the Jesus film. Give those who want to see the film a copy, and when you pick it up, start a conversation about what they saw.
   
3. spend time, again in informal settings over time, with some of the new members of the church and those who are just visiting but not yet made a decision for Christ. They idea is to disciple them and help them experience relationship and the love of Jesus.

So what next? Coincidentally, one young lady called me while I was writing this post, asking when I'd be back. I find myself wanting to go again, but it's so far, I need a good reason. I told her that I needed a concrete invitation as a way of measuring desire. Yuri said he could see my services coming in useful, but what I struggle with is whether there is strategic need for my teaching. How can I effectively raise up leaders from this kind of distance?

Visa Victory

Barring any surprises, God appears to have given us wonderful resolution to our visa woes. As I reported recently, we had decided to taken an open mind to all possible options and allow God to do the choosing for us. After a process of elimination (indeed in one case heart-wrenching for Diana), God made it quite clear that what was left was not just the best of the options, but was actually the place where He was indicating His blessing. To explain:

We had wanted to avoid the option of staying on a student visa for two reasons. First, we were very happy with the tutor we have been going to, and to give her up would not only be giving up a wonderful teacher, but also a key link for us to all things Russian. Ludmilla is always a prime source for teaching us about Russian culture, and she has a keen heart for the injustices of society that she has imparted to us.
Second was the cost. Going this route will cost a lot more than private lessons - about $10,000 for one year, plus about an extra $4000 in visa costs.

After appearing to not be possible, God eventually worked it out for Ludmilla to come under the auspices of the agency that will issue the student visas (the Swiss Center). Not only do we get to keep her, she ended up thanking us, as she will get paid a little more, get access to other students, and earn more towards a larger retirement income. Win, win, win!

A bonus came out of what also looked initially like a setback. The school run by our church that the boys go to was kicked out of its location less than two weeks before the start of classes. God provided an alternative very quickly, but this meant taking the boys much further away from home than last year. I had even bought a cool vehicle, called a Kinder Car (right) that I had started taking them to school in that cut the ride down to 20 minutes - and through a park! Now we have to sit on the Metro and take nearly an hour one way to school.

But wait! The metro where the school is now is close enough to Ludmilla that we won't even have to get back on the metro to get there. So all we have to do is drop them off (I on Tuesdays and Diana on Thursdays), go to Ludmilla for about 4 hours, then return to the school to pick up the boys on the way home. It is actually easier than going to the old location!

That leaves the money, which we did not anticipate in our budget. But trusting God for $10,000 (we expect to find another solution for next year) seems like a walk in the park compared to everything else we've had to trust Him for to this point.

If you feel led to donate towards this need, by the way, you can click here, with our deep thanks.

Summer work project?

Let me through out an idea for a summer team project that some may want to consider for next year. This is from a ministry here that almost everyone who works with orphans works with. They organize a lot of projects and generally help facilitate ministry for other ministries.

The following is from a note from the director about Camp Elama.

Elama -- Camp Life In previous postcards we've mentioned the camp we have use of: we've named it Elama, the Finnish word for Life (pronounced EH-lah-mah). Before 1939 it was a Finnish health resort, after the war it was a Russian children's camp before closing about 25 years ago. We're slowly bringing it back to life, and this is the first of several years of rebuilding that are needed. Still, the fruit of this summer has already surpassed our hopes. In addition to a few Christian families that are living there all summer, in July we hosted two camps run by a local church. First was a children's camp with 80 participants and then a youth camp with 100 participants. Since we don't have much decent housing, the campers stayed in tents. Even the kitchen was under a tent, and the picture at left is of the 'dining hall'. The church did a great job of improving the land -- clearing the swimming area, building outhouses, clearing trash, they even built a dock in the lake. A pleasant surprise is that some neighbors are quite enthusiastic about having the camps there. Several attended meetings when the children sang or presented programs, and now they have started bringing us fresh milk, eggs, and vegetables. At right is one of the girls with fresh milk brought to us by a neighbor. Later this month, we'll host a week-long church camp for thirty children and other groups will have picnics. Elama is available free of charge to all. This summer we've installed the beginnings of a water system (we now have one sink with running water), we've begun repairs to several buildings, obtained a couple of small refrigerators (donations), purchased tools, cleared away a lot of trash and scrub brush, and swatted a lot of mosquitoes! We ran out of money for this summer, so some tasks (painting, roof repair, heating, a new well, etc.) will have to wait until later. There is still very much to be done. Groups from the US and the Netherlands have expressed interest in sending work teams. An architect in the US has agreed to help design a pavilion/summer kitchen that we hope to build next May. There is a lot of activity and many opportunities. Elama is coming to life, just as we had hoped. As you can see, their attitude of service to the Christian community is wonderful. Anyone can use the camp any time for free. The only rule is "leave it better than when you came."

I am working on some other kinds of projects too, but let me know if this interests you.

Kerith speaks -- an interview with Mom

Mom: Today was "Pervii zvonok" (First Bell). What was that all about?
Kerith: I was going to 1st grade. It was fun. I saw all my friends, and I was relieved that I saw them again. This was because the celebration had started today. First graders go to second, and all the grades are changing. I loved it.

Mom: What happened at the celebration?
Kerith: We had a little ceremony at the school, and we had some tea, candy, and cake. It was awesome. Yummy!

Mom: Tell me about the ceremony.
Kerith: We sat with our teacher, Tatiana Vladimirovna, and every class had to walk to the microphone and call out their name. I was going to just say a grumble when it was my turn for the microphone, but I managed to get out my name. There was a skit with Max, Artyem, the principal, my teacher, and all the teachers. We sang songs.

Mom: The kids all brought something to the ceremony. What was it?
Kerith: Flowers to their teachers. I had an orange one. My friend Nicholas had a pink one. (His was bigger than mine.) A new first grader was named Smile. (Which is a crazy name. I don't know why his parents named him that.)

Mom: What are you looking forward to the most in first grade?
Kerith: At recess always meeting Simon and seeing Anna Mikhailovna, my Kindergarten teacher.

Mom: What was different today than the first day of school last year when we had first arrived in Russia?
Kerith: We had a different school. The building where we were needed the third floor, so we had to move. I couldn't speak one speck of Russian when we first came to Russia. Today I could speak almost as much as a Russian needs to speak. I understand what the ceremony meant.

Mom: Is there anything else you want to say about today?
Kerith: Today is Switch Day. I'm going to First Grade. Simon has a couple new friends in Kindergarten, and Lydia signed up for Art School. Everybody is changing where they are supposed to go to.

I think I'm done. BYE!!!

Can we pray for you?

Without the faithful support and prayers of a whole lot of people, not only would we not be here, but we would have not chance of thriving in the assignment God has for us. We send everyone on our mailing list news every month that includes prayer requests, and I send a small group of intercessor more specific updates and needs. It's such a blessing to hear back from you how God has prompted you to pray for us.

Now, we can turn the tables! I carry a list around with me that I refer to periodically of prayer needs, including local issues here and requests from friends and family at home. Not only do I want to formally ask for your needs, but our sending agency, CRM is asking for your prayer requests too! Here is an excerpt from their recent letter to us:

It is with great joy that we invite you each to participate in the CRM Day of Prayer on October 2, 2008. Each year CRM staff all over the world set aside one day to intentionally pray for the organization and for our financial supporters. Our donors minister to us so graciously through their prayers and financial resources, and we desire to bless them through interceding on their behalf. We invited your donors to send us their prayer requests, which we will be passing along to you.

Henri Nouwen puts it well—prayer is indeed like breathing. In this modern age of omnipresent cell phone devices, the widespread disease of perpetual business, and little patience for that which cannot be microwaved, it can be a struggle not to relegate the place of prayer to a Sunday ritual or those situations when nothing man has made seems to work. It is essential to regard prayer is a sacred gift given to us by our Heavenly Father, and to make space for our core beliefs about prayer to translate themselves into daily practice. Prayer is breath—it is vital for every moment of life—and works to put us into right relationship with God, by defining our place as a Created being depending upon the provision of our uncreated Creator.

So send them over - either to CRM (Jamie Rosenberry) or us directly. If the former, then you get the blessing of having a bunch of serious pray-ers taking your needs to the throne. They will forward them to us. It will be an honor to lift you up on the 2nd.