The beginning of the month was pretty special: a terrible storm hit the country. Dozens of the trees are fallen on the streets. 2.300 settlements were left out of power, as well as most of our city regions, including our rented office and the one under the construction (praise the Lord – we have power at our home!) The hardest storm was at the sea shore of the Kerch strait. According to the news report the wind speed was up to 35 m/sec, the waves high up to six meters. Six boats sank in Kerch and Sevastopol, seven more run aground. Several lives were lost there, couple hundreds tones of mazut and sulfur poured to the waters of Azov and Black sea.
All businesses at the city were coping with the storm consequences for a while, and all the projects were delayed because of this. Nevertheless we have got off the press the books:
Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton
Eternity in Their Hearts by Don Richardson
What We Believe In by Sergei Golovin
After the Flood by Bill Cooper
The later book was not printed in Russian for a decade, the first two – for a couple decades. Those books are extremely great tool for spreading the Truth of the Gospel. Please join our prayers for them to be used powerfully for our Lord greater glory!
Another great news: the CNL world-wide Russian language satellite Christian TV company keeps using our materials for the broadcast! So, the ripple affect is going on.
At the same time we are working on the new videos production. The voice acting for the Atlantis show Russian version has started already; the Black Sea show Russian script is made and the editor is working on it this week. When these two show Russian versions will be completed we are going to promote them with the third Genesis Veracity show Ice Age Civilizations as ‘Submerged Mysteries of Human History’ trilogy.
We have physically started the project of short videos ‘Simply Essential’ to spread challenging messages in the TV commercials format – the one the world is accustomed the most now. The shooting of the first one is completed and we are doing voice acting for it now, as well as about to start the shooting of the second one.
I am back from the trip to the Donetsk-Kharkov oblasts (state regions), so-called the Red Belt – the most pro-communist and most corrupted part of the country.
I went there with Vadim, our International Coordinator, because of a teaching commitment at Donetsk Christian University. Having now a great transportation flexibility the vehicles provide, we were open to any teaching and preaching opportunities at the region. We had no an idea going there that two of those ‘fringe opportunities’ will be the greatest reason the Lord made us go there.
The first one was an invitation to make a two days intensive course on the Biblical worldview persuasion strategy at the local church of a very small working people town Balakleya in the middle of nowhere between Donetsk and Kharkov. We never before receive such a request from any well developed well educated churches in a big cities (the interest in evangelism, Christian training and education declines in our country in general regretfully).
We were a bit skeptical about going to that place, but hesitate to refuse any opportunity to equip at least couple people for effective evangelism. Our skepticism grow even more when we arrived to the place at first – not much change at the town in a last twenty years, and people are still living there the same way they did under the communist regime.
However the skepticism has melted down next morning immediately when we entered the poorly heated rented class room (see the picture attached). We found so great thirst, desire and enthusiasm for study, we did not see even at the Christian colleges and universities for a decade! Fifteen of fifty students were taking the class for an academic credit from DCU, the rest thirty five came as an independent listeners. But all of them were extremely keen to know everything that could help them to build and spread sound Biblical teaching! The students show as well the greatest interest to our books and videos we ever see (see the picture attached). This small group with an extremely modest income have purchased more materials then we sale during the pastors conferences usually!
Two days at Balakleya gave us a great joy and hope. Who knows – may be within local churches of the Red Belt small towns the seeds are growing for the real post-communism awakening! Please join our praises and prayers for it.
The second event was the Sunday night Urok movie presentation at Donetsk. About 150 invitations to the churches youth leaders were sent out. About 50 persons were expected to come. How great our surprise was when 350 persons show up – mostly teenagers and young adults. There were not enough room at the DCU chapel and people had to stand in the hall – the glass wall between them was very handy (see the pictures attached).
The presentation turned into the pro-life forum. Young people – boys and girls – was coming forward and, confessing their falls of the past, were proclaiming the biblical moral principles and the commitments for the sexual purity and pro-life values. The Biblical Creation account was declared as the only real foundation for the family and sexuality. Many copies of our materials on the issues and the Urok DVDs were taken for sharing at the churches, schools and with friends. It looks like the seeds of the youth movement for purity are growing, again surprisingly, at that most pro-communist and corrupted in general region! Please join our praises and prayers for this as well.
The greatest lesson I learned over again during that trip was: “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mk.4:26-28). The greatest fruits are coming out the parts of the field we would expect them least. Great is the power of our God!
The experience of the month became a great confirmation on the right direction of our tactics change for preparing the small mobile leaders teams who can serve as an “apologetics training landing troops”, who are able to come to a various places for intensive training and equipping local body of believers for effective evangelism.
That makes us pray even more intensively for our long-term dream/vision of starting a self-supporting multipurpose Recourse Center where additionally to other ministries we can do an intensive training for regional and local leaders who can entrust it to other reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others (2Tim.2:2). Please find some specific details on the idea to pray for the Lord’s guidance and timing if the project is in His will.
