Dear board members, beloved brothers, and sisters,
Thank you very much for your care and prayers. With great joy, I present you October 2005 report.
It is hard to believe that six weeks of my studies in Asbury is over now. It was a great challenge, inspiration, and encouragement for me. But there is no place like home after all. I am very glad to be back with Olga and Dasha, with our team, and with the church – I had assigned preach on the very first Sunday on my arrival.
A great blessing of the time in the States was a visit of Zhenya, our daughter – she came for a weekend and we had a great fellowship. We sort of switched the roles this time since she was my cross-cultural coach now instructing me how to operate an American type of washing machine and how to make an order in a Subway. I hope I will not forget her instructions till my next session at the seminary. 🙂
This month became the greatest testing of our team’s ability to work autonomously – we were responsible for technical support of the greatest outreach event of the year, the Man and the Christian Worldview symposium. The first time it was made exclusively at the Commonwealth International University (former Crimean-American College) campus; for the very first time we used a simultaneous translation wireless system, and for the very first time the team had to do it in my absence. And they did a great job! I’m wondering now – do they need me at all? 🙂
Zhenya Medyanick became a great addition to our team. We took him for a year-long internship, and his main focus is studying right now – he is a very capable and teachable young man. He takes an initiative with enthusiasm when necessary, and I would consider him for delegating his public relationships and teaching responsibilities if he will decide by the end of the internship that our ministry is what God is calling him for. Please pray for guidance.
‘Tough Choices’ video shooting is on the way. It seems we have got the best casting we ever had. We have made most of the outdoor scenes while the weather was good. Please keep having this project in your prayers.
Web site redesigning takes more time than we expected – we have collected so many materials there during these years, and all addresses have to be re-written for the new version to work properly. I hope it will be completed by the end of November, at least – by the end of the year.
The ‘Humble Defense’ book translation is completed and it is at the press now. The book is a work of a group of authors, who demonstrate the logical, historical, philosophical, and moral reliability of the biblical worldview. The book is at the same time evidence for unbelievers, encouragement for believers, and a great tool for effective Christian persuasion. Publication of the book in Russian would be a great help for pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and all believers for well-grounded witnessing about Christ in the society, where three generations of people were brainwashed and indoctrinated with atheism and communism.
At the same time, we can see already how our materials, models, and approaches help Christian persuaders in other parts of the former Soviet Union to develop and expand their ministry
Apologetics training center in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) had its first training conference for national leaders. The amount of the literature we can send there is limited, however, every participant was supplied with the collection of 40 our videos in mpeg4 format on two DVD-ROMs they easily can copy and distribute in their areas all over the country. We are still working on developing the local team there for apologetics materials translation into Uzbek. Please pray for these projects as well as for these people who faithfully do the ministry under the threat of persecution. Please pray for our forthcoming trip to Tashkent in September 2006.
The group of our symposium regular attendants from Kursk (Central Russia) has made the first conference on the critical issues of worldview, following the model they have adopted from our practice.
A group of scientists, our coordinators in Kyiv (Ukraine) communicates Ministry of Education regularly on the need for equal representation of evolutionary and creation cosmogonies in school textbooks and of leaving to the students the opportunity to evaluate the evidence and make their judgment on the base of the known facts themselves. Right now they negotiate with the administration of state planetarium the opportunity of doing their monthly seminars on scientific creationism various issues.
Right now the main of our work is planning and developing the vision for future projects. Among them there are the following ones:
- November 30 – December 2, 2005. Christian Center for Science and Apologetics team building retreat.
- January 23 – 27, 2006. Teaching Apologetics at International Center for Christian Leadership (Kiev). Zhenya Medyanik is going to assist me to be able to teach the course himself in the future.
- February 26 – March 4. Teaching at Holy Trinity College, Kursk
- April 3 – 13. Studies at TCM Bible Institute (Vienna). This is the last course I have to take to complete my MA studies – to have a degree Darwin had J
- May 10-13. Man and Christian Worldview symposium round table
- May 13-15. Graduation at TCM Bible Institute (Vienna).
- May 20-25. European Leadership Network forum in Hungary.
- June 5-17. Teaching Apologetic course to pastors from former Soviet Union at Donetsk Christian University campus.
- June 20-30. Creation Evangelism children’s camp.
- September 18-30. Training Uzbek national ministers in Tashkent.
- October 5-6. Man and Christian Worldview symposium conference
- October 7-10. Eurasian Apologetics Summit.
My next session at Asbury Theological Seminary is scheduled for January-February 2007. I have to read couple of dozens of books and write couple dozens of papers by then.
Please pray for all the projects mentioned above. Pray also for my family and for our team. You are in our prayers as well.
Yours by the love and grace of Christ Jesus
Sergei