Kazakhstan, UstKamenogorsk, Alexander

Hi, I'm Alexander Staroverov. I serve as the pastor of Rodnik church in the city of Ridder. July 8 - 12th we did a missionary project in Zyrjanovsk together with a team from Rodnik church of Ust Kamenogorsk. During our service in this city 38 people heard the testimony of the church, 30 people heard the Gospel and 10 accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! Thank God!!!
July 28 - 30th we will have a missionary project in another city. And for this we request prayer for carrying out this project, a street tournament, so that there will not be opposition from the authorities and that we could keep the "harvest" from this project.
There is one more important prayer request: We have problems with the fire department. On July 28th in the Ust Kamenogorsk we will go to court regarding the question of interdiction against the use of our building before elimination of all violations. To eliminate these issues we need a great sum of money, approximately 2,000,000 tenge, which we do not have. Pray that we will not be forbidden to use our building and that God would provide the necessary sum to make all the corrections or has at least give us the chance to get another building. We average about 100 and without the building we may lose many of these people.
A huge thanks for your prayers and the possibility to share with you our needs!!!
May the Lord bless your ministry!!!
Yours faithfully Alexander.

News from Tadjikistan

It is my pleasure to share what occurs in our Great country. I will begin with a brief story about the evangelism of Salafi (Salafija - a radical current in Islam, from the Arabian verb "salafa" — "primary" - the same, as a vahhabism). Once again after my quiet time I went to the market and while I waited near the car I was seen by one of supporters Salafi. He thought that I was Tadjik and started to tell me that the true Moslem does not wear shorts above the knee, and that began our conversation ... Interesting how God gave humility and compassion for this man during our conversation ... The Lord has allowed me to tell about His love, it is a pity that he did not believe.

3 lessons from this:
1. God's way is not a confession; it is not important to Him who you are, it is important what heart you have.
2. Salafati are people like everyone else, they too need salvation.
3. Salafia gives many things in common for us tell about God.
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Kazakhstan: Almaty, Oleg

The end of June we conducted training for Dostar in practical ministry. Thank God, many have seen the possibility of an exit from "a hibernation" condition. In my experience it seems that when you hold on to God, you strive for unity with Him, you seek Him messages, and only afterwards you can undertake actions (the main thing is to begin). God starts to show possibilities for ministry. A testimonty of Iegov, who wanted to to know if we could meet; he is an old acquaintance (together were involved in judo), who was interested in spiritual things; I meet believers who require encouragement - one from Atyrau, one from Ust-kamenogorsk - both wish to grow, but they cannot "join" a traditional church.

Kyrgyzstan: Karakol, Kostya

It is me, Kostya. I an the pastor of church "Lightof Love" in Karakol (Kyrgyzstan) and the director of Extension Education in Karakol. Thanks for your letter and attention.

On July 2nd my second son was born. We named him David. My wife is Zhenya, and our elder son Bogdan.

Extension Education is a big blessing for our city. Students attend with great thirst. Their lives and ministry are transformed.

We move from Bishkek and planted our church 6 years ago. We are growing gradually. We are building a building for our church. Pray, please, for our building because construction has been stopped due to financial difficulties.

In April and May along with the Extension Education students we conducted two humanitarian evangelism projects, in a kindergarten and a large apartment building. We did repairs together with unbelievers. No one accepted Jesus Christ. But 12 people heard the Gospel, we were able to build great friendship and have new contacts for further work with people.

Thank God for all!

May God bless you!

KKP, June, MZ

I apologise for not writing sooner. We have just movedto Tashkent. We are getting settled. And at once we begun Extension Education , meeting with Ivan. At present I am in Samarkand with Ivan. On Saturday we shared the gospel and one person believed. Now I considering and aiming for bridges with local leaders to offer them this course. Courses will be in autumn since it is not convenient in the summer. For now that is all. I can not frequent check mail now as the Internet very much poor. When I have high-speed I will every day. God bless.

Kazakhstan: Almaty, Almaz

Hello.

The last 2 weeks for me have been good in the area of evangelism, as we have presented Bibles to friends with whom we have been on friendly terms for the past 3 years. On the way to Oskemen, we shared with 2 women on the train, they were very interested, one even began to open up. Six people were baptized. We have provide the training on СРМ in the church, 12 people participated, all went well and we plan to pass in this model on in October. We have carried out this training with 2 Turkmen pastors who will carry on the training further, and in August we are going to meet in Bukhara.
Pray needs: transition in СРМ, purchase of a home for us, Rahim's continued training, diploma delivery in Bukhara.

Kazakhstan, June, Sergey

Good afternoon all!

For the last month it has turned out I have been able to share the Gospel about 20 times. For me it is a considerable break, sometimes weeks passed without having anyone with whom I could share. My focus right now is where I work out, already there are 2-3 people who are very open and every week someone new appears. I pray that the Lord guides me.

Here the basic lessons:
1) I feel that it is necessary to continue to think and operate in the light of urgency commanded by the Great Commission of our Lord,
2) time is necessary for people to grow after sowing - and consistently I do not have the patience to deal with them,
3) for last month I have come to see and become interested in people, rather than simply my performance of plans,
4) I pray I can find parttime work to be in touch with more people?
Sergey

Kazakhstan, Oskemen 15-19 June, Yeldos

Trip purpose:  Training for church planting movement at missionary school. 
 

The situation, interesting story or testimony of what you learned from the Lord:

    This week in Ust Kamenogorsk it was especially cold. By nature it should be summer with heat, already the middle of June, and in the courtyard the temperature just reached freezing. Not only on the street but also inside it was necessary to sit in jackets and to dress in a warm sweater. Some townspeople living in private houses managed to heat furnaces again.

      However at school, it was a "hot time" for the students. Every day they worked in groups, visited city markets, did homework and every morning one question "What have you learned of God in the last 24 hours?"  In total, 24 people were trained. They are students from seven Kazakh speaking fellowships, trained in the school for missionary preparation.

 

Phrases students shared in the end of the course:

About the prayer walk in the market:

    "I realized that spiritual warfare is real. During my prayer walk I passed by a lady, she seemed to be waiting for a word but I paid no attention to her because when I passed by my attention was drawn to her very bright and brilliant dress."

 

    "It came home to me that I have absolutely no pity for people who live near me. I can come a hundred times into the same shop and not only do I not know the name of the seller at all, neither do I look at his face.  Now I understand that I can know this seller and he can be my person of peace." 

 

About evangelism and discipleship:

    "Before this course I thought that my problem was simply to evangelize the person or to bring him to church. The rest was the work for my pastor or other leaders. Now I understand that it is not enough to seek only for repentance, but it is my responsibility that this person grows as a true disciple of Jesus Christ."

 

About the course in general:

    "These themes were not new to me.  But what has hooked me is the sequence of the fields. I come into one field and I see all the cycle, yet I will not transfer it to another."

 

Though the initial purpose of this training is the transfer of skills, there is also the role occupied with character development. I am pleased that the system for this school of missionaries is centered on constant formation of Christian character, beginning with general prayer at 7:00 a.m. for six days a week, class until lunch, work at a factory until evening and a night service in one of the cell groups. 

     One student has shared that he was not able to take any application from the course or from Bible study in the mornings. On the weekend, as a class we met in groups to share communion. When there was the appeal for each to check his heart condition, this student rose and approached another in the audience, began to cry and ask for forgiveness from him. Evidently for a long time they had an offense against each other and unforgiveness towards each other. The Lord was concerned for their hearts and has shown the importance of the application of His precepts, first of all to each other. - Eldos