Subject: Report November
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 15:51:37 +0300

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
	The Lord works, as usual, in a powerful and encouraging way !
	Many have worried about the effects of the law, but so far we
have not felt anything that may works against the Church here. Unlike
America, laws inRussia always depend on is  applying them. It's not
really the nature of laws that matter here, it's who you know....and
who you don't ! I have tried to keep good relationship with high
officials and we avoid as well anything that makes too much public
advertising for the church. Jesus has called us to be fishers of man,
and  fishermen don't make too much noise if they want to catch fish!
This is why we don't really worry if we cannot make any public
advertising to invite people. Instead, we concentrate ourselves on a
"one-to-one approach", we take very well care of all our new Christian
babes, and little by little the church will multiply. I firmly believe that in
the present situation friendship evangelism is the most effective way
to make the Voronezh church growing.
	Already we have seen the results of the approach :  October 29
Zoa was baptized. Her sister became a  Christian in St Petersburg
and so she started coming when her sister was here  this summer.
Being a fervent orthodox believer, the mother of Zoa was fiercely
opposed to have her daughter coming to the meetings of the church.
She did not want to have her second daughter "lost to that western
cult" that is "taking Russians away from their roots".  Well, since
Vladick is her almost next door neighbor, he did whatever he could to
build a friendship with her: he helped her with some physical works
that she could not do as a single mother and slowly "melted her
down." Eventually, she even came twice to church ! Now, in her
opinion, we are no more as she described us 3 months ago. We
"became" a respectable group of Christians who helped Zoe to
become a better daughter. Indeed this is partially what Zoe needed to
repent from. It is  amazing the kind of miracles children can do on
their parents when they start obeying and respecting them !  Parents
forget their religious rituals when they see a faith that make their
children submissive to them ! What nothing else can change, God can
! Now Zoe really deserves to be called "Zoe" : in Greek, her name
means "life" !
	Three weeks we have started another very exciting adventure. It
is now official:  we have a students' ministry. As leaders, we have
divided our responsibilities : From now on Vladick and Sasha will be
working exclusively with the students, and Volodia and myself we take
care of everybody else ! This is truly exciting because our 10 student
are a really solid and enthusiastic group. They really love each other
and look for every opportunity to spend time together ! Every Friday
night they now have an evangelistic Bible talk. The purpose of such a
meeting is so that they can  invite their non-Christian friends and have
an open discussion on the Bible in a simple, practical and challenging
way. The 40 minutes discussion is than followed by a long evening of
fun. "Risk",  "Monopoly" and food create very long evenings where
"friendship evangelism" is not a vain word !Three weeks ago Vladick
had to bring his daughter back to her mother in Barnaul so that now
he lives completely alone in his two room flats. Needless to say,
Vladick' s flat has become an open place where you have students
coming and staying every day and.... every night ! I personally give to
Vladick a special budget for student food : when a place gets a
reputation where there is food, fun and friends, than one doesn't have
to worry about having tons of students!
	There is something else I did not really mentioned in my reports
that gets me very encouraged : we not only grow, but the Lord gave
us a healthy church. By healthy I understand 2 things : Of all the
people that we baptized since we came, all of them are actively
involved in the different activities of the church and all of them are
faithful. Only one fell away. It's Igor, one of the employees of Volodia.
He did not fulfill his responsibilities at job and since we cannot show
favoritism to Christians Volodia had to fire him. After this he did not
want to come to church. So with this exception, all others are still
faithfully involved in the church. To me this is very encouraging
because baptisms show only one aspect of the church. How those
baptized people show personal involvement in the church is the real
test of how healthy the church is.   We have 32 members. On
Tuesdays nights the Women Bible study has an average attendance
of about a dozen of women. On Thursdays I lead an intense indepth
Bible study in the book of Romans. ( One chapter or less each time )
About a dozen of people show up. Friday night the students have their
own evenings with about 10 Christians and 3-5 Non-Christians each
time. The Sunday worship services have an average attendance of
over 40 people. Numbers is not everything, but it definitively shows
something.
To the God who wrote the Book of Numbers be the Glory !
	On top of all this, something else has greatly encouraged me :
Olga Tcheterikova and Valentin Scherbinin. She is a very sensitive
woman who has a 10-year-old daughter, and he is a 60-year-old
psychatrist who has some good maturity that could really add a lot to
the church. They had been baptized by Jimmie Eaton and had not
shown any lasting commitment to the Body when personal troubles
and tensions in the church came up. Volodia and myself have reached
out to them, both by financially helping her with her daughter's health
and by studying the Bible with them on a regular basis. They started to
respond and are now more regular. Please pray that they may be
strengthened in their fragile faith and that Satan will not lead them
away from their first love. Baby Christians need so much care and
attention.
	We have other members who never really made it as far as
being committed to the church. They are not on the membership list of
32 people, and they need our prayers. If you know them, please join
with us in our prayers for them. It is Oleg Meshkof, Tall Helen the
gynecologist, Alla Toporkova, Galiena Radkievitch, Tanya
Kozarezova, and Abdumalik. Thanks for helping us. Pray and write to
them, God can work in their hearts. We will send this week a special
letter inviting them to personally study the Bible in order to renew their
commitment to the Lord and His Church.
	Thank you for your prayers for our health. Our son was very sick
from bronchitis and he is slowly recovering. We felt ourselves the
shadow of cold, flu and cough pass over us very often. The present
time is filed with all sorts of sicknesses. We need protection and...
wisdom.  Thank you for regularly lifting us up before His throne.  We
are very much aware that if we can consider the Voronezh church to
be strong at the present stage, it is not because we are smart and
strong it is because He is merciful and powerful. He does answer
prayers. Faith still lifts up mountains. We ordinary people serve an
extraordinary God ! To Him be the glory !

				Your servants in Voronezh,

				Yves, Volodia, Vladick and Sasha.