Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 21:03:43 -0500 From: Frank Chappell To: *Christian Aebischer Subject: Fw: February Report From: Yves Perriard Date: Monday, February 08, 1999 1:17 PM Subject: February Report >OUTSIDE OF THE FORTRESSED CITY Living in Moscow is, in some respects, like living on the inside a walled city. . . we have a different "reality". While many of our brothers and sisters have lost their jobs, or have not been paid as a result of the economic collapse in August, Moscow still has electricity 24 hours/day, hot water and food in the stores. But, what are the day-to-day implications of this collapse? I'll try to bring this into a more digestible frame of reference. What is YOUR monthly food budget, rent? Take that amount and multiply it by 3. Now, what is YOUR monthly salary? Divide it by 3. . .or in the worst case, zero it out. Now that is your PERSONAL hit. What about a government who can't pay it's debts and is bargaining with her debtors to pay back $.05 on the dollar. I ask myself daily, "how do people manage?" Yet they do. . . at least in Moscow. In other parts of Russia, far from the fortressed city, it is quite another story. Please ask God how you can help your Russian brothers and sisters. ( Note sent by David and Galina Binkley, missionaries in Magadan ( Far East on the Pacific coast) ) SOME HOT NEWS : - Yves had to go in emergency to the hospital for a few days after he experienced some pains in his heart. The injected him some medicine to correct what was an arrhythmia the heart not beating regularly, and his situation is now perfectly normal. It is still not clear what created that condition because his heart is strong and functions normally, and his overall health is very good. The professor-cardiologist who inspected him said that it is possible that his upper spine, which was never in a good shape is being affected by the sport Yves is regularly doing, and this, in turn, influences the circulation of the blood to the heart. He has to go through some other tests with the hope that the cause will be found. Thank you for your prayers. -Tamara, a sister that had left the church one year ago came back. We could not stop her from wanting to apologize to the whole church. She said with tears : " I left the church because I could not believe that you could love me so much and be sincere at the same time. I then went to many other denominations, but there was not a single one that could even come close to what I had seen here. I felt ashamed about coming back but at the same time I was missing so much your love. Please forgive me ! " - Vladick our evangelist will get married ! Her name is Olga. She became a Christian one year ago, time when he started to date her. She has spiritual strength ( she has very strong convictions), physical strength ( her major is in physical education ), and intellectual strength ( graduating with Magna cum Laudae ). And if that were not enough, he even finds her very beautiful ! I am not only happy for him, but for the whole church. Together, they will have a even greater impact on the church then what they had individually. The wedding is scheduled between April and July. Some factors, like money and all the possible guests, must still be determined. DIVIDE TO CONQUER : I am very happy to announce that our students had their first split ! This is the only split that we like in all churches: when a group has become to big so that the individual needs cannot be met, then it is time to split ! But in this case it is more to serve the needs of the Non-Christians than those of the Christians. Up to now when the students were meeting on Wednesdays evening for their evangelistic Bible discussion, they had a crowd of over 20 persons each time. So we split in 2 Bible talks on Wednesdays nights, each one being led by Sasha and Vladick. Already this division brings twice more Non-Christians then before ! I believe that such divisions are always crucial in reaching out the lost. Often as a big group we don't like to think about splitting into 2 smaller groups because we feel comfortable and don't really notice how many Non-Christians we have. But a smaller group bring more challenges evangelistically, and that is exactly what we need in order to grow. Another very important decision is that on Friday nights all the students get together for their own devotional. They have a deep Bible study that is the very same one that the Non-Students have on Thursday nights. What this means is that the students have now their full " autonomy" as a separate ministry. We are ready to see a big growth with them this year, both spiritually and numerically ! BIBLE KNOWLEDGE EMPHASIS On Thursday and Friday nights we have a same parallel study in the book of First Corinthians. It is every time a deep study and discussion because we do not take more than one chapter at a time, sometimes less. The last 6 months we had the book of Romans because I see some fundamental doctrines to believe, and now we have First Corinthians because I see some fundamental practices to avoid ! The leaders, which means Volodia, Vladick, Sasha, myself and sometimes Volodia Sritski meet 3 times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays mornings for over 2 hours of Bible study and prayer. We alternate every other day our Bible study, which is very deep and intense ( the Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are being used ) between the Old and the New Testament. Our goal is to have covered most of the books of the Bible within the next 2 years. I have to admit that this is challenging because I have to feed them with information and interpretations more than they do themselves, and that requires some preparation. At the same time, I feel encouraged and refreshed to see them growing in knowledge and wisdom. In fact, often they come up with deep questions and insights that really make the upper part working hard ! OUR TRADITIONS TAKE AN ORGANIZED FORM : It is official : The first Sunday of the month we have a bulletin distributed in which the members can see what and who will preach every Sunday of the month ! This way every leader chooses in advance what he will preach about, and so only the best sermons can come out ! As you already know, the last Sunday of the month we have an open door Sunday when the members can invite all their friends. The Sunday before this we have a prayer Sunday when we all split throughout the auditorium into small groups of prayers. Every church has their traditions, these are ours. So far it has built some great habits as a body. THE LARGEST ATTENDENCE EVER ON A WORSHIP SERVICE The 31 st of January we wrote one encouraging page in the history of the Voronezh Church. We encouraged every member to bring as many visitors as possible and the day before some of us even went out to invite people on the street inspite of the fact that we are still not officially registrated. We are in the process of trying to be registrated and we hope that the local authorities will be gracious toward us ) Some of us met on Saturday night and prayed for about 3 hours with a lot of joy and thankfulness in our hearts. We asked our Lord if He would bring us possibly 20 visitors, and He blessed our faith beyond what we had expected : we had an attendance of 70 people, with over 30 visitors ! What encouraged me the most in all this is not all the new contacts we have made, but the way God has strengthened the faith of many of my brothers and sisters. Many were surprised that our God can truly do beyond what we ask or imagine ! As I often repeat it: " this is only the beginning, be ready to see God doing more amazing things ! "