Dear Brothers and Sisters,

How gracious is our God ! He works in us and through us even though we are sinners. In the month of April our heavenly Father has encouraged us with some events that will go down in the history of the Voronezh Church :

 

The 8th of April was quite a glorious day as over 30 people crammed in my flat and 5 persons were baptized into Christ ! I wished you could have felt the excitement of the moment. Here are our new brothers and sisters :

If you follow what is going on in the country of Congo today, you will only hear bad news of war and refugees. But from her we have two extraordinary good news to bring: One is from Bertil Boungou-Mouele and the other from Julien Ngassala.

Bertil is a commandant in the Congolese army. Within 2 years he should be promoted to the grade of general. He already fought 5 different wars in Africa and has  tremendous experience, charisma and authority as a leader. In fact, when the former president of the country noticed him in how he was training and leading his men, he immediately wanted to make him as the chief of his personal guard, but he refused. All his friends told him that he was foolish to refuse such a position which included so much honor and instant material privileges, but he said he was not wanting inspite of the fact that the president himself asked him 3 times! Bertil was smelling some bad political events coming ahead. Indeed, it did. A military not in favor of democracy made an attempt to overthrow the president, but he was not able to succeed against the troops that Bertil was leading, even though Bertil's troops were twice as small. At that time, Bertil sensed that outside military help from Angola was being prepared against the president. He warned the president to immediately make some diplomatic and political compromise with Angola, but unfortunately, the president did not see it this way. Because of this, Bertil decided to secretly leave his country and go to Russia since he had already been there before as a young student. ( Bertil is 38 years old ). Exactly 2 weeks after leaving, the Angolese troops entered Congo, overthrew the president, who escaped to England, and killed all his people. If Bertil had stayed, or if had been part of his guard, he would not be alive today.

But of course, that is just the beginning of God's incredible plan. As soon as Bertil arrived in Voronezh, he was warned not to get in touch with his former childhood friend Christian, because he could be corrupted by him. Indeed, Christian had build a reputation of a swindler, a drunker, a sexually immoral man who was involved in all sorts of bad things. So Bertil avoided him by all means until one day they accidentally met on the street and he had no other choice but accepting Christian's invitation to his home. As they talked, Bertil noticed that there was not a single trace of cigarettes or alcohol anywhere in the room. Surprised, he "innocently" looked into his fridge and found it absolutely empty of any bottle ! As they went on into the conversation, Bertil was even more surprised when Christian invited him to church !  The next Sunday, when he saw the warm relationships that Christian had, and when he heard Christian giving a testimony on how he had become a Christian, he became very impressed and understood that Christian had really become "religious ". You see, Bertil had always been distant to "religion" because his father is a Protestant pastor. And not only just a pastor, but the most well known and respected pastor of his denomination in Congo ! ( The evangelical Protestant Church in Congo, which is the largest and most influential church in Congo ). But the power of a changed life and what he saw in the church was stronger then "religion". He started to come to the services, studied the Bible with us and one month later Christian baptized him ! I am having the wildest dreams for Congo because Bertil's desire is to go back to Congo as soon as the war is over and try to convince his father about New Testament Christianity. He said : " I know that if my father sees that I could become a Christian, then he will listen, and then we can turn the whole denomination over ". When I asked him about missionary opportunities in Congo he said : " Don't worry about visas and papers for the Church, I can even make you a Congolese passport if needed ! "

Now, if that is not enough with a future general, what do you think of baptizing a future Catholic priest ? Again, God has moved in amazing ways as Julien came to Voronezh. In Congo, Julien studied at the theological seminary in order to become a priest but he still hesitated about making his vows. He was therefore sent here to study geography and economics in order to teach those disciplines in higher Catholic institutions.  While here in Russia, he made the decision to become a priest as soon as he would be back to Congo, but at the same time he became increasingly frustrated as there is not a single Catholic church in the town. ( we live in Russia : there are no catholic churches over here in Voronezh ! ) Slowly, loneliness and temptations made their ways in his life and finally he gave in to alcohol and girls !

He came to our church the very same day Christian gave his testimony. Amazed that Christian could make such changes, and filled with the guilt of having done what a Catholic priest could never do, he asked me at the end of the service if I could "take his confession". When I told him he needed the forgiveness  and the power of God to get rid of his sins, he accepted to study the Bible. He is now your brother ! 

When Natasha and Olga became Christian, Katya started to observe their classmates over a period of 3 months. Finally she could not resist any longer. It seems that the faith in our Church is that if someone comes more then 2 or 3 times to the worship service they are " hooked up " to become a Christian. It's almost like we cannot help believing that regular visitors have no other choice but becoming Christians one after the other. People feel it and it is contagious.

What is exciting is that they are both 16 year old teens. There is no age barrier to come to Christ, and no social one either.

Dasha is a bright young girl whose father is what we call a rich "New Russian". ( try to imagine that one of your future converts is being brought to her baptism in a huge jeep with a personal chauffeur ! ) Money does not make people happier in Russia then in America. In fact the parents are happy to see such a positive moral influence on their daughter. I have heard many Russians saying that 10-15 years ago there were some moral and cultural values that held the society together. Today, they say, young people have no moral values, no social future and are exposed to violence, immorality, drugs and alcohol to a degree never before seen. We are always proud to present Christ and His Church in Voronezh as the solution to that problem.

Sergey is from the other social end: His mother has divorced and remarried 4 times and she is always in financial problems. He is one of the most zealous young men I have seen for his age. He never misses an opportunity to go out and evangelize with anyone he can.

 

Jimmie Eaton and his wife Ann established the church in Voronezh in the end of 1993 and worked a few months in the city. Later, in the fall of 1998, they put together with Frank Chappel and Yves Perriard a Russian team to strengthen what they had started. Ever since that time, they had never visited the church. They came here from the 2nd till the 27 Th of April and were "used " 4 times a week for teaching the congregation ! On top of this, every morning Jimmie taught the evangelists and the future elders about leadership from 1 and 2 Timothy. Talk about hard work !

Frank came the 24 Th of April for Vladick and Olga's wedding. That was the first time both of them met together in Voronezh. And probably the last. That gave us the opportunity to talk about future plans with the evangelists and future elders.

 

On Saturday the 24 Th of April, Vladick our evangelist and Olga united their lives.

Frank and Jimmie both gave serious and funny speeches on the holy matrimony and I had the privilege and the nervousness of marrying them. (The whole ceremony was in Russian ). The bride, as always, was shining with the glory that only love can give, the choir moved some hearts almost to tears, and the Non-Christians had never seen anything like this in their entire lives. ( In Russia most people get married at the mairie, where a non-religious ceremony is conducted, and some have the courage to stand for 3 hours for the ritual of the Russian Orthodox Church). The wedding celebration that followed was filled with a joy that pagans only dream in their wildest dreams. All the relatives said: " We thought that religious people were forbidden to have any fun in life ".That is why many came to the worship service that followed the day after.