Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As usual, some good news from Voronezh :

1. Valentina's baptism and Volodia comments about it.

2. Andrey's baptism and Vladick comments about it.

3. The Lazarev family ( Russian leaders in the Moscow Church) visiting Voronezh, and their comments about it.

1 ) This is Volodia Karlinski writing : I'm happy to tell you about our new convert, Valentina. She is a neighbor of our sister Tanya Grebeneva. Tanya started to invite Valentina to church a few months ago, but at first she didn't want to come. Inspite of all Tanya's efforts, Valentina was afraid to come. Her neighbors told her it was a dangerous cult, where they sacrificed their children. Of course, you can imagine how she felt after such warnings. The only thing that she could not understand was this: if that was such a terrible cult, why would Tanya always come back happy and joyful ? Every Sunday after coming back from worship service Tanya told Valentina how great it was to praise God, how prayers were answered, how they loved one another and helped one another. It all sounded so different from what she heard from her neighbors. Finally she decided to come and see for herself. Of course, she was very much impressed. It seemed to her that she entered a new world. It was so different from the world she lived in, that at first she thought everyone was pretending. She just couldn't believe that one can be so nice, so loving, so unselfish. But soon she realized that it was not hypocrisy, people were sincere. She realized it was POSSIBLE with God! Since that moment her life started to change. One Sunday, she came up to me and said: "I want to be baptized". I started to study the Bible with her, and soon she was baptized into Christ. That very Sunday ( 28 Th November), another brother was added to the church with her (his name is Andrey), and Vladik is going to tell you his story below.

Another thing that God blessed us with are daily prayers in groups. A few brothers and sisters meet every morning to praise God, thank Him and bring to Him all the prayer requests of the members. We already have many wonderful answered prayers since we started.

I see God doing great things here in Voronezh, and I believe He will do much more. Thank you very much for your support and prayers. Please, keep on praying for us and the Voronezh Church of Christ.

2 ) This is Vladik writing :

"I first met Andrey over a year ago, when our brother Sergey Nikitin invited him to church. They lived in the same dormitory then. After my very first conversation with him, I realized that he was close to God and was seeking Him. At that time, Andrey was intending to be baptized in the Orthodox church. Like many Russians, Andrey was more inclined to believe in the Orthodox church rather than in an "American religion".

But soon, after having a few studies, he changed his mind. He seriously considered the matter of baptism and it took him a long time to make a decision. But finally he made it!

Andrey is 21. But inspite of his young age, he is a very wise and responsible person. He is now studying at the University, pursuing 2 degrees at the same time. I believe that Andrey has a tremendous leadership potential and a bright future as a Christian."

3 ) This is Alexander Lazarev writing :

I'd like to thank you for having invited us to Voronezh and would like to tell you our impression :

What impressed me the most is the great potential of the Voronezh C. of C. And this is what I'd like to write you about. That was the thing - the
potential - which impressed me the most. Of course I was not present at all
the small groups or Bible studies, I didn't see any of your programs, but I saw the people. To be honest with you, I visited several churches but only after visiting yours I realized what the words "The first century church" really means.
Unfortunately, my English isn't that good to express you all of my emotions
about the Voronezh C. of C.
Since the first minutes of our visit, the brothers and sisters from Voronezh
made us feel the love, the care and the warmth of their hearts.
We really enjoyed our time on Saturday. Six families eating together in your flat ! They are really the chord of your church ! I always thought that the Christian family is the strongest brick of a church. And Voronezh strengthened this conviction. The way they talked to each other, cared for each other, enjoyed spending their time together as a body. I wish we had here in our Church at least half of your family spirit ! One moment, I even mixed up the couples !
The Sunday's baptisms and service confirmed those feelings.
The way people responded to the baptism showed us how they care for each other. I've never seen such a feast. The joy, the tears, the song from the very deep of people's hearts made me cry out of gratitude toward God ! He blessed your church so richly with people full of love and desire to serve each other.
The worship service reminded me of Psalm 100:1-2. It was full of joy. I really
believe God was satisfied with this worship. The climax for me was the
witness of some people. That was the loudest shout of joy to the Lord. And it was the loudest shout of joy to unbelievers which came for this Friends Day.
That was a real ministry, the kind which I read so much in books.
We saw a family which a person can't help loving. We loved it. We saw a
body which a person want to be added to. We wanted. We saw a family which a person doesn't want to leave. We really didn't want to leave it. For the first
couple of days after our return, we couldn't even recognize to which church we belong to.

Praise God for your church ! Volodia and Vladik, Julia and Olga, Vladimir and Galina, Sergey and Irina, Natalia and Vitalik, Natalia and Zhenia, Polina and her mom, Daniel and Nastia, Valentina and Andrei, Angelina and Natasha, Sergey and so many others... They became our real brothers and sisters in Christ because of our God and your church.
All of this and many other impressions that I cannot express in words,
because they concern my heart, showed us a church which should not dream of having 3.000 or 5.000 members. That's not your scale ! If anyone attends your church and feels the same attention and sincerity we felt, than you will be able to conquer the whole city. The sincere love of your people is the greatest weapon and the richest bank of the Voronezh C. of C.

I pray God will use this huge potential in His way.
Thank you one more time for inviting us. I wished I could write more in Russian and give you a more extended impression of our visit. Be sure I wrote
this from my heart. God is my witness.
In His love,

Baptism of Andrey : he is the man in the middle.

To his right is Vladick, to his left Sergey Nikitin

picture of Valentina at her baptism