Report, April-May 2001
I am sorry I have not let you known more
often what's going here. I have been incredibly busy the last few weeks as
I have all my final University exams. So I asked Volodia to put
together a report, which is something he will do from now on. The reason is that
I want to turn absolutely every responsibility to the local church. I
will keep a little presence throughout the reports, so don't worry I am not
completely out of the scene
:)
Yves
Dear brothers and sisters,
God is doing great things in His Church here,
and we are glad to tell you about them.
We have been richly blessed by the conference of
the Churches of Christ which took place in the beginning of May in the city of
Samara. More than 300 Christians from all over Russia and Ukraine were
present.
25 people went there from the Voronezh Church.
We had good preaching, interesting and useful Bible classes in groups
but of course one of the best part was the great fellowship.
For our church, another very inspiring
part was the talent show in which we took part. Our praise team had a collection
of majestic as well as up-beat songs that surprised many
by their beauty and style. We really thank God for our praise
team. God has blessed us with a gifted professional singer through Oxana
Pashkova. She is doing a great job teaching us how to sing. It is so encouraging
to see more and more people here who want to learn to sing praises to the
Lord (in four part harmony). Even those who didn't think they could sing before
are now starting to enjoy it!
Indeed, new talents are being revealed in our
Church. For example, one of our elders, Volodia Skritski wrote a song, which we
performed at the conference. It is called "I love the peace of God " and sounds
very powerful. Glory to God!
As one of the missionaries said at the talent
show,"Your praise team doesn't just sing, they worship the
Lord". Yes, that's what we want to do!
Another thing to tell you about is the
number of people baptized at the conference. There were 13 of them! Some say it
is the largest number of people ever baptized at such a conference. Among them
was our new brother Oleg Demtchenko. His mother and his sister
Paulina became Christians 4 years ago; his father was baptized last
summer and Oleg was the only one left to give his life to
Jesus. Many had been talking to him about being baptized, but
something seemed to prevent him from making the decision. So we took him to
the conference, believing it could help. Indeed, it did: One day he said he
couldn't wait any longer and wanted to be baptized. You should have seen
the joy of his parents ! Oleg has a gift of singing and we believe he will
become a good song leader.
Another baptism worth mentioning is another
Oleg. He is from Kharkov, a big city in Ukraine. Slava
Mikhalchenko, the husband of the previously mentioned Paulina is the
preacher there and he decided to take him to the conference. That
was not a small decision because Oleg is paralyzed in a wheel
chair. But when he saw all what one can see at such conferences, he decided
to give his life to Christ. He is a sharp
guy and Slava believes he will do a great job reaching out the
disabled people he knows.
After the conference we had another baptism in
our Church. Ludmila became our new sister. The family Skritski are her
friends, and they invited her to a Thursday Bible study. She had attended the
Church a few times already, and spent a lot of time talking about God with
Volodia and Gala. Ludmila believed in Christ and understood many things,
she even started evangelizing her neighbors, but still was not ready to be
baptized. But all of sudden one evening during the Bible
study she got so convinced that she needed to be baptized that she
asked for it. We knew that after so many months it was not just an emotional
move, but a well-thought decision. So, with great joy we filled the bath tub and
baptized her that very same evening. Praise the Lord!
We have VERY good news about Sasha Anokhin.
If you remember, he is the former evangelist from our Church who was
disfellowshipped 2 years ago.
Thanks to your prayers and the efforts of some
individuals (especially Gary Mc Lachlan), Sasha has come back to the Church. It
is so good to see him changed, humble and with a repentant heart. Everyone has
received him with great joy, without recalling things from the past. He is a
part of the body of Christ, and we are glad to have him back.
One thing happened recently in our Church,
which we can only call a miracle.
You will understand why.
Our sister Natasha Sasunova and her friend
Marina were riding in a mini-van, coming to Voronezh from another town. As
they were approaching a certain small bridge, Natasha told the driver to slow
down, because she knew the bridge was old and partially broken, but the
driver refused to pay any attention to her. So, as they were
about to cross the bridge at over 100 kilometers an hour (60
miles/hour), the van hit a pole on the side, left the bridge, turned a
few time over itself while it was flying in the air and went violently crashing
down on the roof. It landed in a swamp, where it started to slowly
sink. The driver was killed instantly and
as incredible at it may be, the two girls inside had almost no injuries.
But the car was turned up side down and so deeply sunk in the mud that they
could not open the doors. Marina was stuck in the front part of the car
with water up to her chin, not being able to move. With a
dead man and blood all over, trapped inside of a car that was slowly
sinking down, our girls started
to freak out to death ! Finally, Natasha was able to crawl out through
the back and she ran up to the road for help. As she was waiting for
cars that were not coming, all of sudden she noticed that the van was starting
to burn with high flames. She immediately understood that it would soon explode
because gasoline was all over the car and Marina was trapped inside ! At
first she became completely paralyzed by her fear, but then she started to
pray so that God would stop the fire. As amazing as it may seem, the fire
stopped immediately. A car finally arrived and they ran down to
deliver Marina who had water already up to her
eyes. A few more minutes and she would have been
dead, drowned.
Praise God for having preserved these lives
! He is our Savior and Protector.
May He protect you as well !
With love in Christ,
Vladimir Karlinski and Vladislav
Kokorin