As some of you may know, the Perriards were on their US furlough in August and September. Besides giving a report of the work here, one of my goals was to determine whether it was God's will for me to go to Abilene Christian University to do a Masters in Bible and communication.

 After many prayers and conversations, I finally came to the conclusion that it was not. Instead, the Lord put on my heart to find a strong church in the US where I will work for 2-3 year. Here are some of the goals I have in wanting to work with such a church:

 1) To grow spiritually, both for myself and my wife. (Time to feed myself after all those years of feeding others!)

2) To be useful to that church in the areas of missions and church growth. 

3) To put together the team that one day will start a church in France. 

 

So I traveled over 2000 miles (mainly in the South) in order to look for some new contacts and churches. I had no air conditioning in my car and some days the temperature was close to 100 F! Man, the South is a hot place to be !

 But it was worth the trip: The Lord led me to people whose passion was hotter than the Texan heat! How "refreshing" it is to be around Christians who are on fire for the Lord! 

I came to look for a church, but instead I found the Lord. I met incredible people whose prayers and spiritual insights changed my life. In so many ways that summer was a turning point in my Christian life. The Lord helped me to regain the love and the zeal I had when I first became a Christian.

I have still not found the church where the Lord wants me to be, but I have found something that is changing my life: If I can start every day with the power of the Lord, than He will use me during that day. Tomorrow will take care of itself. The rest is useless worry.

 

And indeed, ever since I came back to Voronezh, I have seen some very encouraging changes as a result of that attitude. With the exception of Saturdays, the leaders and some other members have been meeting every day to pray for 1 to 2 hours. What an incredible time we have on those mornings! 

Tears are being shed, praises are overflowing and very specific requests re being brought before the throne.

     I can say that I have never seen in my life so many specific prayers being answered in such a short time. For instance, I have prayed very SPECIFICALLY that in the last 3 weeks of October we would have all the following happening: at least one baptism "out of nowhere", far more visitors on Sundays than ever before, for a worship service on fire, for a radical change regarding the unity among the leaders, for the preachers to preach better than ever before in the past, for a great financial help for one of our elders, for Vladick to be back on fire for the Lord and for the student ministry to completely turn around. The Lord has answered EVERY one of these requests. It is so encouraging to see the results of a faith that grows into boldness.

     For instance, here is something that God did to encourage us in our prayer life:

A few months ago Volodia Sritski had given an invitation card to a woman. Recently she just called him in tears explaining that her 20 years old daughter had been kidnapped and that the police could not find her after 3 weeks of research. Although she never came to church, she called Volodia because she felt that only our prayers could do a miracle in favor of her daughter.

We prayed for that and one week later the daughter called with tears of thankfulness and amazement. She explained to us that a man had taken her far away in another city and while locking her in his flat, he was brutalizing her. One day, as he was about to rape and getting rid of her, all of a sudden something happened to him that he was just blocked. It was as if something was preventing him from doing what he had planned to do. He left and she took the opportunity to run away.

We believe that both mother and daughter should soon become your sisters. 

 

If you have any specific and short term request, you can send them to us. We will see how the Lord will glorify HIS name.

Again, thank you for all of you who have encouraged me and my family while being in the States. I really appreciate your prayers and your financial help.

Yves, Anna, Yann and Joel Perriard
Ul. Kardashova 1/23
394000 Voronezh, Russia
Phone: 7 -  0732 - 55 77 33 ( add 8 hours to US East. time)