Slobodian Prayer Letter: March - April, 2003

Dear Pastors and Friends,

                         Greetings once again from the Slobodian family!  We are grateful for each of you who remember us in your prayers.  As we kneel together, it is a privilege to be partners with you in the work that God is doing in Russia and Eastern Europe today.  

We praise God for answered prayer in the end of the war in Iraq.  As you know from our last newsletter The Challenger, this matter was mentioned as a special prayer request since anti-American sentiment can affect missionary work around the world.  This was certainly the case in Russia where 92% of the population surveyed was hoping that the United States would be defeated in the war with Iraq!  These kinds of feelings develop because the news coverage in this part of the world often portrays our country and our president in a very negative way.  The media here in Russia harshly condemns any kind of military activity by the United States.  Therefore, the quick end of the war is certainly beneficial to our country’s relationship with Russia, which of course impacts possibilities for missionary work. 

This situation has a direct effect on our activities right now.  We are writing from Moscow where we are in the midst of hosting several church groups that are coming from supporting churches.  These groups come to participate in our ministry by helping in many areas including children’s work, training nationals, construction and operating summer camping programs.  We like to involve each group with evangelism, even those who come primarily for construction.  When we were planning many of these efforts just a few weeks ago, our national workers were telling us that if the war was still going on when the American groups came, it would not be a good idea to have Americans out on the streets passing out tracts, distributing Bibles and conducting other outreach activities.  While we were prepared to make adjustments to use these groups in other less noticeable ways, now that we are with the third group from the United States (with several still to come) we are all glad that current conditions allow these mission teams to operate freely.

One of the items which is keeping us busy these days in Russia and Ukraine is video taping various aspects of our ministry in order to update our presentation for supporting churches.  In addition to filming national missionaries and various churches that have been planted, we have taken the time to video the testimonies of folks who have been saved as a result of these new churches.  This has been a fantastic blessing. Among those testimonies that we have just video taped, we have heard from many whose lives were being ruined by drugs as well as those who have been devastated by alcohol.  What a joy to see them reached for Christ and delivered from bondage through the ministry of these new churches. 

Yesterday we heard the testimony of Andre, a Russian boxing champion who won two European titles before sinking into the depths of heavy drug use that landed him in prison.  Saved through the ministry of a church we have established in Nahabino, this young man is now in full-time Christian service working to rescue other Russian youth from the bondage of drugs.  In fact in the same church meeting where we heard Andre’s testimony, there were three other needy people who came seeking deliverance from drug addiction. They had heard of the dozens who have been successfully rehabilitated through this ministry.  In Tuchova we recorded Anatoly’s testimony.   Raised in a home where his father was an Orthodox priest, Anatoly received the best education the Soviet system offered as the Communist government molded him in his career as a state instructor of atheism.   However, through the new church in Tuchova, Anatoly discovered that there is a God and was born into God’s family through repentance and faith in Christ.  Now, he speaks with great authority as he witnesses to others about the reality of God and eternal life through Jesus Christ!  God has greatly used this man not only in evangelism but also in the church building program.

It has already become apparent to us that we will be able to record the testimonies of just a portion of those who have been saved here as a result of your prayers and financial support of this ministry. There are not enough hours in the weeks we have here nor do we have enough videotape to record all that has been done for Christ.   Nevertheless, we can look forward to the eternity to come when we will have both the time and the opportunity to hear from countless souls like Andre and Anatoly who have been saved through our work together in reaching souls and planting churches in Russia and Eastern Europe.  May God bless you!

Your Missionaries,