May-June 2007
“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” John 12:46
Dear Pastors & Friends,
Hello again from the Slobodians! We appreciate each one of you who takes time to read our prayer letters and it is always good to know that many are upholding us in prayer. We can often see that the hand of God’s blessing has been in response to the prayers of God’s people. In addition to this bi-monthly prayer letter, we also publish a monthly prayer and praise sheet that is called, “BIEM’s of Light”. If you are not receiving this and would like to, please let us know and we will be glad to add your address or e-mail to the list which receives these monthly updates.
Today we are rejoicing in a couple of answers to prayer that have been mentioned in the “BIEM’s of Light”. One is that Ann, the wife of one of our co-workers in Central Asia has just received great news in her battle with cancer. She is now cancer free at the conclusion of the chemotherapy phase of her treatments. She still faces a round of radiation followed by several months of recuperation. Please pray for her to regain her strength completely. Another praise is that Dr. Ron Brewer, BIEM’s national training outreach, continues to enjoy wonderful relief from the back pain he suffered from for so long.
We are very glad to have some new co-laborers joining our ranks at BIEM as we welcome Dr. Bob & Gayle McQueary to our team of missionaries. Brother McQueary will be serving as our regional director for Western Asia. Brother Bob has actually participated in our ministry overseas a number of times while serving as a vice-president at Northland Baptist Bible College and also as one of our board members while pastoring in Florida. Please pray for the McQuearys to be able to raise their support quickly so that they can launch efforts to plant churches in this Muslim stronghold by preparing and equipping nationals.
Currently many of our workers are conducting various children’s and teen camps from St. Petersburg, Russia, in the north down to the Republic of Georgia near Turkey. Please pray that unsaved hearts will open to Christ and that believing kids will grow in their walk with the Lord. Please continue to pray for Pastor Andrey who was arrested in Uzbekistan for his Christian lending library. There is no word on when exactly his trial will be held. Since his car was confiscated with the Christian literature, he is now getting around by bicycle. The few conversations they have had with authorities have been very threatening and ominous. Please pray as one of our missionary couples leaves next week in an attempt to visit them to bring them much needed financial relief and encouragement.
Finally we would like to update you on some other items mentioned in our last prayer letter. We are thankful to report that we have had a wonderful response for our summer camping program needs and the generous gifts we received should cover the camp expenses for this summer. Regarding our need to replace our Buick which is now approaching 210,000 miles we have also had a good response and lack only about $5,000 of the $15,000 need to cover the cost of its replacement. Finally, we asked you to pray for our Missions to Muslims Conference in Kiev, Ukraine this September. This is a strategic event as we hope to challenge Ukrainians and Russians to do missionary work in surrounding Muslim countries. This makes a lot of sense since Russian is still spoken in many of these places and especially since they would not receive the negative attention that Americans draw in these Islamic strongholds. Enthusiasm is building for this conference and we expect to have over 1,000 in attendance. If you have ever considered sending your pastor to view our ministry overseas or visiting yourself, this would be the perfect occasion. We have enclosed an information sheet about attending this event. Please come! May God bless each and every one of you!
The Slobodians