July-August, 2006
“For we are labourers together with God…” I Cor.3:9
Dear Pastors and Friends,
Thank you for praying for our summer youth camp ministry which we shared with you in our last prayer letter. It was a special blessing to have three of our daughters, Sarah, Sharon and Stephanie travel with Sam to participate in this fruitful ministry. God greatly blessed these efforts in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Uzbekistan. More than 800 children and teens attended, and of those more than 150 made professions of accepting Jesus Christ as Savior. A number of others reported making significant decisions through the Bible lessons and preaching services. Praise the Lord for working in young hearts and lives!
We have translated many of the reports from those who worked in the camps which contain information about the background of some of the children, accounts of the challenges and victories of this effort along with heartwarming stories of how many came to Christ. Please take the time to read these by clicking “Summer Camps 2006” on our website (BaptistInternational.org). Of course we realize that not all can access our website, so please do contact us if you would like to receive this report by regular mail or e-mail.
As we write this, we are about to begin a special conference in Ukraine in celebration of BIEM’s 25 years of ministry. We are gathering over 100 of our missionaries and workers at a beautiful church owned location right on the Black Sea. While most of the participants are from Ukraine, Russia, Moldova and Romania where we have been planting churches for years, we are also glad to welcome folks from some of our newer fields which include Georgia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
There are a number of reasons for gathering our national coworkers for a conference such as this one. First of all, in keeping with our primary purpose as believers, we seek to unite our voices in glorifying our great God. Although the occasion of this meeting is BIEM’s 25th Anniversary, we certainly don’t want to pat ourselves on the back. From the very first day of BIEM’s existence, the Lord has worked wonders and opened opportunities for ministry that we, as His vessels, could not imagine. This is a timely occasion for pausing and magnifying God for all that He has accomplished through this ministry.
Another reason for arranging this meeting of coworkers is that, although all of them work “under the umbrella” of one mission organization, the fact that they live in various nations, prevents them from seeing and fellowshipping with one another. In fact, some of them labor in outlying rural areas where there are few believers at all, and even fewer fellow church planters who can understand the loneliness of the mission field. Of course all of them face great challenges from opposition from common enemies of all who strive to do God’s work. As each one shares a presentation of his ministry and as they mingle between sessions, they will be able to share victories and prayer requests. They will also be able to pool their experiences to provide encouragement, inspiration, and perhaps some advice. Please pray that God will bless this conference in a special way. Our conference theme is, “For we are labourers together with God…” I Corinthians 3:9.
We would also like to take this opportunity to mention that finances are needed to cover the expenses of this important event. We are arranging travel, lodging and meals at bargain prices and most are traveling 24-48 hours by train to be able to participate in the conference as economically as possible. Nevertheless, because so many are coming and traveling such great distances we anticipate the total cost of this event to be $25,000. Since we have received less than $10,000 of donations for this project, please consider helping with this need and do pray with us that we can cover our costs. A gift of $250 will cover the cost of one national missionary attending this event. Thank you for your encouragement, support and prayers as we remain your partners in the harvest fields of Russia and Eastern Europe.
The Slobodians