Slobodian's Prayer Letter: January-February 2006
January-February 2006
“Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.” Psalm 72:18
Warm greetings in Christ from Ukraine, where we are enjoying a heat wave of 6 degrees above zero after enduring -37 in Moscow. It has been a frigid winter here.
Praise God, our school in Moscow has been enrolling a number of students from Muslim republics. Several are from Kazan, in the Republic of Tatarstan. One student from Kyrgyzstan knows four languages (Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Russian). All of them plan to work with Muslims. Here in Ukraine, too, God is burdening some people for Islamic areas. This is encouraging, since Americans aren’t welcome in many places. But Ukrainians and Russians have a long-standing presence in those areas. In fact, many Central Asians speak Russian as well as their native tongue.
I had another opportunity to help officiate in a Ukrainian wedding that takes all day. The ceremony itself can take a couple hours since all of the premarital counseling is worked into the ceremony. These marathons feature instructions on all aspects of married life from house keeping to taking out the garbage. At the reception every guest must make a speech or do some music. Most prefer to do both. Probably because for some of these folks these events are the only opportunities they ever have to perform in public. Many of these fearless people have such a great time they get up for a second or third performance no one requested.
Some young people were saved this week in Goncharivske, our second military-base ministry. Please pray for Igor working there. It seems that the moving of souls he has been praying for is beginning. Hardly anyone on this base is saved, so discipleship is a challenge. God has also answered prayer concerning Novograd-Volinsky, a military city where we hope to launch a third military-base church. Some time ago a handful of Christians asked BIEM to start a church there. We have been praying for finances and for a man that God would call to this place. Missionary Tim Smith, who is in Ukraine for 3 months due to complicated visa procedures, has agreed to minister there for these months. Please pray for the $500 monthly that is needed for this new work and for a Ukrainian church planter to take over when Tim returns to Magadan. Another answer to prayer was that the church in Desna was able to purchase the building that had long been locked up in privatization and other bureaucratic proceedings. Recently God opened the doors for another significant Bible distribution effort to the soldiers on this military base. You will see a report about this in the next issue of our newsletter, The Challenger.
It’s hard to believe, but this fall we will be celebrating 25 years of BIEM’s ministry. God’s hand of blessing has certainly been evident over the years. We hope to gather over 100 national missionaries and workers from several countries, as well as a delegation of Americans for a celebration conference September 19-21 near the Black Sea. Please pray that this conference can be successfully organized and financed. We want that conference to be a huge encouragement to the nationals. They will be able to gather ideas, encouragement, and inspiration from their counterparts from other nations.
In closing, BIEM plans to ship out a container next month and needs the items listed on the enclosed card for our homeless children’s ministry and summer camp. Can you help? May God bless each of you!
The Slobodians