Slobodian's Prayer Letter: January-February 2004

Dear Pastors and Friends,

            Greetings from the Slobodians!  We count it a privilege to be workers together with you in the harvest fields of Russia and Eastern Europe.  We thank God for your part in this ministry. Since we are in final preparations before departing for Romania and Ukraine, the Lord willing by the time you get this prayer letter, Sam will be teaching BIEM national church planters and workers in Fetesti, which is on the south end of Romania.  Here classes are held four times a year.  Chris Lovelace who has often interpreted will be teaching this trip as well which will be a first for Chris since he started seminary full-time.  Please pray that these sessions for training nationals would be productive and for journeying mercies as we will move on to various ministry opportunities in Romania and Ukraine after the classes. 

Please pray that we will be able to ship our next container this coming month.  The company providing the container that we were supposed to fill with Gospel Literature and humanitarian aid on February 7th, ran into problems that resulted in volunteers ready to load a container but no container to load!  This turned out to be God's hand of mercy since the area where this was to be done was covered with such treacherously slippery ice that loading the container as we had planned would have been extremely difficult and dangerous.  As it turned out we had an unusual amount of items coming in which needed to be unloaded and stored so that the volunteers who turned out had plenty to do with some great fellowship.  Praise God that the $1,500 still needed to cover the cost of shipping this container has been provided!

In February, another one of our national church planter's testimony (Vladimir Makarenko) was aired worldwide on "UNSHACKLED".   Back when Christians were being persecuted in the Soviet Union, Vladimir was saved when the Russian police mistook him for a church member as they arrested the pastors and leaders of the church.  He was just visiting for the first time!   In a thrilling story of God’s grace this amazing event almost quickly resulted in Vladimir’s salvation and call to preach. It turned out that one of our supporting churches had a group visiting Pacific Garden Mission when this program was recorded.  This was a special blessing! 

We are rejoicing that Rick and Pam Barry have been appointed as BIEM missionaries.  Brother Rick will serve as our church planting director where his fourteen years of Russian ministry experience and Russian language ability will be a great asset. At BIEM we have known Brother Barry over 10 years through his long and fruitful ministry with Georgi Vins and Russian Gospel Ministries. Since Brother Rick has many years of experience in Russian ministry, language and culture, we are excited about this addition to our team.  We would like to encourage pastors to schedule Brother Barry for a meeting in your church. His heart and vision for the field, along with a stirring report of the work being done will be a blessing.  Please pray that the Barry's will soon be able to raise the support needed for this important ministry.  May God bless and encourage your hearts in your service for Christ!

Your Missionaries,

The Slobodians