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Ray & Rebecca
Curran
September 1998
| Hello
again to you our dear friends and family from Ray, Rebecca, Elizabeth,
and Dara Curran in Khabarovsk, Russia! It's come to that time again when
we want to share with you a little slice of our life and ministry here.
I want to first say how much we love and appreciate all of you who
faithfully pray for and help support this ministry financially. It is a
tremendous encouragement to us. Our God is always faithful to His
callings and we thank Him for bringing you into partnership with us
here. Many of you have no doubt wondered about the economic situation these days in Russia. The ruble has dropped 150% in value against the dollar (probably more today even), most of that in the just past few days. The reason is because for 3 years prior, the government was artificially propping up the ruble. A few weeks ago, the government ran out of money and could no longer afford to prop the ruble up so they had no choice but to allow the ruble go to it's natural level. It dropped of course. But it was far more than the government anticipated. What exasperated the whole process even more was the rampant speculation and then panic buying of products. People were willing to trade any amount of rubles for dollars. That only made the ruble drop further and faster and inflation become greater. It's like a vicious cycle. And it hasn't stopped yet! At church Sunday following the Bible study, I gave the Russians this scripture: "The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion (I inserted Russia here) with justice and righteousness. And He shall be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; The fear of the Lord is his treasure". Isaiah 33:5-6 What can we do in times like this? We as a church here pray. We believe this nation like all nations is in God's hands and we pray to know his will for Russia. We want to enter into his will at this time for Russia. Through it all, we believe He will take care of his children. We have seen many answers to prayer for provision here. All we can do is trust God. This leads me to not become an alarmist. As I understand it, there's been a lot of speculation in the U.S. media about what could happen here. I don't enter into that speculation. It's foolish and a lack of trust in God to do so. I have much hope in the future here simply because we pray and we have much hope in God at work here. I've been hearing speculations and predictions of doom and gloom for Russia and the end of Christian work here for the 4 years I've been here. I've simply trusted God and His calling from the beginning and God has always opened the doors for us and provided. I've been always free to proclaim the Gospel here and can live here as long as I like. I can only speak for myself on this matter, not others. I also cannot guarantee the future will remain this way. But whatever the case, God is in control. That is what we believe and how we live. I would humbly ask you to pray especially for this nation at this time. There has now developed a shortage of food here because no more will imported until the ruble stabilizes. People have grabbed up all the groceries in stores, even at the inflated prices. It seems kind of like a Great Tribulation scenario here or something these days. To say the least, it's certainly interesting. I sometimes ask the church members here to write a testimony of their life in Christ and what this ministry means to them. We always like to share a couple testimonies with each newsletter: -------------------- "I like going to this church, singing these songs, being among these people. It has a good, and always merry pastor with a bit of sense of humor, who is perfectly organized in all issues concerning church and teaching the Bible. The pastor's wife Rebecca does great guitar playing and singing. All this taken together, I like it very much here. And also I just come here to take a rest and to relax because the atmosphere here is so warm and easy. I like the fact that by my faith in Jesus, I now don't owe anything to anybody. It was due to the church itself, and the people in it, that those changes happened in me. It is very good here." Dennis "Hello brothers and sisters. I'd like to tell you how I came to know God. Before, I had a terrible character when I didn't know God and didn't go to a church. There was total chaos in me and I didn't have self-control. I would curse, show hatred, and always wanted to prove I was right. All this would always end up in tears and hate toward my relatives. I didn't know how to start each day. I couldn't make any decisions for myself. I would always ask my friends for advice, but when they couldn't help me, my life would turn into hell. I would become so helpless. This kind of condition would bring me to total despair. At that time, I began to understand that the character is formed in difficulties. I would have totally collapsed if I hadn't come to God. I heard about God from some older people and my soul seemed to be involuntarily searching for him. When I was alone at home, I would cry and tell God my problems. I believed that he heard me and protected me. It was like a miracle when he would give rest to my soul. I can't express it in words. Someone needs to feel it to understand. My desire to know him wouldn't go away and I wanted to know him more and more. Also at that time, I always had severe back pain and I couldn't stand in lines or on buses longer than 10 minutes. I went to a church to ask God to heal me. I believed that he would hear my prayer. A miracle happened! My back became better and God filled me with the Holy Spirit. My faith in God became stronger. I prayed to God that he would bring me to a place where I could know him more. I once read an ad at a bus stop: "Bible Study, Calvary Chapel." Now I go to this church and I have many friends here. I'm happy that I've become a totally different person from studying the Bible. Now I have confidence in myself and everything fell into place. I no longer argue with my parents and I calmly solve all my questions and problems. Thanks to reading the Bible and Christian books, I came to understand that God can do all and everything is in his power. Now I pray to God that I would be able to see the world through his eyes and love people by his love." Ludmila -------------------- It's great to serve God here. May God richly bless you all! Ray Curran, 9/08/98 |
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