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Ray & Rebecca
Curran
June 28, 2003
| TAMBOV CALVARY CHAPEL "Then I will give you pastors after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding." Jeremiah 3:15 EARLY SUMMER 2003 Hello again from the Currans in Tambov, Russia: Ray, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Dara, little Ray, and now baby Robert! As most of you know, Rebecca gave birth to our 4th child, a boy we named Robert, on April 8th, 2003 in California. He has so far been very healthy and getting fat and we enjoy him very much and thank the Lord for this new blessing. 
click on image to enlargeApril 8, 2003 in Fountain Valley, CA.....Dara, Lizzy, and Ray enjoying their new brother Robert born just a few hours earlier The past few months have really manifested the fact that God cares for those he calls and answers prayers wonderfully. As Rebecca and I always have been saying to ourselves for the last 10 years that we've been involved in foreign missions: "We are so blessed of the Lord....both in the wonderful children as well as the ministry He has entrusted to us! It has truly been a wonderful journey in Christ. We have come to know and trust Him like never before. He has been so faithful and good to us! And we have also come to know such wonderful people, both in the U.S. as well as Russia. We needed to spend all of April and half of May in the U.S. as we awaited the birth of Robert as well as all the needed documents so he could travel back to Russia with us. At first, I was apprehensive at spending that much time away from the church here. But it turned out we had a great time of needed rest and fellowship with family and supporters in both southern California and Portland, Oregon. The love, hospitality, and generosity of so many of you there was such a great encouragement and refreshment to us. We all returned to Tambov in mid-May but faced the immediate challenge of finding a new place to rent for church services. It's a very hard thing here though as we needed a large facility, which is rare, plus the fact that every landlord discriminates against us because we are a church, and a "foreign" one at that. The church was forced out of it's previous place in early March and was reduced to meeting in small temporary places, and then finally squeezed into our apartment. This was especially hard since Rebecca and I were away in the States during most of this time. But the church held together here for the most part. Finally, just a couple days ago, after another one and a half months of searching, the Lord provided us with an adequate place! It's twice as expensive to rent than the previous place, but it is a large room, with it's own bathroom, access to a kitchen, and in a good location in the city. And what's best of all, it's ours for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! So we can now do many things we were unable to fully do before: have meetings as often as we want, organize a Christian cafe ministry, hold evangelistic concerts, etc. Right now I'm working on furnishing and remodeling the place a bit. This is so great! We look forward to what the Lord will do here in the coming months. Thank you so much for your prayers in this regard. Last week, we went to Moscow for a couple days. First, there was the Calvary Chapel Moscow Bible College graduation in which two young people from our church in Tambov graduated. One is named Vova and I just heard he got a job serving as a worship leader in a Moscow church. The other is Ella and she now will work as a secretary in the Moscow Calvary Chapel office. It's hard to say good-bye to them, but we know the Lord will use them mightily in Moscow. 
click on image to enlargeJune 21, 2003 in Moscow....Bible College graduates Vova & Ella with the Currans Also in Moscow last week, we attended a one-day conference featuring Pastor Chuck Smith. I thought it would be a great experience if the church members here in Tambov saw and heard Pastor Chuck as well as the other pastors and believers from the U.S. and Russia at the conference, so I invited and provided for everyone here who could go there. About 25 people were able to go. It was a great experience for them. 
click on image to enlargeJune 21, 2003 in Moscow.....most of group from Tambov that went to the Chuck Smith conference Finally, there's God's great help in our current visa situation. The national Russian government has long been trying to restrict the work of foreign missionaries here. At the present time, they decided to issue religious worker visas for only 3 months at a time, instead of for a year like before. So we are supposed to leave the country and apply for a new one every 3 months. However, by some miracle of God, the local Tambov authorities said to me the other day that they would extend our current soon-to-expire visas for 3 months longer! This is great as it saves us quite a lot of money this summer that I can use to furnish the new church building. So again, we are so blessed and we see God's confirming hand in our calling here. In fact, for many years now, I've had a burden for Muslim people. I even thought we'd leave Russia some day and go to a Muslim country in the Middle East (Rebecca rolls her eyes when I bring up that idea :-) However, I realize there's a significant population of Muslims here in Tambov. It's difficult to talk to them though as they are clannish, that is, they never really associate with people outside their group in even the slightest way. So I'm praying to God for some innovative approach to them. Perhaps if I could first just become friends with one of them. We'll see. Prayer works. God is on the move. And He allows us to join in what He is doing. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Ray Curran 6/28/03 |
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