SPRING 2006
Hello again from Tambov, Russia! We've been busy as usual so far this year, serving to Lord and helping these Russians grow in their faith. First we'll share some events of the past few months...and then we'll share a couple of testimonies from new believers.
January and February is the time of year of the annual Calvary Chapel women's and men's conferences in Moscow. This is always a refreshing and fun time in the Lord for members of our church to spend several days with hundreds of brothers and sisters from both Russia and the U.S. The visiting Americans are always such a treat as they bring their experience and enthusiasm for Christ with them and it is an inspiration to the Russians. One of the things about the Russian evangelical church is that it is relatively young and lacks a the broad experience in Christ of the American church. But we're growing in this experience every year.
This year, after both conferences, we were privileged to have a small team of American women...and then a small team of American men...both visit our own city of Tambov for two days each. We had special church services while they were here and they preached, shared their testimonies, and our worship band played music. The American women even organized a special afternoon Tea and Bible study for the women in our church. It was a great time and great blessing to all of us here.
American women (with Russian interpreter) who visited Tambov...February 3-4, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pastor Roger Stalhut (CC Open Door in Anaheim) and American men who visited Tambov...February 20-21, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our own family is doing well. We traveled to nearby Latvia for a week in late March and received new 1 year visas to Russia. 12 year old Elizabeth and 9 year old Dara continue to attend a local Russian elementary school as well as have English language home school...so they are kept busy. 6 year old Ray will start Russian school next September. Our youngest, Robert, just turned 3.
The kids have been long asking for a pet. We finally relented and bought them a pair of baby rats. We figured they were interesting pets and small enough to not cause any trouble. Well, first of all, they grew bigger than we thought. Then, they had babies, thirteen of them! We were able to give away only one of the babies, so now we have 12 growing rats in our house as pets. Not what we expected, but the kids are enjoying them.
Our son Dara along with some of our new pets
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of the unexpected, that's exactly what God has been doing here in this church for 5 years now. Wonderful things have happened in so many people's lives here that we never could have imagined. New people come and become believers. The established people grow and serve God in new and unique ways. Most of the members are busy with jobs and college, yet they still manage to organize concerts, skits, and evangelistic events. In April, we celebrated our church’s 5th anniversary! There was teaching, skits, music from our band, and a big cake!
Some of the church members posing for a picture after the 5th Anniversary celebration....April 7, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also in April, we had an Easter celebration. One of the members organized and printed the 13th addition of our church newspaper, Living Water where people’s poems, testimonies, art, and reviews of Christian books are written. We had some new people come on Easter. After church, we went to the forest and roasted hot dogs over a campfire and played with a volleyball. How enjoyable everything seems when you have Christ in your heart!
We have a member named Dennis who is a talented artist and who likes to produce Christian comics and animated films. If you write me back and ask, I'd be happy to send you a short animated Christian film that Dennis produced. The file is not very large. Let me know.
One of Dennis' comics he published in a recent church newspaper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the testimony of a young woman named Katya, whom a member named Anastasia invited to church a few months ago.
Katya
"I had always believed that God existed and asked Him for help in time of need. Anastasia had told me a lot about God. She invited me to this church. I felt a real closeness to God through the songs and the sermon.
I was seeing this guy at the time, and something didn’t seem right about him. Anastasia suggested that we pray for God to reveal this guy’s true character to me. We prayed. The very next day, I called him on his cell phone. A girl answered and told me to never call him again because this was her boyfriend and they had been together for a long time. Wow! I knew God did this just for me. I didn’t even care about the guy anymore. I wanted to know God better.
Now, I just can’t bear to miss a single church service. I realize now that in the past where God was reaching out to me, but I didn’t understand it at the time. Now I do. When I go to church, I feel a wonderful cleansing in my soul. My friends wonder about me and think I am restricting myself because I don’t want to do the things I used to do, but now I know that true freedom is in God’s love."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is another testimony by Nicolai, the 15 year old brother of one of our guitarists, Maxim:
Nicolai
"Maxim had always been a nice big brother to me, but when he received Christ, he became even more kind and patient. Maxim gave me some tracts about Jesus. They had pictures and I read them all. I started reading the Bible starting with Genesis and going to Leviticus but stopped there and dropped it for a while. I went to this church a couple of times for the special celebrations such as Easter, and the church’s 5th anniversary. My interest seemed to return, and I started going to church regularly. I read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in Maxim’s Bible. Maxim was always there to answer any questions. Now I have my own Bible. My life has changed. My friends keep inviting me to party with them but it just doesn’t interest me any more. I prefer to go to church and learn about God."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So God continues to build His church here and and we are privileged and blessed to serve him in this way. We are also privileged and blessed to know all of you. Your prayers and generous support of this ministry is a great encouragment to us and it helps enable us to be here.
Thank you very much,
Ray & Rebecca Curran
05/13/2006
********************************************************
Russian home address:
392000, Russia
Tambov
Proletarskaya St., 189
apt. 29
Raymond Curran
e-mail: rcurran@pub.tmb.ru or rcurran@mail.ru
phone/fax: 0117-0752-71-90-83
