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January, 2001 To whom it may concern
Hereby I want to notify you that Calvary Chapel of Khabarovsk is still alive in spite of the fact that this letter must have caught you completely off guard. You must have been thinking that you would have to plan another missionary journey to KHV to plant another church. If you were really thinking about such a waste of money, call me and I will suggest a much better investment (in my opinion). But to be serious about writing a newsletter it is better to start giving out the news. The picture that you see here is unique. You can almost never get the same people to show up at church. Some people on the picture are strange to the church since it was there first time with us and they never showed up afterwards. Some people are the guests from other churches. At the same time almost half of the church is not in the picture. Firstly, I need to apologize for not writing for such a long time. It has been a really busy and fun time to try to get into Ray's shoes and pastor the church. At first I was greatly surprised that people still come to church even though Ray is not there any more. Then it was interesting to notice that some new people show up at church and then leave. Some stayed… Then I discovered how my concern for the members of the church really grows. It was something that happened beyond my efforts. At first I was worrying just about how to get the Word of God to the people and to make them see that Christ is alive and is acting in our daily lives. I wanted them to see that Christianity is being with God and not just having all the right doctrines. Then I believe God started giving us the sense about how to BE the church. I have been and still am struggling about how to unite all the areas of my life into something whole. I got really tired of the sense of 'holeness'. You see I work as a teacher at the Far Eastern State Transport University and I believe God was certain about my being there at this time. I couldn't realize why, but I guess God will show me in His time. I would really like to see a Christian Student Fellowship at the University. Could you please pray about that? It looks like when I let God be God in HIS church, He is pleased with that and blesses us greatly. For instance, we have been blessed by God to have the same room for more that six years. We have thanked him for that and He had blessed us with good relationship with the building administration. About a month and a half ago I thought that it would be good for us to have our own property, where we would be able to do whatever we wanted. We started praying for it only to discover that we would probably not have it for a while. A week or so later I went to pay the rent for the next month and I was told that the prices would probably go up the next year, but they would have to recalculate the rent according to another criteria. So they did it, and it turned out that we would have to pay almost twice as less as we used to pay. By the way this had been available for us long time ago. But God has been waiting for us to ask! He blows my mind! He is just great. We have started the chorus group at our church. It also started without my initiative. Once we have started it we found out that most of us (including the pastor of the church) could not sing the tune completely. A few lessons later we were doing much better. Now I want us to be a singing church. I want all members of the church to be able to lead the worship… All two of us… No, we are about, I don't know how many of us, but the chorus consists of seven people by now. You see the pictures that show those lessons. One of the church members goes to musical faculty of a Baptist school. She knows much more about the music than we do. So I generously allow her to teach… and criticize me, and give me an F when I don't do my homework… We use the instruments that are available for us (guitar, pianos and the simple keyboard). I am still trying to fit the tambourine into the orchestra, but something is still missing (drums probably ;-). We have a Sunday school at church but it is not so well equipped. We don't have a separate room for the children. We also don't have many visual aids. We are saving some money to try to by a flannel graph set some time in the future, or something else of a good use for the church. I also keep working as a coordinator of the Far Eastern extension program of The Moscow Theological Institute. It was established by the Assemblies of God of America and it functions under the Pentecostal Union of Russia. / You see it is good to be a bapticostal church as we sometimes call it. / It does take much time and efforts, but it gives good education to people and good salary to the workers. It is so nice to realize that I can make a living without being a burden for the church. As for the church we are collecting enough offering for our rent, tea and cookies. We also are able to help some of the needy members of the church once in a while. We also are in contact with ICI in Russia, and I think that it would be good to create a system of good Christian education in our region. I also have a great desire to have a huge Christian Bookstore where one could buy Christian T-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, tapes, pens, postcards, etc. with Christian symbols, and to have a big Christian library where people could go and read the books they want. It's also amazing to see how the people grow in the Lord. They simply discover this new life when they open up the Bible and read it wherever they want and whenever they want. And they want more and more of it… And it is not my boast either! The church is living in Christ and He is giving it all he wants to give in order for it to live better for Christ! Picture 3 Picture 4 Picture 5 Picture 6
On Christmas there was a Christian music festival. It lasted the whole day. There were people from many churches from Khabarovsk. Even the people who are unable to speak and hear were praising God in chorus in their sign language! That was something I had never seen before. Happy Holydays to all of you from me and my family. Special greetings to Rebecca on her Birthday
P.S. There are some letters for you in Russian from the church. Vasily Petrovitch says his personal Hi. Милая Ребекка! С днем рождения! Пусть удачи и счастья звезда Днем и ночью горит для тебя! С новым Годом! С Рождеством Христовым! С Днем рождения! Желаю вам всех земных благ!
Не смогу лишь только вас увидеть я, Слишком далеко вы, милые друзья! Лучше не скучайте в этот Новый Год, Радости он много нынче принесет. Будут и тревоги, только не робеть, В будущее дальше надо вам смотреть. Улыбнитесь радостно, вспомните меня, С Новым Годом, милые, далекие друзья! Зинаида. Дорогая Ребекка! С любовью поздравляем с днем рождения! Желаем здоровья и счастья. Пусть у вас получается любое дело, и любовь окружает вас на каждом шагу. Мы вас все помним и любим. Желаем благополучия и здоровья Реймонду, Лизе, Макдере, Рею маленькому. Лена (аптекарь), Лариса, Григорий, Оля, Наташа, Миша, и др.
Милая Ребекка! С Днем рождения! Люблю тебя. Всех Вас. Молюсь за Вас. Молюсь Богу, чтобы вы не обиделись на меня. Он выполнил мою просьбу. Я люблю тебя и храни тебя и твою семью Господь. Помни пожалуйста меня. Твоя молитва всегда меня хранит. С новым годом! С Рождеством Вас!
Целую, Ирина (шейпинг).
P.S. У Иры дела сейчас дела идут не очень хорошо, их опять попросили уйти из квартиры которую они с Женей снимали. Но самое главное, что Ира не падает духом, а ищет утешение у Господа, и надеется на него. Наташа. |
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