Just an update

It is hard to believe that we have not updated this blog since the start of the New Year. We have been busy, but not that busy. I hesitate to write about everything we do here because much of it is routine to us. How many stories can we write about ministry to drug addicts?

So what has been happening here? Well Cornerstone church has sent out two new church panting teams in the last 5 weeks.

One team has gone to the city of Ulyanovsk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulyanovsk . The team is small, only 4 people, but they have already rented a home outside the city and opened a drug rehab center. They have 5 people in rehabilitation. Soon they will rent an apartment in the city and increase the outreach that they do. In the spring they will find a hall to rent and begin public church services. These brothers and sisters are off to a great start.

A few weeks later a larger team left for the city of St. Petersburg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg . St. Petersburg is a historic city and served as the capital of Russia for years. The Russian revolution started in St. Petersburg.

The team to St. Petersburg consisted of ten people, the largest team sent out so far. Like the Ulyanovsk team, this team has also rented a house outside the city and begun a rehabilitation center. They also have 5 rehabilitants. This month they have plans to rent a second home and they will then begin a ministry to homeless people. Next month the plan is to rent an apartment in the city, increase the outreach and evangelism and then begin public church services.

Both teams need people to pray for them. It is never easy to start a church. None of these church planters are more than 2 years old in Christ. No one on the St Petersburg team has even had a formal Bible School education. They have no financial backing. Both teams however have a lot of faith and a lot of zeal. God will use these young men and women to expand the Kingdom of God and bring many people to Christ.

We have been busy teaching at the local centers for the last month, but we have also experienced a lot of interruptions to ministry. Our Russian car has broken down twice and the repairs cost us about a week of time. Karen has been sick recently with cold/flu so we didn’t do much last week in order to not spread any sickness to the centers.

So, life goes on – ministry goes on. We love being here, serving the Russian people and seeing lives changed by the power of the Gospel.