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[Apr. 7th, 2008|03:01 pm] |
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“My mum was killed by her partner. He came home early from work one day and she hadn’t made anything to eat so he killed her. Now I call my grandmother mum.” commented nine year old Yulia, without a hint of emotion.
She is small for her age with short brown hair, a denim jacket too light for the season, muddy trousers and a pair of boots that have seen about ten years worth of better days, and the smell... After church, we gave her a lift back to the little wooden house that she calls home. The door was locked, no-one was there, so she came back for lunch. She had always been reticent about visiting before, but now she was willing.
The grime on her little hands with the bright red nails, was no match for the filth on her sopping wet feet. She agreed to wash her hands, but protracted negotiations were necessary before she would take a bath. She was afraid to take a bath because of the lice – she thought we would be upset by them. At home, she told us, she washes with snow, they don’t have water piped into the house and there is no bathroom.
Probably you will understand when I say it was a joy to be able to clean her up, darn her socks, feed her and get her some new boots. In an ideal world we would not have taken her back to her Dickensian squalor, but family are family and she belongs to them, even if she did not want to go back.
We are left with a dilemma. Do we inform the authorities? Would she be better off in a children’s home? Would she be happier there? Would they let her come to church?
Pray with us please.
It has been far too long since we last wrote, sorry. I will try to catch you up on what has been happening, but I knew that if I tried to do that now you would never get this!
On the student ministry front, we have been encouraged by the willingness of some of the students to get involved in the ministry. We have been having a regular “night of evangelism”, when we meet to go to the dormitories together and share the Gospel with anyone who will listen. Every time we meet several students who are happy to chat. Pray for us on a Tuesday night.
Pray too for the Easter events we are planning for the last week of April (Russian Easter is on the 27th). We are planning to hold the same evangelistic event three times in different areas of town on the 22nd,23rd and 25th.
Summary:
• Please pray for Yulia, pray too that we would have wisdom in how best to help her.
• Pray for our Tuesday, “nights of evangelism”, that Christian students would grow through the experience and Not-Yet-Christians would come to faith.
• Pray for three evangelistic events just before Easter.
Thanks for remembering us before Him,
Dave and Luda. |
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| Christmas Presents |
[Dec. 25th, 2006|12:00 am] |
Part of the follow-up strategy after the Jesus Film campaign, was to invite kids to, “Awana”, which is a club combining sports and Bible teaching. In our church, it fell to Luda and her friend Galya to lead this club every Saturday afternoon. The number of kids attending has steadily increased, reaching twenty-two this week. Many of the kids now come to Sunday-School as well.
I write a lot about dormitories for students, but in Russia some families also live in dormitories. Each family has a room, and there is a shared bathroom and toilet on each floor. Ruslan and his brother, Sasha live in the dormitory along with eight other siblings, the one small concession, is that they do have two rooms. Sahsa is the same size as our Edik, although he is twice as old. The evening Luda and I visited, many of the parents were at work, one was drunk and one mother was so ravished by drink and drugs, that she looked more like a grandmother (she was the one who thought that Church would be a bad influence on her kids!).
We have had more response from kids in this hotbed of social problems than from anywhere else. The kids are often rowdy and intemperate, but at the same time they are open-hearted, receptive and they look out for each other. Almost twenty of our little friends came to church on Christmas Eve, where they heard the Gospel told by puppets as well as people! When the “church kids”, were given presents paid for by their parents, we were able to give presents to our small friends, bought with money, given by the church family, eager to embrace others.
It is really a blessing to give to those who cannot give back, and to those who might otherwise get nothing. That is exactly the kind of present that God gave to us, on that first Christmas day!
Have a blessed Christmas,
Dave, Luda, Anita, Emily, Edik and Pavlik Whitman. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 27th, 2006|03:59 pm] |
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Dear Friends So much has happened over the last few weeks that it has been difficult to make time to write about it! The Jesus Film campaign is now over, except for the follow-up. We helped around 4500 people watch the film in our Cinema alone. Across Krasnoyarsk more than 30,000 people came to the showings. You can see some pictures here. Please pray as we continue to call and meet with those who were interested to know more. Last weekend we took more than 80 students away for a weekend to look at the theme, “True Faith”. Some we met through the Jesus Film, some were students we have been in dialog with since last year, and many were friends of Christian students involved with us. Through, lectures, discussion and conversations the Gospel was shared, around 20 students expressed that they had taken their first step in trusting Christ. The men were particularly challenged by the testimony of Sasha a former Special Forces soldier who came to Christ in Groznyy (Chechnya). See pictures here. Please pray for those who were challenged with the Gospel at the retreat. Thank you to all those who prayed for Vitya, he has made a good recovery and is now enjoying life. Pray that his immune system would grow stronger Please pray for our family, that we would have balance in our busy lives. Pray for the Luda and the kids especially as they face the everyday challenges of home-school. Here is a summary of how you can pray. - Pray for the continuing follow up after the Jesus film.
- Pray for those challenged with the Gospel at the evangelistic retreat.
- Pray for Vitya to grow strong and remain in good health.
- Pray for our family, especially for the challenges of home-school.
Thanks for remembering us before Him, |
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| First snow - first fruit |
[Oct. 20th, 2006|11:51 am] |
The last couple of weeks have seen the first snow falls of the winter and the first fruit from the “Jesus” film evangelistic campaign. The campaign started on October the 6th after a week of knocking doors inviting people to come. We were able to get into almost every building of student accommodation in our area, even the ones where they do not usually let us past the door We started the week of preparation for the film by spending the whole night with the designer finishing off the magazine for students that is being used at the film showings. We are helping show the film at “Karo-film” a new cinema near to our home and within easy reach of many students. We have two showings a day so that 400 people can watch the film. On average we have been 95 percent full, some days we have had to turn people away. The majority of those visiting us have been students. It is obvious from the comment cards that God is speaking to many through the film and we have a growing list of people who want to talk further. As well as your prayers for those coming to the film and those responding, we would value your prayers for our team. Slava, who is leading our film showing, had his infant son hospitalized with breathing problems for the first two weeks of the campaign (he is home now). Here is how you can pray: - Please pray for students to keep coming to the film (only four days left!)
- Please pray for those who come, that they would encounter Jesus, not just watch a film.
- Please pray for those who respond that we would be able to effectively follow them up.
- Please pray for the health and safety of our team.
Thanks for remembering us before Him, Dave and Luda. |
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| Second Week of the Semester |
[Sep. 20th, 2006|07:02 pm] |
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Dearfriends, The two events that I asked you to pray for last time went very well, especially the evening for first year students. We had problems with getting police approval right up until the day before the event, but eventually they grudgingly approved, and we had almost 100 students turn up. All the comments that we collected afterwards were positive and many were interested to talk further about spiritual things. We had agood time with the German team that visited us, through their activities we have a good number of interested students to follow up. Please pray for this. As preparations for the Jesus film campaign continue, we are beginning to feel the scale of the whole venture! It is an enormous job even communicating the vision so that everyone is on the same page. The follow-up work will also be a major undertaking! Please pray that all involved will be able to make the most of the opportunities God is giving us. Here is a summary: *Give thanks for the God’s blessings on our first events. * Pray for the follow up of those wanting to know more. * Continueto pray for preparations for the Jesus film campaign (6th to 22ndOct) Thank you for remembering us before Him, Dave, for the family. |
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| Flying start |
[Sep. 8th, 2006|12:12 pm] |
Dear friends,
The weekly (by the grace of God!) updates are back!
The beginning of the semester is always a busy time, this year doubly so!
The situation is complicated further by the fact that some of our staff(Kostya, Yana, and Lonya) are still raising their support, please pray for them.
Next Wednesday (13th) we are holding an evangelisticevent, particularly for first year students. On Friday (15th) the German team that is visiting us will host a “German Cultural evening”.At the moment we are busy inviting students to come. We were just informed today (7th) that we should have informed the police a month of these events a month ago so they could make security arrangements, please pray that tomorrow the chief will give us special grace!
On October the 6th the “Jesus” film will begin to be shown at nearly fifty locations across Krasnoyarsk. Our team is helping to prepare student coordinators for each of these locations, so that they can follow up student age young people who respond to the film. We are praying that this campaign will provide the impetus for several churches to start their own student ministries.Pray for Luda as she finishes editing a magazine for students responding to the film as well as home-schooling Anita and Emily.
Here’s a summary:
- Pray for the Evangelistic event for first year students 13th September.
- Pray for the German team visiting us (7th-17th) particularly for the outreach on the 15th.
- Pray that Kostya, Yana, and Lonya, would be able to raise their financial support.
- Pray for the preparations for the Jesus Film campaign (6th -22nd Oct.)
Thank for remembering us before Him,
Dave (for the family)
If you would like to read about how our summer project with students from UK went you can read a report at http://www.agape.org.uk/students/siberia.htm |
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| Disappointment and hope |
[Mar. 15th, 2006|11:04 pm] |
Dear Friends,
We were disappointed when we went to the hospital on Tuesday morning (apart from having to wait a loooong time), the doctor told us that although things were going well, Emily will need to keep her cast on for another 3-4 weeks. This also means a longer rehabilitation period after the plaster is off. At least we have now been transferred to the care of our local “Trauma point”, which is much more convenient; we will hear what they say on Monday.
On Saturday we held the first training time for the city-wide evangelistic campaign in the Autumn. At each of forty (or so) locations where the “Jesus” film will be shown there will be a student coordinator responsible for following up the students. It was hard to imagine that so far ahead of time people would turn up for the training, but they did, more than fifty of them! Please pray for them, most are inexperienced, but they are key people for integrating new believers into the churches. We have two more training sessions on the 18th and 25th of March.
Next week I will be in St. Petersburg (21-25). We will be meeting with the Campus Ministry Leadership to talk mainly about where are staff will be placed for next year. These are important decisions that affect peoples lives as well as the future of the ministry, please pray. Pray too for Luda at home with the kids.
Here’s a summary:
* Please pray for Emily’s continued recovery.
* Please pray for the student coordinators being trained March 18th and 25th
* Please pray for the National Campus Leadership Team meetings 22nd -24th March, which I will be part of, and for Luda at home with the kids.
Thanks for remembering us before Him,
Dave for the family |
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| Report from Winter Bible Conference |
[Feb. 27th, 2006|04:04 pm] |
There is a report from Our annual student conference at the end of this link
The report is a 400kb Adobe Acrobat format (pdf) file, you will need Acrobat Reader to look at it, you can get it for free here. |
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| Down Town Evangelism |
[Feb. 23rd, 2006|01:20 am] |
Dear Friends,
Thanks for your prayers and notes for Emily. We went to the hospital today for an x-ray. The doctor was very pleased with the way things look. The break is being held together very well, which makes for fast healing. We go back on March 15, when they may even take the cast off.
One of the things the students liked at the Winter Student Conference in Moscow was the day of evangelism, when we went out and shared in some of the shopping centres around the city. We decided to “fan the flames”, by having a similar outing on a Sunday afternoon in Krasnoyarsk. We didn’t entirely expect 30 people to come and join us! It turned out to be a good afternoon and they were able to share the Gospel with more than 30 people, most of them students.
We are planning a big outreach for March 24th, when we will rent a nearby cinema screen (holds 250) and show an evangelistic film (The Climb). This will be a good opportunity to share the Gospel, but we also want to use it as a training event. Next Autumn (Fall) there will be a city-wide evangelistic campaign with showings of the “Jesus” film all over the city. Each team showing the film will have a student coordinator. We want to use our film showing as a preparation for these coordinators. Please pray for us as we prepare, and as we put together a theoretical training for the coordinators.
Here is a summary:
Give thanks that Emily’s leg is healing well.
Please pray for the contacts from our day of evangelism on Sunday (19th).
Please pray for our preparations and training for an evangelistic film showing on March 24th.
Thanks for remembering us before Him,
Dave, for the family. |
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