Again in Siberia

Greetings from missions' field! We are in Irkutsk region, Russia.

With Pastor Nikolay from Ust-Ilimsk we stopped at Rehab center in Irkutsk and prayed for those precious people who is going through the rehabilitation program.

View of Ust-Ilimsk city

Worship time at the church "The Spirit of Faith"

The church in Ust-Ilimsk city has a missionaries training school. After nine months of hard work, five students are prepared for missions work . They are graduated on June 17th and looking forward to go to new missions' fields (in their region and country, so far). May God bless all of them and send even more workers for His Kingdom!  

The territory of one of Rehabs for alcohol addicted people in Ust-Ilimsk. The inmates planted veggies and the green is coming up in June.

The leaders of Rehab have a vision for extended ministry. They got a building (on a picture above) and are planning to use it for the handicapped elder people. There is a big need and the city is far behind to take care for many people in need. Many handicapped people are alcohol addicted as well. 

Igor and Lena are facing a giant Goliath: finances to bring this building up to working condition and remodel it for the  handicapped seniors living facility. We prayed with them so they would be able to overcome that giant Goliath. The leaders are eager to bring Jesus into lives of many people. May God bless them! Together, we can extend a Kingdom of God around the world! 

Also, they just recently purchased  an old truck and are in a process to fix it by the harvest season.

 Igor and Lena gave us a ride on "passengers" pick-up.

They purchased new animals: sheep. Thirty more sheep are coming from the Ural area. 

The leaders are trying hard to keep their Rehab center as self-sufficient.

Bogota

At 7 o'clock in the morning our friends brought us to the airport in Bogota, Colombia. It's time to go home. Everyone is tired and satisfied about what was done during the last week.

Bogota city is located in the mountainous and at this trip, as never before, we experienced a hard breathing all the time due to the high altitude: not enough oxygen to breathe.


Driving up to the steep incline.

After four days of the conference, we ministered in churches few times on Saturday and Sunday (pictures above and below from different churches)


Also, we had a privilege to minister to pastors from the hard to reach areas. They arrived from the area where is no electricity yet, no roads, no any civilization so far; many of them came from jungles. We prayed with them. God gave us a strong word of encouragement for them. Our God is going to do something very special at that areas. Our God is God Almighty!

That's Olga helping in the kitchen. On that small kitchen we prepared meals for our big team.

On the picture above, you can see that onstruction work is almost done on this project. The church in Bogota has a large lovely heart for the street children and already has many projects for them: this building should be used for children as well.


What kind of work is going on the hill? Potatoes harvest! People are picking potatoes. They got many bags (sacks) of potatoes. Praise God for a great harvest!

At the last day, we participated in the children ministry. The church purchased gifts for kids who live far away on the very hill. That community has its lighthouse (I didn't see any river around...)

On the top of the mountains was cold. Colombians do not have any heater systems (normally, they wouldn't need it). They have had warm clothes. Also, many of them kept mouth covered by scarf.

Games and New Year presents! Children had a school break in January.

What is in?

Colombia Conference

Guayabal is a beautiful place in Colombia, located on West from the capital city. It is only about 2 hours to drive without traffic, but with traffic it took us about 4 hours during the night to come from the airport.

270 people stayed in this complex. The good meal was provided three times a day.



The theme of the conference was taken from the I Corinthians 4:20 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." Many Pastors and leaders of different churches arrived with their families from the Bogota area. They were hungry for the words of God and ready to take a next step of faith.

The powerful word touched hearts and people cried out to God at the altar.


On the pictures above and below, you can see an Evangelist and a worship leader. He got blind many years ago after a gunshot and that situation brought him to Jesus. His ministry is wonderful. He helps people to came closer to the throne of God. His wife is always next to him.


The handicapped couple from the picture above serves as missionaries in Spain. The health condition didn't stop them from being active for the Kingdom of God. They serve mostly for the people with the limited ability. Also, they play wheelchair basketball.


Three days on the row, we ministered for families. God is bringing His standards into marriage relationship and family. Praise God for His work. Many marriages were going through difficult time. One couple was already separated but God healed their hearts and relationship. They cried together and hugged each other. God restored and refreshed many marriages during this conference. Praise God!

We prayed for this young couple too. We believe God makes them strong so they would be able to minister to their parents and siblings. Also, we prayed for them to have a baby.


The conference is over. People are ready to leave. Our hearts are with Colombians.

The beautiful view of the Andes mountains.

Belur Conference India

Three days of the conference in Belur, state Karnataka, were filled with God's blessings and anointing. The large church building was completely packed: over a thousand people were inside and many people were listening from the outside. The sound system worked well and delivered messages and worship far away.

Christians from different areas of the State of Karnataka came for the conference. Some of them traveled by train and some by bus. One church rented a bus and brought 50 or 60 people from another border of the State and it took them 13 hours to ride! Christians in India are hungry to hear God's word and they love to worship. Joyful worship could go hours after hours without stopping. We would say there was not enough space to move, but people could even dance: the crowed was clapping and jumping together. Without air conditioners, the temperature inside of the building with a crowd over a thousand people was really high. Indians survived easily at hot temperature, but for us it was a challenge (we just came from Russia, where the temperature dropped down to 40 degree F)

In the after noon, Pastor Don and Yuriy led the men conference upstairs (on the roof of the building). The women annual conference was held in the main hall. Olga and one local woman were speakers for ladies. The Holy Spirit touched hundreds of people's hearts.

Olga and her translator Sinchana. Sinchana and her husband are Pastors in another city. She speaks fluently 5 languages! She was a huge blessing for all the people at the conference. People from different states in India speak different languages. Praise God, our translator had an ability to translate for many of them.

At the women conference: ladies are seating on the floor. All the men went up (on the roof) and left more space for women.

The church building and a tent. People could get a shadow during the day.

Lunch time! People are getting ready for a delicious meal! Every one was served a nice meal at the conference. The big team worked hard at the kitchen. Most of rice food was prepared on fire outside.

On the picture above, you can see a big line of people, but all the lines were moving fast. We were amazed of the team work of all kitchen servants.

Yuriy enjoys fellowship with pastors during the short breaks time. Some of them could speak English and share their experience with God.

People were seating everywhere... and eating lunch

We noticed that men worked hard to prepare tons of delicious rice for the big crowd. We could smell food around: they prepared it outside of the church building during the conference.

Beside the rice, potatoes were piled out, cooked and served for lunch or dinner.

We are different but we worship together to the same one Almighty God! Different cultures, different colors of skin, age, and height, and shape, and language, and so on and on. We are united through our Savior Jesus who died on the cross and rose for the salvation of all the nations.

On the picture below, we are with the local Pastor's family who hosted the conference.
Thanks God for all the blessing at the conference. We believe many seeds were planted in a good soil and will bring harvest for the Kingdom of God in His time.