Category: Updates

From Russia to Montenegro

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About 10 days ago, Olga and I began a road trip from St. Petersburg, Russia to visit Stoneworks ministry sites in eastern and central Europe.  Stoneworks continues to expand, and it’s an honor to be able to visit so many wonderful people that God has put together as ‘living stones’ (1 Peter 2:5).

Our first stop was in Minsk, Belarus where we visited with our ministry Spring of Revival.  We stayed with Yasha and Olga Goncharenko and had a great time visiting several ministry sites.

Olga and her staff continue to do great work under difficult circumstances.  They are very worthy of our help and support.

The highlight of our visit was at the Minsk Family Home. The young ladies who live there are doing very well, and Alesya (the counselor, in front on the right) is doing a great job.

We had a good meal together, shared stories and were blessed to have a good time of fellowship and mutual encouragement.

We also visited a foster family we support.  The home, for eleven children, is in a small village 30 minutes from Minsk.

We had a great meal there (this is a theme of our travels), and saw some of the pigs we bought for them. We’re now helping purchase a cow, and we’ve also purchased chickens and provided other aid for foster families.

From Minsk, we drove through eastern Poland to Budapest, Hungary after a long day.

The trip through that part of the world is quite interesting and the land is very beautiful, especially as we made our way through the Carpathian mountains of eastern Slovakia.

In Budapest, we continue to build a relationship with the Free Methodist World Mission.  I hope we will be able to place a long-term missionary to help the local church with outreach and youth ministries.

I had a good visit with the team there, and I am very hopeful that we can partner with them in the future.  This was my third visit to Budapest, and I’m feeling more and more ‘at home’ there.  And the Danube is always a treat:

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From Budapest, we made our way to Serbia.  We visited our good friends Jan (pronounced ‘Yahn’) and Nada Dudas in Bachki Petrovac, a small farming town in the region of Voivodina.  Jan is an elder in the Baptist church.

novi_sad-15I am hopeful that Stoneworks will be able to serve them in some way.  For now, we continue to build relationships as we discern how the Lord is leading us.  I was honored to offer the sermon at church, and I feel well-received.

We also visited the old town of Novi Sad (left), which is nearby.  I’m enjoying getting to know more about the rich history of the area.

Most of the people in Bachki Petrovac are of Slovakian heritage, and the church service was in Slovakian.  Everyone also speaks Serbian, of course, and many speak English; we also heard some German and French, and several people spoke Russian with us.  It’s quite a place.

From Serbia, we drove to our final destination – Podgorica, Montenegro.  The trip over the mountains was spectacular; we saw many dramatic waterfalls caused by the spring snow melt.

We’ll be here for three weeks, having fellowship with the church, helping any many ways and spending time with our family here (Olga’s sister just had a baby boy who is the pride of the family). I’ve been asked to take over the teaching duties at the church for the next three weeks, and I’m glad to help in that way.

Yesterday, I traveled to Cetinje with Vladimir Cizmanski, pastor of the Brethren Assembly. We had good conversations as we wound our way through the Black Mountains. This is the view we saw as we returned home:

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The Lord has given us so much beauty. Of course, the places we’ve seen are beautiful, but even more beautiful are the people and the relationships He has established as we walk with Him.

‘He is the most beautiful baby!!!’ — My sister’s words

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As you can see, this is Olga writing here.

Well, I had to be patient and wait five days for the pictures!  But today they have finally arrived!  I called my sister and heard a great news, that she is already at home with her baby!

She did say that she thinks him to be the most beautiful baby!  And to that she holds!  It is so much fun to talk to her and to hear her speaking of those little delightful things of daily care!

baby2He is really so cute and sweet!!!!!

I am so tickled to just get into the car and go to her!  I envy those around her now who can be with her and enjoy these moments.

I should not complain though.  Mike and I are going to be the first out of our St. Pete crew who will see him and get to hold him and help Alla with her tasks.  She already promised to use me to the fullest! 🙂

It is a very new feeling to me, and when I first saw my mom after we got the news, the two of us just held each other close and could not stop smiling!

The Lord is so good.

I know I am not saying anything new, and (using the Russian phrase) ‘I have not discovered America’ by saying that babies are the wonder and the gift from the Lord.

But I think it is the first time in my life that I truly feel this.

And I am so happy!!!

A Postcard from Russia — Foundations

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This may not look like very much, but it is the fruit of much loving labor and the beginning of something great. This picture was taken recently at Elama, our camp in Russian Karelia. These are part of the foundations of a pavilion and summer kitchen we’ll build next year.

St. James UMC in Athens, GA has taken this on as a project and will send a team in May to put up the two buildings.

The foundation was built by our good friends Sergei Tovstapyet and John Bull. They had the help of some men (at left) from a nearby Christian re-hab center. When the American team comes to build the buildings, we’ll also have the guys from the rehab center working with them: ministry, labor, fellowship.

We also hope to improve the heating and water systems at Elama, and we’ll try to find a riding mower/small tractor so we can clear more land.

Next summer we will host over 100 children at Elama, in addition to various church retreats, workdays and cookouts. These two buildings are going to be a blessing to many people.

Other quick news: MIR is sending 11 orphans to the US for the hosting program (we have fewer this Christmas because the Russian government is concerned about swine flu and has limited overseas travel for orphans);  we’re already planning next summer’s youth camp in Montenegro;  the Minsk Family Home is very successful after it’s first few months.

The Lord continues to give us abundant life, and we thank Him for it.

A Postcard from Russia — ‘Our Girls’

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We have mentioned this before, and it’s high time to introduce you to Zhenya, Anya, and Natasha. Just about a year ago, we were in the US when three young ladies from our church, on short notice, needed a place to stay for a few weeks. Well, that ‘few weeks’ has turned into a year of blessing.

We are now like family; even at church the girls are referred to as Канртеллы (Cantrells).

We just celebrated a fine Thanksgiving meal with them and other friends and family, where Olga’s grandfather, Orest Maximilianovich, played the piano (see the picture below).

— Zhenya Kopushy has degrees in Education (Russian language and literature) and Physics (thermodynamics). For six years she taught at a Christian school and is now working with a Dutch mission at Hospital #15 for street children. She leads intercessory prayer at our church.

— Anya Kazak is originally from Belarus. She is studying to be a teacher of deaf children and is also teaching at a Christian school. She is the leader of the children’s ministry at Street Cry.

— Natasha Pavlova is a counselor at Crimson Sails, a Christian children’s shelter in St. Petersburg. She has as degree in architecture and worked for several years at an architectural firm before joining the staff of Crimson Sails three years ago.

Zhenya, Anya and Natasha bring life and joy to our home. We continue to argue with them about who is the most blessed by this arrangement! This is clearly a God-given family, and we are so thankful.

Orest Maximilianovich Grotin, Thanksgiving 2009, at the very piano on which he learned to play over 80 years ago

To Hungary and Serbia

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I’ve just returned from a trip to Budapest for a conference and a visit to Serbia where I spoke at a church.   I traveled with John Bull, a Stoneworks missionary based in St. Petersburg.  The picture above is of the Danube flowing through Budapest, taken from the Citadel overlooking the city, with the foothills of the Carpathian mountains in the background.

We attended the Free Methodist European missions conference. The European director and good friend, Jerry Coleman, invited us to attend.  We met missionaries and local leaders from 14 countries — from Bulgaria to the Canary Islands.

It was a great conference, and I’m hopeful that these new relationships will lead to future partnerships in ministry.  I was especially blessed by meeting missionaries from Ukraine and Romania.  I was also asked to play my guitar for two services, and it was good to be able to minister in that way.

We were all very encouraged in our work, and it was great to see and experience spiritual unity with brothers and sisters from so many countries.

After the conference, we drove to Batcki Petrovac, Serbia to visit a church.  Last summer I met one of the elders, Jan Dudas, in Montenegro, and he invited me to visit when I had a chance.   I was very happy to be able to speak at their church on my birthday.

Their hometown is a small farming village (about 6000 people) in north Serbia.  The town is 90% Slovak, so they all speak Slovak as well as Serbian, and quite a few people speak English as well.

This part of Serbia is a sort of Bible belt — many churches there were established over 100 years ago and survived through the communist regimes.  It reminded me of visiting believers in small farming towns in the US and Finland — people are the same all over the world it seems.

My relationship with Jan (pronounced Yahn) is very good; his family is great.  I’d love to help send a missionary there to serve that church.  Jan was the best man for Vladimir Cizmanski, a dear friend who is the pastor of the Brethren Assembly in Montenegro (where we’ve recently sent a missionary). I believe that God is setting us all together as living stones.

Olga and I hope to visit there again early next year.  Above at left I’m with John, Jan and his wife Nada, and their three children.

John and I drove quite a distance — about 1300 miles each way. We drove from the Balkans through the heart of central Europe and the Baltics: Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.

I have a sense that the Lord is calling us to do more work in that area.  It was very good to have more experience there, deepen relationships and meet new people.

It was a very blessed trip, and I look forward to seeing how God opens doors for future ministry.

News from the Cantrells — Adoption

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As many of you know we’ve always wanted a family, and we found out a few years ago that Mike is unable father children. We’ve wanted to receive the family that God gives us, rather than ‘making’ it happen by our own will. The Lord promised Abraham a family, but Abraham and Sara were unwilling to wait for God’s timing and took it into their own hands; that didn’t turn out very well.

So, we’ve waited until we saw the Lord clearly providing for us; and we now feel that this is happening. And we’re very excited about it.

We are going to adopt!

A lot of our friends have adopted, so now we get to share in those experiences. 🙂

Our adoption is a bit different from most others, because we are going to adopt an embryo.

Here’s how that works: couples like ourselves create embryos by in-vitro fertilization; most of these embryos are implanted into the mother; some are not implanted and are frozen; families then choose to donate those frozen embryos to couples like us.

This means that Olga will give birth to our adopted child. Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Valeria’s Baptism

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Many of you will remember Oksana, the orphan who lived with us several years ago. She now has a two year old daughter named Valeria.

Oksana wanted for Valeria to be baptized, and she asked us to be the godparents and participate in the baptism, which was in an Orthodox church (hence the headcoverings). Valeria was one of several children baptized that day.

Valeria is a cutey, very full of life and enjoys laughing and playing with the cat.

Oksana, though, is not doing very well. She was quite distant from us (disappeared) for a while, but we’ve been reconnecting with her.

The father of Valeria is no longer around. Oksana lived with another man for over a year; he died as a result of drug addiction. She is now living with another man who is also a drug addict. Her relationships tend to be abusive.

She’s 23 years old. And, very sadly, she recently tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C.

We keep praying for Oksana and have faith that God is going to redeem her life. God keeps giving us assurance that He is at work.

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A Postcard from Russia — Apples, Mushrooms and Berries

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The end of the summer is upon us, and now is the time of harvest and of looking forward. The apples, mushrooms and berries (and carrots, peas, cucumbers and potatoes) are plentiful.

Last week we were at dacha again for Olga’s grandmother’s birthday; she is 77 years old this year.  On that day, August 28, eight years ago I proposed to Olga in the garden there. Each year since we’ve been at dacha to celebrate the birthday. It’s a blessing that we can have time with family. Olga’s grandfather, Orest, is doing fairly well, in his 90th year.

God continues to bring new opportunities. We look forward to telling you over the coming months about a few things that are on the horizon. MIR is doing well, Stoneworks is growing, our ministries in Belarus and Montenegro are increasing, new workers are being called to work along side us, and key relationships are growing deeper. We are thankful for the fruitfulness that God brings.

In His love,

Mike and Olga Cantrell

A Postcard from Russia — Home Sweet Home

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The other day I came home to a pleasant sight: Olga making jam from gooseberries she and babushka picked at dacha. We’ve done a lot of traveling this summer, and it’s nice to be back in Russia for a bit. We’ve recently spent time at Elama, been at dacha, and visited with teams from the USA. August is holiday time in Russia, so things are slowing down a little.

For the past several months we’ve had three young ladies from church living with us — Zhenya, Anya, and Natasha. We’ll tell you more about them soon. They are all very strong believers, good friends and have become members of our family; the people at church now call them Kantrelli. Our home is full of life. We truly have a sweet home.

Natasha visited dacha with us and learned how to mow grass. I think we’re the only people in the village with a lawn mower; we always have interested neighbors stopping to look at how the machine works, many have probably only see one in the movies.

Many of you know that I am the executive director of Stoneworks International. We are seeing much growth. Also, this fall Stoneworks and Spring of Revival are opening a Family Home in Minsk: a residential program for graduate orphans. If you’d like to be on the update email list for Stoneworks with reports on our work in Russia, Belarus and Montenegro, please visit here to sign up.

We give God the credit for all the good He does in and through us. We hope you, too, will see these good things and give praise to our Father in heaven. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

A Postcard from Montenegro — Fruitful Relationships

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I  just returned from a very fruitful trip to Montenegro, where we hosted a team from St. James United Methodist Church in Athens, GA.

Our relationships continue to deepen in Montenegro and the work is expanding. I was involved in three main areas:

First, we ran a teen camp. We had more campers this year than last (it’s great to see growth), and our time with them was very deep and fruitful. Two young ladies made commitments to become followers of Jesus and several others were very encouraged in their faith.

Continue reading →