Category: Updates

A Postcard from Montenegro

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We’re back in Russia after a great drive from Montenegro through Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Belarus. Along the way we visited new friends and old in Budapest and Minsk.

We want to share this amazing picture of the team in Montenegro. This was taken on a mountain overlooking the Bay of Kotor, thousands of feet below.

Here in Russia, we’re preparing for the next phase of the summer. We’ll welcome several teams to minister in summer camps and orphanages. The work at Elama continues, and we’ll host several Christian camps there over the next few months.

I (Mike) will be back in Montenegro with another mission team in mid-July. And, our connections with Estonia and Finland continue to grow.

We are very thankful to the Lord for giving us the grace and ability to be involved in so many fruitful projects. He gets all the credit for any good thing we may be involved in; Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing.

We hope and pray that we’ll continue to live in Him, being rooted in Him and built up in the faith.

A Postcard from Montenegro — Deep Love

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Yesterday, after two very good and full weeks, we said our goodbyes to a team from Athens, GA. Most of the team members were from the Wesley Foundation at the University of Georgia. Jane Kilgo, from St. James UMC in Athens, GA, also joined the team. The team is pictured above with the Kid’s Club at church.

It’s impossible to say how loving, encouraging and gracious the team was. Many people were very blessed by their time here, including the team members!

The team was involved in many different aspects of ministry, all with the focus of serving the Brethren Assembly in Podgorica. The pastor, Vladimir Cizmansky, is pictured at right performing a baptism which we were honored to attend.

Vladimir and his wife Marijana are both great examples of disciples of Jesus who pour out their lives in service to Christ and others.

We were also helped in many ways by Violeta Pavetic (the sister of our brother-in-law). Violeta is picture at left with some of the kids from the church. Violeta is jewel of a person and a great friend and co-worker.

In addition to running the Kid’s Club, the team ministered in many other ways. They taught an English class at church; ministered at a small fellowship in Kotor, a city with about seven known Christians; and helped local missionaries in Bar, a city with about five Christians. Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Dedication of Mira

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Four yeas ago I  officiated the wedding of Maxim and Anya Zakharov. Two years later they asked me to oversee their dedication of their first born girl, Pelegea. This week they asked me to do the same for their second daughter, Miroslava (who is a real cutie, above). It’s a blessing to have been here long enough to share in their lives as they grow and change.

Olga has been teaching English classes. She started teaching just a few folks, and it’s grown into quite a group. Now she has several people from Street Cry attending classes a couple of times a week.

We had our first ‘event’ at Elama. Crimson Sails, a Christian shelter in St. Pete, took their kids for a cookout yesterday. This was my first visit to Elama this spring, and things were better than I expected since no one had checked on the place all winter. Someone had broken into two of the buildings and used them for sleeping and eating (I think it must have been ice fisherman during the winter). But overall everything is in pretty good shape.

In a week we’ll head off to Montenegro to be with a team from the University of Georgia for two weeks. Then we’ll visit friends and ministry partners in Hungary and Belarus.

Here’s a word from Olga: This year has been very good. We have seen a lot of life happening around us. God has blessed us with new relationships. I’ve enjoyed getting closer to people from our church and getting involved in church activities. Besides teaching English, I have been teaching single girls about married life, and it has been very rewarding and amazing. We do thank God for the life He’s given us.

A Postcard from Estonia — Resting in Him

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I (Mike) am currently in Estonia again after a quick trip back to Russia.  Olga and I continue in a time of prayer and seeking God’s will for our next steps.  But, it is not a time of passive waiting. The Lord has given us good work, and we continue to see His hand in our lives.   We’re working in several areas, and over the next few months we will:

— welcome short-term teams to minister in Russian camps
— minister in Montenegro with a team from the Wesley Foundation in Athens, GA
— host several church groups and families at Elama, our Russian camp
— visit ministries and missionaries in Budapest and Minsk
— help several volunteers minister at Camp Gideon, an Estonian Christian camp
— continue to learn more about possibilities in Estonia

Above is a view of the medieval town of Tallinn. We’ve seen much wildlife here — storks, foxes, deer, hawks — and beautiful scenery.  And I continue to find watermills all over the place!

Recently Thomas Umstattd visited us from the US and created a video called What is MIR.  It’s a good oversight of MIR and the foundations of our work in Russia.  We’ve also recently updated the Stoneworks website.

Above all, Christ has been reminding us to abide in Him.  Apart from Him we can do nothing of eternal value.  Love and faithfulness are necessary, and the tasks and fruit of ministry will be a natural outcome of ‘abiding in the vine’.   Now is the time for us all to surrender our lives daily, trusting that our Father knows what we need before we even ask.

What is MIR?

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We believe that the Lord sets us together as members of His body, as living stones.  As we honor the relationships that He establishes, then the work naturally flows.  We made a video to help people see and understand better what MIR is and work to which we’ve been called.

Many thanks go to Thomas Umstattd for making this video.  He came to Russia and lived with us for a month, helping in many ways.

A Postcard from Estonia — Estonian Beauty

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I am currently in Estonia researching ministry opportunities for possible future mission work.  I’m staying with John and Sara Russell, the founders of Street Cry in St. Pete who are now starting a new work in Tallinn.  Olga will join me this week before we return to Russia in about 10 days.

A few days ago I visited a Christian camp, Camp Gideon, near the Russian border.  We are hoping to be able to send Russian and/or Belorussian orphans to this camp, where American mission teams can meet them and preach the gospel without fear of reprisals by Russian authorities.  Camp Gideon is owned by the Estonian Methodist church and has hosted orphans in previous years.  We pray that God will speak to the hearts of people to serve orphans in this way.

Estonia is a special place — a mix of Russian and European culture, very welcoming to westerners, and yet a large portion of the population are Russians who were ‘stranded’ here after the USSR collapsed.   Continue reading →

Stoneworks — News from Montengro

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Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia and is located in the Balkans, across the Adriatic Sea due east of central Italy.  It’s a small country (pop. 650,000) with only about 200 protestant believers.

Stoneworks continues to partner with the Brethren Assembly in Podgorica, one of only three Evangelical churches in the country.

In May, I’ll go with a team from the University of Georgia to do a variety of projects — prayer-walking in cities where there is no local church, running a four-day youth camp, leading children’s ministry meetings, teaching English and most important of all, building relationships.

Here’s a report from Vladimir Cizmanski, pastor of the Brethren Assembly:

Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise,
making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Eph.5:15-16

 

It has become a tradition for us at the beginning of the year to write about the distribution of shoe boxes full of Christmas gifts that we receive thanks to the international organization Samaritan’s Purse.

The difference this year was that we received twice as many as in previous years (20,000 this year).  This project is becoming more and Shoe boxesmore important to us as we have more personal contacts each year.

 

This time over 1,000 children came to our building to attend our Christmas program and receive a shoe box.  We were able to take the opportunity to inform their parents about our other activities such as Saturday children’s club, English Language course, summer camps and special events.

We have recently had twenty eight children coming to the Saturday Children’s club which is a great thrill for us.  We are praying for this ministry that is so important for the future lives of these little ones.

Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Family News

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Please keep this in prayer — on the way to church yesterday Olga’s mother, Tanya, was hit by a car.  She has lost some teeth and has a concussion.  The neurologist said that she’s OK, but some of her upper jaw has been damaged so that it will be difficult to implant teeth in the future.

Olga’s grandfather was released from the hospital yesterday.  Orest is 90 years old and doing very well considering his age. We took him and his wife Ludmilla to dacha today.  He is very happy to be back home in the country.  He’s pictured above at dacha, and a picture of dacha is to the left.

Ludmilla has a mass in/on her intestines (we’re not sure what it is) and will be getting out-patient treatment until she goes into the hospital in a couple of weeks for more tests. She’s not feeling very well herself and is under some pressure as she cares for Orest. Being at dacha should help them relax a bit.

I will go to Estonia on Monday (and perhaps Olga will be able to travel with me) to learn more about ministry opportunities there and have some time with missionaries to see how we might serve them.  The Lord may be opening a door for us to minister in Estonia.  On Wednesday I’ll drive to Belarus to visit Spring of Revival, and help them as I am able.

A Postcard from Russia — Blessed Meal

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Each year our church in St. Petersburg, StreetCry, hosts a Christmas dinner for drug rehabilitation centers and homeless people. Orthodox Christmas in Russia is on January 7th. Here’s a report from Olga about the dinner:streetcry_dinner-8.jpg

There were more than 300 people at the dinner from about ten rehab centers. One rehab center came all the way from Belorussia for this dinner/worship fellowship. One of the guys shared his testimony, and he said that in the place of each person present was supposed to be a grave. If it were not for the grace of God, all of the guys and girls from the rehab centers would have been dead by now.

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One of the pictures is all the dirty serving dishes we used! We took a bunch of them home with us, and Anya washed them in the bath tub yesterday.

It was such a blessing to be a part of it. I had a lot of fun cutting things in our flat for the salads. One guy came to use our kitchen processor to chop onions, and Olga Ryazhskihh came the streetcry_dinner.jpgsame day to talk and ask for advice and pray. My mom was there  and lots of other people.

I was so blessed to help and be involved. It was so full of life! People in and out, phone calls, cooking and cutting!!! And great time together as a body!