It is not the healthy that need a doctor.

September 25, 2009Leave a comment

A friend recently sent this to me. Her marriage just about fell apart, but at the last minute she and her husband agreed to reconcile:

I had been thinking recently about the past two years and all the pain I have been through. I started feeling sorry for myself and a little angry at the circumstances. The deepest hurts came from lies and broken relationships, regarding my husband’s choices.

So, naturally I was praying about restoration and new understandng as I look at my husband. God clearly spoke to me and said….you fell in love with a sinner, an outcast….that’s exactly what you are supposed to do!

My devotional the next morning led me to Matthew 9:11-13. It talks about God sitting with tax collectors and sinners as everyone questioned Him about His motive.

His answer was simple….”It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. I want kindess more than I want sacrifices.”

At that moment, it dawned on me…..sitting with and loving the ‘broken’ is what God wants from me. It’s what He did!

Testimony from Street Cry

September 5, 2009Leave a comment

Here is another great testimony from the work Street Cry is doing in Estonia:

We continue to have meetings in a women’s prison every Friday night, preaching the Gospel to the unsaved and equipping the new believers by teaching on the basics of Christian life, praise and worship, prayer, and personal relationship with Jesus.

As a result, the girls who are the most serious about the Lord started getting together every day 2 hours before dinner for a time of worship, prayer for each other’s needs and reading the Bible together. They invite whosever will come! N. who got saved during one of the meetings, is now sharing the full version of her testimony:

“I was born into and grew up in a good, I would even say practically an ideal family. My parents were both doctors, very intelligent, with high morals and they did their best to instill positive things into my wonderful sister and I.

Nevertheless, I remember growing up with a strange feeling that there must be more to life than what I had. I have always been looking for something… Something I could not even define, but I knew I would recognize it when I found it..

At 18, I graduated from high school with honors and then entered medical college to be a paramedic. After graduation, my parents helped me to get a good job and gave me an apartment. Soon I got married to a nice caring man and over the years, we had 5 sons. Life was going good, except for the feeling, ‘there must be something more…’

Then I met another man… we had an affair, later he introduced me to methamphetamine… It all definitely felt very thrilling…at first. But before I knew it, I had turned into an addict and a drug dealer and everything else that goes with this way of life… Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Apples, Mushrooms and Berries

September 4, 2009March 27, 2020Leave a comment

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

Undiscovered Russia — 1912

August 25, 2009Leave a comment

I recently ran across a book published in 1912 entitled ‘Undiscovered Russia’, by Stephen Graham, an English traveler. The quotes by Merezhkovsky are particularly noteworthy. It’s very interesting to read in light of the tidal wave of revolution that was to break upon Russia just after this was written —

PREFACE

Russian life is not known in England. The Slavonian land is not so far away but that the picture might have been visible had it not been for the dust raised between us in these years.

Russia is not a land of bomb-throwers ; is not a land of intolerable tyranny and unhappiness, of a languishing and decaying peasantry, of a corrupt and ugly Church that at least may be said right away in the forefront of this book.

The Russians are an agricultural nation, bred to the soil, illiterate as the savages, and having as yet no ambition to live in the towns. They are strong as giants, simple as children, mystically superstitious by reason of their unexplained mystery. They live as Ruskin wished the English to live, some of them, as he tried to persuade the English to live by his “Fors Clavigera.”

They are obediently religious, seriously respectful to their elders, true to the soil they plough, content with the old implements of culture, not using machinery or machine-made things, but able themselves to fashion out of the pine all that they need.

But they have all the while been doing this, and have never fallen away as the English have. There is no ” back to the land ” problem in Russia, nor will there be for a hundred years.

The Liberal press and the revolutionaries would like to educate the peasantry to give them a vote. They would at the same time place no restraints on Russian manufacture and the freedom of town life, and so once more betray the country to the town and rush into all the errors of Western Europe. Continue reading →

Trotsky

August 23, 2009Leave a comment

Here is a series of videos with Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service discussing Trotsky, whose actions 100 years ago continue to affect millions (if not billions) of people around the world. I hesitate to put Hitchens on our site, yet there is value in hearing other points of view. I’ve read quite a few of Service’s books and have enjoyed them.

It’s in five parts —

Estonia

August 21, 2009Leave a comment

Estonia continues to be on our hearts. This fall two of our ministry partners are planning to make trips there to minister to ethnic Russian orphans. We hope the Lord will make a way for us to spend much more time there, but for this fall we are called to spend time in Russia and the US. So, from afar we encourage ministries in Estonia and look for ways to help foreigners serve Estonians.

Here’s a nice video about Estonia —

More Good News from Street Cry

August 18, 2009Leave a comment

Our church, StreetCry, continues to do great work in St. Petersburg. Here is a portion of the most recent update. Please visit the church site to learn more about the ministry.

Our School of Ministry graduates Natasha Bakshaeva and Kirill Borodichuk (you may read their testimonies in the March 2009 and December 2008 issues of our newsletter) have a burning desire to bring the Gospel to young people lost in homosexuality just like they were before encountering the transforming power of Jesus. So they go witnessing to the places where such kids hang out in St. Petersburg.

Recently they met a girl named Nastya who came from Moscow to St. Petersburg University to study. Nastya was touched by their testimonies and genuine interest in her life. She came to our evangelism coffee-house, then to a mid-week service and repented of her sins and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. God is changing her day by day. Now she often joins us in witnessing during our street concerts.

It has become more ‘exciting and challenging’ this year to conduct street evangelism concerts – as the official permission from the government (which has been required for several years) has been declined numerous times, and when the odd time occurs that we do get permission, the authorities have come to the concerts trying to find fault in our permits.

But with a lot of prayer, faith and perseverance the band and personal evangelism teams continue to go out preaching the gospel. As a result hundreds continue to hear the message of the Kingdom and many are responding and getting saved.

After one concert our worship leader Nastya Bosonogova (in the photo on the right) spent 3 hours talking to a girl visiting from Murmansk named Yulia. Yulia is a vocalist, too and sings in her college band.

Here is some of her story: Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Home Sweet Home

August 16, 2009March 27, 2020Leave a comment

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.

Journalism and exploitation

August 7, 2009Leave a comment

Here is another thoughtful post from Liz Hulley:

A recent New York Times article described the problem of male rape in Congo. The piece was accompanied by photographs of four of the victims, framed by striking blue backgrounds. The caption read, “… All are Congolese men who were recently raped and agreed to be photographed.”*

I had to wonder…why was it significant that they had their photographs taken? And what was the incentive? Is this “good journalism”? Would the story have held as much weight without it?

At a conference on orphan ministry that I attended in the spring, they told the story of some orphans who had been visited by a team of Americans. The Americans quickly won their trust and interviewed the children. The children were eager to share their stories and agreed to be videotaped.

These tapes were later aired on TV, and the kids eventually saw themselves on TV. Their personal lives became a sensation, something used to produce a reaction. It was traumatizing for them.

This leads me to the question…when does an attempt at advocacy become exploitation? The U.S. journalists recently freed in N. Korea had been investigating the sex trade. Their research was surely a worthy cause. Yet I wonder how they would have chosen to publish the results. Continue reading →

A Postcard from Montenegro — Fruitful Relationships

August 1, 2009March 27, 2020Leave a comment

teencamp_durmitor

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 →