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!

The Love of the Lord

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The book of Revelations starts with messages to seven churches.   And the very first message really touched my heart.   It was to the church of Ephesus.

It said, “I know your deeds, your hard work and perseverance.   I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.  You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.  Yet I hold this against you:  You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen!  Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Rev. 2:2-5a)

As I was reading this I could almost see the Lord saying these things.  And I imagine how lovingly He said it.  The Lord says:  I know everything.   I see your tears and your sufferings.  I see your efforts.  I know life is not easy for you.   I know the things you have to go through to still go on.  I know it all, and I suffer with you and feel all the pain that you have.  But let Me help you. Remember the way you loved Me when you first met Me?  Remember the time of your first love to Me, when everything was so simple, when there was nothing you would not do for Me?   Remember the joy we have shared?  Please, don’t walk away from it.

To me it seems that the Lord is more concerned for our love to Him.   He knows everything we face, and He knows how hard our lives are.  And He is there to help us through, to lead us and encourage us.

But then He looks us right into the eyes and says:  Please, could you just love Me the way you did it first?   Could you again do the things you did first?  I love you.

This life is not easy for us; we do have to endure many things.  And it would seem funny that the Lord asks us not to forsake our first love.  I don’t really know how to say it; the Lord does not rebuke us for doing all those things, He encourages us to go on.  But He knows the right way to go on.  And this is the way of love.  Love should tell us what to do.  If we don’t have love, everything else is not important.  The Lord gently tells us:  Come back to your first love, this is the only way to continue.

Disclaimer

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New Faces, New Places

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I (Mike) am going through a transition as I take over the role of Executive Director of Stoneworks.  Here’s a note we sent to people connected with Stonework, MIR and ourselves.

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A note from Dave Hulley —

It is hard to believe that in December Stoneworks International will celebrate its fifth birthday! During these years God has enabled us to minister in many fruitful ways, including working in camps and orphanages and maintaining relationships with a
group of children as they moved into adulthood. We have had several short term and longer term workers, in a variety of programs. You can read more about the programs on our website, www.stoneworksint.org/.

I am happy to announce we have been blessed with some personnel changes which will aid us in our future ministry. Michael Cantrell, Director of MIR in Russia, and a Stoneworks Board member, has agreed to take over my responsibilities as Executive Director. Mike is quite experienced and he needs almost no new training to move effectively into his new role.

We are also welcoming Mary Jean Preece as  Administrator. She will take over many of the behind the scenes functions I have performed. Mary Jean is capable and experienced, but most importantly, she feels a calling to serve the Lord by serving orphans and children in Russia and elsewhere. Welcome Mike and Mary Jean!

“Where am I going?” you may ask. I plan to remain very involved in the work of Stoneworks as Chairman of the Board of Directors. For the near future I will also remain as special liaison to the work in Belarus. This will allow Mike to focus on some other aspects of transition while be builds relationships with workers of Spring of Revival in Belarus.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have prayed for and encouraged us, and to those who have made donations over the years.The fields do remain white unto harvest. Let us all continue to do our best in all things as unto the Lord, and to serve and love Him with all our heart, soul and strength. Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Natasha

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This is an example of how God uses short-term mission trips to bring extended blessings to many people, Natasha in particular. A year ago a mission team from Wenatchee, Washington came for a short-term trip and served in Orphanage #61, a small orphanage for children with disabilities. Many of the children at #61 have conditions that can be addressed by surgery.

One of the team members offered financial help for surgeries. We discovered that the state will provide funds for most surgeries but the state does not supply money for aftercare. The orphanage had been hesitant Continue reading →

An Important Update

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As promised, here is an update on the changes that are coming for Olga and myself. For the past couple of years, we’ve felt that there was a change coming, and we feel that God has confirmed this in several ways. I’ll start with an overview of things —

Eight years ago I moved to Russia to help establish a Russian charity named MIR. I did not do this on my own but rather as part of a team and in submission to the MIR board of directors. We started our work in January of 2001, and since then it’s been gratifying to see MIR grow and have such good fruit. We now have a good staff and are involved in a wide variety of programs. I am very thankful for the good advice and prayers that have been offered by many of you over the years. It’s amazing to me how the Lord has led us and provided for our needs.

A few years ago Dave Hulley and I founded Stoneworks International, a US charity, to support the work of MIR and to do other work in Russia. Dave is the Executive Director of Stoneworks. He and his wife Anne adopted two Russian teenagers and they have made many trips to Russia. Their daughter Liz has been living in Russia for a few years and working with MIR. It’s been a pleasure to partner with Dave.  Stoneworks also has grown and is now involved in ministry in other countries besides Russia. More about Stoneworks in a second. . . . Continue reading →

A Postcard from Russia — Elama, Camp Life

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In previous postcards we’ve mentioned the camp we have use of: we’ve named it Elama, the Finnish word for Life (pronounced EH-lah-mah). Before 1939 it was a Finnish health resort, after the war it was a Russian children’s camp before closing about 25 years ago. We’re slowly bringing it back to life, and this is the first of several years of rebuilding that are needed. Still, the fruit of this summer has already surpassed our hopes.

In addition to a few Christian families that are living there all summer, in July we hosted two camps run by a local church. First was a children’s camp with 80 participants and then a youth camp with 100 participants. Since we don’t have much decent housing, the campers stayed in tents. Even the kitchen was under a tent, and the picture at left is of the ‘dining hall’. The church did a great job of improving the land — clearing the swimming area, building outhouses, clearing trash, they even built a dock in the lake.

Later this month, we’ll host a week-long church camp for thirty children and other groups will have picnics. Elama is available free of charge to all. This summer we’ve installed the beginnings of a water system (we now have one sink with running water), we’ve begun repairs to several buildings, obtained a couple of small refrigerators (donations), purchased tools, cleared away a lot of trash and scrub brush, and swatted a lot of mosquitoes! We ran out of money for this summer, so some tasks (painting, roof repair, heating, a new well, etc.) will have to wait until later. There is still very much to be done. Groups from the US and the Netherlands have expressed interest in sending work teams. An architect in the US has agreed to help design a pavilion/summer kitchen that we hope to build next May. There is a lot of activity and many opportunities. Elama is coming to life, just as we had hoped.

Please pray that we’ll have God’s wisdom as we make decisions about the future of Elama — may it always bring glory to Him and peace to the people who are there.

 

A Postcard from Montenegro — Surprising Blessings

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I (Mike) arrived in Montenegro on July 2, a day before the team from St. James UMC in Athens, GA arrived. We’re in the Montenegrin mountains for two purposes this summer — 1) to help host a church retreat, and 2) to help run a youth camp.

We’re staying at a house on the edge Tara Canyon, the second deepest gorge in the world. It’s a bit of a working farm, but we didn’t know that when we booked the house a few months ago. Pictured above are Lee Davis of Athens and Sasha, one of the young men attending the camp. They were helping gather hay, building a relationship as they worked together. As I planned this trip, I never expected I’d take a picture like this. Our time here has been full of great surprises.

A little background — the population of Montenegro is about 650,000.: Christ Church, a Brethren assembly. Vladimir Cizmanski is the pastor, and his wife Marijana (pronounced like marianna) leads worship.

The church retreat last weekend went very well. The church members and our team were a good fit. This is the first retreat in the church’s 10 years of existence. Everyone enjoyed it very much and want to do it again next year. We’ll see them again this weekend at their church service. It was surprising how quickly we bonded with the church, and our short time with them felt much longer. They love to worship the Lord. The are picture at left and below on the right.

Vladimir has hoped to run a youth camp for 10 years, and now we’re able to help. It’s an honor to help establish traditions that we hope will continue for years to come. There are four kids from a refugee camp; they’ve lived there for about ten years after their families fled from the war in Bosnia. One of the young men told us that this camp the best thing that has ever happened to him. At left are the kids on an outing we took to Durmitor National Park.

We are teaching about godly relationships, but since many of the children have not heard the gospel and know little about church life, we’re also telling them basic truths about God and the church. For instance, when Jerry Meredith, the pastor of St. James, introduced himself as a pastor, Marijana (who was translating) said, ‘they don’t know what a pastor is so I need to explain it to them’.

Each day has many pleasant surprises, and this is a joyful time for us all. I am honored to be serving this church and these people. We are in the midst of a precious and special time. As we prepared for this trip, we sensed that God wanted us to focus on loving Him, loving each other and loving the people we meet. People are more important than programs. And I can say that we have experienced the power of God’s love.

Olga is in Russia now. She’s been helping the mission teams there as well as visiting Elama and the campers there. She is now at dacha. It’s good for her to be there, since her grandparents’ health is failing a bit and they are very happy to have her with them. I’ll return to Russia on the 17th and immediately go to Elama to work with the youth camp there and visit the teams we have working in other camps. This summer is full of good relationships, good work and good places. It’s a blessed time.

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A Postcard from Russia — Teamwork

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I (Mike) am back in Russia after a great trip to Montenegro. Today Olga and I visited a couple of teams we have here in Russia. Above is the team from Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. Oak Hills has sent teams to Russia for many years, and they are always a very good team. They all told us their time here has been really wonderful — good relationships have been formed with the children in the camp, and the camps staff has also worked well with them. They sang a beautiful multi-part harmony acapella song for us. They are great! They sang at the opening ceremonies of the camp. It was a joy to be with such a happy, witty and enthusiastic group of people.

I am writing this from Elama, the camp we’re running. Today the children’s camp came to a close. About 60 kids were here for more than a week attending a Christian camp organized by Source of Life Church. On Monday we’ll start a youth camp for about 100 people. In August we hope to host a couple more camps, and we also have a few Christian families living here for the summer. It’s a real joy to see so much life here, especially when just a few weeks ago it was fairly lifeless. I’ll send an update about Elama next time.

Please keep us in your prayers as we come to mind. We have a lot going on, and we face some changes. I’ll write more about that later. Please pray that we’ll have wisdom and unity as we pray about decisions that are ahead. So many wonderful things — Montenegro, Elama, the teams in camps, the MIR staff, New Horizons — give us joy and thankfulness in our hearts, because God has allowed us to participate in His good work. 

A Postcard from Russia — Away They Go!

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It is that time of year again —

This morning (VERY early) we put 34 children and their chaperons on their adventurous flight to the States. For the next five weeks they will be staying with host families in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, New York, and New Hampshire.

This project has taken a lot of effort and heart by many people over the previous several months, and today after the whirlwind of activity to get them to the airport and then through security, check-in and passport control, Olga, Masha Oshkina and I stopped to reflect on what good work it is. We are very thankful and honored to be a part of this work. Le Ann Dakake and her staff in the US do a tremendous job of handling the complexities on the US side and providing all the support we need to do our part over here.

Though we do not work in adoptions, we are always very happy when a child finds a home, here or in the US. I spoke yesterday with the directors of a US adoption agency that handles many of the adoptions that result from this program. They remarked that they are very pleasantly surprised and impressed at how well the children fit into their adoptive families. It’s a joy to know that good families are being knit together and that we have a part in what the Lord is doing in these relationships.

You’ll notice if you count that there are less than 34 children in the group picture. Four children are disabled and weren’t able to get into the picture on the short notice we had. It is a testament of the Lord’s love that families from so far away would have hearts big enough to open their home’s to the ‘least of these’.

In addition to our hosting program, work continues at Elama (our camp) where we will host a children’s camp and a youth camp next month. We now have a dock on the lake! It was built on Sunday afternoon by a work team from a local church. We’re also welcoming seven short-term mission teams from the US to serve in summer camps, and I (Mike) am going to Montenegro to meet up with a mission team from Athens, Georgia. We’re starting to serve there, and it’s gratifying to see our desires coming true — helping the local church in Montenegro. We’ll be helping run a youth camp in the mountains there. My next Postcard from Russia will probably be from Montenegro!