Global Aid Network Mission Reports

MOST TOUCHED MY HEART

All the kids we visit last few days are so precious, but one little three-year-old boy on the first visit seemed so quiet and shy. He didn’t smile. Then after we interacted and played and shared the care bags he grabbed my finger and pulling me into his room with a big smile talked a lot, which I couldn’t understand, but which showed that God’s love touched his heart. I hugged him so tightly in my arms. How love changed this little boy’s heart!  Praise the Lord!

POSITIVE NOTES

1. In the mentally physically disabled center the enthusiasm of the kids for the fun games and competitions, but especially their interest in caring for each other and sharing little things.
2. The same in the new shelter even enough they were there temporarily they helped each other and were very polite. They really enjoyed our teenagers’ photographs.
3. As for many trips before the staff in these institutions must be very caring judging by the kids’ behavior.
4. Our team teenagers as last year ever truly a team to be proud of in their much needed helplessness and in quality of sharing in the institutions and entertaining too.
5. Our interpreters were excellent for us and for the institutions as well.

PS. I would encourage others to take teenagers on these outreaches to benefit the mission as well as their own growth in important ways.

PRAISING GOD FOR THE OPPORTUNITY

Being on a GAIN Western Russia Summer Project is a good thing. I think if it were possible, every Christian should be part of such a trip.

As an older "Grandpa" of 81 years old I wondered if I should come along and what purpose could I play. Well, I did come and it’s been a trip to remember!

It surely changed my perspective of life. Instead of thinking of the "Dow-Jones" or the price of gasoline, or the political race back home, my attention has turned to the words of Jesus in Math. 19:14: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." My concern becomes: "Can I make this little blonde girl with terrible scars on her arms smile as I open this bag of goodies for her?" I am praying that she will remember the meaning of the colored beads after we leave.

I do my silly Yo-Yo tricks for the kids and they smile and I feel good!

It’s hard climbing up the 3 flights of stairs to our Hotel Room; the bus-rides are bumpy and scary as we pass so many accidents along roads. But I feel safe and happy as I draw strength and faith from others in the team and feel the love bonds between us all.

My sincere thanks to all the stuff of GAIN that plans these trips. Jon W. is an excellent leader, we all appreciate Igor and his humor, Marilyn has been most helpful to my wife and me as we go through each day.

I thank the Lord for all who made it possible to come on this most important mission.

Members of the mission team were encouraged on Wednesday never to take their ministry lightly.  Dawna D. shared that she was a part of the team visiting a drug and alcohol rehabiliation center that day where they met the director Zhenia.  She had met him several years prior as an inmate at Prison #16.  Now he is impacting lives for Jesus Christ!   Please pray for the members of the team - several are ill but we are pressing on.

Sometimes email is a bit slow in getting to us - Marilyn K. reports in on the Western Russia team.

7-12-2008

We have arrived with our entire luggage too!
As we were waiting at Moscow airport for the last of our group to come through the Customs we had the chance to talk with a young man who had asked what we were doing. When we shared with him he told us that he was an orphan and someone came to his orphanage where he learned about Jesus. He was at the airport meeting a group of American missionaries. He shared how much we are doing. Our work is making this world different.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Siberian Team - Novokuznetsk, Russia

After a challenging time of preparation for the mission trip to Novokuznetsk, the team is finally here and ready for ministry!  Twenty-nine enthusiastic Americans converged on Moscow yesterday, Saturday, July 12, 2008, jet-lagged but eager to get ready for the last leg of the trip to Siberia. It was not without the usual challenges of overweight luggage and coordinating with members of the team flying in from their various states and countries.  But, the Lord granted us favor and by 11:30pm (Russian time), the team boarded the flight to their final destination – Novokuznetsk.  For many, it was their fourth or fifth flight in 36 hours!

“This is my first mission trip,” said Emily M. from Texas.  “I have always wanted to go on a mission trip ever since I heard about it 4 years ago, but I was only able to raise support to come this year.”  Emily is one of the many young adults on the summer mission trip this year.  Though a bit apprehensive about how it will all turn out, she is confident that God will take charge of everything.  Her supporters praying for her and the team include more than 80 persons from her hometown and church who helped her financially or otherwise to be on the mission trip.  “I am really looking forward to meeting the children in the orphanages,” she said with excitement in her voice.  The team will visit homes for the elderly and disabled, prisons, camps and orphanages as they distribute humanitarian aid including CarePacks and share the love of Christ to hundreds in the far away land. 

We ask for your prayers as we put into action, plans that have been laid out months in advance.  Pray that God will give us multiple opportunities to share the gospel and that many will seek a personal relationship with Him.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Church on the Rock, Novokuznetsk, Russia

Today, the team visited Church on the Rock, a vibrant church with a unique ministry to alcoholics and drug abusers.  More than 150 persons packed the small church in Kuznetsk District to worship God in their third service for the day.  The team, bursting with God-given talent gave greetings and shared in the service – Kristen B. encouraged them with a rendition of How Great Thou Art in English and Russian, and Aaron D. played Amazing Grace on the bagpipe! 

God’s presence was truly felt when Jim P. shared his testimony of his alcoholic father and the emotional abuse inflicted on him from the early age of 6.  “He told me every day for 10 years that I will amount to nothing,” he said.  Though, he made a commitment to follow Christ at age 16, he struggled for a number of years to maintain his walk with God.  He prayed, trying to get an answer from God to the internal turmoil he felt from feeling inferior and wondered for many years if there was any good in him.  After reading the bible and seeking God, about 15 years ago, he was able to forgive his father and embrace the refreshing release that came from extending this forgiveness. “It took me 45 years,” he said as he encouraged the congregation, “but I know that Christ was with me and He will be with you too all the way.  You only need to listen to Him.” 

Many will share their testimonies during the next 10 days in Novokuznetsk to hundreds in orphanages, prisons, homes for the elderly and disabled.  Pray for the team, that God will use these testimonies to draw men, women and children to Him and into His kingdom.  

Peace to you, Brothers and Sisters!

We are a Union of Churches in the Yaroslavl Region (of Russia). Thank you very much for the financial resources you provided for our summer camp. May God bless you and fulfill of your needs. You were a part of our youth camp which took place on the bank of Rybinsk reservoir. Your financial support was a great blessing for the youth that were able to attend that camp.

We had our camp from July 16 - 21 this year and we had 20 people attend. Most of the kids were teenagers and youth from 12 up to 22 years old from different places. Five children were non-believers and two of them prayed to accept Christ! We thank God and you, because for those children it was very important to have the opportunity to be at the camp. We selected leaders from the groups of kids and motivated them to be more responsible and to show initiative, to seek the will of God and to grow spiritually. During the time of the camp God taught us to overcome difficulties, to be strong, to love and forgive, and how to make friends.  As a result many young people came to know the Lord.

It was interesting to see how during the first few days kids were getting used to each other, were adapting, were changing and were quite different by the end of the second day. We could really witness those changes!

In addition, many non-believing youth found out about our camp, and many of them expressed the desire to join us at our camp in 2008! Praise the Lord! This year we were able to buy a large folding table with benches; this is wonderful. We are very thankful to you for that. In 2006 our tents were tested by strong winds, this year it was raining really hard for 2 days. But our tents have gone through this test well—the tents stayed dry inside. Thank you again for your financial help – with our own resources we wouldn’t be able to buy such big and quality tents, sleeping bags, equipment, mattresses and sports equipment. God has richly blessed our region through you. Teenagers and youth are the great future potential of the churches, future ministers. You have planted seeds well into the ground.

With love and gratitude to you,

Brothers and Sisters from “Blagodat” (Grace) Church

Pastor Vitaly R.

2007

We are still working on a final Siberia trip report. We’re back at work and are making some progress. The trip was totally amazing. We affected countless people along the way, and they affected us as well. We thank you for your prayers and support along the way.

It’s hard to explain what a day with orphans is like. There are so many emotions that fill you. As you meet and talk with them there are emotions of love, caring, pain, happiness, joy, sorry, and fear. Each face is a story, each face is a life. Some stories are filled with abandonment and beatings, some with not knowing a parent, and others with seeing a parent murdered.

The one major emotion we experienced is one I would call ‘needing to share’. To experience a trip like this without sharing it with you would be a loss for everyone. The attached presentation was prepared to let you feel what our days with orphans were like and the hope we gave them. Please take the time to view this presentation if you have a high speed connection. I don’t think it will work over dial-up. Crank up the volume and experience a little of what we saw.

http://home.comcast.net/~fmkgain/orphans/slideshow.html

Mary and I know that we will need to make another trip. We don’t know when or how, but if you would like to make the journey with us someday, then email, call or write us. Your life will never be the same.

Transformation Baptist Church     June 24, 2007 by Ann Y.

“Church in the Woods”

Transformation Baptist Church, a Siberian church of about 70 members, does not have its own building, so it rents a room at a college in Krasnoyarsk.  This particular Sunday, however, they learned at the last minute that they did not have access to this room.  So, as Pastor Dima put it, God had a surprise for us.  We would be meeting out in the woods. 

After waiting at the college building to communicate the change of plans to church members, we drove the woods.  Fortunately, it was a quiet, beautiful, sunny day with only the mosquitoes to bother us.  As we waited for the rest of the members to arrive, men pulled some tree stumps into a clearing while children played and climbed trees.  Some people brought blankets to sit upon, and others stood for the service. 

Sitting under a canopy of tall fir trees, we began the service with music.  Pastor Dima played the guitar, and two women led the singing.  After several songs, Pastor Dima taught from the book of Ecclesiastes.  Then he invited Jim, my team member to speak.  Jim extended a greeting from America and explained a bit about GAiN’s   mission in Krasnoyarsk.  Then I gave some testimony about the birth of my daughter, Alyssa, with Down syndrome.  The thrust of my message was the guiding principle from Matthew 6:33:  Seek first God’s kingdom in your life, and He will provide all of the other things that He knows are important and necessary for your life.

After I spoke, a young man shared his testimony about how God is freeing him from addiction to drugs and alcohol.  He had just finished rehab and asked for continued prayer.  Then we took a break from the service for water and snacks and to stretch our legs. 

About twenty minutes later, the service resumed with more singing.  One of the songs we sang was Lord, I Lift Your Name on High.  After the music, a visitor gave a sermon based on Ephesians 2:1-10.  What a joy it was to worship and learn God’s word with my Russian brothers and sisters in Christ!

Afterwards, during a time of socializing, one woman was eager to question me about teaching children with Down syndrome.  She has been visiting an orphanage for children with disabilities, or invalids, as they are called in Russia.  She has been helping with several children, and she wanted to learn about teaching reading, writing, and speech to these children.  We talked a bit about some teaching techniques that had worked for us and about therapies, and then she asked the most important question:  How can she teach these children about God?  I replied that I did not believe that God mad a single human being that was unable to have a relationship with Him.  He will make a way for every person, and sometimes the rest of us don’t understand or recognize His ways of communicating with them.  As for practical advice, I encouraged her to read Bible stories with illustrations to the children, to sing songs about God, and to pray with and for them. 

Another poignant question which she asked was about how she can help the parents of these children who are wondering why God did this terrible thing to them.  These parents are not believers and are bitter about having a child born with Down syndrome.  I suggested, most importantly, that she should demonstrate to the parents how to love their children by her words and deeds.  Her care, love, and affection would be an example to the parents.  If she can express joy about qualities and achievements in the children to the parents, then perhaps they will begin to feel more love towards them.  If she is enthusiastic and positive with the parents, then they can learn to see and appreciate the value in the children for themselves. 

In Romans 1:11-12, Paul describes the circle of encouragement that occurs when we visit believers to share with them how God is at work in our lives.  I believe that the “Church in the Woods” was a perfect example of the relationship that Paul described.

Romans 1:11-12:  “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”  

Irina’s Impressions  (KR4)  6.20.06 

I would like to share from my heart on a comment from a lady who was at the society of disabled people.  She has a disabled little girl who is in the society.   She was invited to come this day because of the guests from the USA.

When Fred shared the message of the Gospel with our small group, that lady listened to him attentively and with an open heart.  She said that she believed in God like all people around her and even asked God to help in times of need, but she had not thought about a personal relationship with God.  She was surprised at the simple way to come to Jesus and the simple words we could pray to Him at any time and place.  She said, “If you don’t here, I couldn’t know about all these things.”

What a joy to share the Truth and to make Him known!!

Our interpreter Olga’s impressions   6.26.07

“I think your ministry is very important.  It was a very depressing sight to see the children from the orphanages.  Of course, they need love so much that your coming and attention was a great gift for them.  I think that your love is maybe more important for them that the words you have said.  And I believe that one they will hear about God again and the love they received from you will help them to repent.  I also know that your support to the orphanages help us to continue working with kids here.  It was well seen in all sights that the directors of the orphanages were appreciated.  God Bless you!”

Yana’s Impressions as an Interpreter   6.26.07

I am a teacher of English and sometimes I also work as an interpreter.  I don’t know why, but God wanted me to be on this mission because He made all the circumstances change and here I am (my 2 regular jobs were over and the travel agency that gave me this assignment had found me, I had never worked for them before).

I have always believed in God.  I remember as a 5 year old girl praying to God, but can’t say I was a Christian.  I know I am a good person, but then what?  Thank you, Crystal, you taught me what a real Christian is.  Now I have a strong desire to become a Christian and I know I will.

The job which GAiN made for the orphanages is enormously important.  During this week, I have seen a lot of happy faces.  I hope that many souls were saved this week.  The way GAiN missionaries treated people taught me a lot.  The fact that we are of different nationality and have to talk through the interpreters made no barrier because how you talk through eyes and heart is beautiful.  Thank God, I got to know people who can be an example for me.  I got to know beautiful women, perfect loving mothers, intelligent partners and interesting personalities.  I got to know men, who showed me what is love and who are perfect examples of how a man should treat a woman and what a happy marriage is.

I thank our group and I thank God for the chance to be with you.  This experience is priceless and I will never forget you.

Our interpreter Zemfera’s impression 6.25.07

It was a great pleasure for me to have fellowship with your team.  All things you did and showed were of great importance, especially your performances.  They impressed the children very much and me too.  Especially the performances about the sins and the broken heart.

Trip planning was well organized.  All the members of the team are so kind and nice people and are real Christians.  They always smile and laugh and their faces are shining.  That is unusual for Russians.

You never waste time.  You used the short time while riding for devotions and testimonies.  It helped to strengthen me spiritually, also.  I love all the members of your team.  Ann’s smile is so brilliant.  Mike’s good singing and “the old red rooster he is going to kill” I will sing 10 times a day.  I give thanks to Jim for writing this song.  Stuart’s maturity in many ways is high for his age.  I knew the two Christian couple, they are really happy in Christ, they reflect God’s love.  Peggy is a cool grandmother indeed.  She is a good example for me and for other Russian people.  Crystal and Dale are such nice women.  Every one of you is so precious to me. This time from June 18-25 is unforgettable for me.  All things, talking, meetings with kids and people were pleasing.

Greetings from Kursk.

We are all doing well. Ministry work has been fantastic!

Thank you for praying - it is making our job so fulfilling.

See you soon.

This morning we attended the Baptist Church.  Although I did not understand the words to the songs, the harmony and singing was beautiful.  After church, my interpreter had the privilege of visiting Sasha’s house for lunch. 

He is a Beliver with a heart for prison ministry.  As he told me 15 ½ years of his life he spent in prison for robbery and other crimes and also had a life with drugs.  However, it was in prison that He heard about Jesus Christ and became a Christian.  Now, it is with great joy and passion that he goes back into the same prison where he was to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

He has been married for a year and says he feels so blessed by God with his wife and 5 month old daughter.  He has a dream of one day owning his own house and using it as a center for those who have been released from prison.  Helping them to adjust, teaching them about Christ and giving them a place to stay until they are able to get out on their own.  He told me there is nothing in Krasnoyarsk currently like this for prisoners once they have been released.  He is praying that God will grant him this place.  

Walking into the room filled with skeletal bunk beds and elderly women was a shock.  Ten women sat quietly on ten green metal bunk beds that were crammed into a small, joyless room.  The beds consisted of pitifully thin mattresses settled upon thin bare metal stretched across the bed frame.  All I could think about was how in the world could these elderly, ailing women climb up to the top bunks to sleep?

Two or three of the women were not elderly.  The youngest was perhaps in her mid forties, and another told me she was fifty-five years old.     The remaining women were beyond retirement age and should have been receiving care in nursing homes.  Unfortunately, as Dennis, our Russian coordinator informed us, you must have special documents to enter a nursing home, and the waiting list is horrendously long.  Without the special documents, you are doomed to fend for yourself.  Most of the women sat on their beds to talk with us, but one was sleeping and two rested quietly on their beds.

We began our time together with some questions to get to know a bit about their lives.  The women were initially reluctant to share; however soon Tanya, a woman of 55 years, began to tell her story.  As a young woman, she had been active in skiing competitively.  She got married after that and had two daughters.  Sometime thereafter, her husband left her and she raised her children on her own.  She told how she had worked extra-long hours to support her children.  Now her children are grown and married.  Both have husbands and comfortable livings.  As the story unfolded, Tanya was clearly disappointed and bitter that both her daughters could help her with her homeless situation, but they chose not to do so.  Now that she is 55 and living in a homeless shelter, she related that her life has no purpose and she is useless.  Another woman, perhaps in her upper sixties, explained that she had once been an engineer, and now she had to live in the homeless shelter.  She did not share what had brought her to the point of homelessness.   As we began to share our pictures of our lives, the women seemed to enjoy hearing about our families.  It prompted more of them to tell us a bit more about their own families – especially their grandchildren.  They were curious about life in America and asked many more questions.

It was my privilege to share with them my testimony about how the Lord poured hope into my hopeless heart and brought restoration to my broken relationships.  Using the gospel bead bracelet as a tool, I explained the gospel message to them.  As I talked, several women asked thoughtful questions about God, the Holy Spirit, prayer, and heaven.  When I told them what the Bible says about the beauty and wonder of heaven – no pain, no tears, no good-byes, and perfect fellowship with other believers — they were surprised; when I shared that we would be in the face-to-face presence of Jesus Christ, they were dumbfounded!  One woman exclaimed, “That is impossible!”  I assured her that it was absolutely true and she looked so pleased.  Another asked about prayer.  She wanted to know if I knew any special prayers.  (In the Russian Orthodox Church, there are special prayers and special places to pray.)  I shared that the Bible tells us that prayer is simply a conversation with God, and that He is always available to talk.  They were again astonished to learn that they could pray anywhere, even in their own beds. 

In telling them about Jesus, I did my best to communicate in word and deed that each woman was beautiful and special to God and to me.  I told them that for as long as they were living that God wanted to give their lives purpose and meaning.   Then I prayed with them.  After we prayed, I told them that if they had decided today to trust Jesus with the rest of their lives, then we were now sisters in Christ and that it would be my joy to meet them again one day in heaven.  Then I hugged each woman.

I don’t know for sure which of those dear women made a decision to trust Christ that day, but I know that they have much to ponder.  I will continue to pray for them and ask you to pray also.