Developments

Dear Friends,

many of those who pray for our ministry have expressed concern about the situation in Novokuznetsk (where Tonya was born, and where her parents live). There have been some developments I would like to let you know about. Thank you for praying for the Source of Life, Teen Challenge Siberia. In less than two months this ministry has had approximately 20 various inspections with the intent to close the program. It started with the fire safety inspection, followed by the sanitation department. After that came inspections from the FSB (formerly KGB), criminal police, economical fraud investigation, center of extremism, etc. All of these inspections were initiated by the local prosecutor’s office because they received complaints from a person who hates the Teen Challenge program.

However, none of these inspections, except for the sanitation department, found any reason to close the program. The most serious offense that the sanitation department found was that there were no written instructions on the wall by the washing machine on how to do laundry and in the kitchen on how to wash dishes. The inspection from the sanitation department took place on Feb. 7. On Feb. 15, they came up with a protocol and rushed it to court. On Feb. 18, the judge ruled to close the program for 90 days. The decision was made with such major legal mistakes that the law enforcement unit could not start the process of closure. They actually had to change the decision twice because of mistakes. Last week, on March 16, the law enforcement officers came to the Teen Challenge center with the written order to close the program. On that same day, the sanitation inspector came for the second time and documented that all the regulation "offenses" were corrected.

Consequently, the law enforcement officers could not close the program, and they put the decision on hold.

On March 26th, the Teen Challenge program won in court, cancelling the original ruling to close the program. The decision of this court case is crucial because it is legal proof that the prosecutor's office is abusing its authority and applying pressure illegally.

In regards to the seven young men came into the church and threatened to kill the youth pastor, the police have not officially found any of them. The situation of the orphan who had his bank book taken by this gang is still not resolved.

Despite these disruptions to this church, they continue to minister. The church hosted a "Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames" drama three weeks ago, where 80 people repented. The Teen Challenge program has not stopped ministering to the drug addicts, and many are finding new life there. Thank you for your ongoing prayers.

The 8th of March is International Women's Day. Never heard of it? It is one of the bigger holidays in Russia. Tonya hosted a "Woman's Tea" at Hope Center and the ladies had a wonderful time. Timothy and Vera are home-schooled, and they invited their Russian language tutor and their German language tutor, both of whom attended.

They had several activities.

Leah, who has come to help us and is an American student in a nearby University, has been keeping a web log of her adventure. Take a glimpse of her adventure at http://leahclose.blogspot.com

Movie nights are Hope Center are catching on. We are now often having about twenty people in attendance, with new people every week. The Lord continues to provide us with new wholesome and spiritual films in Russian. Popcorn anyone?

Steve and Amanda, who are presently studying Russian in preparation for long term work in Russia, were music pastors and worship leaders in the States. They are doing some teaching for pastors and worship teams. It's been really helpful to the churches here in Khabarovsk, and pastors and worship leaders are excited about what they are learning. Here is Steve teaching while Tonya translates.

We have a special prayer request. We have been doing monthly birthday parties for the orphans in one of the local orphanages. A group from the local Baptist Church have been doing weekly Sunday School lessons in the same orphanage. Recently an Orthodox Priest put pressure on that orphanage, and the Baptists are no longer permitted to minister there. We are hoping to appeal to the Director to allow them to start the Sunday School again, but are not sure the best approach. Please pray for us to have wisdom, and favor with the director and staff.

We are in the process of mailing out our latest newsletter, we've also posted it on the web at- http://101649.agwebservices2.org/SiteFiles/101649/Content/Newsletter/news2011March%20.pdf

As a human interest story, when we returned to Russia from furlough this last time we brought a peanut butter maker with us (peanut butter is a rare commodity here). By trial and error we have discovered that if you roast the peanuts before putting them into the machine the peanut butter has a much better flavor. However, the last time I roasted the peanuts I forgot to set a timer, and the peanuts were, well, not quite ashes. I went ahead and put them into the machine and the resulting peanut butter has the pleasing aroma of campfire smoke. I have labeled my new batch as "fireside blend." Our peanut butter sandwiches have never tasted the same. Its actually not too bad if you have some hot chocolate with it, and you pretend to be camping.

Oh, yesterday was so WARM! It got up to about 40 degrees F. The snow is melting off and little streams are flowing down the streets. Muddy, but delightful. Maybe I'll really go camping.

May the joy of the Lord be your strength today!

In Christ,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

special prayer request

Dear Friends,

as many of you know, Tonya was born in Novokuznetsk (in Siberia), Russia. She lived there until we were married, and has maintained close ties with her church there. This church and the Teen Challenge program that they operate are experiencing dangerous situations. Please read the following report that Tonya's pastor sent us:

The situations that have recently happened with the church and Teen Challenge center have not been resolved yet, so we greatly appreciate if you would continue to pray. Here is what happened:

1) Attack against the church

On Feb. 9, seven young men came into the church looking for the youth pastor, Andrei. When they found him, they demanded that he give them the bank book which belongs to Artyom, an orphan who attends our church. Artyom had previously asked Pastor Andrei to keep his bank book in a safe place. Over the years while he was in the orphanage, the government deposited a pension in his account which came to $6,000 USD until he turned 18. For Artyom this was an incredible amount of money, and he was afraid that someone might take advantage of him and steal his money, which had happened to many orphans in the past. On the afternoon of Feb. 9, those seven young men threatened Pastor Andrei by saying that if he didn't give them the bank book on the count of three, they will kill him right there in the church. Pastor Andrei gave the bank book to them, and they left. This incident was all taken on the security video system that is installed in the church. Here is the link where you can watch it on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Qdd7KFwjY (If you look closely, you will see the weapon that the one man is holding behind his back wrapped in a paper bag.)

We went to the police with the video recording and requested an investigation because Artyom had disappeared. A few days later when Artyom came to church on Sunday, he said that he was held captive for several days, and they had stolen half of his money. They said they will return for the other half. To our amazement, the most shocking twist in this story came a week later when the police announced at the mayor's office that the church kept the bank book of an orphan purposely to keep his money. At that point we asked you for prayer. Since then, we found a lawyer that will take this case to the Federal police. He believes the local police are involved in this corruption and are trying to accuse the church in order to take the focus off of themselves. As it stands today, we still need your prayers even more, because we are up against a corrupt system the same as is quoted in Isaiah 10:1,2.

2) Attack against Teen Challenge

At the same time Teen Challenge was under a series of inspections which started after a lesbian wrote a number of complaints with false accusations to the prosecutor's office against our TC program. They couldn't find anything that the program was accused of in the complaints, but someone in the prosecutor's office hates the work of the church and Teen Challenge. On Feb. 15, the person who hates Teen Challenge sent inspectors from the sanitation department with a clear order to close the program. They wrote a 10 page report with minor regulation offenses, such as a spot of mildew in the corner of the hallway, no written instructions on how to use a washing machine, no written instructions on how to keep clean sheets, etc. These regulations are ones that the hospitals are required to follow. In just three days (!) they took the matter to court without letting us know, and the court ruled to close the program for three months. We have 10 days to appeal to reverse the ruling. The lawyers are working now on submitting an appeal. The Lord is doing a great work in saving people through the Teen Challenge program, and the devil clearly wants to stop it.

We really appreciate your prayers at this time for these two needs. We are praying that God will bind the lies of the enemy in the name of Jesus, and that the truth will prevail. We're praying that God will give the victory to the church and Teen Challenge center, and that souls who normally wouldn't come to Christ would be reached with the Gospel through these situations. We thank God for you and for standing with us in prayer!

With much love in Christ,

Ilya and Janet

Laborers in the Harvest Field

Dear Friends,

we've been praying for the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest field. Leah is an American who has just arrived in Khabarovsk as a student for a semester. In addition to learning the Russian language, she will be helping us on weekends and evenings. Please pray for Leah as she lives and witnesses in the dormitories and on campus.

Our team is also growing as several Russians have become interested in working with our orphan ministry. What a great answer to prayer! Please pray for us to have wisdom and leadership skills and that the team will keep growing.

We continue to host birthday parties at Hope Center for orphans. Here's some of the kids playing a game with some of our Russian team.

And then, of course, the birthday cake.

The Hosanna Plan is a massive mobilization by the Russian national church to bring in the harvest. It consists of two parts: "Year for Jesus", and "Every Church Plants a Church." Russia has about 129,000 population points; cities, towns & villages. Our vision is to take the Word of God to every person in Russia, no matter where they live. Many of the small villages are disappearing as young people move to the cities, and yet the people there need to hear the gospel before the opportunity disappears. "Year for Jesus" is a plan to take a ministry team to every population point. This is no small plan, the shear numbers require incredible amounts of travel.

We plan to build 15 mobile ministry teams, reaching all regions of Russia (and Russia is BIG). The members of the team must commit to give one year of his/her life to Jesus in this ministry. Each team will be made up of 25 people. Each team will be trained to preach and share the Word of God, daily going to the next town and city. We estimate that every team should be able to go to 25 population points within a week, plus 4 weeks of training and 4 weeks of vacation within a year. Each team should be able to take the gospel to 1,100 points in one year. When taking this number and multiplying by 15 teams, the Word will be taken to approximately 16,500 cities, towns, and villages in one year. About eight years are needed to fulfill this plan.

Recently one of the members of the church that we attend here committed to spend a year of her life with a Hosanna Team. We also know her as our family physician here in Khabarovsk. Olga worked as a surgeon as well as attended the Bible Institute. Feeling the call of God, she resigned her job, sold her car, bought tickets and has joined the team in the Volgograd region. She did not do this lightly, but carefully weighed the cost of giving up her doctor's salary to live by faith. She's been on the team for a month now, and reports that the work is hard, but worthwhile. Since some of the villages are remote, the team rises early in the day. Sometimes they must walk several miles from the road to reach the villages, which has been a challenge in the Russian winter. Here a a couple of photos of her. Can you tell that we are proud of her?

And here are a few photos of her team at work.

Presently There are teams in Perm, Volgograd, Kaluga, Angarsk, Novosibirsk, and Chita. Please pray for these teams, as well as our personal friend Olga as she brings the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to the people of the Volgograd region.

The other part of the plan, "Every Church plants a Church" is just as great a challenge as bringing an evangelistic team to every hamlet of Russia. New pastors and church planting teams will need to be raised up all across the country. Churches will be planted in cities that you have heard of, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as smaller and less famous places.

AGWM workers across Russia are preparing to support these plans in various ways. Huge amounts of resources will be required to accomplish the task (vehicles, literature, diesel fuel, winter clothing, food, tents, etc.), not to mention huge amounts of prayer. If you feel the Lord leading you to become involved or to give to this endeavor, please let us know and we'll send you more information. And everyone can expect occasional reports and photos to be given in the future.

After reporting in our November email update about the need for more Chinese Fire Bibles ( http://eshelman.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html ), some people mentioned their concern to us about making sure that would happen. I am delighted to announce that we have made another delivery of 30 Bibles this last month, and have another box in our back room waiting for when the time is right. Please understand that we can not provide any photos of this part of our ministry.

Hope Center's ministry continues to expand in various ways. There is a city-wide interdenominational pastor's meeting every month. In January it was held at Hope Center. Some pastors have been there many times, but for others it was their first time. They were excited to find such a nice place was available for meetings.We had asked for prayer about our kitchen drain, since we were unable to get it open with chemicals, snakes, plungers, plumbers, etc. It seems your prayers were the right thing, one night while Tonya was up late praying it suddenly began to work. Thank you for your petitions on our behalf. God really does answer prayer, even for the strange stuff.

The time has come for us to write up another hard copy newsletter to mail out. Please pray for us to be creative and clear as we compose the next report.

A very big baby was born in Khabarovsk recently. http://www.eitb.com/news/life/detail/585121/giant-16lb-baby-born-russia-67-centimetres-long/

To God be the Glory,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna