Baptism, Islands and News

Dear Friends,

finished our latest News Letter. I'm printing them and getting hard copies in snail mail, but you can have an electronic version now. Check it out on our web site at http://101649.agwebservices2.org/SiteFiles/101649/Content/Newsletter/NL%202011%20July.pdf

We just got back from AGWM's Eurasia retreat. It is once every three years. Workers from all over the Eurasia area attended. The teaching was very applicable, the worship wonderful, and the fellowship very refreshing.

At the retreat our older daughter, Vera, received baptism in water. She was baptized by Omar Beiler, our Regional Director, who has been like a pastor to our family for a long time.

While the conference was for professional training, we added a couple days onto the trip for family. Here we are standing in the middle of the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world.

Without even trying, we've managed to move closer to the Chinese border. Actually, the border moved closer to us. China and Russia (and the USSR before that) have had a long-standing border dispute over the islands in the Amur River. Russia has given some portions of the islands to China. Our home was only 21 miles from China before, now I'm not sure exactly how close we are.

Talking about Islands in the Amur River, the rest of the family are at a church camp this week. Tonya is serving as a cook while Tim, Vera and Deanna are participating in the kids program. I'm staying home to work on some needed projects.

Leah has returned to the States. We're very pleased and proud of the work she did here in Khabarovsk. We hope she comes back some time, but are praying the Lord's will for her future, wherever He may lead.

If you're not already planning to come to Russia, but feel a desire to serve the Lord here, just let us know! The opportunities are endless and the needs are great.

The Lord be with you,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna

Adventure along the Amur River

Dear Friends,

our trip to the Lower Amur region was seven full - very full - days of activity. Despite encounters with bad roads, storms, ticks, insects and poisonous snakes, we completed the trip without injury. Our team of six (three Russians, Leah, Timothy and myself) was well balanced. Our STL van, which we named Rapture Buggy, performed excellently. The Lord brought us a number of very good encounters, and we learned a great deal about the area that will aid in future outreaches. This trip was dedicated to building the Kingdom of God, not photography, but we did manage to take a few photos along the way.

We visited several villages that exist only on the map. Quite a few villages in Russia are becoming ghost towns. However, some other towns continue to thrive. Our hope was to rent town halls for evening services to do evangelistic events, and spend the mornings and afternoons walking the town and inviting people; but the local administration always said that they need approval from higher authorities before renting out the hall, and that would take several days. We encountered this kind of response in every town. So we ended up doing a lot of personal evangelism rather than events.

The little girl is holding a book we gave as a gift. We passed out quite a but of literature, especially Children's Bibles.

The highway is gravel & dirt. We never got stuck, but some trucks got bogged down when it rained. And it rained several times while we were there, making things pretty muddy. This truck was sunk to the axels. And yes, that is the main highway.

We discovered a small house church that is very new. We worshipped with them on Sunday. Here I am doing a children's presentation while Timothy helped me with the Russian Language.

Here's Leah helping to prepare some materials.

Of course, prayer was vital to the trip. We daily spent time in personal and group prayer.

We staying in tents (sometimes on sand, sometimes on rock, sometimes on straw... yes, straw). No room in the van for mattresses, so this camp (which we named "rock camp") was a little hard on the bones, but somehow we seemed to sleep soundly anyway.

As an interesting note, you never know when God can use something old to do something new. Many years ago when I worked at Cameron Boys' Camp in North Carolina, I learned to strip bark off of pine poles that we cut to make tent posts from. Some men in one of the villages were stripping poles that they had cut, and I jumped in and stripped some poles. They were surprised that an American would know such a skill, and it enabled the team to get a good conversation going while I provided the "entertainment." You just never know how God might use you.

Along with ministry and work, there was no lack of adventure. We had encounters with two poisonous snakes (one in our campsite), numerous ticks (but none actually bit us), rough roads (with no flat tires), poorly marked routes (but we never got seriously lost), and difficult weather (serious thunderstorms alternating with brilliant sunlight, but the tents stood firm and only minor sunburn resulted). The Heavenly Father was with us, and took care of us all along the way.

In many ways this trip became a survey trip, gathering information and making contacts to prepare for future work in this area.

We praise God that:

1. People were mostly friendly and helpful, and many were receptive.

2. We had safety, health and good travel.

3. There was good unity on the team, and our spirits and energy stayed high.

Please pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers into this harvest field to follow up on what has been done.

It is on our hearts to return sometime, especially to a village that is inhabited by the Nanian people.They had heard the name of Jesus but had no knowledge of who he is. That village has no cell phone connection, limited electricity, and we had to take a boat across the river to get there. The people were very open.

Please also pray for Leah, who returns to the States on Saturday.

Because He Lives,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Toward the ends of the Earth

Dear Friends,

for about ten days I will be out of touch with the internet. On early Wednesday morning (Tuesday afternoon in the USA), we'll be starting evangelistic outreach in the Lower Amur region. I'll be taking our Speed-The-Light vehicle. My team of six (including me, my son Timothy, Leah Close, and three Russian believers) will be doing outreach in the villages just north of Komsomolsk. Much of the time we will also be out of cell phone connection as well.

There are no known churches in the villages we will be visiting, so we are taking tents along for the nights. The census data (which might or might not be accurate) indicates that many of the people are from minority groups, some of which are unreached people groups. Please be aware that this is not a vacation or photo op. We're not sure how we will be received as we have no contacts in these towns. The roads are poor, and I will be taking along three spare tires and extra canisters of fuel. The mosquitoes are only annoying, but the ticks can carry diseases. All in all, the only reason we are going is because we believe the Lord is telling us to go.

Please pray:

1. That the Word of the Lord will be heard and received.

2. For health, safety and travelling mercies for the team.

3. Our our spirits and our energy levels to be high.

4. That spiritual fruit will remain after we leave.

The pastors of Khabarovsk region are working on plans for follow-up in places where the message of our Lord Jesus Christ is received. I hope to tell you more about this in the future.

Now, I must admit to a mistake I made in my previous update. Standing behind a statue where a wreath was being laid, I confused that statue with a different one of Lenin elsewhere in the park. The statue where the wreath was being laid was actually of Marshal of the Soviet Union Radion Yakovlevich Malinovskyi. Here is a photo from his front.

From the front, he doesn't look at all like Lenin.

I was asked by a young couple to perform their wedding. In Russia a church wedding is not a legal wedding, so they first had a legal wedding at a government office and then had the church wedding. Here we are with them.

Tonya thought it would be a good experience for some of the orphans to see a wedding. Since most of the young women who graduate from the orphanages get pregnant out of wedlock, we've been trying to teach the concept of getting married before having children. So we brought along three young gals from a local orphanage as guests. Afterward we asked the girls what they enjoyed most, and with great excitement they said, "everything!" It was the first wedding they had ever attended.

The boy in the photo attends that church, and wanted in the photo too.

We're still doing monthly birthday parties at an orphanage. Here's a photo from the latest. We're acting out (with some help) the story of the three Israelite children who got thrown into the fiery furnace.

I'll write again after we return from the outreach trip. Until then, if you want to contact us, you'll have to give Tonya a phone call (she doesn't do email).

Because of Him,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

Victory Day, and other victories.

Dear Friends,

the orphan seminar we organized went very well. There were several speakers, and all did an excellent job. We enjoyed the interaction as well as the quality of information that was presented. Thank you for your prayers. We hope to host an even larger seminar in the fall.

Earlier this month we asked for prayer that the materials for an anti-drug, anti-smoking program be released from customs. The materials were released, but it cost us much more than we expected. We rejoice that this resource is now available here, and will continue to pray for government officials in Russia.

This weekend we traveled to Novi Orgal. We've been there before to assist with the construction of a church building. This time we were able to hold services there. While the building still isn't finished (still needs a heating system, proper windows, etc.), we're glad to see the progress, and to use it as a place of Worship. This was the first time Leah has traveled on a Russian train, so she got to experience a 14 hour train ride and see a little part of the Trans-Siberian railway. That's her by the train with our kids.

The week before last, we had a visiting professor from Moscow over for dinner. We invited him to speak at Open Heart homeless shelter. He took up the offer, and he spoke to the residents before dinner. Here he is preaching in their summer cafeteria.

He also was given a tour of the center. Presently they are building a bathhouse and laundry facility. It will have some housing/storage on the second floor. Looks like they still need a roof put on it.

Can't forget to mention, Timothy turned 13 this month. He's a big boy now. He had some friends over for pizza, then we all went to the circus.

The 9th of May is one of the biggest holidays in Russia: Victory Day. Never heard of it? It is the date that Nazi Germany was defeated. For the Russians, the war was over. In this photo you can see some troops preparing to lay a wreath in front of this statue. Guess who the statue is of. Yes, if you said Lenin, you were right. Anyway, we joined in some of the celebrations for Victory Day.

The part of Victory Day my kids enjoyed the most was climbing on the military equipment. Here are Vera and Deanna climbing on an old Katusha rocket launcher.

Earlier we asked for prayer in regards to a lawsuit brought against a local church here in Khabarovsk. The church has appealed, and things are now working their way through the legal system. The pastor continues to shepherd his flock at this church, despite the difficulties.

We also have some information about the situation in Novokuznetsk with Tonya's home church.

Tonya's pastor writes:
At the beginning of this year, our church set a goal to pray for a spiritual breakthrough in different areas. At the time, little did we realize what was coming. One after another, we faced numerous attacks which resulted in four different court cases. We thank God for your faithfulness in prayer, and we'd like to ask if you would please pray that God would give us victory in all these situations according to Isaiah 54:17: no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

1) We have a very good relationship with the city administration in Novokuznetsk. However, in Ossineke, the neighboring city where we have the Teen Challenge Center, there are some government officials who are still trying to close the program. We've had some victories in court, but the battle still continues. There are a few more court cases that will take place in the near future.
2) We're defending an orphan who attends our church and was robbed by a group of men in February of this year. We tried to seek help from the police, but they in turn accused the youth pastor from our church as if he were trying to steal from orphans. It's shocking to see that the police are covering up this crime and are trying to shift the attention away from the criminals and blame the church. We've learned that this type of corruption is prevalent throughout the country. Please pray for the investigation going on right now that God would expose all who are involved in this crime against orphans.

3) We're battling in court for the right to use the land around our church building. The land is owned by the government and by law is to be shared equally by the owners of the buildings. Our neighbor organized an illegal paid parking lot next to our building and is charging the congregation for parking. We're asking the court to close the paid parking lot which will allow us not only to have free parking, but also to bring in a crane to reconstruct the church's roof.

4) The former owner of our church building has illegally obtained documents stating that he is the owner of two rooms within our church building. Recently, he took the church to court saying that we have to reconstruct our sanctuary so that he has easier access to his rooms. In the hearing process, by mistake their lawyer submitted to the judge the false documents which can now be used against them. Please pray that the judge will revoke their falsified ownership papers, and that the church will gain ownership of the two rooms.

We thank you for your ongoing prayers for these things.

Kerby Rials, who served with AGWM in Russia, has created a great new resource for us. It is a book explaining the differences between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches. The Title is "Three Great Churches." He has made an audio book from it (in Russian), that is available for free from his web site. If you know a Russian or plan to visit Russia, feel free to give away copies of the audio book.

http://web.me.com/kerbyrials1/The_Three_Great_Churches/RUSSIAN.html [If that doesn't work, go to www.rials.org, click on the "ORDER BOOK" link next to the picture of the book (lower left hand corner) and then at the next page, click on RUSSIAN at the top.]

You can also order the book itself (English or Russian). If you can't read Russian on the web site, click on the "English" link.

One more prayer request:

A group a pastors recently approached me about what they feel God has instructed them to do this summer. Between Komsomolsk-Na-Amure and Nikolyevesk-Na-Amure there are over eighty population points (most are very small, and some can only be reached by boat in summer). They feel led to do evangelism in every point. This region is called the Lower Amur; along the Amur River from Komsomolsk to where it flows into the Sea of Okhotsk (near the Sea of Japan). Here's a map. Most of the people that live here belong to minority groups, many of which are listed as unreached people groups. This whole outreach is a vision given to the local churches, I am honored to be invited to participate. We will start in June, and I hope to go with one of the teams.

We've previously mentioned the Hosanna plan for Russia. It now has it's own place on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/HosannaPlanRussia

In His Grip,

Cecil,Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna

Darkness and Light

Dear Friends,

last weekend the Baptist churches in our area were having a conference, and we had a few extra folks stay in our home while they attended. On Sunday evening, one of the ladies - who we didn't know very well - was chatting with Tonya in our kitchen. She suddenly asked, "what is repentance?" Tonya answered, "that's when you make peace with God; would you like to do that?" The lady wanted to do that, so they prayed right there. You just never know when the Lord might use you.

Today is Thursday, and that means Movie Night. Every Thursday we show a good, spiritual movie at Hope Center. After showing a movie we have snacks and tea time. There was a newcomer there tonight, and after tea he asked for prayer. I asked him what he wanted prayer for, and he said, "cleansing from my sins." Since I didn't have a translator with me tonight (Tonya was home with the girls), I asked one of the older ladies at the table to lead him in prayer. With her help he repented of his sins right there. You just never know when the Lord might use you.

A lawsuit was brought against a church in Khabarovsk, accusing them of "psychological manipulation." They were found guilty, the church charter has been dissolved, and the church property is being confiscated by the government, and the pastor ordered not to pastor any more. It is one of the largest churches in the city, and the property is of some value, so someone in the government will be profiting from this. The basis for the decision seems rigged, since it cited examples such as sometimes the lights would be turned low during services, sometimes people would cry, people would "hear from God" (interpreted as the church caused people imagine that they hear voices), and such. This is the first time in Russia that a church has been dissolved for such a reason. Since the definition of "psychological manipulation" seems to be very broad, almost any church could be accused on those grounds. If this case stands, we expect a flood of lawsuits. The decision has been appealed, and the local churches have declared a fast for Friday (tomorrow) to pray for this issue. Your prayers for this would be appreciated.

In partnership with a local church, we have ordered a case of materials for doing an anti-drug, anti-smoking program for schools. The materials have become held up in customs. They are demanding fees that will more than double the cost of materials, as well as proof of why the materials have been ordered and what they will be used for. The entire situation has become quite confusing. Please pray that the the Lord will give us wisdom, and the materials will be released.

On Saturday we will be hosting and presenting a half day seminar on how to minister to kids in the orphanages. It will include sessions on forming foster families (a new concept here in Russia), and taking kids for week-ends or day visits. One of the speakers is being provided by a local government center for helping families. We've had contact with them several times, and they do wonderful work. We have speakers from a number of other organizations as well. Please pray that it is well attended, very helpful to the attendees, and that all the many details come together.

The government center that is providing a speaker for our seminar asked us to go on TV as a family. They are trying to promote adoptions, and since we adopted Deanna, they wanted to do an interview. So we've done a family interview, and the show is scheduled to be aired in a week. We just pray that the Lord is able to use it for His sake.

We continue to do monthly birthday parties Hope Center for the orphans. Here's Tim holding the cake for the last party we had.

We sure appreciate your prayers and support for the Lord's work here. God bless you.

I'd like to end with a quote:

Mark Batterson writes: “When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? God wants to send us to dangerous places to do difficult things. He will lead you into the shadowlands where light and darkness clash.”

Because of Him,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera, and Deanna

Khristos Voskres

Dear Friends,

Throughout yesterday we said and heard the saying, "Khristos Voskres" and the response, "V Estenu On Voskres." That is, "Christ is risen," and "He is risen, indeed." These are the traditional Easter greetings in Russia.

It also snowed all yesterday. Even without any Easter lilies in bloom here, Christ is still risen.

This last week Tonya was given open doors at a nearby orphanage to tell the Easter Story. She chose to go class to class using a carton of plastic eggs - each with a symbol inside representing something that happened during Holy Week - to tell the children. It was very well received by both children and staff, some of whom had never heard a clear presentation of the Easter story before.

One of the ladies who works at this orphanage struck up a conversation with Tonya about her son. He has an open form of tuberculosis, and is in the TB ward of a hospital. Tonya offered to pray for him. There happens to be a man, in the church we attend here, who was miraculously healed of TB. So we asked him to visit this lady's son in the hospital. The next morning he went for the visit and witnessed to him and prayed with the young man. This young man was not expecting a visitor, but was so impressed by the visit that he called his mother and said, "someone came and talked with and prayed for me, and I feel so much better." The lady was deeply touched that someone would risk going into a TB ward to help her son. There is nothing more exciting than seeing God at work in people's lives.

We continue to have monthly birthday parties for the kids from that orphanage.

We praise God that he opens doors for ministry for us here. While another Christian group that ministered here has not been permitted to restart their Sunday School, we continue to pray that the doors for their work will open again for them as well.

We've also begun having a 14 year old girl from a different orphanage to our house on week-ends. Her name is Nastia. This is a new step for us, and we're learning a lot. Please pray for us and Nastia as this relationship develops. Here is a photo of her with Tonya.

Our hope is that others will begin to take children from orphanages for weekends, or even just Saturday afternoons, and and show them God's love. It's a good way for children in orphanages to see what a family is like and how they function.

On the 7th of May we will be hosting a half day conference encouraging folks to become involved in the lives of children in the orphanage system, and teach practical things than can be done. We are arranging speakers from the government as well as parents who have done this and from non-government agencies. This is the first time we've done this kind of thing, so please pray for us and the conference.

One of the Bible Schools that uses Hope Center has finished another session. Hope Center sure is an active place.

We've mentioned the Hosanna Plan for Russia. They've started a Facebook group. You can check it out at "Hosanna Plan on Facebook"

http://www.facebook.com/HosannaPlanRussia

"Life ebbs away from Russian villages" is a presentation of how villages in Russia are disappearing as young people migrate to the cities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3984951.stm

One last prayer request. Cecil has submitted his application for Permanent Residency in Russia. The application process takes a while, but we should get an answer in September. Please pray that all is approved and he receive Permanent Residency Status.

Christ is Risen Indeed,

Cecil, Tonya, Timothy, Vera and Deanna

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