Greetings from Russia!

From Stan - Greetings from Russia!  We’ve been busy doing two VBS’s and only a few of us here, but we wanted to give you an update on how things are going.  We have been doing VBS in the village of Vybiti  in the mornings, and then packing up and heading into the town of Sol’tsy for VBS there.  In addition to our interpreters Olga and Sonya, we have a couple of girls, Katya and Masha helping us with the singing (for which we are very grateful) and our driver, Leo, is sitting in on drums.  We have been having about 40 children and a few parents in Vybiti, and 10 children in Sol’tsy.  We’re heading into an important day tomorrow when on our fourth day of VBS, Pastor Sergey from the Sol’tsy church will give the gospel presentation.

In addition to praying that the gospel would be received, there are two additional specific prayers that you can offer.  It is difficult to get children to come to the church in Sol’tsy.  The children that are attending are from church families there, and when they invite their friends, the friend’s parents will not allow them to attend.  Pray for God to break down the cultural barriers that make them afraid of Protestant church teachings.

In Vybiti, we have had a couple of children that really seem interested and ask some good questions.  Pray that we will be able to make a connection and allow God’s message to come through clearly, so that they can understand that the answers they seek are in the gospel presentation they will hear tomorrow. 

The team is tired, but in good spirits.  It’s encouraging when we have some positive responses like those we’ve seen.  Tomorrow night, we will also make dinner for the guys here in the Rehabilitation Center, and Gary will be giving his testimony.