Many more pictures online...

Here you can browse the few hundred pictures we've already taken this summer... and even more from last summer. They are grouped into albums which should be pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard

For some stories and prayer requests, read the post below.

Back From Camp #3!

Friends & family -

Lucy and I are back from 3 weeks of camps. conferences, adventures and more.....
It was a great time and despite some of the difficulties (see posts below) we were both glad we were able to attend. As expected the highlights of the time were the conversations we had with people. We all had lots of time to reflect on who God is, where our lives are going and how God does or does not influence us. One example was a conversation I (Dan) had with an old friend whom I had not seen in many years. He and a few other friends had started up a small Christian business only to see their friendships destroyed when they came under the stress of having to work and make tough decisions together. He was very open in sharing with me about the brokenness in himself and his friends. Because that was at the center of how they treated each other that ate away at both their friendships and their business.

Lucy had the opportunity to pray with a young women that had been married about a year. This woman had experienced a deep betrayal in friendship resulting in public disgrace at church and was at the same time struggling to feel loved by her husband. She felt unable to trust or forgive. By the end of their walking, talking, and praying she said she was feeling hopeful and excited for the first time in a long time.

Dan, Ilya, Slava and Edik -old friends.

The last week was spent at a Russian student conference. It had been several years since we had attended a national student conference such as this. There were some old friends and lots of new faces. It was really encouraging to see how God continues to remain faithful to this vital work after so many years. One huge need that stood out was for new national staff workers. Many of the Russians who have been working with CCX (the student movement) for a number of years are now moving on to other things. There is a huge need for a new generation of leaders to be raised up to replace them. Please pray for this and the funds to support them.

Yura Mark

The main speaker at the national student conference was a man named Yuri Mark, a Ukrainian theological professor from Kherson, Ukraine. He talked about the difference between people on a journey - with clear goals, principles, and life perspective - and those who are simply wandering or stuck. He challanged all of us to think about our own journeys and how to shape our lives in light of the goals, principles and perspective that our faith gives us. He also gave some great seminars on contemporary evangelism.

Alyosha, the new General Secretary of CCX, interviewing
Dan and 2 others about their experiences in the student movement.

Thanks for your prayers! We're off to Chelyabinsk today for a week spent with some of these same friends - leaders from Heaven's Open church and CCX. Pray for Dan as he is speaking this weekend at church and for our time with some of the lay leaders of the church still recovering from deep wounds of sin in their recent past. Pray for energy and focus - we're both lagging a bit at this point in the summer.

Blessings,
Dan & Lucy

Back to Kyshtym

Dan and I are leaving in about an hour and a half for the bus station. We'll take a bus to the city of Kyshtym, not far from our campsite. Someone will meet us there and we'll go by car to camp. We're excited to go back to friends & conversations we were "in the middle of", so to speak, and next week to see so many old friends at the National Student Conference. But we're also both fighting colds and feeling very tired. So please pray that we would have energy and that our bodies would heal! Here's our schedule & a couple of prayer requests for the next two weeks:

* This weekend (July 18-20) we'll join the evangelism camp already in progress for the last few days. Pray that non-Christian students would accept the gospel and/or continue to be involved in Heaven's Open Church or CCX (the national student movement).

* Next week (July 20-27) is the CCX national conference. We'll be seeing old friends on staff and hanging out with staff and students. This is a difficult time for the student movement here - staff numbers are shrinking and pay for staff was just cut due to lack of income. Pray for the staff and student leaders from around the country to be re-engergized and refreshed by their time together. And pray for new partners for CCX! (Let us know if you're interested - we can get you connected!)

* The following week (July 27-August 3 - ish) we'll be going to Chelyabinsk to spend time with Pr. Ilya and others from Heaven's Open church and CCX. Pray that we will be good listeners and encouragers. Pray also that we would be able to pave the way for a team from Alleluia! to come next summer.

In early August we'll head back to Ekaterinburg, but we'll be offline probably until then. We LOVE hearing from folks so please comment or send us an email. And we do rely on prayer, so please pray.

Blessings,
Lucy (and Dan)

Camp Pictures & Update

The view from our camp site:


A mother-child afternoon activity:


Pr. Dan and Pr. Ilya catching up:


The worship team getting a little help from an aspiring musician:


Our evening campfire & part of our circle:


Well, we're briefly back in our apartment in Ekaterinburg after an interesting week at camp. It was full of both wonderful and terrible experiences! Among the highlights (and lowlights):

* We shared our camp site with a number of snakes, both venomous and otherwise. One woman was bitten and had to spend a few days in the hospital. A couple of others were bitten but only by garden snakes.

* The mosquito population at this camp site is significantly higher than the place we were at last year, which made our evenings especially challenging. It was almost humorous each night looking around the circle of folks constantly swatting themselves and their neighbors as Dan valiantly tried to preach effectively. He now has a new record for number of bugs swallowed during a sermon.

* Lucy had cases of both heatstroke and food poisoning. If there is anything more miserable than food poisoning itself, it's food poisoning in the middle of a wilderness filled with mosquitoes and snakes and without clean water or a conventional toilet. Enough said.

* Once again, we had some fantastic conversations and opportunities to build significant relationships. We continued relationships with folks who need encouragement, prayer and just a compassionate friend to talk to. Believe it or not, this makes up for everything above!

* This may seems particularly hard to believe, but the spot we are camping in this year is truly beautiful and restful and there were some times of real joy as we relaxing with the people from Heaven's Open Church, who have so little chance to enjoy the outdoors or spend so much recreational time together during the rest of the year.

We had originally planned to come home for a week in between this camp and the national student conference (at the same camp site) but were talked into staying a little late and going back early (yes - we are just that crazy!) to be a part of the student evangelistic camp going on now. We came back to Ekaterinburg Monday afternoon and will return to the campsite Thursday or Friday. Please pray for us this week that our bodies, minds and souls will recover in this short time at home. Also pray for those at the camp still this week - especially for the non-Christian students taking part in the camp - which has a Lord of the Rings theme - to hear, understand and receive the gospel. There is also a team from a church in London there to help for the week. Pray for them as few of them speak Russian or have been to Russia before. Several of them also had food poisoning.

For more pictures from camp, check out our Picasa Web Album. Thanks for your prayers!

Off to camp!

It is late Saturday night, we are all packed and ready to go. Tomorrow morning we leave for the Heaven's Open church retreat. For those of you who do not know, this is when we head off into the woods, and spend a week camping, studying, praying, sharing, worshiping, and resting together with folks from the H.O. church. This is often one of the highlights of my (Dan's) trip, not because I enjoy camping or anything remotely similar, but because of the relationship building that goes on during this week. It is a time to seek God, to contemplate, to worship and to experience a unique form of fellowship. It happens because everyone leaves their day to day lives behind and focuses on God. Lets face it, our lives (whether in the US or in Russia) are hectic and loud. There is so much screaming for our attention it is hard to stop and just listen to God's voice. It is difficult to just sit back and experience Him and only Him. That's why this week is so importyant for me personaly and for everyone in attendance. It provides the time we need, at a pace that is benificial, to make contact with God. To be restored, encouraged, or changed.

I am also keenly aware of how much both Lucy and I will need your prayers this week. We go in order to participate and be a vehicle by which God will touch peoples hearts. But we are imperfect tools that need your prayers and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Some ways that you can specifically pray for us.

• Pray for me (Dan) as I will be preaching each evening (mon. thru Sat). The texts will be from 6 different moments in the life of David. We will examine how our choices can have such a huge impact on how we and those around us expereince God. Pray that God will speak powerfully through me.
• We will also do a lot of one-on-one counseling. Pray that we will understand people clearly as they share with us and that we will know how to respond (in Russian) to their needs. Pray that God will give us the strength to encourage and engage people throughout the week.
  
• Many of these conversations come at the end of the week and may feel rushed. Pray that we will be able to connect with people early thus leading to more in-depth conversations.
• Pray for us personally, that God will also allow us to rest and be touched by Him and others at this camp.

Next Update will be in a week when we return from the retreat.

Drying our clothes in time for camping...

Where in the world...

These are the places we'll be living and serving during the months of June-August 2008. Click on the markers, arrow, etc. for more information. If you zoom in you will find more things to see. If you zoom out you can see where we are in relation to Moscow, Kazhakstan, Western Europe and the rest of the world! Click on the link to the larger map to have even more fun exploring.


View Larger Map