Summer 2008

Russia Mission

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:4-6

A whole year has *almost* passed, we're just a few days away from our 1st anniversary, and another Russia trip is upon us! This year we will leave on June 11th and return to America on August 11th, giving us 10 weeks in Russia. We're excited about seeing friends over there soon and so glad that you'll be praying for us and keeping in touch!

What we will be doing:

We will spend our 10 weeks mentoring, teaching, listening, encouraging, and strengthening church leaders and Christian workers in the Ural mountain regions of Russia. This will take place through seminars, conferences, church services, one-on-one discussion and personal friendships. Specifically we will focus on serving alongside two churches, Heaven’s Open Church in Chelyabinsk and Living Word Church in Yekaterinburg. We’ll also be part of one, possibly two, camps that the Christian student movement, CCX (Fellowship of Christian Students), will host.

How you can pray:

Pray that God will give us wisdom in making choices about where and how to spend time.

Pray that God will use us to give encouragement, strength & vision to the Christians we spend time with.

Pray for good cross-cultural understanding & humility, especially as we teach God’s word.

Pray that God will provide the financial resources needed, especially for the student camp.

How you can give:

Simply write “Russia Mission” on your love offering envelope or give your check, made out to “Alleluia”, directly to Pr. Dan.

Pictures

Lots more pics are up in the picasa web albums - but I haven't finished putting notes on them. I will try to do that tomorrow. In the meantime, here's the link:

www.picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard

Blessings,
Lucy

Upcoming Events

Here is a quick update on what we will be doing over the next few days (7/28-8/5).

This weekend Alexi Shilin, one of the leaders in the Christian Student movement in Russia, will be visiting us.

Om Saturday we will be going to two different picnics. These provide great opportunities for relationship building.

On Sunday I will be preaching at the Living Word Church.

On Tues we will be meeting with leaders of a Christian Pre-school in Yekaterinburg

On Wed we will be attending a prayer/blessing meting for a Christian Ministry to street kids (children who have runaway/been orphaned and live on the streets) They have just started to build a new building in order to provide housing for these kids . They have asked for our support and prayers.

Since this is our last week, there is more of a rushed feeling. There are lots of people that we would like to spend time with, so most evenings will be spent either visiting someone, or having guests for dinner

Next Sunday 8/5 we leave for America. Please pray that God will bless and guide or activities over the next week.

Thanks
Dan

NOT so hot...

Europe Bakes in Summer Heat Wave...

We just happened to notice this on the BBC news page and wanted to let you know that, ironically, the temps here have dropped to the low 60's and even 50's. We've had to plug in a space heater to keep warm - in fact, last night we were without electricity for about 3 hours, probably because too many people in the building were doing the same thing! Strange Russian weather.

We're back in Ekat.

Hi everyone! We just got back from Chelyabinsk where we spent most of last week taking part in a church camp (so, not actually in Chelyabinsk). God really blessed our time there. Some of the highlights include:

• Conversations with people (always a highlight, and this time was no exception). Dan had a number of good mentoring talks with people. Lucy managed to quickly establish some relationships and also had a number of significant conversations. These times of connecting were wonderful.
• Dan's evening talks on the themes of mentoring and discipleship. He examined the relationships Jesus had with his disciples and specifically with Peter, and at some of Paul's relationships as well. The testimonies at the end of the week seemed to indicate that people were discovering real biblical truths about how we build God's kingdom through our relationships.
• We managed to mostly stay healthy and survived the rustic camp conditions - for which we are grateful and just a little proud of ourselves!
• Seeing one particular relationship that in the past year has been healed/reconciled - one which a year ago seemed irreparable.

We had some extended time with Pastor Ilya Sluzin and his family before and after the camp. Ilya is really overwhelmed with everything happening in the church - he's the only staff member and knows that he needs to find partnership, a team or co-worker, if he's going to be able to continue in ministry for the long haul. Please be praying for Ilya and the church.

Lucy will post some pictures and perhaps tell a story or two tomorrow, but we just wanted to update you and let you know that we're back in Ekaterinburg.

Thanks for praying!
Dan & Lucy

Prayer requests & map link

Here are some prayer requests for the next 10 days:

• My talks to go well - that the translation would be clear, my words on target and people would be challenged and motivated to invest in the lives of other Christians.
• Good conversations and relationship building opportunities for both Lucy and me.
• Good weather - meaning: no rain, mid-70's and a nice breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay.
• Wisdom in talking several couples through various counseling situations.
• God's blessing on my time spent with Pastor Ilya. This week is the main chance that I have to talk and pray with him.
  

Also, Lucy looked up the map link for those of you interested in seeing where we'll be. We'll be somewhere near Satka, Russia - west of Chelyabinsk (Челябинск in Cyrillic) and south of Ekaterinburg (or Екатеринбург). Click here to see the map.

P.S.

I've posted lots of photos online, with captions, at the following site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lucy.wynard/RussiaSummer2007

At the same site you'll be able to find honeymoon photos and wedding photos, for those interested.