Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! What are your Christmas traditions? Do you go to church for a candlelight service? This special service is somewhat of a new tradition for our church. We began hosting candlelight services only when we moved to St. Peter and Paul's Lutheran Cathedral about 13 years ago, so this year will be the first time that we will put together this service at a new location since we had to leave the St. Peter and Paul’s cathedral back in May. It took a while for our church to grow used to this service and to begin using it evangelistically, inviting friends, neighbors, and colleagues. But over these last 5 or 6 years, it became an incredible tradition. Below are just two of the stories that I heard literally yesterday.
Victor is one of our elders and our youth leader. He works as an attorney in a legal firm. Several days ago, their firm got together for an-end-of-the-year party during which the CEO got up to share about something that impressed her greatly almost a year ago. By the way, yes that is her in the picture. She is standing next to her husband and another picture is of her husband and her daughter. She said: “I was rushing to a Cathedral downtown for a Christmas Eve service. Our car was in the shop, so I took the metro and because I used a new subway line that was recently finished, I got disoriented and went the wrong way. I wandered in the underground hallways for a while before I found my way around. By the time I got to the cathedral, I was really late. But my husband and daughter greeted me there. The moment I walked in I felt peace and calm envelop my heart. It is our family tradition to attend these candlelight services. The people in the church were so friendly and welcoming, everyone was singing with their candles lit and the atmosphere was such a stark contrast to the world outside. By the way Victor is protestant. It was at his church and I highly recommend that you all go to this special service this year. You will not regret it.” This CEO is not a believer yet, so it was truly remarkable how she was promoting our evangelistic candlelight service.
Another story comes from Lyuba, who recently invited her boss and all of her colleagues to come to our candlelight service. When one of the colleagues heard about it, she was really excited and told Lyuba that last year she visited several churches during the Christmas season. One service left a particularly strong impression on her, and she shared that it was the best service that she has ever been to and by far the best Christmas service. She then took out her phone and showed Lyuba the video that she recorded a year ago. Lyuba was a little bit surprised when she saw familiar faces in it. This girl had visited our Christmas Eve service and left really impressed by it and even recorded it. So, Lord willing she will come back again, and who knows, maybe this time around God will touch her heart and she will put her trust in Him. Please pray with us that it happens! Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to you and your loved ones!
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
PS Attached you will also find our Christmas card. Per usual it is an unusual card so feel free to use it too.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please take a moment right now, after you fnished reading this e-mail, to join us in praying for God:
- To bless our candlelight service. As I mentioned above it will be in the brand new place for the first time in 13 years. But the Spirit of God that touches the hearts is the same and please ask God with us to move mightily in the hearts of those who do not know Him yet.
- To raise necessery funds for us to purchase our own building. I shared in my last newsletter about our capital campaign that we just launched. Check it out if you have not yet and if you can please share about it with as many people as possible especially with the missions board of your church.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
