What is your greatest weakness? I know that sounds like a strange question to ask since we are more prone to share about our strengths than admit our weaknesses. But I am asking because over the years, perhaps the weakest point for Moscow Bible has been church planting. It is not that we did not want to do so. We even tried once and failed miserably since we did just about everything one should not do when planting a new church. Since then, we were so busy with church reformation that we never had time to think about a new plant. Plus, we were meeting at St. Peter and Paul's Lutheran Cathedral, which has a seating capacity close to 1,000 people, so we did not even need to think about starting a new church until we outgrew that facility.
But that does not mean that we did not plant churches. We did. We just happened to plant them accidentally, without even trying to do so. In my previous letter I hinted at once such story and this is the story of our church that was planted in Israel by our “deaf ministry.” Yes, we do have a deaf Israeli church that considers Moscow Bible to be its mother church. I’ll be honest -- it took me a while to let that fact sink in. Moreover, I was a little surprised that when I went to Israel recently, Pavel, the leader of our deaf ministry, asked me repeatedly about where I would be staying and where our preaching seminars would be so that people from this deaf church could come see me. Needless to say, I was even more surprised when, on the first day of lectures at a beautiful “Jews for Jesus” site, I was approached by the secretary who told me that there were people in the office looking for me. Those were the deaf from our Israeli church who sure enough came to see me. One of them, Gabriel (the redhaired guy in the picture), I met before when he was visiting Moscow.
So how did this church come about? Well, the leader of our deaf ministry was invited to come and teach in Israel about 5 years ago. Everyone was so impressed with him (and truth be told he is a very impressive gentleman) that they invited him to come back repeatedly. That is how his teaching ministry in Israel got started. Over the years he made numerous trips, and at one point a group of deaf Israelis asked him what he thought about them planting a church. They wanted to be sure of one thing though – this church had to be affiliated with Moscow Bible Church. They saw us as their mother church and would not venture to do anything unless we agreed. Pavel approached me with this request, and we began the process of planting this community. We supplied them with all our materials, consulted with them on a regular basis, and Pavel returned to Israel to teach them time and time again. Groups from this church came to Moscow, too, and met with the leadership of our church. As a matter of fact, when I returned from Israel, a group of about 20 people was in Moscow from Israel that first Sunday that I was back.
Now you know the story of one of the churches that we planted accidentally. The other one is a bit more dramatic, so I will share it with you in the ensuing weeks.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
PS I am writing this letter as both Sasha and Misha are at our summer kids’ camp. It is the first time that Misha, our eldest son, has joined the camp as one of the participants. I will share more about this camp and how it went in upcoming newsletters.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please join us in praying for God:
- To bless our kids camp that is happening right now. Please pray for the strength for our camp leaders and also for God to touch the lives of the kids that joined our camp in such a way that this summer would be a meaningful brick in the foundation of their faith for years to come.
- To bless youth camp. As the kids camp is drawing near to its end our youth ministry is working hard on putting finishing touches on their camp that is about to launch in 2 weeks.
- To bring peace to Israel and Iran, to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
