Do you ever consider criteria for failure together with criteria for success? Four years ago, as we began to plan our first youth conference, we thought specifically about what failure to launch this event would look like. At the time we were experimenting with something new, and we wanted to know exactly whether our experiment was a success or a dud. One of the criteria stated that if we attracted fewer than 40 people to this event, it would mean we had failed.
Fast track to this year and we broke the record for attendance. Our conference attracted over 120 people; we literally maxed out the facility we were renting. We had to set up numerous additional chairs just to fit everyone in the room. Our praise and worship night that closed the conference was a huge success also.
These youth conferences are held in early November, and thus they are called “All Saints Youth Conference” given that they are usually held after All Saints Day. At the same time, they follow the themes of the Five Solas of the Reformation. We started in 2023 with the theme “Only by Faith,” continued with “Only by Grace” last year, and touched upon “Only Scripture” this year.
This year we also began to branch out by inviting other speakers outside of our church to this event. We invited Lutheran pastor, Gleb Pivovarov, from the office of the archbishop of the Lutheran church. Gleb has a remarkable testimony. He survived brain cancer. His tumor was so large that his doctors told him it was quite possible that he would not survive the surgery, or he might end up in a vegetative state of not being able to speak, walk, or otherwise function. By God’s grace, he survived the surgery and even though he was left crippled by it, he is full of life and energy. Gleb shared his testimony, joined our Q&A panel, and led two seminars. I hope for the famous words from Casablanca to be true for us: “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
PS We do have plans to scale this conference and make it even bigger next year. But in the meantime, we are faithfully following those unbelievers who came to this event. My next newsletter will let you know more about one of the ways we are doing it.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please join us in praying for God:
- To bless our Advent season. We are going through a lot of changes due to the fact that we are in a new location. Please pray that these transitions would be very smooth during the holiday season and that we would be able to reach a lot of people this coming Advent. We have secured a new venue for our candlelight service but still there are a lot of unknowns.
- To bring to repentance unbelievers that began attending out foundations of faith class. Our class is a very intersting mix of those who came to know the Lord recently, those who have been walking with Christ for a while and several people that are completely new to the church. It would be great to see them put their trust in Christ and be baptized. I will share more about this class in the upcoming weeks.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
