Have you ever had the sensation that what you were sharing was intended not just for your direct audience but also for bystanders? It may have been a word, a thought, or an idea that was particularly useful not just for your conversation partner, but also for somebody that was nearby. Did that ever happen to you? Well, that was my experience at our youth camp this past summer. I came out for a day to do a seminar on dating and stayed for the evening session, during which I shared about Nehemiah and the challenges he faced in rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem. As I was sharing, I noticed several young men standing just outside our auditorium and listening very intently.
It has to be mentioned that we are not the only camp that is using these particular facilities. Usually there are many sports camps at the same location. Needless to say, these have nothing to do with faith or church. It is a rather large facility that allows several programs to run simultaneously.
Still our auditorium is a one-story standalone building sitting on the bank of a lake. Therefore, when I saw young men outside on the patio listening intently to what I was sharing, my first thought was those are just some of our guys that for whatever reason decided to stay outside. However, as I looked more closely, I realized that I did not recognize any of them. That does not necessarily mean all that much given that our summer camps are evangelistic in nature and often attract new teenagers and college students that then become regulars at our meetings. These guys stayed through the entire evening service and, as it turned out, were not part of our camp. They were members of a basketball club that held its summer training at the same camp that we used for our summer camp. They were deeply touched by the worship and the sermon that night, which is why they stayed just outside for the whole time.
Unfortunately, we did not exchange contacts, and I did not keep track of them afterwards. But perhaps what they heard that day touched their hearts in a special way and gave them a chance to explore the Good News of Jesus Christ in greater depth later.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
P.S. A while back I mentioned in passing that Moscow Bible Church is an Evangelical Free Church in Russia and that we actually helped launch this denomination here. I will share more about it in my next newsletter.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please take a moment right now, after you fnished reading this e-mail, to join us in praying for God:
- Thank you so much for praying for me couple weeks ago when I was teaching at the Intensive for Church Planters in Istanbul! The trip went great! Please pray next week as I am heading back to Istanbul for 3 days for the meeting of hub city leaders with City to City. Especially once again to provide necessery strength to Sasha to handle 3 kids along full workload while I am gone.
- To raise necessery funds for us to purchase our own building. I shared in one of my previous 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.
