One Year For Jesus

NOVOALTAYSK – Our testimony is about how the Holy Spirit selects people for His ministry and builds His Church. There were four of us. Inspired and filled with the Holy Spirit, we went to outreaches. On each trip we saw how ripe the fruit was, and the four of us were not enough. We prayed to the Lord and asked for more laborers. We encouraged each other and those who were near us by sharing about God’s miracles. In a short while God brought evangelists to our team.

My name is Alexey. I’m 43 years old. In the past I was an alcoholic. On November 5, 2013 through my ex-wife, I got to a rehabilitation center in the city of Staraya Kupavna. After completing the course, for four more months I went to a re-entry program in the same city. Then, four months I studied at a missionary training center in Dzerzhinsky of Moscow Region.

My name is Tamara, I am 55 years old. I always wanted to be part of the One Year for Jesus project. I prayed for teams, donated money. But I was afraid to go myself and preach, because I was disabled, I had problems with my feet.

Once I was offered to join the team in our church to share the Good News with people in villages. I prayed, and the Lord said to me, “Do not worry, I’ll always be with you.” Then I decided that no matter what, I would go and serve the people. It’s been three years now, every week we travel to towns and villages of our area and bring God’s Word to people who are in need of salvation. Our wonderful, merciful God has given me strength and “made my feet like the feet of a deer” (Hab. 3:19), and enabled me to preach the Good News!

OMSK AREA – When we preached the Gospel in Lyvovka village of Kalachinski district of Omsk area, some of the residents were listening and accepting, others didn’t want to listen.

ALTAI (RUSSIA_ – We thank God that He has chosen us – to bring the news of salvation to people of Komsomolski town is a great honor. Of course, it does not always go smoothly and well. Some people accept the Good news, some – don’t. Many people oppose and say: “We’re Orthodox, we have a church…” But when we ask them, “Who is Jesus for you?” – they don’t know what to answer....

With those who accept the News of Salvation, we keep in touch. When we come for a visit, we always bring something: a book, a newspaper and some treats for tea. It takes time to build relationships, but it is worth it. Today there’s a home in Komsomolski – Semyon Ivanovich’s – that is willing to invite people for home church meetings. We praise God for this man! He’s 85, but still active: he helps people remove the garbage using his truck. He introduced us to his friend, Vassily Yakovlevich who is also 85. Recently he prayed the sinners’ prayer.

We stay in touch with people who come to our home church meetings. Some time ago a new family joined us: a mother, Zoya Romanovna, she is 78, and her son Nikolai, he’s 55. The mother is a Christian, and besides Nikolai she has two other sons and a daughter. Nikolai was a military officer. Because of his drinking habit, he lost his family. He willingly talks to us, shows us pictures of his past life. He feels a lot of pain, disappointment and hurt. We pray that God would bring him to repentance and would restore all that was destroyed.

We’ve seen the first fruit of our prayers: two weeks after we met Nikolai and his mother we learned that Nikolai drank less than before and once he came home almost sober after a birthday party.
Some people are not able to attend home church due to disabilities, so we visit them at their homes. We talk, study the Bible, worship the Lord and pray together. We praise the Lord for all opportunities He provides, His strength, peace and joy!

Komsomolski settlement team, Altai region

BARNAUL (RUSSIA) – Kalmanka town is not large, about 3 thousand people. We’ve come here several times to share the Good News and pray for the alcohol-addicts, as there’re many of them in Kalmanka. We already see the results of our prayers: it is our third visit to one home, and now all family members are sober, and they even cleaned the place up, so the yard is clean and tidy. And when we read the Bible with these people, the Word of God changes their faces – they begin to glow and their once wan eyes liven up, the Holy Spirit touches some of them so mightily they begin to cry. We see the conditions that they have to live in, and it is our desire that their lives could change. We pray and believe that it is possible for God.

There’re other families – working people, pensioners, young people. When we start telling them the Good News, many of them get nervous: they don’t have time, they have problems and troubles. Then we begin to read the Bible, suddenly we see interest in their eyes, their faces change and the Word of God touches their hearts.

Some time ago, Jehovah’s Witnesses lived in Kalmanka, and they went door to door. That’s why many people wouldn’t let us in, but many people give us their phone numbers so that we could invite them to come if there are any crusades. Two people are willing to come to Barnaul to our church’s conference. We pray that they’re able to solve their issues with their work and finances and are able to come.

We’re thankful to God for the opportunity to preach the Gospel. We always return home inspired and filled with joy, strength and desire to minister to people. Glory to God!

The Light of Revival Church team, Barnaul

OMSK (RUSSIA) – We continue to witness about Christ, pray for people, plant the seeds of God’s Word. Some people open their heart for Christ, agree to reconcile with Him. God Himself leads us to people who desperately need Him.

Among our new friends in the village of Yasnaya Polyana is Andrei. He has cerebral palsy. We talked with him about sin, about the importance of repentance. Read chapter 14 of Gospel of John, then suggested to pray the sinners’ prayer and Andrei agreed. He was deeply touched by our conversation and our care for him, he invited us to join him at fishing. Andrei is happy at the opportunity to communicate, because he lives a lonely life. But now he rejoices he has God beside him.

Olga lives at the same village. We shared the Gospel with her, she prayed for forgiveness of her sins, reconciled with God. But her relationships with her husband are still bad. She has no peace and obedience to him. On Bible foundation we counseled her about the love and respect she needs to have to her husband. After the prayer we blessed her and her family, agreed to keep in touch, headed her to the church in Kalachinsk, where missionaries Takhir and Marina serve.

And we met Vassily and Larissa. They never heard about God, so we gladly shared the Good News, and our testimonies. They reconciled with God. Vassily and Larissa live very poorly, we suggested help.

God knows what and whom we should say, and each one of us carrying the fire of His love feels his value for the Kingdom of God. Please, support in prayer all those who we preached the Word of God to..

Ivan Pavlov
“Nehemiah” church team, Omsk

KALUGA (RUSSIA) – We met Alexander two years ago in the town of Suvorov where we gave out homeless people hot meals. The first few times he came drunk, listened to our stories at the improvised services inattentively, chuckling. But he always was very accurate to repeat the words of the Lord’s prayer.

Now Alexander is 30, and the last 6 years of them he has been living in the street after his father’s death. During the two years Alexander realized that the Christians wish the best for him, but he didn’t want to hear a single word about a rehabilitation program, “I won’t make it, it won’t work for me”.

But recently he heard a testimony that touched his heart. One brother from the One Year for Jesus team (his name was also Alexander, he is on the right on the picture), who was homeless before, shared about changes in his life because of his faith in Jesus. After that Alexander said he wants to put an end to the life of a homeless man.

Let us keep him in prayer and believe that God will finish what He has started and the homeless man will find salvation and home!

Denis Nefyodkin

Team of the Grace Church, Kaluga

BARNAUL )RUSSIA) – In one of the towns in Altai region we have been teaching, talking and sharing, being led by the Holy Spirit, we were praying and fasting. We can see the changes. To one of the homes that used to be a nasty place, God’s order came. Here’s the story.

Mother Evgeniya, is disabled from childhood, receives two welfares from the government for herself and her son Maxim of 12 years old. Her sister Irina was taking almost all their money and would buy alcohol to then drink it at their house with her friends. Up to 10 people would come to the house every day. Because of that the boy is mentally disturbed and he needs private tuition. Another man, Dennis, 30 years old, an alcoholic too, his mother and step-father also lived at the same house.

We preached to them, many of them repented. Now Dennis is in a rehab center. His mother has repented and thanks God for answering her prayers and for her son having a desire to change his life. His step-father is still contemplating. Every time we come back we see the changes. They’re expecting us, it is clean in the house, they’re all sober.

Evgeniya took her credit cards back from her sister. Maxim is allowed to come to class for the lessons. We brought him clothes, footwear, school supplies, he was happy and his mother too. Irina, who used to live off her sister’s welfare, is looking for a full-time job and is now working part-time nursing some old lady.

We kept praying for Maxim that God would give him a chance to go to some health centre or a boarding school, because he still needs some special care. And God answered: now Maxim is at a boarding-school for three months and he really likes it there. His mother Evgeniya repented and gladly communicates with other Christians.

There’s a place at the town where new converts come for fellowship, prayer and Bible studies. Sergei and Galina’s family opened their home for the meetings. Sergei began to tell people he knew who drink alcohol, about God and that there’s a way out, his desire is to help them and introduce them to Christ. God answers our and their prayers.

Tatiana Ivanovna, one of the new converts has a son, Yura, he is confined to bed for four years, one side of his body is paralyzed. His wife Svetlana nurses him. It was God’s will that we went to see them. Svetlana welcomed us warmly. Yuri at first was very upset and said he didn’t believe in God. That didn’t stop us. We began to share about Jesus and a gift of salvation. The whole family repented and they invited us to come back.

Changes come to other homes too.

Team of the Light of Revival Church, Barnaul

Denis and his mother
Denis and his mother

Follow us on Facebook