[thrive_headline_focus title=”“Your Life in Christ is a Beacon of Love to a Hurting World.” ” orientation=”left”]
(Matt. 5:14-16)
Every Russian Missions missionary is a living, walking example of good deeds. What our missionaries do is motivated by faith, hope, and love, which are rooted in their relationship with Christ. Here are some excerpts from a recent missionary report that I hope you will find inspirational.
God Equips Us for Whatever He Calls Us to Do
By Veniamin Makarov, Tver Oblast, Andreapolsky District
Every opportunity God gives and every act of service He calls us to perform, He has already provided whatever we need to accomplish the task before us. With this in mind, the Lord blessed us with an opportunity to glorify Him through a 22- member outreach team who came to carry the Gospel to unbelievers. These brothers and sisters came from three churches in the city of Tver, our church from the Andreapolsky District and two brothers from Moldova.
Our day started with prayers, then breakfast, evangelizing in the streets, brown bag lunch in the park, continued outreach, returning to our apartment at dusk, partaking of a simple dinner, and my favorite part – an extraordinary spiritual uplift- sharing our experiences after meeting the people of the village.
The New Testament was given to each household. It was a gift celebrating the 140th anniversary of the Russian language translation of the Bible. Many people tried to give us money for it; over and over again we explained it was a gift and not for sale. Some were surprised as everything in the Orthodox Church required money. Most villagers were open and perceived our presence as positive.
However, our team came upon one house which was enclosed in a strange way: around the house were animal skulls dangling on stakes. While we were knocking at the door, a woman came out and shouted, “Go Way! We have nothing to talk to you about!” Her actions seemed threatening. Out of harm’s way, we joined together to bless all the people who live in that hostile house and prayed for their redemption. Our conclusion was that in this house lived people associated with the occult and demonic forces. Please pray for their deliverance.
In spite of the fact that our team was made from faithful believers with different home churches, the glory of the Lord worked through each person. We praise and thank God for each member of the team that they keep preaching the Gospel with boldness.