Hi there!

You must be wondering what on earth is happening. I'm sending out so many letters... Well, I'm wondering myself!

Whenever Carol Singleton is in Moscow, and not ministering elsewhere, we have prayer at her house on Wednesday evenings.
One of the things we were praying about last night is my finances.
The easiest way of reaching young people in Russia, is to study at the University.
If I enroll at MGU - I will need to have my support base doubled.
But again I realized that the money is just one small part of getting me to MGU.


We need prayer!
And lots of it!

You received the e-mail about the persecution. And it is great to know that as you look back in church history, the church has only bloomed when it was persecuted.
The fact however still remains.
WE NEED PRAYER!!!
We need our "partners in the Gospel" (Philippians1) to stand in the GAP for us.
You know the story of the unjust judge.
The old lady wanted justice for her case, and she went to the unjust judge who couldn't care a hoot about her or her case. She was nagging him so much that he eventually gave in and helped her. Now if the unjust judge gave justice... How much more will the Lord help us if we ask Him.

So, the principle behind it all is this!
We need you, to ask the Lord, and not just to ask once but to keep on asking Him.

And what is it that you need to ask Him?
Where shall we begin?

Like I said in my previous newsletter.
It is only through prayer that this "hard ground" of the past will be broken up.
It is only the Lord’s Spirit that can call people to Him.
It is only Jesus that can save people.
We need to ask Him to do it and show us how we can be His hands and feet here in Moscow.

Pray for open doors.
We need to make contact with the right people.
Like at the MGU. I can't preach the gospel there if I'm not allowed on the campus.
I can't tell people about what Jesus has done for them if I can speak to people.

Pray for the necessary finances.
Not only is Moscow an expensive city to live in, but there are also "ministry" expenses.

Please pray for our health!
Quite a number of the Mission Russia team has been ill in the last couple of months. Louise has just come out of the hospital with Nephrites... Who knows how you spell that? Some sort of infection in her kidneys.

We need protection!
And it is only the Lord that can keep us safe. He alone can keep our health what it should be, only He can protect our documents from being stolen!
Often the girls have to travel on the metros alone. Only Jesus can be there always!
Please pray for our protection!

Pray that the Lord will have mercy on the nation!
Pray that He will show them His favour!
Pray that He will turn their lives around!
Pray that He will give them a hope and a future!

That is but to mention a few prayer points.
When you've prayed through all of these... Pray some more, and ask the Lord to show you what He wants you to pray for.

You can also praise the Lord for all the great things He has done for us here!
He has called us to this great nation!
He has opened a way for us to be here!

There are so many little things where He just shows how Awesome He is. And I must confess that I am not always faithful in telling you about the blessings.
Like the camp with the students that I went on.
I heard about it and thought I would like to go. But when it can time for them to buy the train tickets, I still didn't have enough money.
We needed to leave the Saturday, and I got the money for the camp that Friday about lunchtime.
My passport was still in for registration, and there was no way I would be able to go with out it.
Eventually we went the Saturday morning before we left (at 11am) and bought my ticket with a photo copy of my passport.
It is only by the Grace of God that the police didn't stop me and make problems about not having my passport.
At the ticket office we found that... all the 3rd class tickets were sold out, so I had to get 2nd class.
As it turned out, I got a coupè of my own, and the rest of the guys that went on the camp could join me there.
I will soon have the camp pictures on the web.
Will let you know when.

But, the moral of the story is this... Praise the Lord!


Enough from me.
May the Lord bless you and keep you safe in His hands.

Al

Hi there.

Well, as you can see... I made it back to Moscow after some time with passports and embassies.
Although my time with the guys in Switzerland was quite stressful, I did enjoy it!
My ticket to fly back to Moscow was on Monday the 27th of June, but the Friday before that I did not know if I would be able to get my visa.
It was an amazing blessing seeing Switzerland (and a totally differentculture!)

As for Moscow...

I'm back in the swing of things here, after a much needed rest!

We got in contact with some "African" students in the north of Moscow.
SFC (Students for Christ) is a group of Christian students meeting for prayer and fellowship.

These guys are on fire for the Lord and I really enjoyed attending their meeting on Saturday night.

They are not connected with the university - I want to get into that, MGU, but I believe that I should link with them to start a work there.

The way they work is to start small groups in the hostels, and then just multiply!
Their main aim is to get the Gospel (and the message of Gods kingdom) to the students in Russia and not to build their own "kingdom". So, I do believe that this will work well - with the church plant that we are busy with in the south-west of Moscow.
I have already spoken to the leaders, and am very encouraged and exited about their vision and focus!

They hosted a camp this week that had just past.
It was on the "Finnish Gulf" halfway between St Petersburg and the Border to Finland. This was a great time of making new friends and fellowship.

Before I returned to Moscow, I had a clear sense that I should start with a small "prayer" group at the university.
When I got here... I found no door open door for that. I had no contact with the students in MGU - and the contacts we have with people working there - approached the university differently.
But this just confirms that I should start the work in the university in this “different” manner.

The problem now is this... I'm not on the campus!
I need to be in the hostels!
The only way I can see to get in... is to study there, and so have much more exposure with the students.

To study there I have two options:
1. Pay about $6000 (+- R40 000) a year.
2. To get a scholarship of some sort.
Please pray with me about this.
That I'll either get the money or that I'll be able to get a scholarship...
If you have any contacts or info on scholarships, please let me know.

Let me try to give you a clear picture of what is happening here, in Moscow, with the students of MGU.

There is the "Campus Crusade for Christ" who are doing a great work here, but from about 40 000 students at the university their meetings normally have 30 - 40 students attending.
And these are not all saved. That is less that 1 in 1 000 students.

I have spoken to a Christian lecturer from the USA who teaches on culture and stuff. He is not allowed to even mention Christianity in his lectures.
He often invites students to his flat to show them culture related movies, and then after wards hopes he gets the chance to share his beliefs with them.
He said he knows about 12 students that are Christian and in all his time here he has never been able to get them to meet to have a prayer meeting or anything in that line.

And that is about it!
Compare this to our universities back home who has organizations like His People, New Covenant, CRC, etc who has big Churches there.

A while ago I gave some statistics in one of my newsletters... These Stats were completely wrong.
I don't think Christianity has even 1% in Moscow... Not even to talk about the university.

We need prayer.
While I was in Switzerland the Lord just made it clear to me that it will only be through prayer that we will have any break through at the MGU.
It is like a field that has been standing for some time... You need to break open the ground before you can sow any seed.
Any one in Oudtshoorn will tell you that a camp that had ostriches in is absolutely useless! What happens is the ostriches stamp the ground so packed that you can't do anything with it.
The same thing has been happening in the former USSR.
For so many years the people has been taught that there is no God and that religion is for socially impaired and immature people...
What we need to do is pray! Pray that the Lord will break open this "hard ground".
It is only through His spirit that anything like this can happen! The Bible says that the spirit of God searches all thing even the deep parts of God, it also says that we don't know the deep parts ourselves... only our spirit knows. (1Cor2:10-11)
It is only His spirit that can reveal the Truth of Jesus and His Saving Grace to the people!

Please Pray!

As always... Al