Report from the Ukhta Church of Christ for July - October 2004

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the University Church of Christ!

I would like to express my deepest thankfulness to you for your spiritual and monetary support of our work in the Ukhta Church of Christ! I am happy to tell you about the trip my wife and I made recently to Russia. I think it was one of the most fruitful periods in the life of our congregation.We were working on the following projects:

1. SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASING THE NUMBER OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION:

Our congregation has grown by fourteen people. Twelve people were baptized and two new Christians placed the membership in the church. Those two new members are Andrei Voronin and Valeria, who is the niece of Nina Mynzul. Both Andrei and Valeria are students who have come to Ukhta to attend the University. Andrei is from Pechora; Valeria is from Murmansk.

Among twelve people who were baptized, five people are from the family of Chuxsin - three generations: a grandfather and grandmother, children, and a grandson. They all were baptized in one day! It's the first time in the history of our congregation that such a thing occurred. I met this family during my last trip to Russia in March-April. Their grandfather, Ivan Timofeevich, and grandmother, Tatyana Kondratevna were my patients. At first, the elderly people, and later their son, daughter-in-law, and a grandson, started to listen and accept the Good News about Christ and His church. This is a good example of combining evangelical work and medical practice, which I provide for the people of Ukhta.

2. COMPLETING THE 1,100-MILE TRIP WITH CHILDREN AROUND SOUTHERN REGION OF THE KOMI REPUBLIC:

By planning this trip, my wife and I wanted to complete the work that was started a year ago to evangelize the large family of Andreev in Syktyvkar. One year ago they listened to me very attentively when I was teaching them about Christ. But they refused to attend the Church of Christ in Syktyvkar. Later, they fell under the influence of Jehovah's Witnesses. We were planning to bring some of the people from this big family back to Ukhta with us.

Knowing that our van sits 11 passengers, we decided to take 6 children with us. Each child needed a suitcase of warm clothes and two blankets. We live in the North! These children attend all the Bible classes. However, none of their parents are members of the Church of Christ. One of the results of this trip was the fact that the parents of these children showed interest towards the church. Now, the parents do not reject, but instead listen to their children pray before every meal and before going to bed.

After we left Ukhta we headed south 1,100 miles. We stopped to rest or to spend the night in the villages of: Misu, Sindor, Ikino, Zheshart, Mezhog, Ustvym, Ybb, and in the city of Syktyvkar. Everywhere we talked about God and gave out New Testaments, which had the contact information about the Church of Christ. Harold Rutherford printed these New Testaments in the early 1990's in Syktyvkar. By the way, we are almost out of New Testaments now. We need to think about re-printing New Testaments for the future distribution.

During this trip the children gave out 192 New Testaments. In every case the children, my wife, and I talked about Jesus and His church. This was a memorable trip! I have to tell you that none of these children ever before had made any kind of trip outside of their city. The children were 8 through 13 years old. Everything was new to them: spending the night at someone's home or in the hotel. They even got to sleep on a Russian oven in a traditional Komi wooden house. The children got to eat out at a restaurant and also got to cook their own meals. They helped the people we stayed with by taking care of the farm animals and preparing wood for the winter. The children even got to try their hand at milking cows. And they were able to make friends with a grumpy guard dog named Rex.

The only negative experience we had during this trip was when we were attacked by three people. They wanted to take our money. While the frightened children were praying inside the van, I was able to reconcile with those people. Everything ended well.

On the way back from Syktyvkar, we brought back to Ukhta 4 of the Andreev family: Julia, 25 years old, Nadya, 16 years old, Vika, 9 years old, and Nastya, 7 years old. Therefore, there were 12 people going back to Ukhta.

Just as we hoped, Julia and Nadya were baptized in Ukhta. All four girls stayed at our house for several days. Later we bought them bus tickets back to Syktyvkar.

There are still four more adults in the Andreev family that we need to pray for and work with. Next summer, if it is God's will, we will make another trip, this time going to the northern regions of the Komi Republic or the Kirov region.

3. VISITING THE SICK AND ELDERLY PEOPLE AND TRANSPORTING THEM:

On multiple occasions, we visited the sick and elderly in Ukhta, Syktyvkar, Yarega, Sindor, Misu, and Sosnogorsk. Those who were able, we transported to church in the van for bible classes and worship services. When I am not there, they still bring them to church, only they use a taxi instead.

4. PROVIDING FREE TREATMENTS AND FREE MEDICINE:

This project produces the biggest number of people who are baptized.

5. VISITING THE CHILDREN'S SHELTER:

This is a very old and successful project. It was started by a missionary named David Bass in 1993. Unfortunately, when I was gone, the brothers decided not to bring the children to church anymore. Instead, they just visit them weekly. This hurts me very much, but I decided not to press the matter.

6. VISITING THE PRISONS:

We were able to visit the prison only once due to technical problems. Unfortunately, no one but Muza and I wanted to participate in this work. At least it is good that the members haven't stopped writing to the prisoners and sending them packages.

7. BEGINNING EVANGELICAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN THE LYCEUM:

Through a woman named Natalya Ukhtomova, who is the mother of one of the classmates of our daughter Inna, we were able to speak twice to an audience of about 90 people and give each a book called "Bible Built Homes - Principles of Building Christian Families" by Bobby Dockery. This book was translated by my daughters, Inna and Tonya.

Please pray that this project will not be banned by the authorities and that Natalya will not be punished by the government. Also pray that the seeds of Christianity that were planted in this public institution that contains several hundreds of students, will start growing.

8. TEACHING OF THE YOUNG PREACHER:

There is an urgent necessity to teach our young preacher. I already mentioned the situation with children's shelter. By his "initiative" the brothers almost took down the "Church of Christ" sign from the building. It took Harold Rutherford and me so long and was very hard to get permission to have it placed there in the first place. Harold was so happy and proud.

9. WORKING IN THE GARDENS, DACHAS, AND WATER SPRING:

The church van has moved about 15 tons of harvest from the gardens and dachas of our Christians. This is a lot of produce to prepare for the long, cold, and hungry winter! Unfortunately, this year no mushrooms grew. So, we haven't been able to make a single traditional trip to the forest to gather mushrooms.

Weekly, after the worship on Sunday, we took members to get fresh water from the spring.

10. COMPLETING AN AGREEMENT:

We were able to successfully re-establish a contract with one of our two renters. The second renter's expiration to re-new the contract will come in November. We were able to raise the rent by 16.7 % and still stay friends!

11. FINDING A NEW MAINTENANCE PERSON:

After brother Oleg quit these responsibilities, we had difficulty with the maintenance work. Now we were able to hire Alexandra Kalinnikova who has been doing maintenance wonderfully.

With Love and Thankfulness,
Vladimir and Muza