A Church in every village. . .

This is Misha. Misha is an Udmurt man who lives in a small village southwest of Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia Republic. He was one of the people responsible for helping us arrange to show the Jesus film in his village two weeks ago. That was the night about 40 young people showed up and several raised their hands in answer to the question "how many of you prayed to received Jesus into your hearts" during the film.

Misha also has a small church meeting in his house, but now has a mission field of young people in his back yard wanting to know more about Jesus.

Misha's son, who lives in his dad's house with his own family of 4, is an agricultural engineer by training but has not been able to find a job elsewhere so he lives and teaches at the school in this village where all of these young people attend.

Pray for this little church in Misha's house and for this group of young people who prayed. Pray also for this to multiply 2000 times over the Republic of Udmurtia.

Pray also for Valodya Kuznechov as he arranges, trains other teams, and travels around showing the Jesus film in these villages.

Pray for HOPE 4 Udmurtia as we add support to what God is doing here in Udmurtia.

Serving Him together,

Jack Gilliland

Udmurtia VSC

Rock climbers and muscians. . .

Oleg and Yannah, a young couple from Resurrection church said "come and meet our friends". With a cake, some fruit, and our family picture album we were off again. There we were able to meet and visit with other rock climbers and one young musician who assured us "he didn't smoke mushrooms only ate them". As usual, the Lord met with us. Yannah asked, "Mark, tell us how you came to God". The result was a terrific visit, gospel message was shared at least twice, with several accounts of how great God was, His faithfulness and ending in prayer requesting that these young people also come to know the Lord Jesus.

This is how the 'home visits' went. Several times the team was asked the question "can you tell how you came to Christ" and the message went out once more. Pray for the planting and watering to continue in this frozen Republic.

Blessings

Jack & Mark from Moscow

Thank you for bringing the Jesus film. . .

The lady on the far right in the photo, took us by the hand and with a huge smile said "I've been waiting and praying for years for someone to come to our village and bring something like this to tell the story of Jesus".

That same evening many of the young boys and girls who came said they had prayed with film when it asked if they wanted to come to Jesus and ask Him to forgive them and come in to their lives.

We are praising the Lord for the move of God's Spirit in the lives of so many people we visited . Thank you for praying.

Jack & Mark in Udmurtia

Faithfully serving . . .

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the "Old Baptist Church" in Izhevsk. This lady who has been involved in the work of it for several years is one of the faithful who were 'standing in the gap' when it was very difficult to do so.

They are responsible for the starting of the Resurrection church in another part of town. This is what we are praying for to happen all over Udmurtia.

Please pray with us as the fire catches on in this country and spreads to every village and city of the Udmurt Republic.

Great prayers. . .Great God. . . Great things. .

Sorry we've been absent for a few days. .. internet was down at the hotel so this is from a place downtown. All things DO work together for good though. We've found this very nice place for future teams to have internet access.
Blessings to report:
Praying and sharing the Lord and His salvation with families in their homes.
Sasha reports that many of the visits by the October and May teams are producing much results.
Now showing the Jesus film in new villages and seeing good fruit from it as well.
Follow ups are becoming possible and the relationships are building.
We are talking with kids in school today and good reports from it.

We will have more details in a later report, but for now. . . praise the Lord and keep praying.

blessings from 22 below ( celcius ... but still very cold) Izhevsk...
Jack and Mark

It's beautiful. . . .

For those of you who have prayed for the little church at Chur and wondering how are they getting along with their new kitchen, and meeting place for young people at their church building ... it"s very beautiful...just like the people. It"s not finished yet of course, but it's getting closer. The kitchen has cabinets and fixtures. Plumbing was being worked on last night and expansion and finishing in the big room where the kids will meet was being worked on too. Pray for Oleg, who does most of the work himself. He is a very quiet young man, but does very good work. And for you veterans of the trips.... the toilet has doors now... Sorry I didn't have time to get pictures on this note, but will next time.
Not only did they have 35 kids show up at their Christmas party, but now the church folks are visiting with them and being allowed to minister to some needy families. Pray for the gospel to be heard by these. . . and more.
All of the brother's and sisters at Chur church say thanks for praying and also God bless you. To the Myron Baptist church a special thanks for helping this little church with this project.

Serving Him together,
Jack & Mark in Udmurtia

'Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. .. ". . .

That's what one blind man cried out as he embarassed the crowd with his loudness. That didn't bother Jesus. He answered that man's prayer. I realize you saw this photo on yesterday's blog but, please prayfor this young Udmurt man who came to see the Jesus film and we prayed with him after to be delivered from his alcohol problem. Pray for the thousands of others like him.

blessings,

Jack & Mark, Udmurtia

'To the uttermost parts. . . "

The showing of the Jesus Film last night in a little Udmurt village south of Izhevsk was blessed. The man holding the Udmurt song book was singing because he had just prayed.

That was a blessing to see the Lord working on his heart. Please pray for him as well. He battles the alcohol problem as so many men do.

Just how far will the Lord go to reach out to someone's heart? . . . all the way to the cross.

Keep praying as we go out this week to other villages and see God break through some 'icey' hearts.

blessings from the 'freezer'

Jack & Mark