by Brant Holladay, Editor/European Director

On a recent trip to Russia, Maylou and I enjoyed the company of Ed Hembree (missionary in Romania), and Maylou’s brother, Dan Miles. Our trip took us halfway around the world and thirteen times zones from Chicago O’Hare, our last stop in America.

We traveled to four BIMI missionary families to encourage them and to visit their ministries in Oryol (a six-hour train ride south of Moscow) and in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Our team also helped to distribute BIMI New Testaments on the Russian streets. Because of gifts from people all over the world, BIMI has placed over one million Bibles and New Testaments in former Communist countries since 1991. We are still getting God’s Word out, even providing funds for the printing of a Farsi Bible.

One important observation that we made on this trip is that the children of our missionaries are missionaries also…learning the language, helping in the ministry, and getting involved with the local people.

Below is the testimony of Rebekah Sterling, ten-year-old daughter of David and Dee Dee Sterling, BIMI missionaries in Siberia. Beka speaks Russian fluently. Then on page 6, read the way God has used the enthusiasm and dedication of siblings Alan and April Ossewaarde in Oryol, Russia.

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By Rebekah Sterling

An elderly lady lives in our village and everyone knows her as "Baba Vara." I had the privilege of witnessing to her one day. She lives two houses down from us and invited me to visit her. I had brought a New Testament for her, but she explained to me that she could not read. Baba Vara is from the Tartar region of Russia and there were no schools in her area when she was a young girl. I asked her if she wanted me to tell her some of the Bible stories that I knew by heart, since she could not read. She agreed.

As I was telling the story of Jesus' birth and crucifixion, one friend who was in the other room left and soon another one came. The most wonderful part is when her friend came in from washing her hands, Baba Vara told her to "come, sit, and listen to the story." Her husband was sitting beside me and had been reading the New Testament the entire time I was there visiting. Since he is almost completely deaf, it is hard to communicate with him. Please pray for Baba Vara, her husband, and her friends.

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By Dee Dee Sterling
(Dee Dee, her husband David, and their three children serve the Lord as BIMI missionaries in Siberia)

When our family first moved to the village of Elita, we met the English teacher from the local school. Through her we met the director of the school and many teachers. Even though we home school our children, our daughter Rebekah was invited to attend the bi-weekly craft lessons at the school. Taking our three children to the school twice a week was an excellent opportunity to become better acquainted with the staff and students. Every day the students gathered around our boys to watch them and to speak English to them.

The school holds a day camp during the month of June for children in our village and neighboring villages. We asked the teachers involved for permission to use the school facilities for VBS after their day camp. When they invited us to hold our VBS during the last three days of their day camp, we were excited to see what God would do.

The first day went well with over 40 children in attendance. However, the next morning the director called, because they had received a complaint from several mothers about Bible verses we sent home with the children. We could no longer hold VBS at the school. After Dee met with the director and the most unsatisfied mother (who later apologized for all the trouble), we were surprised to learn that the director agreed completely that we were doing right teaching the children about God and the Bible. The Gospel was presented during that meeting and the director stated her need to make a decision regarding her own soul. Dee was later able to give her a New Testament and Gospel literature.

A few days later, the director of the House of Culture where we meet for weekly services gave us permission to use that building for VBS. We started the very next Tuesday. Dee was even allowed to go into the school cafeteria at lunch time and invite the children to VBS.

As a result of these relationships the Lord has allowed us to establish, we still have new children coming every week to our Sunday school class. Some of them even look forward to Saturdays when we invite other children in the village to Sunday school. They ask to go with us on evangelization. One of these children is Liza, who has faithfully attended Sunday school for the last seven months. She always memorizes her weekly Bible verses and has memorized all of the books of the Bible. After Liza read a New Testament Dee gave her, she asked for a whole Bible so she could read the Old Testament as well. Liza has brought her nephew to Sunday school and actively invites other children. She even "re-teaches" the Bible lessons to her mother, father, older brother and sister, showing them from the Bible what Dee has taught her. We have talked with her about salvation; she says she is still not ready. Please pray for Liza to be saved.

As we take Liza and others out each week, we try to reach new children. We give the children an "invitation" coloring sheet to color and to bring back on Sunday morning when they will be rewarded with a candy. If we are unable to meet their parents, we find out where they live and meet them the following week. Special invitations are given to the parents to encourage them to attend on holidays and other occasions. We recently have had several parents of children who regularly attend Sunday school indicate interest in the services. Please pray for the Lord to continue to bless our children's ministry and use it to bring many families to Christ.

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RON WINKLER…

In 1996, I had the privilege of taking a mission trip to Russia with a pastor friend of mine. We spent ten days assisting another missionary in Moscow with evangelization and enjoyed several opportunities to preach. During that time I saw a people hungry for the Word and even saw many accept Christ during this visit. It was because of this trip that God placed a burden in my heart for the Russian people. My family and I arrived on the field in April, 2003, with the same burden. But we found that the economic growth and prosperity that Russia has experienced had created a new hunger in many Russian people– materialism. Our hearts still have the same burden because the Russian people still have the same need – Jesus Christ.

Often, as we are out on evangelism passing out literature and New Testaments, I find out that many people have never owned a Bible and they are thrilled to receive one free of charge.

A missionary friend and I planned a two-day trip, driving north as far as we could. Along the way, we stopped at the villages and spent some time passing out New Testaments and literature. At night we found a spot by the river and camped out. The next morning we pulled into a small village toward the end of the road. There were many children playing outside at the school. We were the first Americans they had ever seen. They eagerly accepted the New Testaments! What a privilege it was to be able to give them God’s Word. Bible distribution is so important to those who have no Bible.

RACHEL WINKLER…

When I was 12 years old, during our annual mission conference, I told God I would do whatever He wanted me to do with my life – whether it was in missions or some other full-time Christian service. What a privilege it was to be brought up in a pastor’s home. I was saved and baptized at an early age. Serving God was our family’s life. We loved it! Each year I looked forward to our mission conference. Meeting missionaries, seeing slides, looking at the displays, and getting my Bible signed are wonderful memories. Years later when I began dating Ron, I knew that God had burdened his heart for the Russian people. We are thrilled that God would use us to share the Gospel in Russia.

Wow, I sure had a lot to learn once I arrived in Russia! Believe it or not, hearing everyone speaking Russian (which I didn’t understand at all) was not necessarily my biggest shock. I certainly didn’t expect Krasnoyarsk, in the middle of Russia (Siberia - no less), to be so big and modern. The weather surprised me, too. Since Siberia is known for its frigid winters, summer came and I had no idea that Siberia could get so hot.

Then I had not thought ahead to the fact that I would have to cook; all the labels on the cans and food would be in Russian. We ate grilled cheese quite a bit those first few months. I do not have any horror stories to tell of disgusting food I have had to eat. Over all, Russian food is quite tasty. As I look back over our time here, I would have to say that the most sobering shock of all was the spiritual darkness the Russian people live in. Satan has them blinded to the consequences of sin and has them living entirely for the pleasure of sin. God called us here to tell them Jesus loves them. Jesus is the answer – He has always been and always will be.

Because God promises in Isaiah 55:11

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

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By Bonnie Sue Hearron
Missionary Wife in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in Siberia

I have often heard the phrase, "prayer changes the heart of the person," but it wasn’t until I met the "Bulldog" that I truly understood the power behind the words.

Our apartment is located in a newer area of Krasnoyarsk. In our city most apartment courtyards include small playgrounds for children. When the need arises (that is when the kids are bouncing off of the apartment walls and need to expend some energy), I bundle our girls up and we trek one building over to the nearest playground.

As is common at most playgrounds, there are the usual sets of "Ancient Ones. " These are the revered group of "Babushkas (grandmas)" that make their symbolic presence seen and heard on all playgrounds. Ours is blessed with an 80-year-old babushka referred to by the locals as "Baba Tanya." I have privately christened her "The Bulldog."

The Bulldog and I go back a long way. I guess it all began when our first daughter, Elizabeth, was old enough to go to the playground. The Bulldog was there with her continual glares and scoffs and unsolicited instructions on how to properly dress my daughter. As annoying as this was, it got worse. When she found out that I was pregnant with our second daughter, Abigail, I was promptly and sternly given instruction on the need to take birth control pills and to conceal this fact from my husband. Her opinions rule the day. Needless to say, I made sure that I kept a wide berth around her and chose a different direction when I saw her coming.

To be fair, I must admit that the Bulldog does have her strong points. True to the nickname I have given her, she has a keen eye for the safety of the children while they are on the playground. She is like a mother wolf protecting her young when older children try to bully the younger ones.

Then one day I told myself, "This is ridiculous! I am a grown woman running away from a babushka; something has got to change." And then – the arrow struck. Piercing deep and to the point are the well-aimed arrows of the Holy Spirit; and my arrow revealed much to me. I was offended by her and allowed these offenses to cloud my need to pray for this lady. Humbled by this admission, I purposed in my heart to pray for the Bulldog, I mean Baba Tanya.

And so I did. Many weeks later, I noticed that I was beginning to enjoy Baba Tanya. Although her behavior had not changed, how I received it had. I was no longer offended or hurt. In fact, she has become a very close friend of mine that my three daughters and I look forward to meeting on the playground.

The truth is, she is one of those to whom our family has been called to preach the Gospel. More to the point, the Lord has given her to me personally as an opportunity for me to be a witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ. My family and I pray that one day Baba Tanya will come to know the Savior. Maybe then with the help of His love, her well-intentioned words and advice might be delivered with a softer and gentler touch. But until then, she is still my friend and playground buddy.

"Prayer does change the heart of the person." It has mine.

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By Bonnie Sue Hearron
Missionary Wife in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in Siberia

The Adam Young Family is serving the Lord in Samara, Russia, which is a city of 1.3 million people situated in the middle of the Volga region of Russia. In the entire Volga Region there is only one other independent Baptist missionary in this vast land that has just as many people as California (32 million) and is as large as France, England, and Germany combined. Together with its twin city of Tolyatti which is 40 minutes away, the Samara /Tolyatti area makes up the third largest population center in Russia behind only Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

As the center for rocket manufacturing, Samara was completely closed to foreigners during reign of the Soviet Union. Tolyatti is the "Detroit" of Russia with its enormous AvtoBAZ factory, making the lion’s share of all Russian produced passenger cars.

Known as a multi-cultural city, Samara boasts what people say is the largest Mosque in Europe. Many people do not know this but one in seven people who have a Russian citizenship is a Muslim, and Samara has the third largest population of Muslims based on percentages in a major city.

The Youngs have just recently received their residency permits which allow them to stay in Russia for five years at a time. They have already seen people saved, and they desire to build a place to be used to reach the residents of Samara.

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by April Ossewaarde

Missionary life is exciting and fun! One of our mottos is, "Anything can happen... and usually does!" Alan and I and our two older siblings (who are in the States) have all been involved in the ministry with our parents.

Because the public transportation is so handy here in Oryol, we do not own a car. We ride on buses, trains, vans, streetcars, and trolleybuses and walk. This helps us to know our town, meet the people, and get more exercise.

Besides home schooling every day, I have taken piano lessons with a private tutor and Alan has taken accordion lessons at the Oryol Music College. Our sister Cindy learned accordion and guitar when she was here. Alan and I play accordion and piano for our church’s congregational singing and special music in our three weekly services - two in Russian and one in English. The Russians love the accordion and most Russian homes have a piano.

When we first came, our family took Russian lessons every week. Now we speak well enough that we don't take lessons anymore. Often we visit in Russian people's homes for dinner or have them over to our apartment for games and a meal.

Every Saturday Dad prints out 1000 tracts, and we cut and fold them at the dining room table. Our fellow missionary helps us distribute them in town. Sometimes we give out Bibles on the streets, in public squares, and in parks.

For recreation in the winter time, we go cross-country skiing in the woods across the street from our home. We also go ice-skating and sledding. In the summertime we play tennis, volleyball, and basketball with our youth group at church.

Every Friday night our family has a special time with pizza, popcorn, and games. We also have cookouts and throw the baseball around. Several times a year, Dad has to go to Moscow for some business so we go along. The train ride is always an adventure! Moscow is an amazing place to visit. We love to ride the subway, see Red Square, and the Kremlin.

As missionary kids living in Europe, we have visited other countries including Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, England, France, Germany and Holland. We have met other missionaries, attended summer youth camps and youth conferences, and made lots of new friends.

Alan and I will be leaving for Bible College soon and are looking forward to our new life in America, but we wouldn't trade our life on the mission field for anything! As we have helped our parents start a church in the heart of Russia, we have seen people saved and baptized, and have watched them grow in the Lord. The greatest thing in the world is to be right in the middle of God's will for your life.



Why Oryol? And Who is the Guy With the Beard?

By Don Ossewaarde,

Like most people in the world, I had never heard of Oryol, Russia, before I became a missionary. Oryol is not very big compared to most Russian cities, so how did we end up here?

When God called us to the mission field, I knew He wanted us to go to Russia. We spent the first few years in Kiev, Ukraine, where I studied the Russian language in the university and worked with another missionary. Daily, we prayed about where in Russia God would have us serve.

Often I would spread our large map of Russia, the largest country in the world, out over the kitchen table to pray over it. I looked at the vast expanses of Siberia and wondered if we should work with the missionaries there. This eastern part of Russia covers 80% of the territory, but it has only about 20% of Russia's people.

Almost 80% of Russians live in the western part of the country, known as "European Russia." I prayerfully considered that this should be our place of service, but where exactly? The Lord did not give us peace about working in the two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Our map showed a great concentration of large and medium-sized cities (where most Russians live) in European Russia, south of Moscow all the way down to the Ukrainian border. The cost of living is lower, there is less crime, and the environment is cleaner. This is Russia's heartland. I felt that God was leading us somewhere in this general area. As I looked at the map, I imagined that I could see, as Robert Moffat once saw, "the smoke rising from a thousand villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in this world." We continued to pray.

Meanwhile, I spent six hours a day, five days a week, at the university, studying the glories of the Russian language. Even as a good student, learning the Russian language was the most difficult assignment of my life. Learning a new alphabet with 33 letters and a whole new vocabulary was not too hard. The tricky part was the grammar – memorizing an elaborate set of grammatical rules and word endings. Putting together a simple sentence is like solving an algebraic problem! I often wondered if I would ever be able to speak Russian.

Fortunately, the Kiev State Linguistics University has a very good program to teach Russian to foreigners who know nothing about it. Besides courses in phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar, my classes also included Russian history, geography, and literature. These helped me with vocabulary as well as the culture, too.

Russian literature didn’t interest me at first. As we began to study the flowery poetry of Pushkin, the massive novels of Tolstoy (WAR AND PEACE - 1424 pages), and the gloomy philosophical works of Dostoevsky, I was not very impressed. I did enjoy Chekhov’s short stories, but literature class was not my favorite. Then, one day, our teacher introduced us to Ivan Turgenev (he’s the guy with the beard).

I thought, "Oh, great, another strange Russian author..." As the teacher gave the author’s biography, she stated that Turgenev was born in Oryol. When she pointed at the map of Russia, it startled me to see that Oryol was right in the center of the area south of Moscow to which I had felt God leading us! It seemed to me that the teacher's finger was a spotlight beam pointing at ORYOL, RUSSIA. As we studied Turgenev, I could not get my attention away from the map, and that city, Oryol.

After that, Oryol jumped off the page at me whenever I looked at a map in geography or history class. When I prayed over our map at home, Oryol always caught my attention. But I didn't know anything about Oryol except that "Oryol" means "eagle," and an author who died in 1883 had lived there. It might be a Stone Age village for all I knew. I determined to visit the city soon.

During my university break, my son and I spent a week in Oryol; we found it to be a lovely city with green parks and gentle hills between two rivers. It even has its own symphony orchestra! During that first visit, God allowed us to meet a man who eventually helped us to get our papers to live and serve in Russia.

We are very happy serving here in Oryol, the city of Turgenev. The population is about 330,000, but the city looks and feels like a smaller town because the people live close together in apartment buildings. It is only 250 miles south of Moscow, so a visit to "the big city" is easy for us. Oryol is big enough to have all we need, but small enough that people know that we are here.

Presently, we are the only Americans living in Oryol. Until recently, we were the only missionaries within hundreds of miles of here. Now there is a good missionary family in Mtsensk, about 30 miles away. We pray that God will send more laborers to this region, in the heart of the former "Evil Empire."


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By Ed Hembree (Ed, Assistant European Director, and his wife Carole are veteran BIMI missionaries in Romania)

When I received an invitation from the Holladays to join them for a mission trip to Russia, I was thrilled to accept. As I prepared for the trip (obtaining the visa from the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, etc.), I reviewed my memories as a youth during the "cold war" days. I thought of the distrust, mutual hostility, and even threat of nuclear annihilation that was so much a part of my history with the Soviet Union. I remember as a young boy being terrified at the prospect of all-out war with Russia.

Now I would be going there on a mission trip to visit American missionaries who are planting churches, evangelizing the lost, and discipling the converts. What an opportunity! I really didn’t know what to expect. My experience in other East European countries had given me an idea of what to expect; however, I knew that even sixteen years in Romania would not really prepare me for the reality of Russia.

When my plane landed in Moscow on March 28th, it was almost surreal. I couldn’t believe that I was actually there! Missionary Don Ossewaarde met me at the airport and was so very gracious through our time with him and his dear family. While waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, Don took me into the center of Moscow to Red Square, St. Basils and the Kremlin. I stood on the very spot I used to watch on TV as the missile launchers and columns of goose-stepping Soviet soldiers passed in review before Soviet leaders.

And I saw PEOPLE. Thousands and thousands of PEOPLE. Over 8 million people in Moscow alone. As we traveled on bus then train then subway, I watched the masses of Muscovites coming and going. I saw in their faces what I have seen in so many other places: worry, sadness, tiredness, but so little happiness. As we ended our first excursion, I was already moved. My eye had affected my heart.

When the rest of our group arrived, we traveled by train to Oryol, about six hours south of Moscow. It was refreshing to be with the Ossewaarde family and the people in their church. Their smiles and happiness reminded me of what a difference knowing the Lord makes! After spending the weekend with the Ossewaarde family, we toured Moscow the next day and caught our flight for the next stage of our journey – Siberia!

Now, if I thought I would never visit Moscow, then you can imagine my thoughts about actually going to Siberia. The very name "Siberia" conjures up images of gulags, work camps, Dr. Zhivago and COLD!

Thankfully, we have our BIMI missionary families Sterling, Winkler and Hearron in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, who met us and cared for us. All their ministries are quite small, with two just getting started. It seems a particularly difficult place but if God called missionaries there, then there must be those who will respond to the Gospel.

As we listened to the missionaries tell of their work and challenges, it again occurred to me how blessed I am to BE a missionary. There are few other jobs where you can daily see the Lord show Himself strong on your behalf. In my opinion, for success on the mission field, one must know the specific call of God, determine to do God’s will no matter what, and then realize that through faith, hard work and prayer, no place is fruitless.

We enjoyed seeing the city of Krasnoyarsk (almost a million people), the surrounding villages (surprisingly even poorer than those in Romania), and the beautiful birch forests of the region. It was a blessing to visit with each family, see their children, and listen to their burden for the Russian people. I came away with a profound burden to be more faithful in prayer for those in difficult places.

As my plane took off from Moscow, my mind was almost overwhelmed with what I had experienced. Russia is such a vast country with a multitude of people, the vast majority of whom have never read a Bible, much less heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached. I thought of the unbelievable miracle of the door that is now open, and our little number of faithful missionaries doing their best for their Savior. And then I thought – Who will love these Russian people enough to give their lives so that they might be saved? Perhaps you?

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By Maylou Holladay

Brant and I have been on many mission trips, but one of the most exciting ones for me was this trip to Oryol, Russia, and on to Siberia, because my "big brother" Dan was able to accompany us for his first trip to a mission field. His life had been very busy as a businessman in Christian publishing and as president of Standard Publishing and Berean Christian Bookstores, and yet he had not been able to visit a mission field. God so graciously answered my prayer and we took Dan for his first mission trip with us half-way around the world to pass out Bibles!



By Dan Miles

Leaving Chicago on my first foreign mission trip…

I had feelings of excitement, anxiousness, and adventure as we headed for Siberia. The first stop was London, where we spent the night to adjust a bit to the time changes.

Then it was from London to Moscow and an overnight train ride south 250 miles to Oryol. This was not the Zephyr Limited, but we arrived safely at 4:30 AM (8 time zones from home), a bit sleepy but none the worse for wear.

My first "missionary" experience was handing out Bibles at a bus stop. At first I was a bit apprehensive, with thoughts of police harassment or even arrest, but Russia was surprisingly "free" of intimidation. The people were open to receiving the Bibles and we went through two big cases in a relatively short time.

The train trip back to Moscow was uneventful, and then it was on to an Aeroflot plane for the over-night trip to Siberia (thirteen time zones from our last stop in America – Chicago).

My expectations were all wrong about Siberia. I thought of snow banks, below zero temperatures and a generally hostile climate. In fact, I never put on my "long-johns" and left my parka in the relatively modern hotel room. The city, Krasnoyarsk, turned out to be a Boom-Town where real estate speculators are becoming millionaires every day. Our missionaries have the challenge of not only competing with the State Church, but also the temptations of a booming secular society that has no time for God. My impression is that the most favorable time to reach this part of Russia will never be greater or harder than it is today. God has given this mission team one of the greatest opportunities in the history of missions work.

We visited several back-country villages in Siberia. The village scene was right out of "Fiddler on the Roof," like stepping back in time. I could almost see Tevye walking down the muddy village street. Here we were able to participate in a church service in a house. Attending were adults as well as a number of teenagers. Again some great opportunities to reach hungry hearts.

We were also able to touch base with missionaries from Romania and from western Russia who respectively work with orphans and Muslim men whose lives are being impacted with the Word of God.

Returning home, crossing thirteen time zones, was exhausting, but the memories I have of how God is now working in the former Soviet Union gives me the desire to pray more diligently for the men and women on the front line of this exciting mission work.

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By Doug Cook
BIMI missionary, with his wife and daughters, to Slovakia

Pastor Darko Kralijik of the Hurbanovo Baptist Church invited me to preach for their evangelization meetings. I had been prayerfully asking God for direction for my messages. The first night, I realized most of the people were church members. But one man stood out in the crowd. I knew him from somewhere, but just could not put my finger on a name.

Even though many attending were believers, I had peace I should stay with my original theme: "Salvation by grace, through faith." It wasn’t until the next week that I remembered where I had seen that man before. He was the local Lutheran priest. Not only did he receive a clear salvation message, but little did I know that the Catholic priest was also present that evening. Praise the Lord for the direction of the Holy Spirit!

On the last evening of the meetings, the moment we walked in the door we knew Satan was fighting hard. Music that was planned did not come. The translator withdrew. All remaining on the "planned" schedule was me. However, God had already provided another translator. I must admit the first minutes of that message were terribly strained, but as I continued to preach Jesus, the Holy Spirit began to work.

At the close of the service, at least ten people made a decision for Christ. An older woman grabbed my hand and said, "Last night I was so sad, but tonight I have joy in my heart." That night the Lord reminded this missionary that especially when my plans fall through, God makes a way.

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Compiled by Maylou Holladay

CZECH REPUBLIC - Samuel Barth Family. This week in Usti, I visited some middle schools to see if I could hold an after-school English club. Everyone received my offer with enthusiasm, inviting me to conduct the club during school hours. I told them I was a pastor and would like to talk about the Bible. That is fine!

ENGLAND - Reta Burns. We have been blessed with people coming to our Coffee Mornings outreach. One lady who stopped by is coming to church.

John Jones Family. Every Friday afternoon I meet with our men for prayer. Mary Anne is meeting with the women on Wednesdays. Already we have seen God work. Andrew, who had received a copy of our church paper "Crossroads" seven months ago, has recently been attending our church.

Marcia Kittleson. At our Saturday Afternoon Tea, we recently had 50 people come. We have opportunities to get to know the people and answer questions as they read the tracts on the tables.

Jack Moorman Family. The Muslim influence in London is very strong. A converted Muslim man from Lebanon told me that our approach in getting tens of thousands of JOHN ONE AND THREE tracts into the Asian areas of East London is one of the best ways of getting the Gospel to them. (Pray for the thousands of tracts Jack and Dot have given out in London.)

Glenn Palmer Family. Our Sunday school and church services have been increasing. Our outreach has brought in ten young people. The church has expanded with a family of five now attending.

Glenn Pizor Family. Glenn has been asked by Paul Olise, the head of the evangelism department of Birmingham City Mission, to join in an outreach of open air preaching in the city center, with permission from the city. Please pray that many souls will be saved.

Mickey Schrimshire Family. In our area of Staffordshire, we are ready to start a Bible Institute, we are crying out for a fulltime missionary to the deaf, and we have a young man God has called to start a new church in a growing town for which we have been praying.

FRANCE - Carey Abbett Family. We offered coffee to a man who was working on our house. He asked what the difference was between a pastor and a priest. More than an hour later, he told me he was almost persuaded. Please pray that he will be saved.

Danny Flowers Family. We are rejoicing that Janice led Nadine to Christ. And after almost two years of witnessing to Sergio, my 20-year-old teammate, he became the first soul saved from my basketball team!

Bob Huffman Family. Five of our young ladies followed the Lord in baptism on Easter Sunday. It was encouraging to hear how AWANA Clubs played a big part in bringing two of them to Christ.

GERMANY - Dan Dubbe Family. Many of our men are being involved in the service of our church, leading our Sunday services. We believe the church is ready to recognize some of the men as official leaders, which is important so the church can become an independent and self-governing assembly.

Walter Hornung Family. Because of our training program, we now have four men able to lead the song services, three of them are developing into good preachers.

Rodney Kidd Family. Our "mother and daughter" churches hosted two youth meetings and four people came to know the Lord. That includes a mother and her daughter who are the first ones to come to Christ from our new church.

HUNGARY - Marc Patton Family. Szandra, a junior in high school, was saved several years ago but her grandmother would not allow her to be baptized. Recently her grandmother had a change of heart and even attended the baptismal service.

LATVIA - Jonathan Thompson Family. One of the young men of our church brought his family with him. After my message on the shield of faith from Ephesians, this young man’s mother responded to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

NORTHERN IRELAND - Ed Bissett Family. We have been asked to work with a small group of believers at Clady Water Baptist Church. In the first month, we have had a new family join, started a children’s club, and a visitation program.

POLAND - Darrell Johnson Family. Irena’s daughter (24 years old) has been asking many questions about sin and salvation for a few months. It was wonderful to see her accept Christ. Pray for her father who is an atheist.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - Dan Canavan Family. The Lord answered prayer in Katrina’s baptism. Her family had argued that she was becoming a fanatic and stirred up fears in her 11-year-old son Callan. After I showed Katrina that baptism is the first step of obedience, she decided to follow the Lord in baptism.

Stephen Finley Family. At our Creation Conference, we had eight visitors. Two new families have visited our services, both professing Christians. We have had 32 visitors altogether since we started in June.

Justin Hayes Family. NEW BIMI MISSIONARIES ON THE FIELD. Please pray for Justin and Grace as they begin their ministry in Ireland. Justin has already been able to win a teenage girl to the Lord shortly after arriving in Ireland.

Don Thatcher Family. We have been ministering in Ireland for three and one-half years. God has blessed our church and we have been able to start a missions fund to be able to support a missionary.

Bob Zemeski Family. Oxana from Moldova wrote me a letter requesting a Bible study. She had received literature we put through her door over a year ago. We invited her over for dinner and that afternoon she trusted our Lord as Saviour.

ROMANIA - Tom Gentry Family. Praise the Lord our cabins are up and covered for camp. This year will be our sixteenth year of camp. BIMI’S CLAIM ministry team with some of our guys was able to get all four cabins done in ten days!

Ed Hembree Family. Although no one was saved at our evangelistic meetings, the following Wednesday evening the husband of one of our women accepted Christ after the service. Then the very next Sunday evening, a 22-year-old man was saved before the service.

Keith Herndon Family. The Bible Institute has gone well. We are still averaging 20-25 students.

Brian Nibbe Family. I led a 42-year-old man to the Lord on his 42nd birthday! We are averaging around 20 to 25 people out for soul-winning every week. Our attendance in church is between 85 and 90 each week.

Tim Tyler Family. The ministry here in Romania continues to grow. In the last week, there were five saved! Deb and I were able to lead the mother of one of our Junior Church kids to the Lord in her home.

RUSSIA - Duane Hearron Family. My father was visiting us. As he stood at a bus stop, Ivan Shadrin and his friend overheard my father speaking English. The two men approached my father, who promptly invited them to church. After attending for three weeks, Ivan was "ready to confess Christ as his own Lord and Savior."

Don Ossewaarde Family. The greatest blessing of the year was the salvation of Alex. After he was baptized, his wife Pollina also trusted Christ, and she was baptized later. Another praise - we all have our 5-year Russian residency permits.

David Sterling Family. We have finally received our residency permits, a great milestone for our work here in Russia. On the day of the coldest weather our area had seen for two years, we were excited to see over a dozen young people brave the 35 degrees below zero to attend our services.

Ron Winkler Family. A lady contacted us and asked if we would study English with her. I asked if she would be interested in studying the Bible, too. She is very interested and listens attentively. Please pray for Katrina.

Adam Young Family. Inna is our first Russian to go soul-winning with us in Samara. We witnessed to a nineteen-year-old named Stac. When I called him later, Stac told me that he had accepted Christ. This encouraged Inna, a novice soul-winner, to see that people do get saved.

SCOTLAND - Doug Cameron Family. God has provided a meeting place for Sunday afternoon and Wednesday evening services in the central town area of Troon. It has plenty of parking, a cooking area and handicap access…for only $8.00 per hour!

Arvin Devers Family. At Cockrane Primary School, we were allowed to tell the children the Easter story and to give them a beautiful booklet with the plan of salvation. A free Bible correspondence course for children was offered and we have had a great response.

Lea Devers. We have distributed hundreds of tracts in the Linwood area. Pray that God will bless our efforts.

Graham Forbes Family. Eight young people went with us to camp in Brecon, Wales. The best news of the week was Craig Macintyre. For three years Craig has fought against coming to the Lord, but at the camp the Holy Spirit called to him and Craig came to Christ.

Dennis Snelson Family. Joan was given a tract by one of the men in our church. When she heard that she was in need of a Savior, she received the Lord.

SLOVAKIA - Doug Cook Family. I preach almost every week and work with two different youth groups each month. One young man is considering full-time service. Two other young men have surrendered and one is in Bible School.

SPAIN - Clayton Livengood Family. We have celebrated our annual faith-promise conference. Also, on February 23, we had a special service for the purpose of constituting Iglesia Bautista "la Luz" ("The Light" Baptist Church).

UKRAINE – Robert Fuller. We had eight couples at the Deaf Couple’s Retreat. The biggest praise was that a deaf man, Zhenya, got saved.

Tony Hess Family. God helped me to preach an entire sermon in Russian without an interpreter. Praise His name.

Matthew Hudson Family. Following a recent Sunday morning message, one man came forward and trusted Christ as Savior. Then later on, another man asked, "Is it too late to get saved?" He thought that since he didn’t come forward in the service, he had missed out completely. He trusted Christ right then.

Daniel Irvin Family. Vasil is a young man who lived a hard life. He got saved back in the summer of 2002. He followed the Lord in baptism. But recently Vasil suffer a brain aneurism and went to be with the Lord. Praise the Lord, he had accepted Christ.

John Magas Family. One evening as I was giving out New Testaments, I noticed a young man praying to a public statue of Mary. Walter told me when he worked in Great Britain a missionary there had witnessed to him. Please pray for Walter and his wife that I can follow-up with them.

John Spillman Family. We had the privilege of ordaining Vadim Krishtalevich. The church has voted to call him as pastor after his ordination.

Bob Van Sant Family. At our 12th annual International Ladies’ Day Banquet, we had 84 ladies present. Church attendance has been good with 50 in deaf church and 70 in hearing church. Recently, we had 13 people come to pass out tracts. Two young children and their grandmother passed out 250 tracts in one hour.

WALES – Robb Redlin Family. One of our ladies asked us to visit her friend Louise who had questions about "spiritual things." Louise was a bit nervous, having an American pastor come. I don’t remember anyone who was so ready to receive Christ. She said that it "just makes sense" and she accepted Christ.

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Scot C & Katie Daku -  AMERICAN SAMOA
Paul J & Wendy Daku Jr -  FIJI ISLANDS
James & Dawn Daley -  INDONESIA