Two years ago in 2014, a pastor from Saint-Petersburg attended a Life Principles Course that was held in the city of Great Novgorod. He was so personally impacted by what he learned in the course that he invited IBLP to his church in Saint-Petersburg. There, IBLP presented the course to other local pastors, deacons, youth workers, and Sunday school teachers. Nearly sixty people attended the sessions.
The people, in turn, enjoyed the Life Principles Course so much that they requested the Foundations of Marriage Course last April, and then the Financial Freedom Course last September, 2015. Due to the basic Biblical information in these courses, and the people’s hunger for the solid teaching from God’s Word, the senior pastor and the church board decided to introduce all three courses, which are available in Russian, to their entire congregation. More than 1,200 church members will now have the opportunity to attend these courses in small groups over the next four years!
It was twenty-five years ago when God opened the doors for IBLP to minister in Russia. The first city was Saint-Petersburg; after that initial ministry opportunity, the base for serving the Russian people was established in Moscow. IBLP staff have sought to serve however the Lord enabled them and through whatever venues He opened to them. Now, a quarter of a century later, a large church is utilizing these courses to help their congregation grow spiritually. Praise God for lives changed through the ministry of His Word!
February 12–14, 2016 approximately seventy people attended a youth conference at Kirov Oblast (or province.) The folks came from five different towns, driving one to three hours in order to participate in the conference. The main topics of the conference included Wisdom, the Word of Truth, and The Fear of the Lord. Even though it was a “youth” conference, both young and old attended and expressed their deep gratefulness to the Lord for revealing amazing insights in His Word.
In other reports from ministries in Russia, there came this encouraging report. A pastor had been very much occupied the last several months with developing a strategy for effective church growth. Then he heard about God’s plan for church multiplication through the Bible-directed practice of fearing the Lord inside the already existing church congregation (Acts 5:11-14; 9:31). In excitement he exclaimed, “How wrong we were in trying to use human efforts to accomplish God’s goals! Just fear the Lord, and He will take care of the rest – how simple!” Now he and his congregation are eager to implement the truth that they learned. There is another conference scheduled for their church in April, 2016.
Praise God for His advancing Kingdom work in the country of Russia. Please continue to pray for His Spirit’s work and for the Russian saints to “. . . walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).