Peace to you, dear brothers and sisters!
We are sincerely grateful for your contribution to the Lord’s cause in the Far East.
I’d like to say a little by painting a vivid picture of what God does amongst the Udege people group.
In fact, this is the most recent information I’ve received from Ivan Ilchuk about their ministry in the Far East. It’s all starts with the Saturday’s small Bible study groups, which they run there every week. On the last Saturday, there were 9 people present: 6 Udege-adults and 3 children. My heart is overflowing with joy for the Word of God begins to do its work in people’s hearts. Just over a week ago, one of the Udege’s woman told Ivan that she desperately wants to be baptized. Yet, a little earlier, she came out that she accepted Jesus Christ and believes in Him as her personal Savior. This woman actually is the daughter of one interpreter who helped us to translate biblical stories into the Udege language. On August 21-22, I’m planning to go to the village of Gvasyugy. I’m going to visit some fellow ministers there, so that I could encourage them and just to spend time with those new people who attend the meetings.
Thankfully to God the recent Christian camps went well, especially the youth camp has been very successful. During the camp, one of my disciples Konstantin served there as a mentor. He said to me, that there was an interesting curriculum “Mazes,” which was compiled by our mentors without using other people’s material. So, as the result God has brought the truth to bear in the lives of those teenagers who were in this camp.
I was greatly inspired by the stories of brothers and sisters who worked and helped in the camp. All in all, there were about 70 people at the youth camp only. The participants were aged between13-17 years old. The youth from our church worked hard in this camp trying to bring glory God in every way they could. The full title of this curriculum was “Running Through the Maze.” The primary concern of this curriculum was, to focus the young people’s attention on – who or what controls their lives, put simply, what they are driven by. I prayed a lot for our youth so that they could serve the adolescents and to be a real example in everyday life for them. Approximately half of the teenagers were from families of the believers, and some of the children were from an orphanage.
I was very excited to hear the testimony of the leader Maxim Kuksin, although he is not from our congregation, he personally made a point about a positive attitude of the youth from our church by saying: “I would be very happy to have such a team.” Now, I realize how important it was for Mikhail and Vera Kucherenko to disciple the young people one by one, and how much that material from Koram Deo course impacted on the youngsters, especially those who studied under this program.
Following the youth camp, there was also held a children’s camp, where Misha Kucherenko was the keynote speaker. As Misha said, he was greatly surprised to see as the kitchen workers were coming in their free time to sit under the evening’s preaching. One woman who is not a member of our church asked if she could attend some classes or small groups in our church.
I think now is the best time for all the pastors from our Association to get together and take stock of the ministry in the camps, and also to sketch out some plans for the work with children and their parents. We pray that God will give us wisdom in how to organize meetings with children and teenagers in the post-camp period, so we would not to lose contacts with them.
I’m also very grateful to God that He was very lenient toward us and granted us so much grace during these camps that everybody has got home without any hurdles. So, everyone is safe and sound.
On August 5-6th, we have experienced one of the roughest typhoons. And, in the wake of this typhoon the road turned out to be washed off in several places. Two villages Filippovka and Zanadvorkovka along this road were completely covered with water. People had to run away to the hills. One brother sent photos where you can see only the roof of the car, and all the houses are under the water. God is really merciful, because all the children from this area happened to be in the camp at that very moment, and eventually, all of them successfully made it home.
There are a number of other events that happened in this month. I just want to mention that I lead 2 small groups. One of them takes place in my house, and every time we come together we work our way through the short curriculum “Practical Knowledge of God.” On the last Tuesday, fortunately, 18 people showed up for the Bible study. It was a challenge for me to even fit them all in my tiny apartment.
On top of that, I also run a small Bible study group for non-believers on Thursdays. This Thursday there were 9 people. Now, we are studying with them the Book of Acts, and last time we were taking apart the great preaching of Stefan before the Sanhedrin. One of the women, Elvira, said that when she reads the Bible on her own, she has no clue what it’s all about, but once we discuss together about what she read, everything becomes clear to her. Please pray for the Thursday’s small group. As I see, these unbelievers make much of this time, and it is obvious to me that within these eighteen months I spent with them, their characters are gradually being changed.
It has been three Sundays straight that I preached from the Book of Acts on the topic of practical evangelism. Today, we finally received the books that I ordered from Timur Rasulov “Teach Me How to Love,” “Chasing the Wind,” as well as “Battle Against the Satan” by Joel Beeke. I cannot wait to read them, so I’m already foretasting the sweetness of the reading even before I start it.
Our daughter Ani is expecting her third child. And her full pregnancy term appears to be at the end of September, or at the beginning of October. Please pray for her and the child that everything would go well for them along the way, and during the childbirth.
So once again, thank you very much for your prayers.
May God bless you!
Respectfully, Yuri Morokhovets
