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Changing Russia

 

To Contribute

 

 

Noel Morris

 

 

"Faith in Action" is supported by Faith Ministries & Faith Bible

College in New Zealand,

Faith Ministries Japan,

and World Outreach.

  Download PDF version 153KB

FIFTEEN YEARS OF FAITH - Noel Morris

Not everything in God runs smoothly, and for “Faith in Action” the past year has been one of ups and downs. Despite a toughening stance on religious activities all over Russia, Russian people are still coming to the Lord. Many of our students came to faith within the last year. Opposition to the church varies from place to place, but at present the authorities in Vladivostok have not been too restrictive. But since its beginning in April 1994, “Faith in Action” continues to train leaders for the churches in Russia.

• - that our visa invitations will arrive in time
• - that the remainder of my airfare and travel costs will be provided
• - that I will know from the Lord what I should be teaching in the classes
• - for health and protection as we travel

REPORT FROM DENNIS

Let me introduce myself. My name is Dennis, I’m from the Church of Living God in Vladivostok, Russia. My Pastor has asked me to tell you about our “Faith in Action” Bible Seminars that are conducted in our Church on a permanent basis. Recently I’ve graduated from these seminars, so my story will be a kind of example.

SCHEDULE
Our schedule was as follows: we had morning and evening classes Monday thru Friday, with some house-keeping every afternoon. On Saturdays we cleaned our church hall and the grounds, and on Sunday we had a service at the church.

Every day we had morning and evening prayer and praise in groups, and each student, being led by the Holy Spirit, prayed with our group of students, and also in the prayer room individually with God.

Outside of class-time, students were studying the Holy Bible, studying the sermons of famous pastors, watching preaching on DVD and video, and shared their thoughts of God with each other. This helped form a great brotherhood in God between our students.

THE SCHOOL YEAR
Our classes ran from September 1st 2008 to December 14th 2008 – studying the Bible and getting acquainted with the Bible meanings, such as homiletics, hermeneutics and others. We were taught by our church’s pastors and staff as well as teachers from the USA.

From December 15th 2008 – February 28th 2009 all our students were assigned to practical service in our branch churches. For example, I had my practical time in Livadia Settlement, about 4 hours away from here by car, where we have a branch church with a rehabilitation centre. The men there are mostly ex-prisoners, so they are used to very difficult life circumstances. I helped those guys to get to know about God’s love, prayed for them and shared their routine work with them. The most important thing was that step by step they accepted Jesus in their hearts, and thanks to God they’ve now got a reasonable life-style. I was very much pleased with this!
On March 2nd 2009 our group came back to Vladivostok, and our classes lasted all the way through to June 3rd 2009. For various reasons, some of our students suspended their education. We prayed for them and hopefully these brothers and sisters will continue studying in the future.

Besides this, we were joined by a number of new students, who will be study through to December 2009. Our building is equipped with only one classroom, so our group had the same classes together with the newcomers. Also sister Lidia Y came to continue studying (she interrupted her study in 2007 due to personal reasons).

During this spring semester we were studying the Bible, getting acquainted with the primary philosophies of the Bible, with the Christians’ life in Russia, and with ethics. Moreover, we had a week of lessons from teachers of the “Open Russian Theological Academy”.

Vitaly, Lidia & Dennis receive their Graduation Certificates

GRADUATION & BEYOND
Dennis D, Vitaly M and Lidia Y were Spring 2009 Graduates. Each of us had prepared a written report on one of the Bible’s heroes as well as an oral Diploma work. My written report was devoted to Joseph, and my Diploma work was “Problems of the younger generation nowadays and the methods of evangelizing them”. On June 7th at the Sunday Church Service, each of us graduates was handed a Certificate of Graduation from the “Faith in Action” Seminars.

Brother Vitaly has gone to serve God in our branch church in Lesozavodsk (10 hours away from here by car).

Sister Lidia has returned to her home town, Plastun settlement in the North, where she and her husband (who is a 2005 Graduate) have a call of God to organize a home cell group (we don’t have a church in Plastun yet).

I now serve God here, in the Vladivostok church and in “Faith in Action”.

From my viewpoint, these classes at “Faith in Action” were a great blessing from God for every student. The teaching helped to radically review our previous life, to get us separated from all negative influences, and to arm us with God’s Power to start a new life, Life with God.


“Faith in Action” prayer needs:

• - for the leadership and staff of “Faith in Action”
• - for the students on practical assignments in churches
• - for new students to come and study in September
• - for financial provision for the school and staff needs
• - for the churches in Russia to continue public evangelism freely

DONATIONS ON-LINE You can make an on-line donation in many different currencies:  US$, AU$, CAN$, UK£, JPYen & Euro.   Please give generously and regularly to support your brothers and sisters in Christ at FIA Gifts for this ministry to Russia can be sent: Online:   click here  to donate by Paypal (various currency choices) In NZ: C/o P.O. Box 12357 Hamilton In Japan: Postal Furikae 01150-8-74597 Faith Ministries From other countries: Bank: A/c name: Faith Ministries, A/c No. 060603 0000421 00 National Bank of NZ, Chartwell Branch, Routing No. NBNZ22