July 21, 2003
FSM 202/FN 311
Copyrighted Jan.1992, by Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland.
"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." (Isaiah 9:2)
(Ready [formerly Joseph Eastman]:) We've recently returned from a trip to the Soviet Union (as it was called when these testimonies were given) & want to share some testimonies! Maybe we could start by giving a little bit of background on how the Work there began & how it got where it is today. TYL!
About seven years ago some small teams visited Russia from Western Europe. One of the first people that we met on our trips was dear Russian Christina. Maybe you've heard of her as Stacey.
(Christina:) My name is Christina. I used to be Stacey before, I'm the wife of Piper. We are Russian national disciples. We met the Family seven years ago & we both got saved & joined the Family, but there were no established Homes in Russia back seven years ago & we just were waiting all those years to move into a Home! Just three months ago we did it, as there are now three Homes established inside the U.S.S.R.! Now we are in the Family, not only in the Spirit, but in the flesh also! Praise God! TYJ!
(Jude:) GBY! My name is Jude & I recently went into Russia with Ready. I first came to Eastern Europe a year ago on a MISSLE Team from the Teen Home in London & fell in love with the sweet sheep in Eastern Europe. There was a burden in my heart to come back & the Lord answered that burden a couple of months ago!
We'd like to share some of the exciting things that have happened in Russia during these last two months we were there!
How Postering in Russia Began!—By Ready
Beginning seven years ago, our small team was making trips into Russia when they could, & it was quite a difficult situation in the country at the time. It was this way up until 1990, when Dad wrote the Letter "In Tune with the Times" (ML#2602, GN 412) which had a section called "Now Is the Hour!" That's where Dad suggested that in light of the sweeping political changes, "Maybe they can poster on the streets!" So it all began with Dad's faith & original vision.
I remember the main ones of us involved in the EE Work had a meeting together & it was quite incredible because all we had was the vision to go! We sat there & said, "Wow! Everybody has the vision! Now how are we going to do this?!" There were so many big things the Lord was going to have to do, but as it turned out, none of them proved too big for the Lord!
At that time a Scouting Team was sent into the Soviet Union. Two of our Polish brethren went there, since they had studied Russian in school. They took a package of 2,000 Posters with them across the border & this was big stuff! They got across the border fine & they distributed the Posters. They just went like hotcakes!
So when they returned home they were all turned on! Everybody was turned on! The next time they took a little bit more, maybe 4,000 Posters, twice as much, & the same thing happened!—Until finally they started taking suitcases full, backpacks full! Actually there were times they got checked going across the border & the border guards would only let them go into the country if they would give them personal copies of the Posters!
At one point a border guard told one of the brethren, "You can't enter with all this literature!" And the brethren showed him Mark 16:15 in a Russian Bible & the man read it. "Go ye into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature!" Then he replied, "Go!" He let them cross the Russian border with all the literature! So it's quite amazing the things the Lord has done in opening the doors there.
The Word—The Divine Thistledown!
It's also amazing how receptive the people are! TYJ! Soon there were regular teams that went in with 70,000 Posters each, & as the Posters started getting out, of course we started getting mail responses because the Posters had an address on them for people to write to.
Mail responses started flooding in!—Hundreds a week, sometimes there were hundreds in just a few days! It was quite a bit to keep up with, so the Lord helped us set up a Mail Ministry. I don't know how He did it, but He sure uses the foolish things of this World. We quickly realised the need for the Mail Ministry to follow up on all those people & to feed them through the mail. We've still just barely scratched the surface of the potential for this ministry, because they're so needy, but TYJ, it's definitely a real beginning & thousands of people are being fed.
It's so amazing, because the mail responses we've received come from all over the Soviet Union! We have personally only distributed in three main cities in the Western part of the country, but the Mail Ministry receives responses from all over!—Even from the far East of the country past the Urals, over near Japan, as well as Siberia, near Mongolia, etc! It's divine thistledown, like the Good Thots article that talks about how the divine thistledown is blown about with the winds of God's Spirit & falls into receptive hearts everywhere, & bears the fruit that the Lord wants it to bear. (See Good Thots, Mark 16:15, #71.)
We had never been to the majority of those places, yet the Word of God is not bound. The Word somehow got to those places, the Soviet people responded, they wrote in from all these different republics & we've been feeding many through the mail.
The Next Step!—Seminars to Train the Sheep!
Last year we had just come to the end of our Summer MISSLE Push, which was quite a stupendous thing. The stats for Eastern Europe went off the charts! I think it was a meeting on the last day of our Summer Push, & our Shepherds were saying, "What's our next step from here? We need to really pray because we've got a big job on our hands here with all these people & all these sheep that are writing in. We have all these babies to take care of!"
Just then we were given the "sheepfold vision" in a message from Dad & Mama, the need to start holding Seminars & giving people a chance to have fellowship with us & to meet us personally, to teach them to witness, to train'm, & basically to teach'm what Christian living is in today's World. So we began having Seminars like that in the different EE countries, including Russia.
The Lord Sent Labourers!
Now at that time we still had very few Family Members there in the three cities. There was an eight-man team that was travelling back & forth between these three cities, & the distances are really large, thousands & thousands of kilometers! So the Polish Homes pulled together & with one big united vision, we put as many people as we could into the Russian Work. We then had 18 or 19 people there, mainly Polish disciples who spoke the Russian language.
They were doing an enormous job, every facet of it that you could imagine, from feeding sheep to personal witnessing, follow-up, big Seminars, Lit-Pic, translations, proofreading, courier trips, besides the everyday jobs of life—eating & sleeping & changing the babies' diapers & all that. It was a big job, but the Lord supplied that extra manpower by us pulling together, so that each of these three cities could have a "permanent" team, TYL!
The Enemy Attacks! But God Keeps the Door Open!
Then, just when Jude & I were going to go into Russia, the attempted coup happened! We felt it was an attack of the Enemy!—The Devil's attack on the Word of God, trying to do anything to defeat prophecy because the Lord had just said through Dad that He was going to keep the doors open there as long as we continued to get the Word out & as long as our presence there was necessary to get the Catacombers established! The Devil tried to slam the door shut, but TTL, the Lord stuck His foot in it & kept the door open! Hallelujah!
So Jude & I went there to help strengthen the brethren. It was the first time either of us had been there, so it was quite a life-changing experience to see the hunger of the people firsthand!—Parched & dry ground just dying to absorb the waters of the Word!—Everybody from young people to old people! A whole generation or two has missed out on a chance to hear the Word there, so everybody is kind of on the same level spiritually! It's hard to describe!
The First Seminar for Mail Respondees from Faraway Places!
Right when we got there, the Family had organised a three-day Seminar to which they had invited these Mail Ministry respondees from outlying areas! Former Seminars had been held for local Mail Ministry respondees. Now the Family was doing a "big" Seminar for sheep from faraway places.
We had sent out about 200 invitations, & many of these invitations were sent out to places 5, 6 & 7,000 kilometers away from the city where the Seminar was to be held! Amazingly enough, 25 people showed up for the Seminar.
Here's a very interesting point: Out of those 25 people that came, only three had met us personally on the street & received a Poster from us! All the others had received a Poster via their friends, or via the grapevine, or a photocopy that someone sent them! So it's incredible how fast the Word spreads there. What is that verse in Psalms?—"His Word runneth very swiftly," (Psa.147:15) so it's sure running swiftly there!
The Vision to Gather People from Vast Distances!
(Jude:) Perhaps we should explain how big the U.S.S.R. is! We have three Works in the main centres, but if you look on the map of the U.S.S.R. (see page 4), you'll see these cities are to the extreme West of the country & there's a huge expanse of territory to the East that we've yet to pioneer. A big vision we have for these Seminars is to invite people from far away who had been contacted by the Mail Ministry, feed them, encourage them, inspire them & get them grounded in the basics, then send them back with Posters so they themselves can become the Family's "Outside Witnessers"*, getting the Message out in places that we may never get to!
(*Outside witnessers: These are people who, though they don't live in a Family Home, get so turned on to the Message through the Posters, Mail Ministry, or Seminars, etc., that they want to distribute our Lit to the multitudes in their own cities, however far away they may be. They are somewhat like those described in Isa.4:1: "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, `We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name.'")
And they're doing a fantastic job! From the first big Seminar in Moscow, Outside Witnessers from outlying areas took 120,000 Posters with them, which went all over the country—Siberia, Mongolia—all over the place!
Precious Sheep Arrive!
When the team went down that morning to the train station to greet the first arrivals, we were all praying back at the Home, & told the greeting team, "Please call us if anybody shows up!", because days & days of travelling were required to get to our city! After Aaron went down to the train station, our phone rang & he said, "Six people came!" & everybody went, "Wow!" He said, "I'm taking them to the hotel."
The next train was coming in around 2:00 in the afternoon so we were praying, "Lord, continue to bring Your sheep!" When Aaron called at 2:30 saying, "Another seven people came," we couldn't wait any longer! Ready & I went down to the hotel to see them, because we really wanted to see what the sheep were like!
We didn't speak Russian, but as we entered the lobby, a real pretty girl went walking through & she had long blonde hair & was really bouncy & sweetly smiling. We knew she was one of them because she was almost like a sister! We asked Aaron, "Is this girl one of the visitors?" He said, "Yes, that's Marina." She had come all the way from Irkutsk, which is a city near the Mongolian border, 7,000 kilometers from Moscow! She had taken a 7-hour flight to attend the Seminar!
Michael's Amazing Testimony!—Meeting Us through a "Mistake" at the Post Office!
We were getting all excited meeting these people, some who had come all the way from Siberia! When we met the different ones we asked, "How did you meet us? Did you get a Poster on the street? How did you first get in touch with us?" Michael, a boy from Siberia, answered, "No, I didn't get a Poster." "Well, did somebody talk to you?" "No, nobody talked to me." "How did you find out about us & the meeting?"
Well, his story is amazing!—What happened was, Michael had written a business letter to a firm in another EE country. It went to the same Post Office where we have our main box. The letter got to the sorting office & the people there couldn't read the address where it was meant to go, but because it was from Russia & we were getting thousands of mail responses from Russia, they took a guess & put it in our box "by mistake"!
So the Mail Ministry got his letter & wrote to sweet Michael & he turned out to be a super sheep! We sent him a few mailings & he responded & came to a Seminar 5,000 kilometers away, from Siberia!
After the first couple of days I was going down in the elevator with Michael. Michael could only speak a few words of English, but I asked him, "How do you like the meetings? What's your reaction?" In English he said, "Beautiful!" He only knew three words & that was one of them! It was right from his heart! He just said, "Beautiful!"
TYL, there are so many testimonies like this about very very sweet & precious people. Maybe Christina can tell us about Marina, the sweet girl I mentioned earlier who we all immediately fell in love with at first sight. She has a very special testimony too.
Marina, Also Won by the Posters & Mail Ministry!
(Christina:) I was amazed when I learned how far Marina had travelled—7,000 kilometers! But the most amazing thing about her is that she had been in Moscow only one day in her life, a year ago. When she came to Moscow she went to one of the central streets of the city, & can you imagine?—She got a Poster from one of the brethren! So she went back to her city, to Irkutsk, & she was so fascinated with the Message that she of course wrote to the Mail Ministry address that is on the Poster. She became one of the most potential of the Mail Ministry sheep, answering all the letters & very very sheepy.
She was so excited about the Message & especially about going out postering. I remember that during the Seminar we were going postering, but before we left, we wanted to have a class on the Endtime with her. She didn't quite understand what we were going to do. She knew for sure that we were going out postering & that was her main concern! So we kept talking about the class & showing her some verses & every once in a while she would ask, "Are we going postering?" We told her, "Wait a minute, please! We'll go out for sure." Finally she said, "It looks like you don't want to go out postering today!" She was so on fire to give the Message to people. After the class we did go out postering & she gave out a lot of them!
Engineer Sleeps in Train Station So He Can Attend Seminar!
A lot of other precious people came to the Seminar from very very far cities. I'd like to also share another testimony about one man who was about 35 or 40 years old, not as young as Marina, but very sweet & sheepy. He is an engineer & he comes from Chelyabinsk, a very big city in Siberia. He said that once he was in Moscow & he received a Poster & wrote to our address. So we sent him an invitation to the Seminar.
When we met him at the Seminar, he explained that he was not originally going to come because it was so far to travel & he didn't know much about us. Now what we try to do is phone the people we send invitations to, to inquire if they plan to come.
So one of the Polish sisters phoned him, & he picked up the receiver & she asked him if he was going to come. He told us he was so moved by this phone call, he said, "I just couldn't say no to a woman! She was so sweet & she was so loving."
He decided to come, but it was very difficult for him to buy tickets to Moscow; the only reservations he managed to get were tickets for a much earlier date than when the Seminar was to be held. So he came two or three days earlier & he didn't have a place to stay in Moscow.—All he had from our end was the address of the place where the Seminar would be held.
So this engineer, who has a high degree of education, can you imagine?—He spent two or three nights in the railway station, just waiting for the Seminar! It was so very sweet when he told us about all this!
Finally, the day of the Seminar he met us, & later he told me that never in his life had he heard anything spiritual, anything!—This was the first time in his life. He was so thankful, he got saved, received the Holy Spirit & took a lot of Posters with him back to his faraway city in Siberia. He also asked that if we have other Seminars in Moscow, "Please write to me & invite me! I will come for sure! I want to know more about Jesus & about Christianity, how to be a Christian." Isn't it inspiring?! Thank You Lord for all those precious people.
Elderly Woman Wins a Whole Group of Converts!
Then we met another very precious woman named Galina, who is quite elderly. She also came from a faraway city in Siberia called Novosibirsk & she was so on-fire witnessing. I don't recall how she got her first Poster, but she got saved by getting a Poster. She then started witnessing immediately in her city, & soon she had a bunch of people she calls her converts! She wanted to tell them more, so she started getting DFs in Russian & she shared them with those people.—However, she was the only one who had a Bible, actually only a New Testament.
In her city it is very difficult to get a Bible, they're virtually unavailable! Then she got an invitation to this Seminar, & told all her converts she was going to Moscow to see us. They asked her, "But we won't have any Bible with us now. You will take your Bible for sure, you will need it. So please write us something out of the Bible, so we will have something while you're gone!" So, GBH, she wrote down the Lord's Prayer for them! So they all had a copy of the Lord's Prayer to read, while she came to Moscow for the Seminar.
Another amazing thing about her is that she brought a notebook & during this Seminar, she tried to write down every word we were saying! It was really sweet. We later looked at her notes, & they were really deep & quite substantial notes about Salvation & how it is by grace & how to receive the Holy Spirit.
This lady is really on fire! She is about 60, I think, but in her spirit she's like a teen, a real new bottle! She told us, "When I get back to my city, you can be sure I'll tell my converts every single thing you've shared & we will go out witnessing." She took about 20,000 Posters with her back to Siberia. I think a lot of people will get the Message there. TYL!
Young People Postering Like Crazy!
(Jude:) Just before we left Moscow, we took the young people postering after the three-day Seminar. One boy in particular stands out, whose name is Sasha. He was about 17 or 18 & he came from Orsk, which was a three-day train ride away! Sasha came with his girlfriend & we asked her how she found out about us. She said, "Sasha told me. In fact, Sasha didn't just tell me, he told my whole school. He's telling everybody!" He has a little Catacomb work already!
So we took Sasha & his girlfriend & some of the other new bottles postering at a main metro station, & these young people were having a blast! They were only a little hesitant at first, but soon were having such a good time that when we decided to finish up for the day, we couldn't stop them! We were trying to get them together, but they were always zipping off to give out more Posters & trying to witness to people who were standing waiting for trains! We said, "Come, we need to go now!" It was difficult to get them to stop!
At the end we decided to try & get a group photo of everybody together, the whole Catacomb postering team. So we lined them all up & thought, "Let's put Posters in their hands so they're all holding the Posters in the photo." So we clicked the camera & poof!—Everybody disappeared & started postering again! We then had to get them all back together again! They just loved postering! They wouldn't stop! We had taken them to the train station with over 30,000 Posters in all these backpacks, & they got them all out!
Going Out like the Early Disciples!
We all stayed in one hotel together & after the Seminar we sent them out like the Early Disciples. When it was time for them to return to their cities, we read to them from the Book of Acts & laid hands on them & prayed for them. They took it very seriously that they were now disciples going out into the rest of their country to pass the Message on!
We explained, "We'll probably never get to all the cities you come from! Would you do the job for the Lord?" They took it very seriously, & sometimes as we were praying, they were in tears like they were receiving a commission & they knew it!—It was very touching!
Larissa!—A 60-year-old On-Fire Witness!
(Christina:) Actually there are so many testimonies, it's difficult to know where to start. They keep coming to my memory, all those very very sweet people! I'll tell you one more, about a lady from Moscow, who was a very special lady. She also is an elderly woman—we minister to a lot of people in Russia, both old people & middle-aged people & young people. They're all so young in the Spirit, so on-fire that it doesn't even matter what age they are.
This lady, whose name is Larissa, is in her 50's or 60's. She used to be a complete atheist, she told us. She never believed in God & was far from it. Somehow she got a Poster, prayed & got saved! I remember when she came to her first Seminar, she really liked the Spirit, but she told us, "Oh, it's probably too much for me. I'm kind of old already & you are so full of joy & singing & I'm so old. I'll probably send my children to you & my grandchildren."
But after about two months, I attended another Seminar & Larissa had changed so much I couldn't recognise her! She was really on fire & testifying boldly at the Seminar, praising God all the time! She was answering all the questions in the Seminar, raising her hand & reading all the verses.
That day Larissa took 7,000 Posters & she managed to distribute them on her way back to the metro! She just crossed the street & started giving out Posters. Huge crowds surrounded her so she distributed those 7,000 Posters in about an hour, real fast!
Larissa witnesses everywhere. In her factory—a large factory of 20,000 people—she witnesses to everybody! She also takes packages of Posters & puts them on special desks so that people can take them for themselves. She has comrades in her factory whom she witnessed to, & now she takes them out postering with her!
I remember once she brought some of her converts to a Seminar, & among them was a lady who came for the first time. We witnessed to her & later we asked her if she'd like to take some Posters with her & she said, "Of course! I will take some because I know how to poster. Larissa has already shown me!"
What Makes Us Different!—Follow-up!
(Ready:) It is so inspiring, because many times you'll just be going down the street somewhere & you'll see people walking down the street with Posters, & you follow that stream & find some Outside Witnessers out there shining & bubbling away, distributing Posters on the street on their own!—Or maybe they're people who have just had a Bible class with some of the brethren! It's so moving, it's just touching, TYJ!
So those were highlights of that three-day Seminar. We were in Moscow another week & we had a chance to meet local attendees to the Seminars which are held for people from the local area. The potential of these people is unlimited, it makes you feel that "joy unspeakable & full of glory!" (1Pet.1:8) At the end of each Seminar we offer to talk with them. We say, "We'll try & answer any personal questions that you have, anything you want to talk about. We want to stay here with you."
This has really been a testimony for a lot of these people because they've attended other Christian meetings, evangelistic-type meetings where people gave their sermons. Nevertheless the Gospel is preached, but it left a lot of them kind of empty still, because these other Western groups didn't have anybody personally following up on them. Quite a few people commented on that point.
The sheep stay after the meeting & we find ourselves sitting on the edge of the stage talking to people. After about ten seconds there are 15 or 20 young people sitting on the stage just looking at us with wide eyes. One would say, "Well, what about this in the Bible?", & we try & answer their questions verse-by-verse. It's just so beautiful & they all get fed from it because the heart of Man is the same the World over. If you answer one of their questions, another person's question is being answered also.
There's so much potential there, so that's why we're pressing in to get a nucleus of real solid Catacombers right now.
Next Stop!—St. Petersburg! A Growing Catacomber Work!
From there we went up to Leningrad, which is now officially St. Petersburg! What a change of name!—"What's in a name?" We were able to spend some time with the ten Catacombers there who the Family is taking care of, & it was inspiring to see that they are a real work force! The Seminars there almost wouldn't even have been possible without the help of the Catacombers. Some of them had been around just a short while, but they were all so whole-hearted, with a real strong desire to serve the Lord & learn about Jesus & how to witness!
They were helping to stuff the packages that we give to all the Seminar attendees. The people who come to the Seminars all get a Gospel of John, & depending on which Seminar we're giving, we also put a Word Basics section in their package, whether it's Salvation or the Holy Spirit, etc. So they were stuffing these lit packages.
Then we would have them buddying up with us at the end of the Seminars to teach them how to run the Poster table, because it's a big operation! For example, 100 people came to that Seminar & they were all, from the oldest to the youngest, just starry-eyed, broken-hearted babes, crying, "Give me more Word!"
So after the Seminars, which have been like bait to allow more of a personal witness afterwards, the attendees just flock to the Poster table. We've been teaching the Catacombers how to handle this flock of people, a hundred people charging to the table to get Posters to distribute! After this Seminar, about 20-25,000 Posters were given out to these attendees for distribution, & they really distribute them!
Back to the Catacombers there: They help in all of these different ministries, learning how to witness, plus getting fed themselves. The Family there is getting a little apartment where they'll be feeding the Catacombers more on a regular, daily basis. They're just so ripe, so ready to do something for the Lord, & the Lord has given us the wherewithal to train them up! He's expecting us to take care of all these babies now. We've sown so much seed & now it's time to raise the kids, so to speak, TYJ! It's just been miracle after miracle.
"The Most Wonderful Day of My Life!"
(Jude:) To meet the Catacombers in St. Petersburg was very special! These ten Catacombers actually meet every day. One particular Catacomber is Timothy, a very sweet boy whom we've known for over a year, & he was just so very appreciative of the different Seminars. He's now visiting the Home on a daily basis, so thankful & really growing in the Lord.
Another very sweet girl who came to the Seminars in St. Petersburg was from Georgia. I went up to her at the end as she was leaving, & this girl was in tears the whole time, saying, "This is the most wonderful day of my life! I've never experienced something like this. I've been waiting my whole life to meet people like this, to tell me the Truth!" She was so thankful & appreciative. In fact, she took some Posters to translate into the Georgian language, so we need to pray for that.
Fulfillment of Ivan Ivanovitch! Posters in the Metros!
Speaking of Posters, St. Petersburg is going to be the first Russian city with Posters up in the metros, just like Ivan talked about in "Ivan Ivanovitch" (ML#279). Remember where he talked about Posters being up in the metros & the train stations? Well, that is now fulfilled in St. Petersburg! To explain a little bit what "getting the Posters up in the metros" actually means, 200 of our Posters will be put up in the metro cars themselves—in the space reserved for advertising—where people who are sitting or standing can read them, as they travel in the city of St. Petersburg!
Next to the colour Poster picture will be enlarged text on the wall so they see the actual cover of "Come!" or "Peace in the Midst of Storm" or "Beach Quotes" & there will be text beside it, so they'll actually be able to see the cover & read the text at the same time. On the bottom is the Mail Ministry address for them to write us!
It's a very big thing in the Soviet Union to read & study things posted on walls! In addition, a thousand of these Posters will be going up all over the city—by bus stands, around train stations—again with the Poster cover & the text right beside it. People literally stand in crowds of hundreds reading things posted on walls!
The ones that are going to go up are "Come!", & our first Christmas Poster in Russian, for the Christmas postering push, TYL! Other ones going up are "Peace in the Midst of Storm" & "The Beach Quotes". We're presently printing these in the second run of a million Russian Posters, TYL!
Next, do you want to hear about provisioning in Russia? They said it couldn't be done, but we did it! Well, the Lord & Russian Andrew did it!
Provisioning in Exchange for Gospels!
(Ready:) Russian Andrew got the idea that we need to catch up on our survival because the situation in the country is desperate. It's really a desperate situation & supplies are very limited. So we were trying to work on building up survival for the Homes & one item we needed was powdered milk. Now they don't sell powdered milk in the Soviet Union, you can't usually find it anywhere, but Andrew called the milk factory & asked if they had powdered milk. The owner said, "Yes, I have some nice imported Spanish powdered milk."
So Andrew explained to him that we are Christian missionaries & that we needed powdered milk. The man said, "Oh, missionaries? Well, I'll give you milk but you bring me 3,000 Gospels! I have 3,000 people working in my factory & if you bring me 3,000 Gospels to give to my workers to preach them the Gospel, then I'll give you the powdered milk!"
Sure enough, Andrew & a few of the brethren went there with their backpacks of Gospels & picked up the powdered milk & the man was very touched. He took the Gospels for all of his workers. He was very very thankful & said, "Me giving you this powdered milk is nothing! You're giving my people the Gospel, the Good News!"
Just to add a word of explanation, we printed up half a million Gospels of John as Dad & Mama suggested, & in the back of these Gospels is our entire little "Four Steps of Salvation" & it's got the whole Message. Now the man has invited us back, as he wants us to witness to & do a Seminar for all of the workers in his factory! So that's how we got our miracle powdered milk provisioned, TYJ!
In Kiev!—The Miraculous Story of Natasha!
(Jude:) After St. Petersburg we moved on to Kiev. I think the story I'm going to tell you now is one of everybody's favourite testimonies! We presented two days of Seminars in Kiev & on the evening of the first day, a girl named Natasha came from a city called Odessa, on the Black Sea. She had quite a story to tell!
It began when she was 12 years old & her father died. She wanted to know why her father had died & what happens when someone dies. Where do they go?—and so forth. She wanted to find out about God. So she started asking people about God, "Can you please tell me something about God?" Most everyone responded, "You can't ask those kind of questions. It's forbidden. You don't need to know."
But Natasha really had this hunger to find out, so she started asking all the babushkas, the old Russian grandmothers, thinking maybe they'd know. They gave a few details here & there, just the little things that they could remember from before when Christianity wasn't outlawed.
Then about a year ago, one of the very first teams of Polish disciples had landed in Odessa & they were on a tram. Aaron sat next to Natasha on the tram & by accident, stepped on her toe! He wanted to say something, but he couldn't remember how to say "Excuse me!" in Russian. So he got out his little Russian phrasebook & showed it to her. She started to smile, as of course, it was really sweet that he took all this time & effort to say "I'm sorry!"
So they stepped off the tram together. He didn't know so much Russian at the time, so all he said was, "Please repeat this prayer after me & ask Jesus into your heart." He showed her the prayer on the back of the Poster & this girl was such a sheep, she prayed the prayer! She asked Jesus to come into her heart & then the team went off postering.
Lo & behold, a day or two later they met this same girl again, Natasha. She was taking care of a group of little children on holiday in Odessa. She was really sweet & they started feeding her, but then the team came back home, & Natasha moved off to another city, Kharkov. She wrote in to the Mail Ministry, but for some reason she wasn't getting the letters sent from the Mail Ministry.
Some time later a team was postering in Kharkov, & Natasha saw people walking with Posters in their hands & she started asking, "Where are these people that are giving out the Posters? Please tell me where they are!"—But she couldn't find us! I guess the Lord was making her even more & more hungry for the time when she would finally meet us again.
So the first time Natasha heard from the Family again was when she received an invitation to this Seminar in Kiev! She got it the night before the Seminar, which was to begin the next afternoon! How was she going to get to Kiev in time for the Seminar? If she tried to get a train, it would take too long. So she tried to get a plane, but the planes to Kiev were all booked up. So she flew from Kharkov to another city, changed planes, waited at the airport & got a second plane to Kiev to come to the Seminar!
She came running up to the building where the Seminar was held at 7:00 at night. The meeting had started at 3:00 that afternoon & was officially over at 5:00 p.m.! Natasha came to the front desk & asked, "Are people still here for the Seminar?" & the custodian said they were all gone, the meeting was finished! Natasha said, "I know they're still here! I've got to see them!"
She ran upstairs & the first person she met was Aaron, who was still there! He was the one who'd stepped on her toe & led her to the Lord months before! He said, "Oh, Natasha!" This girl was so sweet, everybody's heart just went out to her. Later that night we met her & she shared her testimony & this story with us. She stayed with one of the Catacombers & came back for the next meeting.
After that Seminar, she was scheduled to go back home to Kharkov but said, "I don't want to go! I'm going to stay!" We said, "Well, you can always come back on weekends & stay with Ria (another Catacomb girl)." She said, "Okay, I'll do that then." We said, "Ria comes over & meets us every day." She said, "Ria meets you every day?!" "Yes, we have Bible studies." "Oh! That would be the desire of my heart!" she said. She was such a sweet girl.
They're definitely the Lord's sheep.—He's the Good Shepherd, He brings them in! They're all so super sweet, it's so touching to meet these people. They're so hungry! Just having come from the West quite recently, there's no comparison in the relative sheepiness! In my previous situation, if you have a meeting in town & ask people to meet you in the town centre, PTL, the real sheep would come.—But for somebody to come from thousands of kilometers away like that, in such a poor country, is amazing!—The hunger of the people in the U.S.S.R. is amazing!
The Widow's Mite!
Here's another beautiful story: At this same Seminar, there was an old man who came from out in the country somewhere south of Kiev in the Ukraine. He came in very quietly, humbly & sweetly & asked to talk to somebody & said, "I have something to give you all." We were wondering what it was because he & all the people are really very poor. So somebody went to talk to him & he opened up his jacket & inside there was a pocket all sewn up. He unstitched it & said, "This is from an old lady in the country who got a Poster & really loved it & wants to give something for the Poster people."
It was a 700 ruble donation from this little old lady who had received a Poster! Now 700 rubles in Russia is a lot of money for some little country person. It could almost be their life savings! He said, "Could you please just sign a little receipt to say that you got it, so I can take it back & show the lady that the Poster people got the donation?" This dear old lady had never even been to a Seminar & didn't know anything about us, she'd just received a Poster on the street!
An Almost Unbelievable Hunger for the Word!
These people just recognise the Lord's Spirit & see Dad's love through it. It's beautiful! People who have never had the Gospel before, they just know, the Lord's put it in them to know it's the Truth! At each of our Seminars, we give the Salvation call for any first-timers. I remember in Kiev, there was a little old grandmother, 70 years old with a little scarf around her head, & from the moment we started talking, all the way to the end she cried! She sat there & cried & cried all the way through the Seminar. It was almost like she remembered what she was told as a little child or something & it all came back when she came to a Seminar.
The Lord's Spirit just falls, it's beautiful! I've never been in a field where people react so instantly to the Word with tears. And the Seminars aren't the end of our witness, it's just the beginning for many. We stay with them for two or three hours after the Seminars feeding them the Word, they're so hungry for more & more & more, so TYL!
Teacher of Atheism Wonderfully Won!
(Ready:) Let me tell you about a woman who we rented a hall from for the Seminar in Kiev. The brethren did the business with her, booking the room, & she came in somewhere toward the end of the Salvation meeting. She came in very quietly & just sat in the back & watched. Afterwards one of the brothers started witnessing to her & she prayed, along with two other older women who also got saved at the same time. When she got saved, this lady became like a fountain of tears!
Now our Seminar was being held in an officer's club, if you can imagine, an officer's club in the Soviet Union, where there are gigantic statues & busts of Lenin! It's a pretty heavy-spirited kind of place. This woman was not only an atheist, she was a teacher of atheism in school! So when she got saved, she realised "Jesus is real!" She just became a fountain of tears.
Here was a woman who yesterday was teaching children why God didn't exist, now praying & with tears humbly asking Jesus into her heart! It was the most touching thing & the Lord really gave her a "dose of the Ghost!" He really honoured her step of faith. She said, "Please come back! Any time you need the room, come back!" And we will, it was a real useful place, TYJ!
Thanks to All Who Make It Possible!
We're only hitting a few of the highlights with these testimonies, there are so many! We want to point out that it is made possible thanks to all the people staying behind the scenes, & all of the help that the Family here is receiving to be able to do the job. We're very very thankful for it! And we know that everyone staying behind, tarrying by the stuff, is going to receive the same reward, maybe even a greater one than those who go to the field. Some have already received their reward—the blessing of feeding the sheep, weeping with them & praying with them, which is very rewarding in itself.
So thank you so much, everybody in the Homes here & everybody in other countries! I know we all really appreciate your help & prayers. I know the Lord does. He sure is blessing it! It's like the story in the Good Thots about the many souls saved because of somebody getting a Gospel tract that cost one cent. The person who received the tract ended up becoming an evangelist & winning tens of thousands of souls to the Lord. But what about the person who gave the penny for the original tract? They'll certainly receive a reward, even though we don't know whose penny it was. So Lord bless our beautiful Family! We couldn't do it without you all!
The Lord Has Changed Russian Hearts!
(Christina:) Another important thing that I'd like to mention is that, praise God, what is really inspiring for me is to see that it is really the Lord Who is doing the job there!—Because we tried to witness to people all those years since we met the Family, but the Communistic influence was so strong, people were so brainwashed that we couldn't get to their hearts. They were closed, they were really closed, there were not many people in Russia then that even wanted to listen to us. Some of them immediately threatened to take us to the Police station & said we were spreading religious propaganda, even though we just started speaking to them about Love! They were really brainwashed & their hearts were really closed & hard.
So it's miraculous how the Lord has used the situation in the country & all the political changes to really break those people. I sometimes can't believe it myself—that those people, who are often in tears & are so thankful for the Message, are the same people! It's just almost unbelievable. TYL! It's really a miracle for me.
I remember in the early days, after Piper & I met the Family, we witnessed to hippies & they kind of responded, but nobody else did—but now all those Communists, who are so disappointed, want to listen to what we say about Jesus. They say, "We can't believe in Communism any more because it didn't work. It failed. But we should believe in something." So they listen to us & they get saved!
Every day somebody comes back to the Home & says, "I witnessed to somebody who is a Communist or used to be a Communist, & at first it was difficult to witness to him but finally he wanted to pray & he got saved!" So, TYJ! The Lord really used Communism to break the people & to make them ready for the Message, TYL!
I also wanted to thank Dad, because it's amazing how he knew that this was the right moment, because it was the right time & a very special moment for this country & all those people. There are hundreds & hundreds, millions actually, of hungry sheep who are just wandering in the land, not knowing what to do. They don't know what to do at all! They are lost & they are really broken & hungry. So we can feed them & LHUs to really do it. TYL!
"Mommy, Are We in Heaven?"
I'm personally so very thankful that it became possible to establish those three Homes in Russia! I have already mentioned that Piper & I were waiting years for this situation. During those years we had three children, & finally our dream came true when those Homes were established & we managed to move into one of them! It is really a miracle & we were so happy, & not only we, but our children were also very happy.
Our oldest daughter, whose name is Masha, was especially touched! It was her dream, because we had told her how it is possible for Christians to live together & to really serve the Lord & to give their full life to the Lord & she was looking forward to this moment! We didn't let her play much with System kids; we told her that they are a bad influence & they can offend her or be really not so kind. She was longing to meet Christians.
So finally when we moved into a Home three months ago, she was looking around, drinking it all in. There were a lot of people there that first day when we moved in, almost 18 people from Poland, & she was so amazed! She was asking me, "Mommy, are they all Christians?" I said, "Yes."
She said, "Finally, finally this moment happened!" She was just shouting aloud, she was so joyful, she started kissing everyone & saying, "Are you all Christians?! So many Christians around! Isn't it wonderful, Mommy?!" It was really inspiring for her!
Now after three months, the Lord miraculously worked it out for us to get passports & come here to the West, where there are a lot of Homes. We moved into an established Home & of course, there are many more brothers & sisters & also children! Masha really longed for this communication with Christian children, with Family kids. After her first day of being in a Family Home here, in the West, Masha came up to me & said: "Oh, look Mommy, where we are! There are a lot of Christian brothers & sisters around us & there are children who are Christians & they live all together! And look on the shelf, there are a lot of books about Jesus, with all these beautiful pictures, Mommy!"
Then she asked, "Are we in Heaven?" Can you imagine?! I told her, "We are almost in Heaven!" TYL for the Family! It was really touching for me—not only we appreciate the Family so much—but our children really thought it was Heaven, because to be in the Family is almost like to be in Heaven, isn't it? TYL!
We want to really really really thank all the Family & everybody who has made it possible for us to witness in Russia. We know that a lot of Family Members really did a lot for it to be possible. So to our worldwide Family & our brothers & sisters, thank you so much. And of course, we really thank Dad & Mama! TYSM for all you did for this field to be open to the Family witness & for the seeds to be sown there. It really pays & I think we can reap a huge harvest there. TYSM! WLY! We pray for you! Thank you!
Outside Witnessers Joyfully Spreading God's Word!—News from the EE Mail Ministries!
From Liliana (Romania): My dear brothers, God bless you! I attended your Seminar, as well as the following classes. Since I met you I don't do anything else but pray to God in the Name of Jesus to help me become a missionary! I don't desire anything else but to become a missionary & to help people to receive Jesus into their hearts. I want to forsake everything & follow Jesus & become one of His disciples. Please pray for me because I can't live any more like the other people. It is better for me to die than not to become a missionary! May God keep us together. ILY! (5th response)
From Alek: I'm so glad that you read my letters. Everything you send me I read with a great interest & attention. I try to show the materials to all my friends & pass on to them what I read. Your letters help me greatly.
You asked me if I want to learn more how to tell others about Jesus.—Of course! When I witness, I find myself faced with the difficulty of the fact that I don't yet know much.—But I'm very willing & eager to learn how to help others get to know God. I'm glad that you want to hold Seminars. I am ready to go to these Seminars, however far they may be, even to Warsaw & to the end of the Earth.
I would really like to get to know you personally, & to get from you a new sparkle of faith & strength to my spirit. If it's not possible for me to meet with you personally, help me with your materials. The second number of the Daily Food edition is not any less interesting than the first one. I have read many amazing things in this brochure. I will do my best to do what you write me to do, & I will use all my abilities to teach others about Jesus.
—On Location Testimonies from Pioneer Teams!
It's been incredible to watch the changes in our growing group of Catacombers & potential disciples, even over the past couple of weeks since we've been here. Some of these young people were into witchcraft & black magic before, & others had other sad or dark pasts, & it's beautiful to see the light shining more & more on their faces as they grow in the Lord!
About half of the group are especially potential & further along than the others & they go out witnessing with us regularly. When they go postering, they boldly witness to everyone about Jesus & pray with people as well—declaring to them how much Jesus has changed their lives!
In Moscow we've been taking the Catacombers to the train stations to poster, where thousands of people pass through daily from all parts of the country. We were told that 3 million people pass through Moscow every day! The postering teams have had beautiful reactions, some people have come back to them virtually in tears, thanking them for the Message, saying it's exactly what the country needs right now.
University Witnessing Explosion!
It seems like the universities are almost an inexhaustible pool of potential labourers! The university witnessing is starting to snowball with primarily Jacinth (Jonas Inspiration), & EAs Eman & Julia, leading this outreach! Jacinth is a blessing, & he's trying to put Eman & Julia up front, getting them to organise the meetings, teach classes, etc., while he's just helping in the background, GBH! Both Eman & Julia are very challenged & doing so well!
They've been witnessing in the universities during the day & inviting the most potential ones to weekend meetings we are holding to feed potential sheep. At the main university of Moscow, they have met many English & French speakers. One time, they began singing quietly to one guy, & by the time they finished there were 30-40 students gathered around them calling for more. They sang some more songs, gave them Gospels & invited them to the weekend meeting for more.
These kids are very ripe—they invite you in right away, ask you to sit down & are eager to talk about Jesus. One of the students told us religion is one of the main subjects everywhere in the city right now, everyone is having discussions about God & Jesus. These are potential labour leaders—intelligent, well-to-do students! Each one that we witnessed to ended up receiving the Lord & wants us to come back.
In one of the English-speaking universities a teacher invited us to take over her English class one afternoon. We sang to them, Jacinth told his personal testimony & then we personally witnessed to them all & led a lot of them to the Lord. It's just incredible how teachers are inviting us to virtually come & witness to their students & are encouraging us to hold Seminars for them! This class treated us with great respect & were very responsive. It just seems everywhere you turn right now, there are endless possibilities & potential labourers!
Although there's a churchy group trying to have regular Bible studies in the main university, a lot of the students are getting turned off by their approach & their pushiness & arguing about doctrines. In many ways it's similar to how these churchy kids turned off youth in the States long ago. But the Russian kids love us & see that we're so different. TTL!
God's Supply in the Midst of Shortages!
It seems that just as people are desperate spiritually, the country is desperate for its physical needs as well. Just in the last week since we've been here the ruble has been devalued very much & is expected to go down even more. A loaf of bread, costing half a ruble a few days ago, now costs five rubles!
Along with price increases, there seems to be a decrease in the amount of food available in the local shops. God bless our dear shoppers, we feel they have one of the hardest ministries here, as they virtually have had to go hunting to find food sometimes.
We've encouraged the shoppers to make "shopping contacts", just as we make provisioning contacts in other countries. In the shops there is virtually nothing on the shelves & people stand in long lines to get a rationed portion which the shopkeeper brings out of the storeroom in the back. Our shoppers, by going through the back door & witnessing to the shopkeepers & directors & giving them Gospels, are able to get all kinds of food, even items which are normally unavailable for the common people.
Older "Babes" Trusting God for Help in the Midst of Troubled Times
There's a fluctuating group of between five & fifteen very precious older people who meet us regularly as well. An especially notable older woman among them is Larissa, whom we have written about before. (See pg.7.) She loves the Lord & boldly witnesses everywhere she goes—in the food lines, on the buses—& each time we meet her she's full of fresh testimonies.
One day in a class with these older people, we were mentioning to them about trusting the Lord to supply even during times of food shortages such as we have here. Larissa began boldly testifying about how the Lord has been providing for her in so many miraculous ways.
Although she has to wait in the food lines & go through what all the normal Russian people have to do to survive, it's amazing all the little things that the Lord does for her, like showing her exactly what shop to go to, & they end up having just the kind of food she had prayed for. Or the Lord shows her to get on a certain bus & it takes her to where they just happen to have the food she needs. Her testimonies really related to the other people there, & brought the Scriptural principles we were sharing down to earth.
Russians Hungry for Truth about Endtime!
One day when we went postering with our sheep here, among those who came with us were two ladies, one 50 & the other 70 years old, both on-fire for Jesus! When one of them saw the Poster, "Final Signs of the End", she exclaimed, "Please, give me this title to give out, this is the one people want the most!"
We had postered for about 20 minutes when a lady came up to me & asked for "Final Signs". I explained to her we had already run out of this title, & that perhaps when she writes to the address on the other Poster she can get the title she wants. But all my explanation didn't convince her. She just stood there & waited, as she hoped maybe somewhere in our backpacks we still had a package with this title. After some time, though, she left.
About half an hour later, to my surprise, I saw the same lady again. She came up to us, looking so sad, & explained that she couldn't find this title anywhere, as no one had discarded it & she couldn't find it in any garbage can or anywhere on the ground. When she told us that & we double-checked that we really didn't have any of the Posters, she sadly left again.
Another half an hour passed & I saw her coming back to us again, only now smiling & happy as she held in her hands a wrinkled Poster, "Final Signs of the End", that someone had thrown away. She was so happy & almost shouting! "I found it! I found it!" TYJ! On other occasions we also saw this Poster make an impression on people here, who somehow seem to sense that this is the End, even those who don't know the Lord yet. Thank God for the Endtime Message & Salvation which we can share with them!
More Posters in the Subways!
A few weeks ago Luke (formerly Dominique), while provisioning in Western Europe, talked with a man who works for the agency in charge of the advertising in the Moscow subways. This man was enthusiastic about helping & asked to see us the next time he was in Russia. Recently Phillip & Jacinth went to see him when he was in Moscow on business & he was very sweet & turned on. He agreed to give us as many free advertising spaces as we need in the Moscow subways for a full two months!
His only conditions are that we pay the workers who would put them up, which is a pretty minimal cost, & laminate the Posters before they go up, as they wash the walls inside the subway cars each day & the Posters will be ruined quickly unless they're laminated. TYJ! What a victory & answer to prayer!
Upcoming Seminars!
We are planning another set of three-day Seminars—major Seminars with two meetings a day for those from far distances, as well as Seminars for local people, for a total of 33 Seminars in December. We sent out 4000 invitations!—Including everyone on the mailing list in the Soviet Union who hasn't yet attended a Seminar.
The invitations for the "big" Seminars have been sent by telegram, & a phone number was included for the attendees to call to confirm whether they were coming or not. The very next day after the telegrams were sent, people began calling & already we've received 155 confirmations from people invited to Moscow meetings, over 255 from people invited to Kiev meetings, & 35 from those invited to St.Petersburg meetings.
For the Moscow Seminar we've received calls from all over the country! One boy called from Kamchatka, which is further away from Moscow than Japan! He said the Hari Krishnas were trying to take over there & asked if we had lit that he could take back with him because he wants to go on the attack there.
Yesterday there was a call from Vladivostok, the day before that from someone way up in northeastern Siberia near Alaska! People are coming from Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan! It looks like we're going to have quite a Seminar! One man called about four or five in the morning, crying because he wasn't going to be able to come, because his wife is due to have a baby at the time of the Seminar. He then went on to say, "Please, reassure me, the Heavenly city does exist, doesn't it?"
Highlights from Kiev!
We have been very impressed at the tremendous vacuum in Kiev & how hungry the people are. The pace is slower than in Moscow & a lot of people stop to ask questions & want to talk. Although Ukrainian is the official national language now, nearly everyone in Kiev speaks in Russian & that seems to be the main language used.
We've talked to all kinds of people here—on the streets, taxi drivers, workers, etc.—and the people are quite anxious & uncertain about the future. Many fear coming famine, chaos or even civil war. When we asked them if they believe in God, just about everyone we talked to said, "Well, there is no one else to believe in now! We've lost faith in everyone & everything else, & without faith in God we wouldn't have anything at all to hang onto!"
Several people have told us how all their lives they had atheism & anti-God philosophies crammed into their heads & now it's difficult for them to have faith, but they really do want to have faith & believe. After a chance to pour out their hearts, they humbly pray to receive Jesus with a hunger & desire to find the answer that they're seeking for in Him. TYJ!
At one meeting held recently for potential labour leaders, 22 came. Quite a few of them were people that our Outside Witnessers had led to the Lord while postering & witnessing. Our little meeting room was pretty packed out with a real assortment of young people, from university students to school kids, hippies to punkers & former Satanists. There's definitely an excitement in the air & the Spirit is moving!
Some of the people at our meetings have gone to other churches before or got saved in American Gospel meetings. The ones who tried the churches & church groups got quickly fed up. Though many got saved, when the preacher took off after the meeting, there was no follow-up of the people who were preached to. We've met some people who've been attending other Christians' Bible studies & they didn't even know about Salvation or much about the Lord at all. It just doesn't seem like these other groups are being very effective in taking care of or keeping their converts, & a lot of them are turning to us to get fed & taken care of.
(Editor's note: God bless our faithful follow-up teams! Please remember to pray for them that the Lord will continue to supply the labourers, the time & the materials to care for the sheep.—And dear Family, let's always be sure to care for the spiritual babies we bring into the World, & not leave them without feeding & contact with their parents in the Lord. Let's not be like the churches, guilty of the same neglect of follow-up as in this sad example!) (—AMEN! "FEED MY SHEEP!"—D.)
We want to thank you so much for your continued prayers & support for the Work in the Ukraine, & all of the former Soviet Union. We know that it is our worldwide Family's prayers that are helping the teams here to accomplish so much. TYJ!
Please pray for continued open doors in this vast country; with the country in shambles, there are extreme shortages of food & other commodities all over; lawlessness & confusion are growing. Please pray that the Lord will preserve sufficient calm & stability for the Family to be able to continue to operate & that He will continue to anoint our teams there, provide all of their needs, protect them, & keep them healthy. We love you so much!
Late News! Testimonies Of December Seminars! (Excerpts Of A Report From Shepherds In The Area)
Thank you very much for the message with the prophecies from the Family after Mama's request to pray for us! (See GN 493.) It came just at the right time, on the eve of our big Seminars! Both the Moscow & Kiev teams were able to read it together, & it truly united our hearts & helped us to have a fuller vision of how God sees these Seminars & the people coming to them. The Spirit fell on us as we were reading it, we had desperate prayer, & many prophecies & verses came forth which put us in just the right gear for the Seminars, TYJ!
Big Three-Day Seminars!
About 160 people came from virtually all over the country, from the East coast to the West, from North Siberia to the southernmost Asian republics! Some came from such remote places that they had to travel by helicopter to one place, then by plane to another, from where they got their flight to Moscow. Others came on long train journeys, & others flew for as long as 12 hours.
Quite a few people came, even though they weren't able to get return tickets home ahead of time! Some said, "We don't care if we end up being stuck in Moscow for days or a week afterwards. The most important thing is that we made it to the meetings!" One precious 19-year-old girl said, "This has been the most important event in my life!"
We found it was quite a help to the people to receive the invitation by telegram, as a telegram really carries weight at their work places. There is a rule whereby if you receive a telegram with an official invitation, your employers give you paid leave to attend! One boy, who was about to be drafted into the army, brought his telegram from us to the draft board & they gave him one week's leave to attend the Seminar, after which they'll review his case for the draft!
One woman from a small town in Siberia was sent to the Seminar officially by her school board & her visit was paid for by a company in the town! She came with four students from the school, with the vision of bringing Christian training & lit back for all the students in the school! They've started a kind of Sunday School training in this town, & children from all the surrounding towns go there to partake of it!
Every day between classes, different individuals approached us, begging us to please come to their cities & towns, saying we're just what the people need. In almost every case they offered to pay for our transportation, to feed & accommodate us while in their city, & to have meetings all prepared for our arrival, with a hired hall & people waiting for us.
By the end of the meetings nearly everyone was very eager to take the Light they'd found back to their cities & to distribute the lit. Many also took extra class notes so that they can teach the classes to others after they return home. Some people told us that although they meet & get visits from other evangelical groups, we're the only ones who have lit for distribution, so they all want to use our lit!
We also had our second three-day Seminar in Kiev, which about 60 on-fire people attended, who were mostly young people. There we met an influential man from Armenia who took 6,000 Posters back with him to distribute in Yerevan, & who also asked us to go there to hold a Seminar!
Hunger For Our Local Language Materials!
An interesting point is that a couple of people said they originally received our address from other groups holding Christian seminars in their city! One lady from a southernmost Asian republic said she heard our address on a Christian radio program! So it seems that other Christian groups are giving out our address as a place to write to get literature & follow-up!
Lots of people were approaching us during the Seminars, asking about the possibility of getting a cassette with our songs on them. They flipped out over our music & want to spread it in their cities, as they haven't heard Christian songs like these anywhere else. We are praying & counselling about possibilities of duping cassettes of local language recordings we have made here of our songs, for DFO distribution along with a songbook.
Plans & Goals
Through these recent big Seminars we've been able to see "who's who" on our mailing list & get a clearer picture of what kind of follow-up is needed. These general meetings are certainly only the very beginning of what needs to be done. We feel that the next step should be concentrated follow-up to consolidate all the gains from these initial Seminars, & we'd like to visit &/or have meetings especially with the most potential people from these Seminars, to confirm them in the faith. We're planning a one-week training Seminar at the end of January during university holidays for the most potential people met during all the Seminars.
We also feel that it may be time to start visiting & taking our follow-up Work to other cities around the country, while at the same time continuing to establish the Work in the three main cities where we have Homes. We've received many invitations from people begging us to go to their home cities, & if we could establish little groups of believers in each of these cities, they will be able to be a real strength to one another & have much more chance of carrying on for the Lord if we had to leave the country.
Looking over the map, about 12 major cities spread from coast to coast now have "hot" contacts waiting for us! These 12 cities are all main population centers or capital cities of countries.
We're praying about sending two four-man teams (which could include some of our most potential Catacombers) to make a circuit, covering six cities each & spending about two weeks in each city, holding meetings, doing follow-up & confirming the most potential contacts!
Latest Prayer Requests!
* To be able to effectively consolidate the gains made during the December Seminars & that no sheep will be lost.
* For a large outreach flat for the Russian team where Outside Witnessers could translate, proofread, & type, to boost our lit production.
* For printing & paper contacts, as although printing is very cheap here, it's difficult to find paper, to print in the size we use, & to cut through the red tape, which can take months.
* For peace & stability. People are getting more & more upset about the conditions here, & we hear more & more talk of pending civil war. A lot of people say that what happened in Yugoslavia will happen here. The other day there was a Communist rally in Moscow where a lot of the former Communist leaders got up & made speeches, pointed out the faults of the new leaders & how there is no food in the shops, & that the people should rise up & overthrow the present leaders & install the former ones, who at least provided them with their basic necessities. Please keep the peace & stability of the area in your prayers! WLY!
—Dad's Response after Reading the Testimonies in This FSM!
DO 2740 1/92
1. We've got to strike while their hearts are hot! I was praying & crying & asking the Lord to please help those in Eastern Europe & in Russia, & I suddenly got a picture of all these hands reaching out for our literature. You could see just the hands of our people giving it out & the hands of those who were receiving it. And just as clear as anything, these words came to me in a real prayer, "Lord, You help us to give all that they can possibly receive! Help us to have it or get it & give it so that no hand will be turned away empty!" Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus!
2. So just tell our folks there to keep at it & we'll supply the ammunition! Praise the Lord! God bless those dear soldiers at the front lines! It's just really wonderful! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord! They don't even hardly have to fight to get the victory, the Lord is fighting for them! (Exo.14:14.) The Lord is really blessing that Work, & I believe this is probably the greatest thing we can do right now, to try to reach them while the door is open! PTL! I want to do whatever we can do to help. So I just told the Lord, "Lord, we'll do all we can to supply the need so that not a hand is turned away."
3. I was reading that story about the lady who came back so many times trying to get an Endtime Poster, & she finally found one all crumpled up in the trash. And she came rejoicing at the crumbs that had fallen from the Master's Table! So, let's set out the food for the hungry!
4. What we've got to do, we've got to do now!—Because only God knows how quick the door is going to shut! So, praise the Lord! As long as we're faithful & doing our best, I'm sure the Lord will keep the door open as long as necessary to reap the disciples & train them to carry on. So, let's pour it out! Amen? PTL!