Hi dear, praying friends!

            This month has been crazy and God has been good.  The devil countered attacks and God took the victory. As I have mentioned before every Friday Kali (my roommate till December), one of the girls from my Bible study, and I go to the hospital to play with the children in the leukemia ward.  A few Friday’s ago a Russian Orthodox lady went ballistic on us.  She had found out we went to a protestant church, which in Russia is nearly equivalent to being a Mormon.  Although, we actually go to the hospital as volunteers from the young Rotary Club.  She told Lena, the girl with us that week, that we were a cult, that she was going to have us kicked out of the hospital if we came back, have our church shut down, we were wolves in sheep’s clothing, and that children were dieing b/c we were coming.  Lena was in tears, but her ranting continued.  A similar, but not so dramatic, situation happened at the university I teach at.  These attacks coming at once led to some stress, but I knew if God opened the door He was surely mighty enough to keep it open.  My team and many others began to pray hard.  As my pastor advised, the next week we went to hospital with one of the officers from Rotary.  She told us that she had secured permission for us to be there from the highest authority in the hospital.  God kept the troublesome woman from returning.  Lena had the opportunity to apply what we read together in discipleship that week by returning to the hospital and not being afraid of those who opposed her.  Praise our powerful God!

            I am really excited about my classes in the university.  This semester as I prayed for my classes I was really convicted by God to make sure I talked about Him every period.  Russian culture and religion teaches that God and Jesus are not to be talked about, but a private matter.  Most of the ideas that the students have about Christ are very kewed and they have no idea their eternity hinges on their beliefs about Him.  Each class period I pray their ideas move a bit closer to right, so that when they are presented the gospel(which hopefully I or another believer will get to share with them soon) it will all makes sense and they will be able to accept it.   I know at least they are hearing the thoughts.  The other day in class I asked them the question “Who is your favorite person?”  They answered in a broad array from movie stars to their mom and then asked the question to me.  I started to tell about my wonderful family when one student asked “Why is it not Jesus?”  I was a bit shocked, but realized he was totally right and he opened the door to get to tell the class all the reasons Jesus is my favorite person alive, even though not walking on the earth todayJ

Love and Blessing!

Christy

First, absolutely praise the Lord for fixing my atm problem!  It was so amazing.  At the end of Bible Study Monday my application was to meditate on one of God's attributes daily.  Tuesday I was thinking about how is the Provider.  On that same day I received an email from my bank in America saying that they had credited my account w/ the money i never received and would get in touch w/ the atm operators and have the problem fixed!  God is good! 

I made "Louisiana Borsch"  for my friends Sunday night!  Borsch is the main food/soup eaten here everyday by Russians, so they are much less leery of my "American" food if i put Borsch in the title:)  Monday night Bible study rocked!  There were so many girls here; both believers and unbelievers.  I am esp. excited about 2 of the girls that came that I haven't seen in a long time.  One is Sabina and the other is Lilia.  Lilia, who doesn't believe yet, realized at Bible study that there is a difference b/w believers and unbelievers and decided to start asking around to ppl what they thought about being a real believer!  Julia was here also.  I am really excited b/c she is still continuing to read her Bible daily after returning from America and some of the hype wearing off.  Today I went to the park with Nadiya.  She has really been struggling b/c she doesn't "feel" like praying, going to church, reading the Word, etc..  Today the feeling returned, praise the Lord.  We discussed Psalms 119 together and i hope she will soon begin to understand faith and perseverance now that she is willing to read the Bible again.

Shest Leva!  (Happy Wishes)

This is where i buy my eggs!  They are my  new favorite food!  The sign says "Fresh Eggs"

  MaKayla's 1st day of school!  It is Russian tradition to wear those big white bows:) 

  Did i tell yall my best friend, les, had a baby while i was home.  baby eva.  she is super cute with strawberry colored hair!  Sleepover!  (L to R) Ksenya, Kali, Alina,    Katia, Lena, me

The most exciting thing that happened this week is kali and i got to share with about 25 students at the PED university!  They kept asking us questions for a whole hour! i have never shared with a group that long and esp one that stayed interested:) God is so great to open doors!  The worst thing that happened this week is the ATM messed up and charged me for lots of money it never actually gave me!  i'll let you know how it works out.  (i am sure fine, but your prayers would be appreciated:) 

my supervisor wants me to communicate more about what i am doing.  i don't see him much, so i decided to e-mail him weekly.  i decided to post it too, b/c ppl like my mom probably want to read it, but my feelings won't be hurt if you don't want to read it, b/c the highlights are at the top.

On Monday I taught and had girls Bible study.  There were 3 girls Masha, Lena, and Nastiya.   We studied Ps 119 and all that the Word did in David's life.  I was inspired:) The Word revives!  We talked about music this week for club and in class.  I printed the words to John Mayers song "Daughters."  Would you believe not one person in all my classes had heard of Mayer and they all listen to american music.  We discussed how important friends are and also why Mayer compared the daughter's dad to God.  Some kids are so afraid to talk about God they could not even answer simple questions on what characteristics of a fathers role are like God's characteristics.  Building those mailboxes in their minds, so they can digest more info:)  On Tuesday I met with Nadiya and discussed the issues she was having in following the Lord and latter got to hang out with Masha from the PED who is opening her dorm room up for B-study in oct.  Wednesday was the first RAF at the PED and lots of fun b/c they asked questions about God for an hour!  They were challenging questions.  They especially wanted to know how God was different from any other thing that gives peace.  I think He is differnt b/c He is a faith and not just a feeling.  The faith stands even when feelings are missing.  Then met w/ Katia and Lena for d-ship.  They are so on fire and sharing with everyone!  The day ended w/ chai and bleni w/ Julia and Galia.  Thursday was the first RAF at the railroad university.  We had about 20 students.  Friday kali, ksenya, and i went to the hospital.  The little kids made finger puppets and we played uno w/ the older ones.  That is about it:)

  Fall has come and it is so gorgeous here!  It is so exciting to get to see all the season's in their full array.  Winter does last the longest, but we get a good view of each season.  I started teaching this week!  I did not remember how much I love my students and how fun they are (but i do hope you will pray for me to love them more)!  This week in class we set goals.  I had to explain the difference b/w a goal and a fantasy:)  Also, we got 2 english clubs on the books and have just one to go!  It is great to be around so many students again and to have more opportunities to be a witness to them.

Julia got back from america!  She had me over for pig (really pork, but it is hard for them to remember all the meat names...i understand b/c i have the same problem in russian:) and showed me  her pictures.  She had a zillion pictures of , in her words, "beautiful american guys."   the guys were believers and she had a picture of a couple of them sitting around reading their Bibles.  she wants to show the russian guys what cool american guys do:)