So let’s watch the movie?

Last Sunday when we visited the village of Yanranai to hold the youth service we were planning to watch a movie. It was on our agenda for the last two or three weeks, but plans have been changing as they often are here. Last two Sundays we’ve been celebrating other people’s birthdays. We were promising to show this movie to the youth, so this time we thought we’ll show it. So we thought. As many people gathered around the big screen, we couldn’t quite get it started. We had a couple guests with us and so they shared a little about their life and how they came to know Christ. Fedya, one young man who made a lot of progress this summer getting closer to God couldn’t make the next step. As Andrey, our guests was sharing about his life and how he came from somewhat a similar background, Fedya was asking him a lot of questions and was sharing how he stumbled and fell many times and tried to make the next step – repent but was trying to “get ready” for it. Then Andrey asked him, “what prevents you from doing that today?” “Nothing,” he replied and we knelt down with him and prayed. He sobbed and prayed shakingly. Last Sunday we celebrated his birthday, this Sunday we celebrated his Second birthday and the movie was postponed, again, but no one seemed to be dissapointed by that. Praise God for His timing for each sould and the people that He puts in their path to bring them into His Kingdom.

First Snowmobile Ride

I was very excited for my first trip on the snowmobile to the village of Chaun. I’ve heard many stories of these extreme trips and was excited and anxious about my first trip. After a couple days of preparing and trying out the warm native clothes, the trip was postponed. The morning of our departure a strong wind picked up which lasted a couple days. When we finally went next week, it was sunny and promising warm temperatures, only – 15C or so. We took one snowmobile, the second one is in need of some repair. I was riding in the Narta, the plastic trailer box hooked up to the snowmobile. It didn’t seem bad at first, but after 30km or so, I thought I’m gonna loose my kidneys, the shaking and the bumps seemed very hard to bear. “This is just my first time and I probably have to get used to it” I thought. But when Slava pulled over and checked on me, I didn’t seem very well and he took me with him on the snowmobile. Pain has left and I could breathe normally again. We had a great two days of visits and fellowship in the village. For the road back, they prepared a more comfortable seat in the narta for me, since it’s better for just one person to ride on the snowmobile. As soon as we approached the first sharp turn, the narta dipped into a deep tracktor track and I fell off the trailer. Slava kept driving on, since he couldn’t hear me. I slowly got up and started walking on the trail, knowing that soon he’ll notice that I’m not there and turn aroud for me. Luckily it was still in the village and soon I was back on the narta.

New Beginnings

Time flew by and I am in Chukotka again! I am very excited to be here and for the first time during winter, well it’s still fall here, but there is snow everywhere, the sea is starting to freeze and everyone is wearing winter clothes. God is giving me a lot of “first” experiences. He provided me with a nice apartment, this is the first personal renting space. It requires some minor fixing, but is ok to move in. This will be my first winter in Chukotka and I already have an experience of my first winter trips. I already had the opportunity to travel by car and visit Yanranai for the weekend and anyday now we’re planning to go visit Chaun on a snowmobile with a sled. Tundra is already frozen but the rivers don’t seem to freeze completely yet. We’re praying for good freeze and to find good crossing spots. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Прекрасный Айон

Мы прилетели на Айон, и началось время удивлений! Нас встретили и провели в теплый дом с печкой и рукомойником) Накормили и показали забитый продуктами шкаф! От такого гостеприимства мы оставались в изумлении! Но это еще не все, многие узнали о нашем приезде и приносили нам разные гостинцы и рыбку) О нас заботились люди и верующие и неверующие, и знающие нас и не знающие! Там на острове они живут одной большой дружной семьей в 200 членов и помогают друг другу, а иначе никак

Первые пару дней пролетели прекрасно быстро, шумно, суетливо. И на третий день начались испытания!

Алик заболел ветрянкой, врач запретил контактировать с детьми и взрослыми, в дом тоже никого нельзя было впускать. А погода на Чукотке очень переменчивая, рассчитывать на нее нельзя. Мы переживанию где же собираться с детьми и молодежью и взрослыми. Но еще через день эта проблема была погашена новой проблемой. Пришел участковый, который запретил нам вообще проводить какие-либо собрания! В противном случае он грозился вызвать служебный самолет. Который доставит нас домой!

Тут мы приуныли...Ветрянка, запрет...что делать? Почему Бог это допускает, нам было непонятно, но мы молились и просили ясности у Господа.

Через 10 дней должно было состояться крещение, которое уже очень долго ждали. А тут такие испытания. НО это очень сплотило церковь, мы молились все выходные и в понедельник, я пошла к участковому, только начала с ним говорить, он сам перешел ближе к делу и разрешил нам собираться. Слава Господу!!!)))

Теперь оставалось только ждать пройдет ли Ветрянка до крещения. И вот 31 июля, Ветрянка была смыта Айонской водой, Господь все усмотрел и 1 августа состоялось долгожданное благословенное крещение! Крестился Герман и Лилия, Слава Богу!

Еще очень много благословений и переживаний было на этом прекрасном острове, но обо всех не напишешь!

Спасибо за ваши молитвы и вашу поддержку, в трудные минуты, осознание того, что тебя поддерживают, очень ценно, и очень важно!

- Oля Мокан

God Led Us to the Cities

There are many things unpredictable in Chukotka and one of them is that our plans are always changing and the word “plans” doesn’t always apply here. A week ago we were planning to fly out to Aion, a village on the nearby island. We had no tickets, but were hoping to get in on standby. When we came to the airport, we begged and they sold us two tickets, so not everyone could go, then at the check-in we kept asking the other lady to let all of us in, she said to go and buy tickets for the rest of the team. Long story short, with three tickets that we had on hand, no one got in because all 22 seats were full and we had to stay behind in Pevek. We waited till the helicopter took off, hoping something would happen, but not as we hoped. We came back to Pevek with good spirits, knowing God’s in charge and He has a special plan for us here in the city, and oh what a special plan it was.

God exceeded all our expectations and the opportunities that he provided us here with have overwhelmed us all. The weather was very warm in high 70’s and 80’s all week. We were able to hold events outside right in the middle of the city and attract a lot of kids and youth. Never in my previous years here, have we ran out of seating room for youth nights. Even though some teenagers that are in Pevek from other cities and villages because they’re flying out for vacation were not allowed to come to our “sect” they sneaked in at various nights. At other days, the teachers in charge of these kids would come and take their kids away and not even allow them to play with us outside. Regardless, we were always packed and had to check the kids at the door at one point if they were from Pevek or not.

Even more astounding was how open these teenagers were and they actually were talking and engaging in conversations and discussions on the topics that we led. Even after we were “convicting” when talking about alcohol, smoking, relationships, etc… they kept coming back. After one of the nights of talking about God, our testimonies of why we were coming to Chukotka, our goals in life, and more one girls asked: “How come that this ‘sect’ allowed you to meet in their building. It was a great starter for us to talk about God, religion, faith and what everybody in the city call a sect, hypnosis, money defrauding and more.

They youth was our prayer, and never before we were able to spend so much time in the cities and we see how in amazing ways God has interceded for us with His plans and we are amazed at what he’s doing through us and in our wonderful team, which no words can describe. Another miracle was Sunday’s evangelistic service, where we as a team lead the whole service. For the first time in a long time, Slava and Lera were able to sit in the back row and enjoy the service. God moved and used everyone in an amazing way and at the end of the service two more people accepted Christ. One of them was a church goer for a long time and another was a visitor from the hospital who came to Chukotka for work and got ill 4 days later and met a guy at the hospital who brought him to church that day. God is unpredictable and amazing!

Yesterday, Olya Grin, Nadya, and Diana flew out to the village of Chaun and in a week the rest of us are flying out to the village of Aion. We were the first people in line to make sure we’ll get the seats in the helicopter and after waiting for 6 for the helicopter they were finally on their way. We were sad to leave them, since we won’t see them for three weeks, but it’s the only way to cover more villages in the remaining time that we have here. In one week the rest of our team and brother Andrey, a native Christian man, will fly out to Aion for two more weeks of ministry opportunities and adventures.

"Etik" Pevek & Yanranai!

Our team has finally been united with our other teammate, Olga Mokan, after two weeks in Anadyr. She's a really great asset to already a great team as we've already ministered in Pevek and in the village of Yanranai, where we spent the weekend doing kid's and youth programs together. God has been blessing us and providing in many different ways. One of which is that we got the permission to use the local youth center, where there's a lot more room for doing our program with the kids. All but 2 kids from the village came to hear our funny and loud clown, who not only showed tricks and made kids laugh, but also told stories along the way and lead everyone in learning new songs! After one of the lessons on prayer, the kids made prayer cards. The most common prayer requests were "For my parents not to drink; That people would not drink vodka in our village; for people not to drink." The state of being drunk is a norm in the village for many young guys were coming to our events in this condition. But they still were able to talk about serious topics which showed us once again how alcohol became an accepted part of their life.Family is most important for any person and Satan knowing it, strikes right in it with the deadly weapon of alcohol. Kids seem to be suffering here the most. Friday night, a mother of Vika, was at our church service, next day she came to borrow 50 rubles from us when we were playing with kids outside. Vika was very embarrassed to see her drunk mother and ran away crying. She was avoiding us the rest of the weekend and after calling her several times she resistively came at the very end.Most importantly, we were able to follow God's direction and his leading. We had plans to do 3 youth gatherings but each time our planned program had to be postponed. Our goal was not to tell them what we had on our paper but to be sensitive to God's leading and he wanted us to hear their stories and their thoughts about life and about their relation to our coming and what it means for them. Finally on sunday night, after we've established trust and relationships with them they all came. We had great discussions, where two teams presented their opposing views about smoking, alcohol, purpose in life, and life without purpose and goal. I was pleasently surprised how much the people opened up and shared about the topics. May God continue to work in their lives, as many of them have already heard about God many times and some come from believers families.Our loving Lord has also been blessing us with great weather, it's been pleasantly warm on most days, around 70 degrees, which is very warm for this part of the world. On the days and nights in between services and programs we were able to spend more time in fellowship with the amazing Grin family and their kids. We've only been here about a week and if we're able to leave for Aion tuesday, we won't see Slava because he's gonna leave for his class session and come back most likely after we all leave Chukotka. Today we were lucky to spend a whole day with the family, where we went on a photoshoot and had a great time. We're thanking God for the opportunities he has been providing us with in serving Grin family and the people of Chukotka. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

"Surprise!" - God's blessings in Anadyr'

As we came to Anadyr two weeks ago, we knew we’d spend at least a couple weeks in this city doing ministry with Marat's family who runs the Christian café in town.  Right away we found out that the tickets to Pevek in two weeks were not available.  We were told that we might fly out on stand by and to go ahead and buy tickets to the next available flight to Pevek.  So we bought tickets not for 2 weeks from that day, or 4, but 6 weeks, July 28^th.  However, during the first day  here we gave a ride to one guy that works within the airport and Marat knows him well. We told him our tickets situation and he said that he can probably find something for us. We didn’t hear from him for a while.  Lera was able to beg for tickets for her and the kids for the next available flight, but not for us yet. Regardles, we continued doing ministry at the café. Every day we had many kids, on one day there was about 70 people in the tiny café.  It was challenging but it was great.  Many kids listened to our stories, puppet shows and skits. Quite a few parents were also thankful for what we were doing. Most surprisingly we didn’t have any problems with authorities, since we played right in the center of the city in a little park in front of the city’s administration building. Marat was expecting that any day someone could come and give us issues.  More so we had a kid whose both parents worked for the police come to our kid’s club as well.After six days of kid’s club, we thought it was time to do something with the youth. Last Sunday was national youth day, a perfect opportunity to do an event. We were not sure what exactly or how to do it. The girls were brave enough to walk the streets, since it was warm outside and many youth were out at the city’s concert, and invite whoever they saw.  There was a big rock concert on the main stage downtown that was heard almost around the city.  There was a lot of screaming and loud music. It was the same band that was having a concert the first Sunday when we did the Kid’s Club opening celebration outside.  Interestingly though, our girls ran into the guys of the band after their concert and invited them too.  There were many visitors that night, even though there was  a dance that all the youth usually goes to. To our surprise the “rockers” came too, well two of them and a wife of one.  We had a great time of fellowship and we knew God had a plan to bring those people in there.  They were very simple and open guys, we really loved them and it was not what one could expect of them. We kind of prejudged them by the hard music we heard them playing.  The lead singer sang us some of his songs, even though it was hard for him to sing with an acoustic guitar, then we sang some of our songs, at the end they were singing “New Jerusalem” songs with us and really enjoyed them. The lead singer knew some English and shared a phrase that he knew: “What’s the point of your existence?” After that moment God moved me to build on that phrase and share about my life and who I am, who God is in my life and wished them to be able to answer that same question and not wait the whole life trying to figure out the point of their existence.

Next night, no one was showing up for about an hour, but then Igor, the band leader, came and brought two of his other band members, who had many piercings. They turned out to be really simple and cool couple that we had a great time with. At the end of the night we were exchanging emails and phone numbers. They guys have a lot of musical talent and we pray that one day the band we’ll be praising God in Anadyr and in the whole Chukotka.  We were so amazed at the opportunity to get this close to this band, since they are very famous in the city and among the young people.  We had other interesting people come to our youth nights. Many youth from local pentacostal and charismatic church, and even a pastor from the local orthodox church. We didn’t even relize who he was until he told us at the end, after we played some funny games with him. He was very simple and open to talking with us and was the last guy to leave after our last youth night. He seems like a very good and genuine person, really liked us and what we do. 

Another great surprise today was that it was the last day before the upcoming flight to Pevek on June 30^th, for which we didn’t have tickets yet and didn’t hear anything from that guy. Marat called him today but couldn’t get a hold of him. I asked Marat to go to the ticket desk and check, what if he already had pulled everything through for us? At first the lady told me that nothing was available yet, I told her that someone was supposed to get the tickets for us, she called double checked and said that there were four tickets for foreigners! It’s us, I exclaimed!  Later we called, and thanked that guy about our tickets. God never has anything that’s just a coincidence, and the time we gave that guy a ride, was in His plan.Pray for a safe transfer over the lake/river thing from Anadyr to the airport and our flight to Pevek and ministry there. Thank you all! 

According to His Plan

Our team has been eager to get over to Chukotka  as soon as possible, but God had other plans.  Our pilots didn’t get their permits even when it was promised to be there already by the time we get to Alaska. So we got to spend a couple days in the mountains in a small village, resting, bonding, and enjoying God’s great nature and His presence all around us including the generous Alsworth family for hosting us.  This little retreat was a special gift from God to us, we felt very special and indeed we needed some rest before our trip.Two days later we received the word.  “Glen’s flying out in 30 min” some man woke me up at 7am.  Soon we were in Anchorage, met Larry, our other pilot who came to take us to Russia. Soon we were on our way to Anadyr,  the capital of Chukotka.  Because of the 2 day delay we missed our flight to Pevek, where one of our teammates Olga Mokan, was already waiting for us, we knew we’ll spend about 2 weeks ministering in Anadyr. God’s blessings were evident all around us, smooth flight to Russia, smooth transition with the border guards, they even forgave us for the enormous amount of overweight,  and some other guy offered to help us with the bags up to the barge, we had to have 3 cars take all of us with our bags.So it was Thursday, June 17^th, we were in Anadyr, and started planning how we can serve Marat and help him in his ministry, who runs a Christian Café in town, if not the only one in the whole Russia.  Sunday would be our Grand Opening of Kid’s Club, that we would run in the café every night the following week.  The Grand Opening would be at the main park in the center of the city. The girls passed out “balloon invitations” to the kids around town and the word spread quickly. We were anxious about weather, which has been cloudy and windy and rainy at times.  It was dry for all of Saturday and Sunday before our event, except it was windy.  A few minutes before the official start, as I was getting dressed up into my clown suit, it started raining hard. There were already many kids outside.  We quickly prayed for the rain to stop so that the kids would stay and we’d have a great kick off and many kids would come to our clubs. To my surprise the rain didn’t stop for the whole event, but the kids didn’t leave. The rain didn’t seem to bother them, so we did our program, or most of it and it was a great time under the rain. The kids are desperate for attention and loved us and the program. It was neat to see how one girl after about 2 hours or so was giving hugs to the girls on our team.We already had the club for two nights in a row. There was about 45 kids present and some adults. The Café was packed and we had a great time.  The kid’s loved the program, games, the funny clown, Nadya, and a puppet show.  We’ll be holding these clubs every night at the Café. Today it seems like the weather finally got better, it’s sunny outside and very pleasant.

The tickets to Pevek for the 30^th of June and July 14^th are sold out, or not available, but we pray and know that our Almighty God has a way.