Greetings from the Church here in Russia! For the last few weeks, our team has been going to churches in the communities north of Krasnoyarsk. Our main goal has been to "raise flags" for the pastors our here. Sadly, many Russians have been taught to believe that the church (Baptist, here) is a cult. So by our Canadian team coming, it draws people in to hear the truth about God and you aren't crazy to be a part of the Church. Many first seeds have been planted.

At first our team was kind of discouraged that we weren't seeing people come to accept the Lord as Saviour, but we are seeing Russians become thirsty, and believe that many will come to accept Christ. Today, we heard about the first two! Praise the Lord. 71 other people from this church asked to be "followed up." So many testimonies that we've heard have involved either alchohol, or the occult, and how God brought them out of this. Please pray for people to be released from this trap that Satan uses.

Culturally, out team has had a few experiences. A few are: eating sala (salted pigs fat), drinking tea at least 4 times a day (I miss cold water!), making blini (crepes with cottage cheese in them (mmmm, Russian food rocks!), seeing ice sculptures (their new years celebration which is bigger than Christmas). We also have had our moments of miscommunication. The worst probably happened during a program. The crowd was lacking energy, so I got everybody up for a quick time of "stretch it". I popped it on Rhys unexpectedly. One stretch that he did with his arm across his body, apparently was the equivalent to giving the finger here in Canada. With out realising it, we were swearing at our audience...oops!

I think one of my favorite places we have been so far is a town called Dubinina. It was here that God really began giving me a love for the people here and the thought went through my mind many times, "I'm going to be leaving part of my heart here." It's amazing what God can do in only a few short days of being in a town. I feel socially and emotionally drained right now, but at the same time, joy. Pray for the people of this town. Many Christians are new, but the church seems to be growing stronger than other communities we were in. This is the same town where 71 people asked to be followed up. Pray specifically for a girl I met named Katya. I met her after a program at a school where we could nor preach the gospel (we do many programs like this). I invited her to our evening program and despite her mom's resistance, she still came. I' pretty sure she has social and mental disabilities and does't seem to receive much love. After the program she was in tears and I went to her and hugged her. I felt God saying, "just love her", and that IS one this that we can communicate NO MATTER THE CULTURAL BARRIER! Praise God! Well, obviously, I've got to save some stories for some other time, so I'll leave you hanging. May God truly bless and encourage you as you celebrate His birth!

Spogam (God bless) Janelle