First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your prayers, my dear friends. It seems that during our invisible but tangible friendship, not only has the material climate changed in our family, but also the spiritual climate has changed considerably. Of course, we as a family are far from perfection, and we are worthless compared to our Lord Jesus Christ. However, it seems that despite all our shortcomings we have grown in godliness as a family. Our spiritual authority has increased. People receive our words carefully and seriously. At the same time religious pompousness is gradually vanishing, while both our ministry and our life has been filled with simplicity, freedom and the power of the Gospel. I ascribe all the blessings that are experienced by my family and our church (in our walk with the Lord) to God’s care through the prayers of all the saints who really pray for us. I don’t know exactly where, but I know exactly that they do pray.
It has become easier and more joyful for me to discipline myself and to constantly reflect on the Scriptures, to lead my family in worship, to preach and be bold in preaching and even to receive criticism. Most importantly, however, I have been encouraged in my faith and trust in Christ and His eternal and faithful Word.
By God’s grace and according to His plan we held a camp for kids in the beginning of June. Different children attended the camp. There were kids of all the members of our church including children from families with single mothers. There were two sons of Pastor Gavrilov Sergey, who passed away recently. There was a thirteen-year-old daughter of my colleague who is an unbeliever. There was a boy from an unbelieving family.
We had a real Christian camp. We lived in tents, cooked over fire, reflected on God’s Word and sang, tried to save ourselves from mosquitos with the help of fire and depended on God and His salvation when a small hurricane fell upon us. Every day we did morning exercises. In the afternoon we played soccer, basketball, did air gun shooting and gave kids presents. The motto of this camp was a time tested proposition by Jonathan Edwards, “RESOLVED”. The atmosphere of the camp was very spiritual. It had three main topics: A Praying Man, A Spiritually Courageous Man, and The Gospel of the Cross – the Incarnation of God’s Wisdom. We opened our camp with a reflection on Proverbs 9 – God’s wisdom and worldly wisdom. I preached repentance and faith, and encouraged children to come only to Christ. Even some of the adults repented of their sins. I personally spoke to children and heard their testimonies. Their hearts were greatly influenced by the Gospel; many of them had a strong desire to give their lives to Christ and the wisdom of His Cross.
Then our church had a very important and special meeting. We went to a picturesque place where a young family from our church lives. We took communion together, ate meat, swam in the river and preached God’s Word to men and women about how God builds up His church through godly husbands and wives.
Right now, as a church, we are giving special attention to hospitality and preaching to unbelievers.
Please, pray that I would have constancy in the disciplines of godliness, in serving the souls of my wife Liana, and my children, David and Angelina. Please be in prayer for an unbeliever whose name is Yura Groshev.
Grace to you in Christ!
Andrey
