bringing Life to Big City life

Greetings everyone from one of the world's most expensive cities to live, Moscow. Where you will not see more Mercedes Benz this side of Stuttgart Germany. You won’t see more luxury sky rise apartment under construction anywhere. You won’t see more shopping malls this side of southern California, or this side of the world. There are over 170 metro subway stations in Moscow and they are determined to build monster sized malls at almost every stop. Moscow is a fast city moving faster. Why am I telling you all of this? Because I have not written in a while and I needed something to write about. Really, Moscow is a great city to be a Christian, there are so many great ministry opportunities here. Everything has been going fine with the church. I had to leave the country at the 6th month mark two weeks ago. It is required by law that foreigners leave the county every 6 months and get a new immigration card. I’m thankful to the Russian government for this law because it gives me an opportunity to take a short excursion across the border. I traveled with Dale, another missionary (many of you know him) to the city of Kiev in the Ukraine. It was the first time I had been there, and found it to be a beautiful city, or should I say village, only 3 million people, compared with Moscow upwards of 14 million. It was interesting to see how they are doing and it seems they are moving along well. We were able to see the tent city in the center of town as they await the outcome of the future government. I must say they are well organized and the camp was very orderly. Calvary Chapel has a very healthy church in Kiev and has planted numerous churches in Ukraine. The Ukrainian language is very similar to Russian and so it was easy to move around in the city. Oh, by the way that is where Chicken Kiev came from and yes, we tried it. The prices on food and transportation, and housing were delightfully less than in Moscow.

I just finished the Ken Ham “Answers in Genesis” on C.D. that took place at my home church CC Modesto. Perhaps we will do a mini one and a half day Answers in Genesis type of meeting. It is as much for the believer as it is for the non-believer.

God has been so good to His church here in Sokol. We have seen the Lord answer many of our prayer requests. We will be planning another prayer retreat for November.

Please pray for Chas, He is the young man from Africa. He lost one lung to T.B. and the other lung is healing very slowly. The doctor told him that he can not continue to take the medication for the T.B. because it is affecting his heart and liver. Chas needs a miracle. Only God can bring him through this. Chas really should have died according to him while he was in prison. Out of all the men that were in the prison T.B. hospital, Chas is the only one that survived. I believe God has a great plan for Chas. Also pray for Dr. Tom, many of you know him, and we have worked together for about 7 years. Tom needs to have hip replacement surgery. Tom is in a lot of pain but he will never let you know. He has been seeking an operation for about one year.

Update on Geno, I am able to talk with him once a week, and he is doing great under the circumstances. God is using him, and his prison church is growing. Please, if you remember, pray for Geno and the work God has called him to in the prison.

Look forward to meeting with some of you in September when I come home visit. God Bless you and what God is doing in your life. dean