Mira's testimony and a new Jewish fellowship

Following is a testimony of Mira Grachiova, who is serving with Jews for Jesus ministry as well as her story about the beginning of new Jewish fellowship in the Northern part of Moscow called Mitino. It is a blessing to work together with Mira and to be a part of the Lord 's work among Jewish people. I hope you will enjoy reading it. Natasha

"The birth of a new Jewish church in Moscow (Mitino)! It is really "the birth of new" and really Jewish! Ten Jewish believers that were born by the JFJ ministry formed the core of the church. It completed the 7th year of my ministry with JFJ and the 8th year of my knowledge of the Lord. All glory be to You, Living God of Israel!
Though the services so far have been conducted in my small room, 7-8 Jewish people praise the Lord in the new church with joy, and the Lord again and again adds new Jews!
How did everything start? When you fly through your life and don't notice days, or months, or even years, it's sometimes helpful to stop and look back in order to see and try to realize how the Lord is working. Only the 7th year of my ministry with JFJ is ending, but the Lord had been preparing me for it for my whole life. He led me the way of Joseph.
My mom passed away when I was 16 years old, and I became child who had lost both parents. Then, after 21 years of good family life, my husband betrayed me. During all that time, both in joy and in sorrow, my God was with me, who didn't know Him! I would tell myself during my difficult, but rich life, "Someone has been protecting me." I was so stupid and my mind was dulled with the Soviet atheism, godlessness that I even didn't think about Who was holding me by the hand and leading through the life's tests. It is such a great happiness to know now the One whose name is Love.
I was an astronomer by profession, and I worked as a programmer, but suddenly, I became enthusiastic about school and kids, and I became a teacher. It wasn't just a school where I taught kids; it was a great God's school where the Lord Himself taught me to love the kids with
the sacrificial love. He taught me not to encroach on the free will of "my kids", but to love them, at the same time remembering about strictness and exactingness, you can't teach them otherwise. He taught me to devote all my heart and all my time to the favorite job. Unbelieving parents would tell me, an unbeliever, "You are a teacher from God!" At the very peak of my career, the Lord showed me very clearly, that one candle burned out, and a new one was lit: I underwent my first and the most difficult JFJ campaign (St. Petersburg), I came out with broadened heart, saying that God was alive and He stood next to me(!) and I ... left my school and my students, and went to serve with JFJ, shocking to many people by that, even my daughters, who decided that their mom's gone crazy.
My earthly school was a wonderful place where the Lord melted my heart, and I have many times recalled with gratitude the training that the Lord conducted with me, who didn't know Him yet. I was carried away, and I carried away my students. I taught them to work with joy and admire the beauty of mathematics. Those very qualities helped me in my work with my adult students. I was in the Lord for just one year and I thought myself as I was teaching them. I was overfilled with the Living God, I "ate" His Living Word, and infected everything around me with His life. People that were looking for life began to gather to me seeing His light! We saw films, listened to sermons on cassettes, but the main thing is that we studied His Word. I don't know when exactly the Bible group was started, but once Galya Barbanel said, "We wanted to start our group, but the Lord started His group," and suddenly everyone saw that "the born baby" was already growing and getting stronger. Thus, our studies gained the status of Bible studies. And then there were years and years of struggle for people: prayers, phone calls, talks.
.... Can I describe this? Those are all my reports for these years, and so many things remained unwritten... We began to celebrate Jewish holiday services and now 60 people gather, but n the beginning it was so difficult to gather even 5-6 people... Before, and sometimes now, I often lose heart because of tiredness and exhaustion, and I think, "I cannot abase myself anymore before these vain people ... But again and again, being prompted by the Holy Spirit, I keep knocking to hearts. My kids grew and began to receive the water baptisms. We faced a serious issue of church where they could be all together. Once, I almost accidentally received addresses of Calvary Chapels in Moscow, and I forgot about all them. Suddenly, in a year, I remembered about them and came to one of the pastors, Dean, and right away understood that I found the church where I could bring my Jews.
Later, we began inviting Dean to our holiday services and studies. He became our pastor long before we began to call ourselves a church. My precious students keep growing in the Lord; to tell the truth, they don't grow as fast as I'd like them to; they prepare holiday services with me, make phone calls to people, learn how to receive by giving..., but it's often difficult for me with them, as all of them are 55-80 years old. I pray God for a helper and for a room, as so far all services have been conducted in my tiny apartment, and all the ministry of Martha has been on me. I'm very grateful to Maxim (the branch leader) and Anya (our former administrator) for taking the worship on them. I trust in the Lord and believe that He will be glorified through His work, the Jewish church in Moscow, in its distant district of Mitino! Praise the Lord that His love and mercy is enough for each person. Be blessed, God of Israel!"