Divine appointment

Tonight after our Bible study, I stopped by a store to get some groceries. As I walked around looking for things, a lady came up to me quickly and asked for a mirror. A mirror??? In a store??? Why would somebody need a mirror in a grocery store??? Well of course there’ can be many reasons why, and especially for a woman, but I could not think of any. I guess, I looked so puzzled that the lady said, “I need to look in a mirror, because I’ve returned to the store after I already bought things and to return means bad luck.” She asked me again if I had even a small mirror, then realizing that I cannot be of any help for her she walked away mumbling, “It is a bad luck, I need a mirror.”
I’ve met superstitious people before and it’s very common here to spit three times over left shoulder if a black cat walked across the path or if a person whistles to let him know that he will whistle all his money out (Dean got in trouble with this one). Or not to give even amount of flowers, because it means death or something, and so on and so forth.
Today, however I’ve realized how bad it can get, so bad that it becomes bondage to a person who believes all that stuff. I felt really sorry for this lady and I immediately remembered that I have a copy of “Living water” with me, which was in my handbag for a longest time and a few times I wanted to give it away, but it never happened . I knew I had to give it to this lady. She already went trough the cashier and as she was exiting the store, I held out the booklet to her with the words “This is better than a mirror.”
To be honest I was a little afraid of the reaction, because last time a tried to do the same thing and give the booklet to a man who was asking for money, he yelled at me “Are you from a sect, I do not need this kind of stuff, go away!!!”
So the lady took the booklet and I was about to walk away and continue my shopping when she asked me for my phone number. I was blown away, she was so open. I asked for hers too and told her that I will pray for her. So would you please join me in prayer for this lady, her name is Ludmila and she is in a desperate situation. She told me about her son who is a hard drinker, demanding money from his mother. Ludmila said that last time when she did not give it to him; he tried to commit suicide by cutting his veins, So please pray for him too and also that the Lord would help me and use me in this. Thank you and may He bless your today. Natasha

Mission trip to America

Hello everyone from sunny California (sorry my beloved Moscowvites). After staying up for about 50 hours I arrived in San Francisco at 10:00 in the evening of the same day I took off from Moscow. I gained one day!!! Today I just got back from the Northern and Central California's pastors conference which was for 3 days at the beautiful retreat center Mt. Herman. No not in Israel but in the Santa Cruz Mountains here in Northern California. It was amazing that I ran into so many people that I had met in Moscow over the last 7 years that had taken short term missionary trips. Jeff, and Rich from CC Grass Valley who came on the trip when Pastor Chuck Smith visited Moscow 3 years ago. Terry and his wife, Dave Johnston who is now pastor of CC Santa Cruz, Manny, Matt who is now a Pastor, all who came to Moscow with CC San Jose 6 years ago. Dan who is from CC Weed California who came to the Russian Men's Conference 2 years ago. Mark Piester, who stays with Dale when he does his winter and summer youth camps here in Russia. Mark came with his Pastor who was here and did outreach in Tver (Russia) with his band. He is the Pastor of CC Marrow Bay. Rob Nash who is a friend of Russia, and who has been here many times. I'm going to visit him in Southern California. The teaching was awesome and it was a great encouragement for me personally. My home church CC Modesto organized the conference and Jeff and Franz did a great job. CC Modesto also did all the worship and it was wonderful. And as always I had a great time with my pastor!! It was so encouraging to see so many of the people that have come to visit us in Moscow are serving the Lord. I have many opportunities to share what the Lord is doing in our church. So many people are interested in what is going on here in Russia. So many people are praying for our fellowship, it is so encouraging. Friday I will be speaking to the singles at our church. I may have a few words to speak about the single life, its one of the few areas that I have had the most experience in. Hope to see many of you that may read our blog site while I'm home. God Bless you, dean

New address and our life in a new place

Just want to give you our new address, in case you want to visit us. It is metro Sokol (still:-) Chapaievskiy pereulok, 12, second floor, room 141 and in Russian it is Чапаевский переулок, дом 12, 2 этаж, комната 141. Our new place is right across the largest apartment building in Europe “Triumph palace”. Here is the picture so you just get an idea.

Monday
On early Monday morning, Dean flew to the States, so now all of you who read this blog from that side of the world, California in particular, have a pleasure to meet Dean and fellowship with him for the next month and a half. That’s fine, we’ll try not be jealous, I mean, we really really have to try, but we’ll not be jealous!!!!:-[
Monday night Dale begun teaching on the book of Psalms and it was an incredible encouragement to those who was able to come.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, we sent off our missionary to Washington D.C., Olga. She is going to be working there at least until January. The beginning of her move was a bit rough; as she was going through the customs; her luggage was checked to and fro, then she had to take some things out because one of her suitcases was overweight and she was unable to pay for it since there was not much time left before the departure. After all, her stuff got lost somewhere between New York and Dallas. She is a little discouraged right now, so, please pray for Olga as she is trying to adapt to a new place and to find and plug in to a new church that solidly teaches the Word.

Wednesday
This Wednesday we had a worship night and it turned out to be a beautiful evening. It was so sweet just to worship the Lord together and quiet our hearts before Him. Vova shared a little from Psalm 31 (32 in English) and we took a few moments to pray. I am really looking forward to what the Lord is going to do through these services.
Please keep us in prayer as we continue to follow our great Shepherd, Jesus.
God bless you! Natasha

Latest news

Hello everyone, greetings from Moscow. Tomorrow is the 859 birthday of Moscow old.We have had rain all week but the mayor has promised to seed the clouds and chase them away as there will be an amazing 2,000 concerts going on throught the city.Well it has been almost a month since we were asked to leave our 11 year church location. But last week we found a hall in a hotel close to where we were meeting.We had our first Sunday service there last Sunday and it was a wonderful time. It is a little small for our needs but it is a peaceful place and the management have welcomed us. It is interesting that the Hotel is owned by the army. We are able to use the hall 4 times a week and so we will be returning to our regular schedule. I'm so thankful the Lord opened up the opportunity so quickly to find a new location especially as I'm retuning for 6 weeks to California. It will make my trip a lot more enjoyable knowing we have a place to worship. During the last of our Sunday outdoor services in the park, which would have been two weeks ago, I was a bit discouraged. It looked like it was going to rain any minute. The best place in the park to have the service had 2 men that were drinking and were under that influence. We could hardly chase them off. I still remember that popular acronym WWJD. But one by one people begun to show up. Yuri was at our old location directing people to the park. One man called me on my cell phone trying to find us in the park. He and his family had gone to the old location and were directed to the park. As I went out to the street to meet them it was a great surprise to find it was Ilya and Zalina former worship leaders at the church of Sokol. They had moved to the USA before I moved to Russia. It was such a timely visit as they joined our outdoor service and did worship for our communion service. The Lord encouraged me so much that day, He turned the circumstances completely around and we did not get one drop of rain. God did the cloud seeding that day and gave us a great service.

We are settled for the moment and it will give us time to find a location where we can better serve our community. A place where we can have the church open 7 days a week. Almost every building has a basement, they are huge and most have natural light and they even have kitchen. Please pray for the Lord's guidance.

On Monday I will be traveling home, and I look forward to seeing many of you once again. Please pray for Natasha, Vova, and all those that will serve in my absence. The Lord is doing a wonderful thing in our fellowship. God Bless and see most of you soon!! dean "The Lord has done great things!!!"