October 2011
Please Pray Earnestly for Sergei Golovin
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
We are passing on to you a prayer request from our good friend and co-worker in the gospel, Sergei Golovin, which we received on September 24th. (See below).
When Sergei requests prayer for his health, we can know that the condition is serious. Several years ago when he picked me up early on a Saturday to go to team teach church planters about creation evangelism at their training center near Feodocia, I noticed something was bothering Sergei. When I asked him about it, he simply said, “I’m not feeling well.” Later that day he had emergency surgery because his gall bladder was about to burst.
Sergei’s message 9-24-11
“Dear Brethren,
I had a hypertension exacerbation in St. Petersburg yesterday – the hardest since the attack I had 8 years ago in Donetsk. Olga has canceled my Monday return ticket and booked the one for yesterday night instead. The only thing I was able to do is a library books delivery brief orientation on the evangelism strategies development with a couple of youth leaders.
I am back home now. My Wednesday ride to Kursk and Voronyesh is under the consideration now. I do understand that this is a sign from the Lord that I have to slow down with my teaching/training travels and to be more focused on supervising others doing this. Nevertheless I still have a lot of commitments for this year. Please keep my health and our plans in your prayers.
Yours by the grace of Jesus,
Sergei”
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We have been praying often and earnestly for Sergei, and we shared the request with those of you on our email mailing list, and several sent replies that they were praying for him. Below is an update from him from a personal email message to us and from his September report, which arrived early in October.
Sergei’s message 9-29-11
“Dear Rick and Della,
Thank you so much! I am so deeply touched by care and prayers of you and of your prayer chain.
I feel good, but a little bit…’cheated’ -Olga sold me to a clinic as a guinea pig, and the doctors have their fun with me now. Nothing found so far.
Any way, meanwhile we decided to cancel all trips for next three weeks – to retreat, have some rest and regroup. We were talking for a while about shifting the focus for training young servants of God more. God gave us a sign: it’s time to stop talking and to start doing it. I praised the Lord for having fellow-workers on His field like you are!
Yours by His grace
Sergei”
From Sergei’s September Report:
“I highly appreciate all your prayers and advices on my health conditions. The check-up did not find any problems – I just got the message from God that this is time to change the pace of life, and from the doctors that this is time to change the medication.
The sign from the above is clear: we should talking less about the need to train young people for ministry, and do it more! During the year we were hesitating to refuse any speaking invitations recently (unless they are conflicting in time), since all of them are great opportunities, but our schedule became too hectic again as a result. We have to be more selective in future and focus on training the youth.
Actually, God leads us already in that direction by the cooperation with a Ukrainian branch of Commonwealth International University in ‘Impact’ project – a small (so far) group of young devoted folks who is getting a secular trade (“tent making” skills to be a self-supporting when necessary) and in the same time getting a special training as missionaries. I had an introductory class with them on the evangelism biblical strategy right before leaving for St.Peterburg. Please pray for this initiative development – God shaped that program right in time!”
Perhaps you will remember how I reported a few months ago about Sergei’s answer to my question, “What is the most courageous thing you have ever done in your life?” Since Sergei is an adventurous man’s man who served in the military and who gave up both his doctorate and his job with the university, rather than agreeing to compromise with the administration when they told him to stop sharing his faith and creationist views, it surprised me when he said, “This project I’ve taken on! (Providing children’s books about creation science for parents to train their children at home.) This is a huge, multi-thousand dollar project far beyond his budget, but he said that if we don’t reach the next generation of Russian-speaking youth with the truth, we will lose them. Della and I believe that the stress of this huge project, coupled with his hard-driving time schedule, contributed immensely to his hypertension attack. Please pray for God to send the funds, and if He whispers in your ear to personally respond, please listen and obey. We realize that many of you are stressed yourselves, but I also realize that even in our down-turned economy, Americans still have far more abundance than most of the rest of the world. Perhaps God will give you an idea about how to raise money to send – like cleaning out your closet and garage for a yard sale. Please think and pray about it with the question, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Also pray for Sergei to rest in the Lord and cast all his cares upon Him.
For our regular donors, who are already stretching and giving to Overseas Outreach besides your local church, this is not written to stress you. Relax in His love and grace. Also receive His wonderful blessings, for Jesus said, “Give and to you will be given – good measure, shaken down, running over.” Luke 6:38.
Another Important Prayer Request We Received
“I have a prayer request. There’s a lady I’ve known forever. She’s very sick. On top of that, she’s being abused by those she has given everything to. Lies about her abound, and seem to come from all sides. Just breaks my heart. Seems there’s nothing I can do alone. But , if we join in and lift her up together we can heal her. She’s well over 200 years old, but way too young to die. Her name is America… and I love her.”
Thank God for Ruslan and Sharyn!
On Saturday, September 24th, I had opportunity to teach two classes on “Committed to the Word” at the Men’s Retreat near Fairfield, Idaho, and by the time I arrived home that evening, Ruslan and Sharyn Borodin with their beautiful little daughters, Gloria (6) and Emily (4) were already at our home visiting with Della and playing in the yard. On Sunday they shared their testimonies and a mission presentation with Heritage Christian Church in Emmett in the morning and at Victory Christian Church in Nampa in the evening. Sharyn grew up in northern Idaho near Priest Lake and first went to Ukraine 15 years ago with a “Youth with a Mission” team, where she met Ruslan, who was serving as an interpreter. I met them on my first trip to Ukraine at the Family Festival when they were an engaged couple. This September they celebrated their 10th anniversary in Idaho near her home. They are still serving with YWAM and teaching “Ancient Paths” seminars to couples (principles of godly marriage and parenting). They are fund-raising with their 50/20 project – if 50 couples or individuals give $20 per month, that will cover the shortfall in their budget. If God speaks to your heart about this, let us know and we will put you in touch with them. They inspired us, touched lives, and stole hearts at both congregations. We thank God for their work in Ukraine.
We have lived in southern Idaho many years (Boise and Nampa) and have often heard how beautiful the scenery is in northern Idaho near the Canadian border, but we’ve never yet been there. Now we have the invitation from Ruslan and Sharyn. Following is the letter we received from them after they got back home.
“Hi Rick and Della,
First we want to say how much we enjoyed being guests in your home this past weekend! We enjoyed every part, and were so blessed with the wonderful churches we had opportunity to get to know! What a blessing! We hope that we’ll be able to come again next year, and see everybody again then!
Rick, as I shared with you on the phone, we are excited with the opportunity to be teaching a missions class in Word of Life Bible Training Center. The vision of this ministry is to train, mentor, and disciple the people of Eastern Washington and North Idaho to ‘Know God and Make Him Known. (http://www.wolbtc.org/) The class we are teaching is called “The DNA of Missions Today.” Please take a closer look at the web site that is listed above.
As I’m sure is the case with you both, God has seen fit to cross our paths with so many wonderful people who have made incredible contributions to His kingdom on the mission field. You both are among those who have been an example of that in our lives! As we think ahead on the development of this class, we would like to invite you to participate!
1.) Since we are developing the curriculum that we hope will be used in future classes taught both by us and others, we would love any input that you might have for us! What are some of the lessons that God has taught you, as you have served Him in various parts of the world, that you think future missionaries should know.
2.) We would love to invite you to come and teach in one of our Wednesday evening classes. We hope to give our students the opportunity to learn from the experiences of several men and women who God has blessed in His services in missions!
We’re excited!
Tons of Blessings,
Ruslan and Sharyn”
From Our Mailbox
“Brother, thank you so very much for that wonderful box of books & literature! Not only did I use it for the fair booth, but I also used some of it for the women’s retreat (& one of the groups of women who came to the retreat also took both books back to put in their new church library in Kennewick, WA).
The Hamilton fair was a different atmosphere than the one up in Missoula. We interacted with a lot more Christians, & 2 different churches (one being a Calvary Chapel) took a copy of the Prospectus for the NW Science Museum, & they liked the idea that you guys have of showing both the Creation Science & the Evolution arguments side by side. (& personally, after dealing with a few evolutionists at both fairs who refused to take our literature, or check out the scientists that we consider credible, I think it’s an excellent idea!)
And then there were the ones who interacted with us that just gripped our hearts! One of them was an older gentleman who was working at the Hospice booth across from us. He has a Catholic background & he was totally unsure about whether the Bible could be trusted or not, & he willingly took one of your books. (& we were very thankful to the LORD to have it to give to him!)
And there were a couple of 13 year olds…. One of them was a 13 year old boy whose parents are Christians & divorced, & when he first came to the booth he said that he was still making up his mind about whether he was going to be a Christian or not (& it was mainly because of evolutionary teaching in the public school). When he saw the stuff about dinosaurs & man living at the same time, his heart began to change.
He came back to the booth every day, & sometimes brought his siblings & friends with him. Sometimes he would sit down on the dinosaur tail & read our CS dinosaur books.
The other one was a 13 year old girl. Her family was working in the Operation Christmas Child booth, also across the aisle from us, & her Dad brought her over to the booth to talk to me. Her faith too had been devastated by the evolutionary lies taught in the public school. I talked to her for a long time. It was one of those situations where we knew that the LORD had the CS Booth set up so that He could reach those kids.
b’Yeshua! (that’s Hebrew for ‘In Jesus our Salvation!’)
Pam” (Elder)
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“…..Your ministry to Ukraine is an extremely valuable example of the combination of both faithful commitment and trust in the Holy Spirit’s work through the local body of believers. May the Lord bless you and your household and your ministry abundantly like you are blessing for many!”
Yours by His grace,
Sergei” (Golovin)
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“We have returned back from Kerch and are getting ready for school and ministry! We had many good opportunities on sharing the Good News with people in Kerch and on our way back home. We gave away as presents more than 20 ‘Ready to Give an Answer’ and had very good responses from people. I gave away the book at prison and service stations, and many other people in Crimea. God has kept us safe and we are thankful for travel. We were a little bit sick the first week when we came back but now are getting in gears.
How are you doing and how can we pray for you?
In Jesus grace,
Zhenya & Natasha” (Molodchy)
Responses to September Prayer Letter
“Thank you, folks, for that lengthy and readable treatise on Obama, socialism, communism, abortion – well-written and true. God gives us something to smile about…..Thanks – it is obvious that a LOT OF EFFORT went into that production. Thanks for Della’s tender heart too.”
Jim (Brown)
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“Wow, Rick, Excellent and well thought out. Thanks. I copied and pasted it into my computer for future reference. Love ya both and it was great having dinner together last month.
Lord bless you,
Dave” (Adams), River Hills Church, Gresham, Oregon
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“Bless you both for being spiritual examples like Paul who certainly did not mince any words in his writings either. May the Source be with you.
Love, Maxine” (James)
“Thank you for mailing a copy of the Overseas Outreach to me and I agree with Rick’s thoughts on Obama and praying for him. I pray daily that God will save our nation as it seems we are rushing downhill morally and spiritually.
Don has shown me how I can open your overseasoutreach@earthlink.net and I have successfully done so. Therefore, save your time and postage as I can now read the email version.
Hope all is well with you. These are troubled times most definitely!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Irene” (Pace)
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Closing Thought
“Man is never so tall as when he kneels before God – never so great as when he humbles himself before God. And the man who kneels to God can stand up to anything.” ~ Louis H. Evans