The Grace of God

My friend from Milford, Michigan visited Inna and I this past week and it was a great encouragement to the both of us. He is a guy who I met a few years ago when I worked at First Baptist of Milford. We've now done ministry together in America, Cuba, Mexico and Russia. His testimony is an awesome reminder to me of the grace of God. If God does not open our eyes to see His glory, we will remain blinded and enslaved under the weight of our sin. When God delivers us from our sin and gives us victory over the power of Satan, we have no one to thank for except Christ. This is the way its suppose to be. The Giver gets the Glory. If we could beat Satan and sin in our own strength than we would have reason to boast. But that's not the case. We are too enslaved, too addicted, to en-natured (is this a word?) to overcome the power of darkness. But Christ is not and his Grace is greater than our sin. Therefore, He gets the glory! Ephesians 1:3-8.

Conference in Greece

In late June we went to Greece for a few days of sightseeing in Athens and then to a conference near Athens for M's in the Central and East Europe region. It was good to see some friends that we got to know at training last year in Virginia. Not only were we right on the beach, but there were two pools at the hotel too...one saltwater and one fresh! Our guest preacher for the week was JD Greear from the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He was excellent and encouraged each of us.

To note, in early June, Inna was able to go to an Orphanage, something she's been wanting to do since we've arrived in Moscow. This orphanage might be a possibility for further interaction and ministry.

Moscow Happenings

Inna has been going to a couple women's bible studies each week (one in English and one in Russian) and I have been going to a small church plant bible study (in Russian) on Saturday's. In addition, both of us go to a bible study together every other Thursday (in Russian) with friends from the church we've been attending. Pray for us that God would give us the strength to minister to others and keep focused on why we are here...to expand the kingdom of God via church planting. Also pray that God would give us wisdom on what ministry opportunities we should move forward with and which one's we shouldn't. And finally, pray for my language acquisition!

Update

Quick update about Russia...Inna has been helping out quite a bit in the office, I've been studying language, Inna has been helping me out with language, we've been attending a small church (and some bible studies) in the southern part of Moscow and I actually preached last Sunday (obviously not in Russian!)...oh, and we have moved to a new apartment here in Moscow. Pictures to follow soon.

One the best-resourced websites I know of is the Gospel Coalition, which has hundreds of free sermon downloads you can listen to....people like John Piper, DA Carson, Mark Driscoll and Tim Keller. Here is a weblink to their resource page:

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/resources

In Russia

Finally, here is a quick update of our time in Moscow. I am taking three hours of language a day and involved with a small church who have a lot of young people passionate about seeing the work of God in their lives. It's still pretty cold here, but fortunately public transportation is readily accessible almost everywhere. Here are some pics of our place and surroundings.

Just Waiting

Inna and I are just waiting for our Letter of Invitation from the ministry in russia in order to apply for our visa. Once we get our LOI it shouldn't be much longer after that to get to Russia. In the meantime, we are enjoying the beautiful California weather and taking it easy! I am reading an excellent book by DA Carson right now entitled "The Cross and Christian Ministry", which highlights some passages of Paul from 1 Corinthians. An excellent read and good reminder how our ministry needs to be always focused on the cross. Here are a couple pics from San Ramon, a suburb of San Francisco where we are staying until we get to Russia.