|
Dear Friends
I greet you from Moscow in Jesus' Name!
It's spring in Russia - green and fresh. Moscow's streets are already much more quiet as people start to go their dachas or take quick holidays to Turkey, Egypt or the Black Sea.
President Putin's Annual Adress To The Nation
On the 10th of May President Vladimir Putin gave his annual address. Let me state that I believe that he is God's choice of president for Russia at this stage.
In these times God will really use Russia to be a blessing to many nations. The blessing will still outdo the curse of the past!
Click Here to read President Putin's highly informative and very interesting speech in English.
The Strong Family Project
Many of you know that we launched a project two years ago, called the 'Strong Family' project. The motto of the roject is 'A strong family, a strong society'. By the grace of God and the power of His Word and Spirit, Russia will have strong, healthy families, walking in the love of the Father!
God has been blessing this project and authorities in Moscow are starting to notice the fruit of it. (See John 15). We now realize that the timing is perfect and I will believe that we will soon be able to take hands with the government in seeing great transformation come to the homes of Russia.
Quoting from president Putin's speech:
"...Concluding on this subject, I note that we cannot resolve the problem of the low birth rate without changing the attitudes within our society to families and family values. Academician Likhachev once wrote that "love for one's homeland, for one's country, starts with love for one's family." We need to restore these time-honoured values of love and care for family and home..."
Union Of Christians Church - First Birthday Celebration!
On Sunday the 14th of May we celebrated our church's first birthday (Our official date of birth is May 1st, 2005). At least 130 people crammed into the small hall at the Christian Centre in the southwest of Moscow to celebrate the goodness and grace of God. In the strong presence of the Holy Spirit we experienced more than ever before that God is uniting us together in a bond of love to see the multitudes of Moscow brought into the Kingdom of God.
Dear friends, I wish you could all be there, because you all have a part in building the church in Russia. Remember that this is a new church movement being born, already we are planting the first church to flow out of the Moscow church: Union of Christians Church Aleksandrov.
Visiting South Africa
On May 26, Victor (our 7 year old son) will complete his first school year. I will then do one more weekend of ministry (Friday night prayer, Saturday teaching, Sunday service) before we will fly out to South Africa on the 29th of May. Since the beginning of April, Rika (my wife) and Tehillah (our 3 year old princess) have been in South Africa. We are expecting the birth of our third child - a girl! - on the 8th of June.
We are then planning to return to Russia in August.
Blitz Missionary Update:
- Dave B. has now visited Kalingrad for the second time, seeing a wonderful move of the Holy Spirit there. He will leave in the coming week for Lysva, close to the Ural Mountain Region, for ministry there.
- Dave G. has returned from ministry in the Ukraine and should soon be off to Volgograd. Volgograd has seen unimaginable bloodshed in the second world war, where more than one million people - Russian soldiers, German soldiers and Russians citizens together - died in one battle.
- Carol and Olya are ministering at a prayer conference in Kislovodsk. Carol is leading the prayer ministry in our church and Olya the youth ministry.
- Corrie is seeing great advances in sports ministry, using rugby as a vehicle to minister the gospel.
- Gertjan and Judy have been continuing their ministry in Tula, having visited Aleksandrov a few times in the last months. If you want to read some of the most 'real' missionary letters on this planet, ask us to send you some of Gertjan and Judy's news letters.
- Wallace and Alla have made an important contribution to church growth in Russia: a few days ago their first baby was born! We pray for the abundant grace and blessing of God on them and their baby son.
- Annali is leaving tonight for a visit to Kiev. She is currently preparing for youth outreach in the Russian summer.
- Christine and Jolene (from Creare Ministries) are preparing for a Creative Arts School this summer in Moscow.
- At the end of May, Monique will leave for Penza for two months.
- I thank the Lord for our Moscow team, who has been actively supporting me and Victor in this intensive time with Rika in South Africa. I am especially thankful to Monique, Annali, Ester and Christine, who are helping to keep my hands high. Great is their reward!
- Last week I spent two days in St. Petersburg for our Association's (ACCR) bi-monthly board meeting, led by ACCR's president, Igor Nikitin. Some of the highlights of this meeting:
* We have laid hands on pastor Jura Ilchenko of Khabarovsk to become our overseer to the Far East of Russia. He has a strong 700 member church and a great youth worship group. Another fruit of his work +there is that Christian television is already in almost every home in Khabarovsk.
* Our overseer in East Siberia, Pavel Orekhov, has announced that his mission has now started to operate in Mongolia. Praise God! One of our missionaries, Albert Pote, will fly on the 25th of May to join Pavel in his mission, bringing the Gospel to many unreached people groups in Siberia.
* We have laid hands on pastor Norik from Moscow to plant churches amongst the 2 million Armenians living in Russia.
* Satelite receivers for our Christian Television (TBN Russsia) are now installed in all jails in the Tver and Tula regions of Russia. The next regions will now be the Ivanovo, Vladimir and Ryazan Regions. Remember that we have an agreement with the government to install satelite receivers for Christian television in every jail in Russia.
* At night we had a great time of fellowship at Peterhof, close to the Summer Palace. We even spent some time in the 'banya', which took me almost a decade in Russia to adapt to. If you don't know what a Russian banya is, ask me. Sufficient to say at this point that it is the traditional way for Russian men to spend 'no-masks' fellowship.
There are few things more precious on this earth than spending heart-to-heart time with men who love God with all their heart. Men who are true husbands, true fathers, true brothers, true pastors and true leaders.
For sure the kingdom of God is built on friendship: friendship with God and friendship with each other.
* Maybe the most precious moments of my St. Petersburg trips are when I am in the air above Moscow after take off and again before landing. When I look down over Moscow, the Holy Spirit moves in me as I look at the harvest field, between 14 and 18 million people from across the former Soviet Union brought together by God to be transformed by the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Only One Answer!
There is only one answer for this world: Jesus Christ. The manifestation of His Kingdom on this earth is His church. Let us throw ourselves into the building of His Church, the Ark of Salvation for all nations!
Stand with us in the harvest. Stand fast in the faith with us as we start to look for a building in Moscow. Keep your hearts close to ours as we daily labour to see more people established in Jesus Christ. Give us all grace, oh God!
In Him
Hugo van Niekerk
Pastor - Union of Christians Church Moscow
Overseer - Mission Russia International
|
Vision & Strategy 
.jpg)
