Dear friends

I greet you from Moscow in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

This means that Rika will need to fly to South Africa in the beginning of April. She and Tehillah will then stay in South Africa for the expected delivery somewhere in the beginning of June. Victor's first school year finishes towards the end of May, after which we will fly to South Africa in time for delivery...

MISSION RUSSIA - ACCR UNION OF CHRISTIANS

Mission Russia is operating in Russia as an integrated part of the Association of Christian Churches of Russia "Union of Christians", (in short ACCR "Union of Christians"). This is in line with the word that God gave me in the beginning of the 90's, saying that Mission Russia would minister in Russia as an integrated part of the local church in Russia.

The Union of Christians (president: Igor Nikitin) has currently about 300 churches. I expect that number to grow to more than a thousand churches within the next few years. Apart from churches in Russia who want to join us, we currently have Russian churches in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Israel, Germany and the USA who want to become part of the Union of Christians.

Pray for us as we have started the process of creating a structure of Union of Christians overseers and coordinators who would help to facilitate both quantitative and qualitative growth of Russian churches worldwide.

ESTABLISHING A NEW FAMILY OF CHURCHES IN RUSSIA

As many of you already know, we are now focusing on establishing a new family of churches in Russia that would move together in unity of purpose and values (see Phil. 2:2). The first of this new family of churches is the church we are now planting in Moscow.

Although I originally intended to call the new family of churches the Kingdom of God churches, I have made the decision - after much prayer and definite guidance from God - to name the churches we will plant in Russia the Union of Christians churches (in Russian 'Tserkov Soyuz Khristian'). Therefore our church in Moscow is called the Moscow Union of Christians Church, or in short Unity of Christians Moscow (Soyuz Khristian Moskva). If we, for example, would start a new church in Voronezh, it would be known as 'Unity of Christians Voronezh'. We are greatly blessed by the Moscow church plant, which is weekly growing in quality and number.

ESTABLISHING THE SPIRITUAL DNA OF A NEW FAMILY OF CHURCHES

We are now in a wonderful time when we experience how the builder of the Church, Jesus Christ, is imparting the spiritual DNA in our Moscow church. To give you an idea of a few specifics:

We see the church in Moscow as a MOVEMENT OF HOME CHURCHES. That means that most church programs and projects will be based on the individual home churches.
We are looking at Moscow as a country (Moscow's population is bigger than that of the entire Greece) with many small villages (apartment complexes). Our goal is therefore to plant a multitude of home churches in each block of flats ('high-rise villages'!) in Moscow.

Although being part of one movement with a cooperate vision and strategy, each home church will have its unique character and ministries.

One of the most important goals of a home church is to plant new home churches. This does NOT involve any splitting of home churches, as that would cause shallow relationships in the church.

As new generations of home churches are being planted by current home churches, the overall structure of the church movement is formed by itself, like a growing tree.
Our part is to plant and water, God will make it grow! (See 1 Cor. 3:6&7)

Each home church has its' own leader, worship leader and administrator. We are now developing a financial structure that will ensure financial self-support for the growing structure of home churches.

Understanding and applying the principles I have briefly mentioned in the last 7 paragraphs might cause a spiritual revolution in your local church.

We definitely have a vision for a weekly corporate gathering, which will eventually be in the biggest of stadiums, but the heart of the movement is in the multiplication of home churches.

CONTINUING TO PREPARE FOR AROUND-THE-CLOCK EVANGELISM IN MOSCOW

For months we have been moving towards the goal of establishing around-the-clock Christian television in every home in Moscow. This will be coupled with a 24 hour help line, TeleFriend style, eventually resulting in the planting of new home churches.
We still have a long way to go to the top of the mountain. Remember that once we are there, we will have thousands of spiritually hungry people responding to the Gospel. I ask you to pray for more people and ministries to partner with us in seeing this dream come true.

In the process we are forming two new media ministries, TBN Moscow and CXM (Union of Christians Media). In upcoming newsletters I will write about these ministries.

UNION OF CHRISTIANS CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW

We are currently very busy organizing a Union of Christians conference in Moscow, with Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty from Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahomo as the main speaker. The conference will be on the 18th and 19th of November, bringing together many Christians and Christian leaders. Pray that great fruit will come from this conference.

VISITING ENGLAND

From the 10th to the 13th of November our family will be visiting England to receive new visas to Russia. This will also be our first opportunity to make contact with the church in the UK. Pray that God will greatly bless us with divine connections and wisdom to see UK ministries and individuals partner with us in the work in Russia.

If you know of people you feel we need to meet in the UK, please contact me immediately at or , or call or sms me at +7 916 119 3536.

OBTAINING RESIDENCE PERMITS IN RUSSIA

We are working hard on receiving temporal residence and eventually permanent residence permits in Russia. After 10 years of living in Russia, this is high time! Continuing to live here on the basis of visas would be like living in a house without unpacking one's suitcases.

NEW MISSION RUSSIA INFORMATION PLATFORM ON THE WAY

We are now in the final countdown towards the unveiling of the new MR InfoPlat. You will immediately notice that we are consolidating all the ministries in Mission Russia to be directly relevant to our Vision and Strategy.

DIGGING DAMS, BUILDING CHANNELS...

Good news for friends of Mission Russia in the USA is that you will soon be able to give your donations through the Union of Christians, which has a 501 3(c) status in the US. Those who understand what this means will greatly rejoice.

Likewise friends of ours in the UK are in the process of establishing a fund there that will help channel finances to building the church of Jesus Christ in Russia.

THANK YOU!

In 1 Cor. 3:8, Paul writes: "Now he plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."
So many of you are part of the 'watering' process through your prayers and financial giving. May part of your reward be to one day see the shining faces of multitudes of Russian believers, worshipping with you at the throne of God!
Dear friends, let us move towards the prize put before us, labouring with all that is in us while it is still day.
Yours for the harvest,

Hugo van Niekerk
Overseer: Mission Russia International