Well it has been several years since members of our Intl team have been able to visit Russia. Frequent readers of the Update will recall that over the last ten years we have worked rather extensively with leaders in this country. Due to visa issues in the last two years this has not been possible, but in 2018 we hope to revisit some of the groups we have worked with over the years. Fortunately, the ongoing training is not dependent upon our visits. Local equipped ministry coaches continue to teach leaders using our materials.

The following is a recent report from Valera and Narina in the southern part of the country.  They have been the catalysts that have trained the next generation and have changed the DNA of their fellowship of churches to be a mentoring movement for leaders. God is opening doors for them to move to St. Petersburg and we look forward to partnering with them as they train new leaders and plant churches in that region. Thank you for your prayers so that we may be able to visit again with our partners in the Gospel in Russia.

This week was a busy one as we had a gathering of pastors and leaders in our fellowship, along with their eldership teams. There were about 120 present and Valera taught from the ICM material about husbands and wives in ministry. Together we were able to address many issues that both women and men face in their lives and ministries

We are also planning to take a couple trips to St. Petersburg next year. From our network of relationships within our fellowship here, we already have many contacts there who are looking for leaders and churches to be planted.  The leadership training continues in our church and bible school. Recently Valera was teaching basic bible interpretation with these leaders (using your materials) and he has had the opportunity to do this with leaders in surrounding regions. Next week Valera and another one of our leaders will be going to Moscow as we are looking at starting some churches in the city. They will be sharing from the MCNet workshops, Foundations of Leadership and introduce the Mentoring Introduction. Later this year we want to start a school for young pastors and we want them to understand biblical servant leadership as you have shared with us. It is our plan to begin with Developing Others 1 & 2 as well as Biblical Foundations. Hopefully Phil will be able to make it to our region this year and see for himself what God is doing. Thank you again for your partnership together with us and providing all these materials for us so that we may use them with our leaders.

In Christ,

Valera&Narina