From Ion…

Leaders from many countries gathered in Kiev

The last stop on our summer ministry trip was Kiev where we have around 30 leaders from Azerbadjan, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazastan, Tadjikistan, Moldova, Russia and several other countries. It was wonderful to have people from those countries where such training is impossible because of the heavy persecution of Christians. For three days, from morning to night, we studied discipleship principles and discussed ways of  implementing them in their churches. It was a pure joy to be in the Word with those who are hungry for spiritual food. Different countries find it a blessing to receive training from diverse missionaries (for example, Uzbekistan is completely closed). For many, such a seminar was like a breath of fresh air.

Pyramid game used to illustrate principles of discipleship

We discussed the possibility of having such training once or even twice a year. Please keep our brothers, who are striving for the faith, in your prayers and continue your fight for the freedom in this country.

Svetlana and I started to take the medication prescribed for us in Moldova. I will have to continue many tests for different forms of hepatitis. One of my co-workers in Pakistan had similar problems and he was found to have a hidden form of hepatitis.

From John Ritland…

Burmese team watching Liberians and E/W Aftricans play for title

An outreach event for internationals called the St Louis World Amateur Cup was held at the Midwest Soccer Academy in St Louis on Saturday, July 31. Sixteen teams competed in two divisions (open and 35+) representing many countries from the Americas (North, Central and South), Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central and SE Asia and Africa. Following competition, all participants and fans were invited to nearby Tower Grove Park for a picnic/BBQ, gifts and awards ceremonies. Gifts for all the players included an Adidas back pack with a DVD of “The Life of Jesus Christ” in 22 languages.

Enjoying the picnic at Tower Grove Park in St Louis

The event was envisioned by Ion Cheptene, associate pastor of missions and outreach of Cornerstone EFC. Dawn Williams of First E. Free took overall leadership for the event and, through her connections with students at Covenant Seminary, was able to enlist the support of several area churches with a heart for reaching out to immigrants. The idea was to take advantage of the strong interest in the 2010 World Cup among internationals, but the response has been so positive that many have expressed a desire to make this an annual event.

From Ion…

Week 2 Campers

From July 12 to July17, we had the second camp coordinated by Mihai and Elena Sarmaniuc. Considering the tragic situation of our country, the main provider of prostitutes to Western Europe, we decided to teach the youth the Precepts course, “Sex according to God”, which actually teaches about how to keep our vessels pure and holy in this world of temptation. We had 144 youth from the Central and Southern part of the country. Almost all of them were non-believers coming from difficult families – 60 % of them are coming either from families where parents left their kids with relatives and went abroad to earn money and support their lives, or from divorced families. Of the remaining children without parents, many of them got involved in immorality and other vicious things.

Ion Teaching on Sexual Purity

All camp leaders, including the American and German teams (Konny from Magdeburg and her family who came to support us this year again), were blessed to witness the power of resurrection through the regeneration of 109 youth who prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior. They honestly prayed, and we suppose that they accepted Jesus in their hearts. But who knows what really happened? I told them, “If a desire for spiritual food appears in your life that makes you want to continue studying Jesus’ Word, then you will know that you are a born-again disciple. An amazing thing will happen. Step by step you will get to know the truth, becoming more and more free from the bondage of sin”. Knowing the context of their lives, I reminded them about the persecution which will be another sign of their repentance.

Every morning, at 6.30 we had a training for the leaders on discipleship strategy. Please pray for the mentoring process and a successful follow-up with them. As always, we have a big need in mature mentors who would take care of those kids.

We had many sincere testimonies from different boys and girls who discovered God’s mercy and love, crying, laughing and enjoying the wonderful care of their leaders.

Pray for the 109 Young People that Prayed to Receive Christ

Lenuta from Cricova wrote to us that for the first time in her life she felt God’s presence and understands how powerful His love is for us.

Madalina, another girl, said that she regrets that she had a life without the knowledge of God and now she finally understood what God‘s purpose is for her life.

My brother-in-low, who used to be really cruel to my sister, persecuting her for her belief, came to know Christ as well.

Thank you once again for allowing us to be a part of such amazing work which encourages us to stay focused on investing more and more time in spreading God’s Word and his Good News in this part of the World.

from Ion…

Week 1 Campers

We experienced a real blessing, having children and teens from more than 10 locations attend our camps.  At the first camp (July 5 to July 11th) we had 117 attend – 19 were believers and 98 non-believers.  The last three days of camp we made the call to come forward and repent. All the leaders were encouraged to see 37 accept the call and pray with tears to receive Christ as their Savior.

Ion Cotorobai praying for campers

One of them was Andrei (15 years old). He used to come to our food center in Recea where we have been feeding the people who are starving. He became really interested in what he heard about Christ, but the Orthodox priest convinced him to avoid us, explaining that we are a dangerous sect. In the past year he was helping the local priest spread gossip about us. Later we found out that he became a monk. Ion Cotorobai found and invited him to come to this camp. On the last day he accepted Christ and now he has amazing joy. Please pray for God to strengthen him to resist all the persecution which we know will come upon him in full.

Another story is a sad one. The mother of one of the teens who started to attend the church in Recea, became really angry at us saying that we were “misleading” her child from the Orthodox religion and prohibited him to attend this camp. Instead she sent him to another camp. More than one week ago, he drowned in the sea and the police still have not found his body. Please pray for that mother.

Ion Cheptene teaching campers

From Ion…

On the way to Siberia God gave me wonderful opportunities to witness to different people about Him. First there was a woman from Moscow who was flying to visit her relatives in Omsk; then, to an American businessman who visited Russia for the first time. In the end, he invited me to visit him in Utah offering a cabin at Yellowstone Park for my family for free.

Arriving in Siberia was like moving back in time. Everything here is like in the old Soviet Union. Everything looks old and the roads are totally damaged.  Omsk is a place of exile where Stalin used to send our brothers in Christ. The city has a sad history of his terror camps. It is interesting that Svetlana’s grandparents were exiled there, spending most of their lives in this region. Her mother was born in this area.

Here I was met by Josef, one of the leaders, who started a discipleship movement with the younger generation throughout Siberia, very similar to our ILT movement. My role here will not be to initiate the movement but more one of encouragement since they are already on track.  We stayed in a tall apartment building on the 8th floor which was without a lift and natural gas. One thing I did not need to worry about was my daily exercises, since we were performing “great ascending and descending” several times a day.

Seminar in Omsk

In spite of everything, I experienced heaven in this remote place, meeting friendly and open people for God’s Word. In four days I had six seminars and many meetings with almost all the pastors and other leaders from the region.  At the first seminar I had only pastors and leaders, and even the president of the Evangelical churches from the region came to study. When I saw those pastors all in tattoos, I figured out that they were former gangsters and drug dealers. It felt like home among them. Teaching them was a real pleasure.

Even though most of them were from baptist churches, they were jumping and screaming “Halleluia”, every time as they were discovering God’s truth for their lives. As always, in the end, the people were asking what is next. I promised them that we will follow up by sending them teachers from Moscow.

Siberian Pastors and Leaders

On Saturday, I preached on baptism on the city beach where 75 people were baptized and hundreds came to see what was happening. After that I was able to witness and share the Gospel with three policemen. I met wonderful people here. Vladimir and Alla, both with AIDS, invited me to preach at their wedding. Vladimir was a former special forces soldier who fought in Checina, and there he became drug addicted before experiencing a total change through Christ. Later he tried to share Christ with his brother, who responded by stabbing him with a knife. His bride Ala was a prostitute working along the road when she heard the gospel. Now they are rejoicing in Christ together.

Baptism in Omsk

I met wonderful people here with stories worthy to be written in a book. I had a very full schedule just driving from one meeting to another, tired but full of joy. Please continue to pray for me as I do not yet know about the nature of my tumor.

From Ion…

I am praising our Lord for those two days I spent in Moscow. In spite of the fact that I do not like the city, I am experiencing an unexplainable joy, anyway, every time I visit it. The people with whom we used to be involved in ministry are making all the difference. From this city, 13 years ago we started the movement of Inductive Study Method in Russia, and because of the faithfulness of the few people in Moscow, the movement has been spreading all over this huge country. It is so amazing to meet not only those people who let themselves be discipled but also their disciples – the fruits of their ministry.

Overflowing!

The day I arrived we had our first meeting with the core group in a small flat, which could not fit all the people. Every foot was filled out with people sitting on the floor and other flat objects. Thus we opened the door and placed the people in two rooms and I was speaking loud enough to be heard by the people next room, even though they could not see me.

Moscow Seminar

The next day I had a seminar with the leaders from different churches. From that seminar I went directly to the airport, changing two cars and doing our best not to miss the plane. I made it to the airport just in time.  At midnight I got into the plane and in the morning of the next day I was already in Omsk (Siberia).

Many Countries were Represented at the Oxford Seminar

The conference in Oxford went very well. My prayer to the Lord is to show us, people from different countries, how we can strive together for enlarging the Kingdom. The name of the conference was “untraditional mission ways to reach our society”. From the testimonies we had, seems that the discipleship teaching was very well received. I mentioned that soon we will have the book printed, thus several people came to order the book.

Then we had a meeting with representatives from many different countries throughout the world.

God gave me the opportunity to meet wonderful people. Two of them, Maurice and Hervin, expressed their interest to join us in mission.

The last day we had a meeting with the group of leaders, who put together the conference, in order to discuss our future plans and cooperation together. I saw God’s hand in allowing me to meet wonderful open people who have similar vision as ours. In fact, I have never been so welcomed and well received in Western Europe as this time in UK.

Here is the testimony of one of them:

Firstly let me start by saying a big thank you to you for totally yielding everything to the Lord. I was very touched by the sermon you gave at the conference. It was not because of any clever use of words but by the literal presence of the Spirit of God which I felt as you started to speak. I will be very honest and say I was not expecting what I got from you, but God has a funny way of letting us know not to assume things when He is in it. I rededicated my life to the Lord 4 years ago and had a wonderful experience with our Lord Jesus Christ. During the past few months I have been really struggling with my faith because of a lot of things that is going on in my family. I was not originally going to come to the conference but Mark told me I needed to be there so I registered my name. when you spoke, I just felt like that message was just for me and as if you were speaking to me only. I have been so very humbled and changed by the words the Lord has spoken through you. And I would love to know when you publish your book because of the impact I know it is going to have in my life and the next step which God wants me to take. You may not know how much you have impacted me (not just by the powerful testimony and wisdom but also by watching you for that brief time) but I pray that God continue to use you for many more years and Bless you and your household in Jesus name. You are a true man of God!

God mighty bless you sir.

Yours sincerely
Maurice Otim Odong

We had also an outreach in the local community center.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  Tomorrow we are flying to Rome.

Ion

Philadelphia

From February 15-20, Ion conducted a seminar with a discipleship theme based on his forthcoming book, “The Older and Younger Brother” and 2 Timothy.   He met with Roy Larsen, multi-cultural church planter with the Eastern District Association of the EFCA and connected Roy with leaders of Russian churches in the area.  Roy has followed up helping to fill the pulpit of one church, which is between pastors.

Amsterdam

From March 8-14, Ion met with 150 other Free church pastors and leaders at the European Church Planting Institute in Amsterdam.  He made many key connections including those of Igor and Vitaliy Petrov, who run the Trinity Video Seminary (TVS) in Kursk.  TVS will provide valuable training materials for the ILT, many of which Ion obtained at the Institute.

Portland and Vancouver

From March 15-25, Ion conducted seminars in the Portland/Vancouver area, again focusing on discipleship as in Philadelphia.  He also met with local church leaders in the area.  The planned seminar in Seattle was postponed until a later date.