Siberia Day 5 August 14, 2008

Cont. posting of 2008 missions trip to Siberia.

(readers, thank you for your patience)

Back to Kulton to Minister in 2 different Teen Challenge detox programs for men, the women's center and then back to Church for a celebration. It's going to be a long day...."The joy of the Lord is our strength". Lord, show us fruit!

Katrina's devotional today was inspired by the Holy Spirit and so.... right on target. "Encourage each other" By this point in our journey we begin to learn the challenges of community living and that it is not always easy. This is a wonderful, giving, loving, spirit filled group. But, we are together and awake about 17 hours each day and so it is easy for the enemy to move in as we discover each others weaknesses. Thank you Katrina for your attention to the Holy Spirit.

We slept in a bit today with a devotional at 7:30 am instead of 7:00. To save time and get our day off to a timely start Olyia ordered breakfast ahead of our devotional time. But to no avail, we still ran late. The good news today is that we are traveling in a van. The bad news is that it is about 80 degree, we still have no air conditioning, and it becomes obvious that someone has not bathed lately. The 30 minute drive was difficult for a couple of reasons, but I was also concerned about Edyth. She was preparing to give her testimony this morning and it was easy to tell that it was going to be difficult for her. Praise God.....this usually means that God is about to do something BIG! Edyth knew that this was the perfect appointed time and place for her testimony which was perfectly orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, because I was praying about preaching tonight at the Celebration at Pastor Ilya's request but there will be little time for me to prepare today.

Edyth at the Pulpit Let the Sozo begin

Edyth's powerful testimony and beautiful singing voice ushered in a perfect wind of the Holy Spirit. The team supported her in open prayer and quickly, as if planned, the entire team began to move about the room laying hands and ministering in the Holy Spirit proclaiming freedom, healing, and deliverance. The room was alive with the Holy Spirit. Tears flowed, people sang and praised the Lord while the team moved about the crowd of about 75 people with a new and renewed boldness. Jennifer had her first experience of someone being slain in the Spirit while she was praying for her. The oldest man (77 years old) in the program whom we had met at the homeless shelter a few days earlier stepped out and blocked my path. He said nothing but looked up at me with eyes that said everything. This was a big moment for him. He never interacted with us during our other visits or looked up from the ground. But now he was looking in my eyes. I prayed and he was slain in the Spirit standing up! After the music stopped and the church was dismissed, everyone was leaving but not him. He never moved, never stopped looking up. I continued to pray and could feel him getting freedom by Gods grace. I couldn't stop praying and he couldn't move for a long time......my heart was overjoyed. Time stood still for both of us...and neither of us would ever be the same again.

Katrina ministering in Kultan

Our visit to the Teen Challenge buildings.... wow. Its seems that the original format set out by the Holy Spirit through Pastor David Wilkerson and Nicky Cruz as explained in Pastor Davids book "The cross and the Switchblade" has held fast for 50 years. No smoking, no drugs for withdrawal - only Jesus. People are being saved here every day. The presence of the Lord is here!

Yup, encouraging each other!

Another big lunch and then time to rest. Well that was the plan anyway. After our wonderful lunch we traveled back to the hotel to meet and prepare for Saturdays outreach to the Orphans at the Church summer camp. Before we knew it our watch read 4:30. We had to be at church for 5:00. I still had to freshen up, dress for church and hopefully go over my notes for preaching tonight. Here I am in Siberia with an opportunity to preach to a hungry congregation and I'm not sure that I can bring my "A" game. Come Holy Spirit!!

I was honored that Pastor Ilyia wanted to translate for me and it went well. The Spirit is always willing even when the flesh is weak. Thank God. The word that the Lord had for us this night was "We must be broken to come to the Lord".....The sermon was titled "I want to be excused".

There was no time for an alter call.....but the room was rich with the presence of God.

After a quick dinner of pizza it was 10:00 pm and the group was to meet for a night devotional. It's late, (16 hours since we rose, were exhausted......but I wouldn't have wanted to miss a minute of it! Lord bring rest and peace to this group.

Siberia, Day 4, August 13, 2008

Today we will visit a home for homeless men and another Teen Challenge for men. This is a day to be reminded that when Jesus sent out his disciple he told them to heal the sick and cast demons. Today would be a powerful day, AGAIN.

We slept in until 6:15 AM today. But I awoke with a Word, "today is the day to be cautious". We are almost at the half way point of our mission and we have had many victories in the Lord. But we must be cautious not to get ahead of God.
I shared a paragraph from the book "Final Quest" by Rick Joyner. "We cannot let our new shining armor blind us from seeing the attack coming. We must cover our shining armor with a drab shroud of humility, so that we will not be blinded by our armor to the ensuing battle. "

At breakfast Jennifer told us that she woke up to find that she was covered in red bumps, maybe bed bugs. She took it in stride, joking about it, yet we could see her concern. And it occurs to me that today in my spirit I was warned, "you will be attacked when you share or openly acknowledge your fears". Jennifer has been sharing about her trip to Africa and Asia where she dealt with a rat in her hair at night, ring worm on her neck and malaria pills that gave her bad dreams. Edyth, who has expressed her fear of cats and dogs and most animals was bitten by a cat today and when we arrived at Pastor Ilya's home at the end of the day she found out that they own a big beautiful dog named buddy. Edyth also had a bee locked in a car with her this week.

The devil gives us the spirit of fear, BUT he does not know what we fear until we expose it to him.


Our first stop was at a Teen Challenge for homeless in Kuibeshevo. We drove about 30 minutes to an old farm house. This wonderful place is very close to my vision for a center in Massachusetts. It is home to about 14 men, 8 cows, many rabbits and a few cats. It is a rural farm where they grow all there own vegetables and raise livestock.

We met with about 5 of the men because the others have a day job off the farm. Their day has a very tight schedule with much of it being studies. We shared testimonies and a powerful time prayer.

Second Stop - Kiselevsk, a Teen Challenge for men.

We were greeted by barking dogs. The men that called this place home held back the dogs and invited us in. Edyth did her best not to show fear.



The building was an old school that housed about 15 men. We gathered in a small room and the service began with a young man leading worship with his guitar. It was easy to see why the men enjoyed worship. I was asked to bring a word and God had me share John 14, God's promises of " I will" which is centered on the Holy Spirit. After the message, my alter call was for those who wanted to know the power of the Holy Spirit. For some reason when I invited the men to come forward I also invited them to their knees. Five men gathered in the center of the room. After about 30 minutes of very powerful prayer the room became electric with the with the power of God.

Then I realized why I called the men to kneel. One of the men that came forward was crippled and unable to easily stand on his own. God had us focus on him and so we laid hands and prayed according to scripture. The man began to straighten and stand. He raised his hands and glowed with the glory of God. Most of us in the room were crying as we believed God for this man's healing and that the Holy Spirit would touch all who asked. Again we lost complete track of time. The worship leader began to play "Awesome God" and sang it from our hearts in Russian and English." Then we sang an "alleluia" chorus for a long time and the intensity of the Spirit of God continued to increase. The anointing was so thick in the room and the peace so intense that we did not know how to end....frankly no one wanted to stop. So we sang some more, gathered for a picture and left.



Next we were headed for a church and Teen Challenge in another drug district. Pastors Andre's church and property have been under constant attack. Smashed windows and spray painted cars and walls were the communities way of welcoming this church into the neighborhood.











By the end of the day we were exhausted and overwhelmed by how God was using us. We concluded our day with a wonderful meal at the home of Pastor Ilya and his wife Janet.

Siberia, Day 3 August 12, 2008

Today we will visit the Woman's Teen Challenge and "House of Mercy" (for homeless men) in Kultan and then to back to Zapseeb (drug district).

We start our day early 6:30am with devotion and prayer as a team. More fried eggs! And then we set out to be at a service in Kultan at 9:00am

After a long, hot 1 hour drive (its about 80 degrees again today) through the country we arrive at the gates of Kultan. Kultan is a complex that was once owned and used by the Coal Mining Company as a vacation resort. It has many buildings and acres of grounds. It is a wonderfully quiet getaway. Reminiscent of the resort in the the movie "Dirty Dancing" with big houses, a dining hall, a river for recreation. It is easy to see how beautifully landscaped this resort was at one time. Today Kultan is still a place of rest, but now its purpose is much more important. People get saved here. People get delivered here. People drop the chains of bondage here and enjoy the liberty of the cross of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord is here, and where the Spirit of God is....there is liberty.....Alleluia!

We arrive to a service that has just begun Praise and worship. The room is electric with worship.

They have been waiting for us and I was asked to preach when we arrive. The church is full of residents and staff of this Teen Challenge resort. An estimated crowd of 100 people. As I scanned the audience it was easy to see a room full of broken, beaten.......hopeful souls. They worshipped God like it was their oxygen. Some only a week in the Teen Challenge program and some have been here for months. But they all have one thing in common. After years of dying they now are hanging on to Jesus.....they know that Jesus and only Jesus can save them.

God had me speak a Word of forgiveness using the story of the Prodigal Son.

We saw the power of God's anointing this morning and a spiritual battle to keep God's Word from going forward.

The previous day my interpreter, Rustam, and I worked seamlessly to bring a word of healing. But today, he was struggling so it caused me to check every word and stumble as well. Olyia, our other interpreter sat in the crowd wanting to jump up and help but God held her back. "The battle is mine says the Lord". God was going to show all us His mighty power today. "It's not by might or by power but my Spirit says the Lord". Today I was reminded that God has ordained and appointed each day. He does not need my speaking to be perfect because it is anointed......but also he has anointed the ears of those who will hear. The healing (sozo) to be released in that room today was ordained by God before Rustam or I ever left our mothers wombs. All he needed was our obedience, trust and patience.

God was delivering and anointing every word that Rustam spoke regardless of the devils attempt to confuse us. The Holy Spirit broke through! Alleluia!!!!

The alter call was for those seeking forgiveness and those unable to forgive or accept Gods forgiveness. About 3/4 of the room came forward and I was told that some of the women in the back of the room that did not come forward were weeping. Our team moved into action and began to lay hands and pray.

The Holy Spirit took over. I was unaware of how much time was passing or what was going on in other parts of the room. I stayed focused only on the souls that the Lord put before me. As did each of our team. I was told later at night that much of the team had trouble ministering because they were crying. God is soooo good. It seemed many of the people wanted to weep but had no more tears and many had wept openly for the first time. Olyia, whom God would not allow to come forward to help during the preaching said that she felt the same thing and cried like a baby during the ministry. Praise God!

The Holy Spirit rained down and was no respecter of religion or persons. People were being slain in the Spirit physically healed and set free. This was obviously a new experience for many in attendance but it just kept happening and those touched experienced joy, joy, joy!

Personally, I lost track of time and everything else going on in the room. The anointing was so powerful that at the conclusion of the ministry time I could barely walk back to my seat. The power of the Holy Spirit is awesome! "We offer our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord." All Glory to God.

Woman's Teen Challenge was our next stop at Kultan.

We all gathered in a small room with about 20 woman, some with babies. They shared their amazing testimonies with us and our team shared with them. The women were blessed by Jennifer's powerful testimony and word to them that each of them are beautiful to God. Then Kristie shared her testimony and how God will meet them wherever they are. I cannot forget the powerful words that she said God spoke to her, "Dance with Me"!

More than our audience was touched by these wonderful testimonies, "You are beautiful to God" and "God Loves You" resound in our spirits.

After a wonderful lunch we went back to the drug district of Zapseeb.


Our bodies were tired but no one suggested that we cancel. We had Divine appointments to meet.

Praise God that we did not give into our flesh.......God moved powerfully in Zabseeb, AGAIN!

This was the day that we met Maxima. He is the young boy pictured here. About 10 or 11 years old he was scared on his head and face. His eyes were empty. He was smoking a cigarette as though he was in control but you can tell that he is scared and dying a slow death in the grip of the devil. He listened as we shared our friend Jesus with him. "I'm on my own and I take care of myself, don't need any friends, he quietly told us through our interpreter. But he stayed and he listened.....I asked if we could pray for him.....he agreed and suddenly a car pulled up behind us. Without a word he left us like a shot to go to the car. He was doing a drug deal. Apparently he was a drug runner. The other boy with him stayed but I must admit it that I was discouraged. I never showed it and I never left the squatting position that I was in as to not show fear or discouragement. Just then.....as ordained by God....another young man rode up on his bicycle and said "I want to know Jesus!". Just like that! I tried not to show my surprise regarding this Divine appointment, but took his hands and prayed the sinners prayer with him. The other boy prayed as well. Alleluia! Then Maxima came back. He came back, this was encouraging. He showed us his deformed hand that he had been hiding. Boldly we took his deformed scarred hand and arm and prayed for God's healing. He accepted our prayer and I am confident that God will show him a physical sign of what was spiritually healed. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and not yet unseen". Maxima seemed unmoved, but, he allowed the Lord to touch him and we were able to bring him the good news of Jesus Christ. "Gods word will never return to Him void". Using a cigarette from behind Maxima's ear, I did a few magic tricks that I learned years ago and promised the kids that I would teach them the secret after church on Sunday. So, "we'll see you at church" I told them.

We continued our walk to see a demon possessed drug addicted woman crawl along the wall of the building to avoid us. She would not come near us but we stopped and openly declared her freedom in Jesus' name. We spoke directly to hell and told satan...."in Jesus name let her go, loosen your grip". After some time she crossed our path again and cried out in Russian "they frighten me". Interesting because we never attempted to approach her but she was trembling with fear. Just like they did when Jesus entered a demon possessed region in the gospel !

30 minutes later, on the other side of Zabseeb while ministering to a few men. Six or seven young boys tracked us down. They were between 6 and 16 years of age and they were being led to us by the young boy who earlier gave his life to the Lord. (on the bike)

They asked to see the cigarette magic, so, I shared Jesus Christ with them and to my amazement they all bowed their heads and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Again we invited them to church on Sunday for the secret.

What at Day! Alleluia!