Praise God!!

For all who are curious about our Easter Fair English Cafe, I have great news for you - God definitely answered our prayers and anointed that evening with His presence! We had 75-80 Russians join us for a full night of festivities, and the common thread throughout the night was an openness to the truths of God and a curiosity about Jesus and faith! Toward the end of the night, I sensed that God wanted me to share the gospel of Jesus Christ very clearly and to explain that our purpose in hosting the Cafe is to share God's love! There was a great response afterward; many came up to get both Russian and English New Testaments and other materials. Others expressed a desire to go deeper into questions about God and a relationship with Him!

So we had the privilege of hosting a follow-up meeting last Saturday! After sending out an invitation through e-mail, we had four Russian friends show up to ask questions about God, faith, and a relationship with Him! We dug into John 1 in both English and Russian Bibles, had great discussions, and ended with prayer! All four said that they want to continue coming, so we're planning another Bible study in a couple weeks!

As you can tell, I'm very excited, and I praise God for His faithfulness in working through us, His weak and feeble vessels, to accomplish His big kingdom plans. Please continue to lift up the souls of the Russian students we interact with, that they would be willing to accept the truth of Jesus, confess that they are in need of a Savior, place their faith in Him, and begin to walk with Him! Pray for others to show interest in our newly formed Bible study!

More pictures and stories to come later :)

Pray for the Easter Fair

Dear friends and family: please be in prayer for our upcoming English Cafe on Saturday, April 11, from 7:00 - 9:00 Moscow time (11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Eastern time). We will be hosting an Easter Fair, which is the biggest and most important Cafe of the year, as we've been gearing up and preparing for it for a while.

Basically, our Russian friends will be able to visit different "booths" with varying activities, all related to Easter. These booths will include the following:

• Questions about faith - Our Russian friends can ask any questions they would like about religion, the Bible, Jesus, eternal issues...but it will all basically center around Christ and what Easter means. We'll provide our friends with potential questions to ask. This will be allowing our Russian friends to learn about God on their grounds, which is a reversal of our general means of sharing with them through discussion.
• Traditional Seder (passover) dinner, miniature version - we will be explaining the connections between the Jewish Passover celebration and Christ's fulfillment!
  
• Discussion about the connections between the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant beliefs about Easter.
  
• Egg decorating
• Easter egg "hunt" - completed with paper and pencil
• Spring activity - We need 1-2 leaders to help facilitate a springtime activity...a game, poem-reading or writing, etc. that has to do with Spring- or Easter-related vocabulary.
  

The "booths" highlighted in red will allow for a very clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Please pray throughout the week, and especially on Saturday (people who could pray "live" with us would be great!), for God to work in all of our hearts, especially those of our Russian friends who do not know Jesus. Pray that God would draw them to Himself through the truth presented and that they would seek Him. Pray for great questions to be asked and for wisdom in answering them. Pray for the anointing of God's Holy Spirit!

I look forward to sharing how God answers these prayers!