News and Prayer Requests

by Edd of Novolitovsk in the cold Far East of Russia

Peace and grace from our Lord Jesus Christ to you, dear brothers!

I decided to share some news and prayer requests with you. There were two brothers at our service last Sunday. One is Rais who was baptized in our church, and another is Valéry – fresh, baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church who became a widower not long ago. Please pray for them. I got acquainted with both brothers in our “banya” – bathhouse. They came to our service from Nakhodka.

Last week Valéry had a car wreck. My wife Sveta picked him up on the road when she was driving from our village to the city to bring my mom and Kate. Sveta invited him to come to our church and he did!

Another prayer request: we have a good tradition for Christmas service. I prepare Bible quotes and put them inside the small plastic eggs (like Kinder Surprise). Then after the liturgy, every person, including guests, choose one egg from the bag. The Bible quote he finds in the egg is like some kind of instruction or comfort for the next year. To tell the truth, some women see it like Chinese cookies that foretell the future but that’s all right! Please pray that we’ll have many guests and that our church members be cheerful to invite their relatives and friends. If you want, you can help me with Bible quotes: choose the quotes you like and send them to me – I’ll print them and put inside the eggs. Just don’t choose very heavy quotes! 

The weather here is just terrible – strong wind, minus 10 C and very humid. In short, it’s almost impossible to keep the building warm. I can see that the coal I have till the end of the year won’t be enough. And I don’t have means to buy some more. Please pray that God would help me to solve this situation. Last night I burned 3 buckets of coal. That’s much more than it usually takes to heat the building thoroughly.

Another problem is the stove itself. It has to be “reformed” next year. I have a friend who works with heating boilers. He promised to look for a boiler for our building. Please pray that my stove will survive till the end of this winter and that God would make my friend willing to help us. He is rich but remained a normal guy.

The saints of Coram Deo Presbyterian Church