A friend of mine once described St. Louis as a "cradle for missionaries." What a great complement! We hope that students who are influenced by the ministry here will love God deeply and long to live for His glory which will certainly mean that they become ones who proclaim the gospel to all the ends of the earth. We desire to see students live as missionaries in every vocation and every location however God calls them.
Jenny (on the right in the picture) graduated this spring from Maryville University. She grew in her desire to live this way during her summer projects in San Diego and in Russia. Now she is planning to return to Krasnodar for a year of ministry. One of the women that she met during her project there was named Nika. Jenny passed along an email from Nika that I thought you might enjoy.
"I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for you! It is so amazing to watch what the Lord is doing in our student ministry here now - and you know, such a huge part of all the wonders He is making here now would have never been possible were it not for you! Yura and Yura accepted Christ, and the Lord is growing them SO MUCH! They are completely different people than those 2 guys who came to argue and make fun of believers 4 months ago when I first met them! Even though on the outside they are still the same super fun guys:) They are such strong leaders - and they already share their faith with their families and with pretty much everyone who comes to our events - without even realizing it!
Yura Voroshilov's younger brother started to come to our events too and is now getting really close to accepting Christ! And his mom is really close too! And they also shared with Alina - I know she had been thinking a lot about God, we had several very deep conversations with her, and she asked me several times what it means "to accept Christ" and how she can do that. But when Yura and Yura shared with her, it meant so much more to her - because they both mean a lot to her and because she witnessed how God changed them completely during these past 4 months! Please be praying for her! She is really thinking about God very seriously now, and she really wants to study the Bible! And do you know that Yura and Yura have led Alpha-course - the small group through which they became believers- twice already???? And they are doing SUCH A GREAT JOB!!! Everyone just LOVES it!!! They came up with 5 really great topics which are very important for young believers - and they know it better than anyone. I help them prepare, find passages from the Bible, and just make sure they are following Biblical truths - and they do everything else! So far they've led discussions on doing evangelism and on the Biblical point of view on relationships between guys and girls. That was really awesome! So amazing to see them preach so passionately those truths with which they argued against so hard when I first met them! I just can't stop praising God for those guys! I just love them so much! And I just praise the Lord that He touched their hearts trough you! They talk about you every day, saying that you are such an example for them!
Well, sorry for writing so much! :) I just wanted you to know that the Lord works mightily through you in Krasnodar even when you are not here!!! It gives me gooseskin to even think of what the next semester here will be like when you actually are here!
Love in Christ,
Nika"
Love in Christ,
Nika"
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