Updates

• The Russian trip is now complete as you can read below.
• The Liberia trip is almost complete: please pray for safe return for the missionaries there. 
• An update will be posted here within a few days about the Liberia trip
• Please scroll down this blog to see Kenya articles.   Click here for pictures of that trip,,   http://imageevent.com/aalchurch/kenyatrip    

Home from Russia!

We have been home from Russia a week now. Both Shane and Brian have reported back to me that they made it home safe and sound as well. I arrived home late last Friday night, then went to work the next morning at 5:30am. Nothing like jumping right back into my Canadian life! I don't know why it is, some kind of mental processing perhaps, but every time I come home from Russia I spend a week or two dreaming vividly every night that I am still there. The other morning as I awoke, for instance, I lay in bed trying for a few very intensive moments to remember just where I was in Russia. When I finally realized I was home, I felt a real emptiness. The Lord has put Russia and her children so deeply upon my heart, that I am never really far from her in spirit, prayer, or thought. She truly is a very large part of my day and life, even when I am not there.



Both Brian and Shane agree with me that our 3 week trip to Russia was very blessed. We worked that time with barely a rest, from early morning to late evening, traveling, fellowshipping, encouraging and being encouraged by brothers and sisters in Russia, but also meeting with many many non-believers. Actually, there are relatively few non-believers in Russia. Of course faith in God in Russia is more a cultural phenomena than an actual living faith reality. An example of this is a story Sister Oksana Makarova related about one young Russian man she met who adamantly insisted that Russian didn't need Christians because, "We are Orthodox not Christian!"


Still, this Russian cultural faith, however shallow or misguided, offered us much opportunity to open discussion about real faith and about living for Jesus Christ. Most Russians are quite open to discussion about faith, but cultural traditions run deep. Unfortunately relatively few Russians own a bible and fewer yet have ever opened one. So this is the reason we are sent, to preach the gospel and to bring deeper understanding of the precious Christian faith to Russia. I know from experience, and by faith, that the Word we share does not return void. The Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ is certainly alive and at work in Russia.



In Photos:  (explaination is above each photo)
 Visiting Christian brother and university teacher, Victor Ivanov (in seat beside Greg) and one of his evening English language classes at the Chuvash State University. Below is an excerpt of a letter Victor sent me today:

"Dear Gregory!
Thank you again for being such a blessing! I am really grateful to you all for the gospel sharing. My students, especially the ones attending the evening courses, began to get interested in the Christ. For example, today  at the end of the lesson we spoke about the Christ and what He has done for us to be saved. we discussed quite a number of things. They still remember your visit with joy"....

  Speaking to students at the Mari State University

  Some of the Yoshkar Ola Lutheran Youth Group seeing us off at the snowy train station in Yoshkar Ola - Olga, Gregory, Katya and Artem

  Brian Niemitalo looking handsomely Russian in Moscow

 Visiting, fellowshipping and praying with young Christian sister, Katya (in pink) at her Moscow home - Katya, Gregory, Anna - I have known both Katya and Anna since they were young girls. Anna often translates for me.

  Shane, Anna, and Brian beneath the famous communist era "Worker with Kolkhoz Woman" Statue in Moscow

Latest Russian Update!

.... I wrote this update below last night on the train.. now we are sitting in a McDonald's Restaurant where we can use their free WiFi.. Unfortunately we have only 30 free minutes so I will send this, then try to read and respond to some of the mail I have... below is the update I wrote last night...




It is late evening; the last time I wrote to you we had recently arrived to Cheboksary. Since then, another 5 days have passed and Brain, Shane and I are now on a warm, comfortable train, making our way back west to Moscow and to the last two days of our stay here in Russia.



You will remember that before I left for Russia, my prayer and theme for this trip was to reach out to as many people as we could who did not know or have a personal relationship with our Lord and Saviour. I know many of you were interceding for this on our behalf as well. I have to tell you with much joy and praise that our Lord answered those prayers! Over the last few days we have visited four different universities between Cheboksary, the capital city of Chuvashia, and Yoshkar Ola, the capital of Mari El, and have spoken to and shared the gospel with between two and three hundred students and teachers. I can’t tell you the energy it takes to do this;.. to speak all day long, from morning to evening, to different classes filled with young people and to keep the energy up so that each and every one of them goes away feeling like they have participated in something special, but the Lord allowed us the inspiration and spirit to do it.

One of my favourite things to do was to share songs with the students. Russian students can sing whole songs by heart!!.. and then Brian, Shane and I would return the favour with hymns of our own, which they always appreciated very much.

The Dean and Teacher in the University    

The universities took up much of our time over the last week, but we also visited with many Christian brothers and sister's and with village families. Shane and Brian were especially impressed with our visit to and the hospitality of one village family whom I met and became friends with last year. We actually paid a couple hundred rubles to one villager with a plow to clean a kilometer or so of snow from the road to this family’s farm so we could comfortably drive to their home and spend the evening in fellowship with them. Nina, the mother of this family, has repented and become a Christian and the children are attending church, but Vadim, the father, though very open and welcoming of our visit and the sharing of the Lord’s gospel, is still struggling between the ancient forest worship of the Mari people and the new Christian faith of his family. At the end of our evening with this family we all stood together in their living room and prayed, Vadim included. I hope to include some photos of Vadim, Nina, and their children in this post.



Now we are on our way to Moscow. We will spend a bit of time showing Shane the city, but have plans to visit with some Christians and our dear sister and translator, Anna Kyzmakova is trying to arrange for us to visit the music academy where she studies to speak with her peers and teachers. I’m not sure if this update will be posted before then, but if it is posted, please do keep this academy and Moscow visit in prayer.

  Shane and Brian (you guys look like you really belong!)  

May the Lord of Love and Grace bless each and every one of you,



Gregory.. with Brain and Shane in Russia.

Ongoing Russian Trip!

 Izhevsk, Kazan, Cheboksary

Brian Niemitalo preaching in a university in Russia

The last time I had any chance to sit and write a post to you was on the train to Izhevsk over a week ago. We left that night from a rainy Moscow and woke to a sparkling, snowy, subzero, Udmurtian winter wonderland. Over the last days, Brian, Shane and I have since covered hundreds of miles and visited three major Russian cities and many small villages. In each place the Lord has been opening wonderful opportunities for us to encourage brothers and sisters, but also to share the gospel with many who have not known or heard of His wonderful grace and salvation.

In Izhevsk, the capital city of Udmurtia, we were met at the train station by sister Oksana Makarova, (in picture with Brian and Shane) who was very instrumental in planning and organizing our time in Udmurtia. Oksana took us straight to the home of sister Diana Chetvertnikn, who had graciously offered us her home to use as our base for the time we were there in the city.


With Diana we visited and shared the gospel with many students and teachers at the university where she has taught English. We also visited the university English club with Oksana, who is a member of the club, and on Sunday we held a afternoon service in the city centre in a book store called, Slova, or “Word” in English. For our time in Udmurtia, Brother Kolya Fedash came from his home in Samara to serve as a translator for us.


Sunday evening Brother Marat Fazloulline, who serves as a pastor in the villages around Izhevsk, picked us up in his van and we spent the next two days visiting villages, holding services, and meeting with different Christian groups and denominations to share and encourage them in their faith.


On Tuesday morning we left in Marat’s van for Kazan, a 1000 plus year old city, where we hooked up with Brother Misha Ustjuzhanin who came from Ekaterinburg to provide translation for us, and then we spend the evening in fellowshipped with the Kazan Lutheran congregation and lodged the night at the home of Lutheran Pastor Anatoly Pegassi. In the morning we loaded the van once again and Marat has brought us to Cheboksary where we are now.


Here in Cheboksary we have spend one day already visiting and fellowshipping in the main language university. We are visiting the English students in these universities and so we are able to work without a translator for the most part. Yesterday we spent the evening with sister Lena Mihaylova and Anna Pavlova and one of their small cell groups. I met Lena and Anya last spring when I came to speak to the students. (Lena found faith in Jesus Christ this summer while living with the family of Mark and Suzy Beal in the USA!)


We were going to stay in a hotel here in Cheboksary, then decided we would save money and travel back and forth between here and the Yoshkar Ola mission church, which is about 80K distance, but when we met with, Larisa Nikitinskya, the Dean of the Language Department yesterday, who I met and became friends with last summer, she and her husband, Val, invited us to lodge in their home while we are here. It’s so amazing how graciously people are helping us along the way.


So now I will ask Val if I can send this note via his Internet. Thank you so very much for your prayers and please continue to intercede on our behalf while we are here. Today we will meet with more students, then on Friday evening we will leave here for Yoshkar Ola, the capital city of the Mari El Republic, and the surrounding villages. Hopefully I will be able to post to you from there.


May His love, which is ever gracious and true, be ever near to our hearts,

Gregory... With Shane, Brian, Misha and Marat in Cheboksary:)..