Day 7 & 8: You Betcha!

As we wind down our days in Edmonton Canada our hearts are full! We spent Wednesday on Whyte Street which is a part of the city center and is home to a diversity of cultures. It was a rainy day, but a productive day as we heard news of fruit from our Festival Days; Dejan got a call back from a man we talked to, which is highly rare since Canadians don't usually call back! Praise the Lord; please continue to pray for hearts to be stirred. We prayed over the city and had multiple opportunities to witness to people on the streets. Please also pray for a woman name Leah that our little Leah met at the Festival. Julie, Christina, and the children were able to meet, discuss Jesus, and possible opportunities to use her coffee shop for ministry. We had great fellowship over dinner with Dejan and the girls.

Thursday we spent our day relaxing and touring a little through West Edmonton mall. We had our eyes open as even there we had opportunities to talk to a handful of people. It was a fun day as we walked through the ginormous mall of over 800 stores and were able to attend a sea lion show and visit a little aquarium, all of which are in the mall!!! We then had a farewell dinner at Dejan and Julie's. It was definitely bittersweet as our time is ending, but we are so excited to see the work that the Lord is doing in Canada and can't wait to see what is in store next. Keep the Buljoivic family in your prayers as they need the strength from the Lord to continue on in the work He has set before them. We were so blessed by them the entire trip and will truly miss them. We are now getting ready to hit the road. Please pray for safe travels as we will be driving through the night. We are excited to come and share what the Lord has done through this trip, eh! Love- Canada Team 2013

Day 5&6: Around the World in 3 days!

The last two days have been jam packed with activity! Monday was our last day of the Heritage Festival we went down in the morning and then were split as part of our group went to a convalescent home. The rest of the group stayed at the festival all day. It was a very productive day as we talked to many groups of people and shared the love of Christ with them. The convalescent home was a precious time as they had worship and a Bible study and were able to spend time with the people there. We met back up in the evening had dinner in our dorms and then had a meeting with Dejan, Julie, and the girl to discuss the rest of the week and reflect on the festival. We figured out that we talked to over 35 nations in three days!!! The Lord brought the nations to us to spread His name during those three days. What a beautiful and exciting thing it was. We then had a time of prayer and worship as we reflected on the many people that we talked to.

Tuesday we took a different approach as the festival was over. We went into the city center of Edmonton. They had a big square where people gathered, the Lord brought many people to talk to us through out the day.  During the evening we watched the girls as Dejan and Julie had a date :) The girls had fun as we went to dinner and walked around the college campus. They particularly liked when we saw a huge hare in the middle of campus! These days have kept us busy and have been full, but the Lord has provided strength and has been uniting the team. Thank you for your prayers and for following us on our journey! Sending our love and prayer from Canada- Canada Team 2013

So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.What can man do to me?” -Hebrews 13:6 

Christina & Leah

Team in City Hall

Our Youth in City Hall

Jeff & Christina

Team in front of the pool in front of City Hall

Witnessing near City Hall

Street Witnessing (Dejan on right, Naomi and Spencer in background left)

Rick & Christine 

 

Day 4: Service and Festival

Hello again to our faithful followers! Today felt like two days in one. We had another blessed morning together with our breakfast and devotions. We then hit the festival again and were able to continue to talk to people and spread the good news! Pray for the hearts at the festival that the seeds that have been planted would grow and that people would remember our conversations :) We then hit a Costco to stock back up on our food supplies, then headed to Dejan and Julie's for church service. We were able to meet up with a person who attends Dejan and Julie's fellowship; his name is Doug. Continue to pray for him and his wife who actually is in Russia and is still working on her papers to get to Canada. It was a blessing to get into the Word, have communion,  and fellowship together. We then had some treats and more fellowship. Afterwards we headed back to the dorms, got situated and headed back to the festival until it closed. It was a blessed day and we are overwhelmed with what the Lord is doing in Edmonton. Pray for fruit and that we would continue to be strengthened and bless Dejan and Julie.
May the Lord Bless you! Love and Miss you all- 2013 Canada Team

"Do not be afraid of their faces,  

For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord." 

-Jeremiah 1:8

Day 3- Heritage Festival

Hello Dear Brothers & Sisters! What a blessed day we had. We had a bit of rest this morning, our breakfast, and devotions. Dejan met us at the dorms and then we walked down to the Heritage Festival. What a sight it was! Tents laid out before us for what seemed like miles. Tons of music and lots of different aromas coming from all of the different ethnic foods. We were able to witness to many people today. We estimated that there were over 80,000 people present today at the Festival. We talked to over 10 nations and had some very interesting and definitely spirit led conversations. It is amazing how the Lord puts people in our paths at the most important of times!  We had the opportunity to try many ethnic foods for lunch and dinner.  Julie and the girls met up with us and enjoyed being with the team. We had an overwhelmingly blessed day and are so excited to go back! Tomorrow we will attend the festival in the morning and then we will attend Sunday service at Dejan and Julie's home. Pray for the many people we talked to, it was an array of backgrounds from Muslims, to Atheists, to very liberal, but ultimately lots of lost souls. We are excited with how the Lord is working and what a glorious day He gave us today!! Sending our love from Canada- Canada Team 2013

Matthew 9:36 "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd."

Traveling

Entering Canada

The Girls

The Team

Naomi and Leah at the Festival

A Glimpse of the Festival

Nick and Spencer

 

Ready to Serve in Edmonton!

After several inconveniences the first day of travel (miscommunication with van rental, delay at border, Google Map failure in Lethbridge, and misunderstanding with sleeping arrangement), we arrived safely in Edmonton our second day with no new surprises, at approximately 6 in the evening. Everything went smoothly our second day and we had a wonderful evening at Dejan and Julie's home with dinner, prayer, worship, and fellowship. We are excited to start street evangelism tomorrow at the Heritage Festival in Edmonton. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but we wanted to update everyone on our safe arrival before getting some well appreciated sleep in our comfy dorm rooms at the University of Alberta. Hope to update you tomorrow with some pics. Thanks for reading! God Bless!

iREACH Canada

Hello Brothers & Sisters! We are getting ready to send our next team out, this time to Edmonton Canada. The team consists of Spencer Alvarez, Naomi Bossert, Greg Smith, Nick Wade, Rick & Christine Emerson, Jeff, Christina, & Leah Fadness. The team departs at 9 AM tomorrow morning (Thursday August 1st) come join us as we send them off. Please be in prayer for safe travels and for the preparations that Dejan and Julie Buljovcic have in welcoming their first team!

Safely Home

We arrived  back safely to Pocatello Tuesday morning at 4AM. A BIG thank you to Eric and Colleen Anthony for driving to SLC to pick us up after flight delays. It was such a blessing to us! We appreciate all of your prayers and appreciate the comments and followers along the way as we took this journey. Excited to share with everyone about the work that the Lord did through us. Please continue to pray for fruit to come from our labors.

Love,
Your Russia 2013 Team

Days 11&12- Our Farewells

We write to you from the Moscow airport. We have heavy hearts as we leave our brothers and sisters in Russia-but are excited at the same time to see how the Lord will use our trip and our testimonies at home! On Saturday we had our regular devotions and breakfast and then headed out to the streets for more evangelism. We had another mini concert and passed out invitations to the Sion concert that night. For lunch we were blessed by Yulia Fadness's Mom (Vera) with lunch and fellowship at her home. We then proceeded to the church to prepare for the concert. At the concert a handful of new youth came-pray for them! It was a great night and great fellowship, we even got up as a group and performed Waves of Mercy which was a huge hit :)

Sunday morning we had our last breakfast at the church together. Pastor Ron shared the Word from 1 John 1 and we got up as a team again and performed Waves of Mercy and hand motions :) During the second service the team joined the prayer meeting that takes place every Sunday. It was a precious time of seeking the Lord. It will bless you to know that they pray for Calvary Chapel Pocatello EVERY Sunday!!!!! We then ate lunch at the church, had fellowship, and then Pastor Ron, Darby, Jerry, and Ismael went to visit a couple of people in city center. While Rick prepared to teach the youth and Marti and Christine stayed behind to attend the youth meeting. We then had a big huge gathering of everyone as we welcomed the new team that came from Lynchburg Pennsylvania, Natasha from Africa, Sasha and Sveta from St. Petersburg, plus our beloved body members. We had a time of worship and then proceeded to fellowship and share a meal together. We did not go to sleep as we packed and had to leave at 1 AM to head to Moscow since traffic is so bad. We are now at the Moscow airport. We arrived early, Praise the Lord! Please pray for those that we were able to minister to, plant seeds, and overall the church body in Russia. Also pray for traveling mercies as we travel today! Sending lots of love to you from your beloved team, we are excited to share with you what the Lord has done for each of us and what He showed us through His love these last two weeks!

"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." 1 John 1: 5

At Vera's Flat

Lunch with Vera

Team in front of Church

Team singing a farewell song in Russian

Day 9 &10

" But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience." Luke 8:15

The last two days have flown by! On Thursday we had another great day in Kalchugino. The ladies started off their day with the Women's Prayer at 6:30 with our sisters from the Kalchugino church, then we had devotion and breakfast. After breakfast we headed out for street evangelism before the mid week church service.  Be in prayer for the city, it is a hard city! We were blessed to see some fruit as a new family attended the church service with us that evening after we had talked to them on the streets. Pastor Ron led the mid-week study and then we concluded with dinner and fellowship. Afterwards, we then made our way back to Vladimir. This morning, we woke up early to go and see Moscow! We were tourists today :) But the Lord still used us! We met a group of Christian missionaries who were from South Korea that were playing worship songs on the steps of St. Basil's Basilica. We had a very busy day as we toured around together, we had a great day of fellowship. Please continue to pray for our team that we would not let our guard down but that we would finish our trip strong in the Lord! We have evangelism and a concert tomorrow, so we still have a lot of work to do :)

Moscow: Red Square

Brothers and Sisters from South Korea

Moscow: Red Square, with St. Basil's in background.

Kalchugino market place.

Kalchugino (same place), with our interpreters taking a turn singing.

Heading to the train station!

Moscow: Posing inside the GUM.

Moscow: Eternal Flame

Moscow Metro

Moscow: "Center of Russia"

On the train!

Our fearless leader.

Day 7 & 8: Kalchugino

The last two days have been very eventful as we made our way to the city of Kalchugino! Tuesday morning we woke up at Vladimir had breakfast and devotion, then we hit the road. We drove an hour and half to get to Kalchugino where we were warmly welcomed by Pastor Anotoly, wife Irena, and the body at Calvary Chapel Kalchugino. It was a blessed time of fellowship, as we ate lunch, shared our testimonies, ate dinner, and worshipped together!

This morning we had devotion, breakfast, and hit the streets of Kalchugino to witness the love of Christ to the people. We found a spot by a market to set up and had a performance and witnessing. It was very interesting to see how some were receptive of the gospel and how others were hesitant yet still took the tracts. Pray that the Holy Spirit would work in those peoples hearts that they would receive the Lord.

We then headed back to the flat where the ladies were waiting for us with a traditional Russian lunch-BORSCH!! YUM :) We were so blessed. We had lunch together, had a time of rest, and then reflected on our morning together. We had dinner and ended the day with some worship. What a blessed time we have had together with our brothers and sisters in Kalchugino. It is a refreshing time and has been full of the love of the Lord! Tomorrow we hit the streets again and then will attend church service (they have their mid-week study on Thursdays). After service we head back to Vladimir and Friday morning we head to Moscow! We send our love to you and pray the Lord will continue to strengthen us and use us every minute as our trip is going so quickly.

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6: 14-15 
May we have forgiving hearts so that we may love, since our Father first forgave and loved us! 

Commanda in  Kalchugina

Ron and Rick- The start of a Promising Career, lol! Their first tip!

On our way to Kalchugino

Brothers and Sisters in Kalchugino

Day 6- Street Evangelism in Vladimir

Today we had a very busy morning as we got up and went to the store to find some breakfast, but nothing was open yet, so we had to look around for a new store! We found breakfast, had great fellowship together as we ate, and then had our morning devotional. After that, we hit the streets again. Today we witnessed by passing out tracks, invitations to an upcoming concert, and some testimonies. We ate lunch at McDonalds and then went out again to do more witnessing and on the way back to the church got some Russian ice cream. We were suppose to do a sports outreach with the youth, but on our way back to the church we got rained on (actually poured on!). So our outreach was canceled, but we went to Pasha and Lenas home and had pizza with the youth group, where Marti and Darby shared their testimonies, as well as three youth from the Russian youth group. It was a blessed time together, the Lord is continuing to use and strengthen us! Praise the Lord! The next few days we will be in Kalchugina. We may not have any internet, but will update you when we get the chance!

Here are some pictures from today:

Rick & Christine- Street Evangelism

Team Street Evangelism

Ismael- Street Evangelism

Pastor Pasha and Pastor Ron

Pastor Pasha, Lena, Tim, and Alisa

Team at Pasha and Lena's

Ron & Rick- Street Evangelism

Heading out for Street Evangelism

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Privet Brothers & Sisters!!! What a blessed time we had in Ivanovo. We had a wonderful breakfast meal again; today we had belini with sweetened condensed milk and lots of other dishes!  Today we had a church service where Pastor Ilya led us through a passage in Matthew 6:1-6. We reflected on glorifying God and not ourselves. What an awesome message and reminder for us as we serve the Lord in Russia. We then proceeded to have chai and snacks. Afterwards we cleaned Ilya and Sonya's home and mowed their grass. We then had our last meal together as we ate lunch and then had great fellowship after. They played blues music for us and we then packed up to head back to Calvary Chapel Vladimir.

On the way back to Vladimir Darby, Marti, Ismael, and Jerry took a detour to Suzhdahl. We then met back up at the church and were blessed with time to shower and rest. The Lord is good! He is doing a mighty work in Ivanovo, it is not an easy city or an easy task. They have a lot of work ahead of them in this city. Please join us in praying for Pastor Ilya, Sonya, and their growing family. We are street evangelizing in Vladimir and have an outreach with the youth tomorrow night. Thank you for your prayers! May we glorify the Lord in all that we do.

Here is a brief shout out from our team and a snapshot of their impression of Ivanovo:

Ron: So blessed by the outpouring of love among the team and the Russian believers. May it spill over on all those we meet!
Rick:  God will use you if you are willing.
Ismael: The Holy Spirit was working in the city and in the church.
Jerry: God can use a willing heart.
Christine: A pure picture of faithful servants submitting and trusting in the Lord's will for their lives. The Lord is moving in Ivanovo! May we trust, glorify, and have a sense of urgency for  God in ALL we do.
Marti: Ilya and Sonya were a beautiful example of surrender and love, to me. It was an incredible opportunity to serve with them for  a short while on the streets of Ivanovo.
Darby: Memorable and you could feel God's presence as the team bonded together witnessing. Life Changing!

Suzhdahl

We pray this blesses you as we share just a bit of an amazing two days that we cannot just some up in a sentence, our hearts are too full with what the Lord is showing us!

Church in Ivanovo 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." Matthew 6:1-4 

Day 3 & 4 - City of Ivanovo, Russia

After Rick led us in morning devotions and we had breakfast, the team had the opportunity to do some janitorial work at CC Vladimir as they have a limited staff for this kind of work.  After lunch we celebrated Darby's 19th birthday with a yummy Russian cake.

Then it was off to Ivanovo with our interpreters, Vova, Pasha, and Olya.  We were greeted by Pastor Ilya and his wife, Sonya and treated to a delicious dinner in their backyard.  What a blessing it is to be guests in their home - and there sleeping room for all of our team plus the interpreters.  Their house also serves as the church building where they have services on Sundays.  They are extremely gracious hosts!

On Day 4, Saturday, after breakfast and devotions led by Ismael, we headed out to evangelize Ivanovo!  It's a beautiful and modern city, slightly larger than Vladimir.  Pastor Ilya led us to the city center where we set up in a busy part of the park.  Some of the guys did music while the rest passed out invitations to the church and shared Christ with people who stopped to listen.  At one point the guys started doing some crazy country music and many people stopped to listen.  Ron preached the gospel and small groups formed with the team and interpreters sharing Christ one on one.  You could tell the Holy Spirit fell on this place and was drawing hearts to Jesus.  What an awesome day!  Thank you for your prayers, the Lord is answering!