NEWS FROM STREETCRY MINISTRIES
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
MARCH 2005

Dear friends,

We love and appreciate you a lot and are very thankful for how you are helping to expand the Kingdom of God here in St. Petersburg through your prayers, visits, love, kindness, and financial support.

EVANGELISM

We are continuing to either have evangelism bands from different churches and ministries play in our coffee house every Friday night or show Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of Christ.” Usually there is a crowd of about 70 unbelievers, mostly students and sub-culture youth.

During the week, our Bible school students and others in the ministry are on the street handing out flyers, which invite people to the concerts or the film, as well as witnessing those they meet. A few weeks ago while handing out flyers, Nastya (a Bible school teacher) met an 18 year old student from Moscow named Anya. Anya had been involved in a relationship with a 27 year old woman. Anya and her girl friend had gotten into an argument and Anya left Moscow and came to St. Petersburg. Nastya was able to share the love of Christ with Anya, who repented and came to know the Lord. The next evening at our school of the Spirit, Anya shared how she was so happy to have met Nastya and how she was stranded in St. Petersburg without any money. She had called a friend, who put money into her account, but Anya had forgotten the PIN. She prayed and the Lord brought the PIN back into her memory during her first worship experience! Anya has since returned to Moscow and Nastya and Anya have been exchanging e-mails, in one of them Anya shared how excited she is with her new life in Jesus!

A few of us regularly go out witnessing to the prostitutes on the streets. Most of them are drug addicts, trying to sell their bodies for their next dose and are not always open to talking. However, we met a 20 year old girl named Kristina, who has been on drugs for over 4 years and as the girls started to share how Jesus had changed their lives and delivered them from a similar background, Kristina’s heart opened. Kristina asked for prayer, and the girls laid hands on her and prayed for her on the street. The next day Kristina called our office and shared that she had returned home that night, repented and gave her life to the Lord. The girls were able to meet with Kristina and her friend, Tanya, later that day. During that meeting, Tanya also repented and gave her life to the Lord!

Several years ago, Arkady, who is now in the first year of Bible school, was witnessed to when he was living in a student dorm. His heart, along with many others, are for the students who have left their families and have travelled across Russia to attend one of the many colleges or universities here in St. Petersburg. These students face many temptations, being far from home and away from parents and friends. A few weeks ago, a team met Nina and Tanya in the dorm. One of the team could really relate to Nina, as they both had similar backgrounds. The next Friday both girls came to see “The Passion of Christ.” The movie had a strong effect on both of them and after the film Tanya repented and gave her life to the Lord.

Recently, Max, a 17 year old music student, called another young musician from our fellowship, Valera, early on a Saturday morning and asked him if he could have some guitar strings. Max went over to his house and the two of them spent the day together. Later in the day, Valera asked Max if he wanted to come with him to our Saturday night service. After the service, Valera literally dragged Max out of his seat and to the front of the room, where Max prayed to recieve Christ as his Lord and Saviour. Every time Max comes to our building, we can see the joy of the Lord flowing out of him!

REHAB NEWS

As we wrote in our last newsletter, we had to temporarily close our drug rehab center. The building that we were using for our rehab center had been empty for a few months, but it is now once again being used as a drug rehab center, praise God! We have given the lease over to Betel and are thrilled that it is once again being used to deliver and rehabilitate former heroin addicts. We are still praying and believing the Lord that we will once again be running a live-in drug rehab center. In the mean time we are still working with 3 rehab centers in the area, interviewing and talking with addicts who want to be delivered and passing them on to the rehab centers.

Sometimes, the people working at one of the centers call us for help. Recently, we received a call from one of the directors, asking us if we go to the train station and meet with two girls that had just left their center. We were having a school of the Spirit meeting at the time, and started to pray for God to move in the situation and change the hearts of the girls. Two students went to the train station and not only were able to find them, but talked with one of the girls about returning to the rehab center, even though they both had said no minutes before. She is now doing well again, praise the Lord. Often the enemy uses one person to pull another from Jesus and His help.

OTHER NEWS

The Bible school students are continuing to grow in the Lord and in their knowledge of Him. With just over two months left in the year, the students and teachers are excited about and preparing for a missions outreach in another part of Russia.

We are also preparing for a summer of evangelism on the streets in St. Petersburg, with several concerts each week, as well as daily witnessing. We also planning on having several teams and individuals joining us over the summer and are believing God a great harvest of souls added to His Kingdom in the months ahead.

We are in need of your prayers and support. The rent for our office has recently tripled, we are also in need of two vehicles to transport our equipment and our team for evangelism, and we have a desire to translate and publish two books into Russian. The total for these needs is $60,000. If you are at all able to help us with any of these needs, it would be greatly appreciated.

May the Lord bless you abundantly! We love and appreciate you a lot!

John, Sara, Anya, Roma, Vera,
and the StreetCry Ministry team

compiled by James

All tax deductible support checks should be made payable to: StreetCry

StreetCry
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USA

StreetCry Ministries

DK Bolshevichka
Ulitsa Tushina 9
St. Petersburg, Russia
tel/fax: 7 (812) 440-6794
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info@streetcry.org

Web: www.streetcry.org