NEWS FROM STREETCRY MINISTRIES
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
NOVEMBER 2005

Dear Friends,

As always, we want to start with thanking you for your part in our ministry. We know that praying and giving are sacrifices and commitments you have made to God. We consider each of you an important and vital part of our ministry. These are not idle words but heartfelt thoughts from deep within us. Our ministry continues not only because of what happens here, but also because of your prayers and financial giving. It is truly a teamwork with each team member being important in God's eyes as well as ours. Your prayers and financial support are making a big difference. As you read the following exciting news, please understand that you are personally responsible for this fruit! This is not evangelism without the word of God and power. We are speaking the truth about salvation, new birth, forgiveness of sin, healing and deliverance; through Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was raised from the dead. These are acts of the Holy Sprit that God is doing right now in Russia and we are beside ourselves with joy and excitement!

EVANGELISM

We have had several evangelism concerts which we haven’t shared about. In this letter we will share highlights from some of them.

At a concert, Taron, a young footballer repented of his sins. The day after, he came to our fellowship and was real hungry for the Lord. He is coming to home group and our fellowship.

We received a phone call from Kristina. Her friends had been to a concert and were on the way to throw away their tracts. Kristina saw one and wanted to read it. It deeply touched her as she wanted to change her lifestyle of alcohol and drugs. She came to our next concert and there, she gave her life to Jesus. The day after, she came to our class for new believers and the service and burst out that she had found what she was looking for her whole life.

At the concerts on the streets Nastya was performing a skit showing life without God and that the freedom from the bondages of sin is only found through Jesus. Vitalik whose life was full of alcohol and drugs, came up to Nastya after the drama. He was deeply touched by what he saw and repented of his sins, giving his life to the Lord.

At the same concert Sveta was drinking and dancing. Her brother, who used to be a drug addict, recently repented and is now a totally changed person. Sveta was deeply touched by the change in her brother and at the concert we witnessed to her and she gave her life to the Lord.

Roma, the 10 year old son of Olga and Sasha, both members of our evangelism band, was witnessing to a boy using his salvation bracelet. It has different colored beads and each color explains a different part of the gospel. Valeria prayed with Roma to receive the Lord.

One of our singers, Katya, wrote the song “I Was Looking for Love”. It is the testimony of how she came to the Lord. Valodia came up to her after the song was sung, saying he was going through the same things and was looking for a way out. He found it in Jesus that night.

Sveta came to a concert and the day after to our service where she repented. Now she goes to another church where she has friends who were praying for her for a long time before her repentance.

Yulia and Oksana were listening to a concert, were witnessed to and gave their hearts to the Lord. Right afterward Yulia said she would not smoke anymore and threw her cigarettes away!

Three heroin addicts, Sasha, Igor and Yana gave their lives to Jesus. Sasha, another addict, who was backslidden, rededicated his life to the Lord at a concert. The following young people were also witnessed to and gave their lives to Jesus at recent concerts: Marina, three girls named Yulia, Oksana, Ina, Nadya, Olga and Dima.

WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE LEAD TO REPENTANCE AND NEW BIRTH

Igor came to a concert and then to our service the next day. The Lord showed Igor that He knew everything about him through a word of knowledge given to him at the concert. He was at a couple more concerts and finally he repented and gave his life to Jesus. He is coming to home groups and services and was baptized in the Holy Spirit.

At another concert, we witnessed to a subculture girl named Sasha. We shared a word of knowledge with her that she was a backslider running from God and that she had a beautiful voice and was gifted in singing. It profoundly touched her as it was accurate and she repented and recommitted her life to the Lord.

We gave a word of knowledge at a concert that there was a girl named Lena and that she wanted to commit suicide. A young woman came up in tears afterwards, saying the word was for her and wondering how we could know these things. Lena repented and came to a meeting right away and shared how her life was transformed.

We have previously shared about our ministry of witnessing to lesbians. A team regularly goes to a hangout for them in the center of the city where we share the gospel. On several occasions we met Tanya and she came to a service. We gave a word of knowledge about healing for someone who had problems with their liver. She ran up to receive prayer right away and she was led to the Lord. During the prayer she was in tears as the Holy Spirit deeply touched her. When she returned home she tore up her posters of a music group with lesbian members. She also got baptized in the Holy Spirit and was coming to church and home groups. Immediately after her repentance, she was out with a team witnessing! ( This precious girl, Tanya recently returned to her old life. Please join with us in prayer as we contend for her soul. We know that the Lord loves her and wants her to live in freedom from her bondage.)

DREAM INTERPRETATIONS LEAD TO REPENTANCE AND NEW BIRTH

A soldier, Sasha, who had been in the war in Chechnya, a Muslim republic in southern Russia, came to two of our concerts. At the second he shared a dream, which we offered interpretation for after the concert. A sister interpreted it and led him to the Lord. A girl, Daria, had had nightmares about demons and had encounters with some. She shared her dreams for interpretation after a concert. A couple of girls prayed for her deliverance from demonic influence and led her to the Lord. We truly believe that the Lord is speaking to many unbelievers in dreams and interpreting them is opening up the door to share the gospel.

Please pray that these new Christian brothers and sisters will keep following the Lord with all their hearts and be protected and kept from the enemy’s ways, and that we can minister to them with love and care.

HEALING

Our Bible school student Luda, was almost completely deaf in her left ear. It was hard for her to communicate with people as a result. After a word of knowledge about her problem we laid hands on her and she was healed!

Olga, had severe problems with goiter. It was so bad that she had been hospitalized. She received prayer several times and is now healed.

OTHER NEWS

As we shared with you in the previous letter, this Christmas season we are planning a feed-in for the homeless and an evangelism outreach/feed-in for addicts and other youth. The Lord has profoundly touched many lives at these annual events and showed His care and love for them... Please continue to pray for the finances for these events. We are still in the need of $4000 for them to happen.

Slava is some of the fruit from last year’s Christmas feast. He was an alcoholic living on the street and responded to our invitation to come to the feast. He was ministered to and afterward went to a Christian alcohol and drug recovery center. Slava has graduated and has dedicated his life to helping others. He is now ministering to others and will join a team that is starting a new center in the northern part of Russia.

James, a missionary from Canada, has returned to work with us for a fourth year. He was able to attend many conferences and meet with many friends and partners of the ministry in Canada and in North and South Carolina. He is looking forward to helping any teams and individuals that feel the Lord is calling them to come and work with us in Russia.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers, financial help and faith in us and what God is doing. We can only do as much as we have the provision for. We are always in need of further financial assistance either small or large. The ministry is able to function well with $10,000 per month. This covers all of the expenses of the ministry including 22 Bible school students, and a staff of 16, the printing of tracts, taking teams to other cities, weekly services and evangelism concerts, etc. On top of this we desperately need a facility for a base and one is now available for $300,000. If you can help with any part of these needs, we would be truly grateful!

We truly love and appreciate you! We are continually praying for abundant blessings upon your lives.

Sincerely,

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

Compiled by Anna & John

PS For those of you who have never visited us, we thought it might be helpful to explain a couple of things. We use the word "rehab center". This brings up different pictures in different peoples minds. The centers we are describing are places where mostly heroin addicts and occasionally alcoholics go to receive complete deliverance from their addictions. This occurs not by methadone or other medication as we have none and don't want any! It occurs by the miraculous power of God as the addicts cry out to God for forgiveness of sin and deliverance from their addictions. For the most part the addicts are freed instantly by the power of the Holy Spirit. Russian medical doctors who have visited are astounded and have said "this is impossible - what I am seeing with my eyes is impossible". They are witnessing the power of God transforming lives. We also use the word "concerts".. We go out on the streets, or go to clubs and coffee houses to do these. We sing evangelistic songs about God, His love, His mercy and power. For the most part, these are not worship songs (Paul did not go out on the streets and quote Psalms to the unsaved.) They also are not Christian pop tunes written in Chritianese that lost souls cannot comprehend. They are songs written with lost souls in mind. Between songs, individuals in our ministry share their personal testimonies. We also give words of knowledge, interpret peoples dreams, pass out tracts and personally witness to all who are hungry. So, when we say "concert" this is what we mean. On occasion we also do worship on the street. This is our hearts communing with and fellowshipping with God, out of love and as a public proclamation of His sovereignty and authority. This also attracts people, but we are called to preach the gospel; and sharing the word of God is our primary source of fruit that remains. We hope that this little explanation might be a help to some. Thanks and God bless!

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

StreetCry
PO Box 7971
Athens, GA 30604
USA

StreetCry Ministries

DK Bolshevichka
Ulitsa Tushina 9
St. Petersburg, Russia
tel/fax: 7 (812) 440-6794
tel: 7 (901) 305-0249
toll-free voice mail: 1 (888) 696-5577

Safe mailing address:
StreetCry Ministries
P.O. Box 109
WP 619
53101 Lappeenranta
SU-Finland

E-mail:
sons@thunder.sp.ru
streetcry@onebox.com
info@streetcry.org

Web: www.streetcry.org