Newsletter by the Mikhailov's family 31.12.2008

     February 6 th
     "Children are a heritage from the Lord, offsprings e reward from Him" (Psalm 127:3)
     The third child was born in our family. This is a boy, 55sm in length and 3,6 kg in weight. We knew in advance that would be a boy, so we chose a name for him long before his birth. We decided to name him as Mark. Our elder children - Joanna and Vladislav - were waiting for this day pretty much and were very glad, their younger brother was born! When my wife, Nadya, and Mark were still in the maternity hospital, Vlad has expressed his happiness in such an active way, that he has broken his collar-bone. Though, even this fact did not disappoint him. We prayed a lot, and the collar-bone has recovered ideally. Thanks God! Up to now 10 months have been passed and the boys are big friends, only Joanna was sad - she was waiting for a sister so much.

     April 25th, 26th, 27th
     "Therefore go and make disciples off all nations" (Matthew 28:20)
     In reasons of evangelization we have shown the movie "Jesus". The show has brought much blessing. During two weeks the whole church was preparing for this project hard. We have distributed more over 10000 invitations and have glued more then 200 posters.
     More then 100 non - believers during three evenings have seen the movie and have been invited to the Holiday Easter Worship and to the Christian Music Concert. The preparation time is very important for our churches! The mutual efforts and prays let feel the unity in a special way, let feel the importance of every body and the unity of purpose!

     April 27th
     Holiday Easter Worship.

     April 28th
     "I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples" (Psalm 57:9)
     The Concert of Christian Music and Poetry has been long and carefully prepared. That was the final element of our Easter Evangelisation Project, so every body has a feeling of great importance. Many leaders from our church took part in the Concert. Every of them has his own service - somebody was reading the verses, somebody was meeting the guests, somebody has personal communication with the guests in the end of the evening. Nadya Mikhilova was singing.
     At about 70 non-believers have heard the Gospel. Many of them were crying.

     May 29th - June 1st
     The annual conference. Lev was chosen as a member of Ordinaiting Committee of our Annual Conference.

     June 14th
     There was one more wedding in our church. Both Evgeny and Victoria are the members of our church. For the last 4 years, already 6 pairs have been wedded in our church.

     It's summer. Our family is sportive, we like active way of having rest: we ride on bicycles, go hiking. This is a special time for every of us, when we can pay our attention only to each other. Our children like such days very much, they usually get prepare for them in advance and they are waiting for them with great impatience. After that during long evening evenings we like to watch photos and think for the future.

     June 15th
     "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1)
     Celebration of day of Penticostal has been continued outdoors! After the solemn holiday Service, our church together with the Presbyterian Church has gone outdoors, to fresh air, where we have spent the rest of the summer, fine day. In the forest we had a dinner, joint sport games, musical glorification with the guitar, interesting communication. Everybody liked that very much! That's pity it is not very often…

     June 21st
     "It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High (Psalm 92:1)
     Evangelization concert which reflects the chronology of Jesus Christ's Life from Birth to Crucifixion. Nadya Mikhilova was singing.

     July 8-14th
     "Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these"" (Matthew 19:14)
     We have conducted Children Tented Christian Camp in the birch forest. That was the first like experience for our church. Nine children from non- believing families took participation in it. The weather was not very well during first five days. It was raining and cool. We had to take care about kids a lot for them to be dry. It was raining hard at nights. Nevertheless, all kids were very happy! The most part of the day we had to spend in the big tent for the meetings. Kids learnt verses from the Bible, took part in studying the Bible for children, made Christian handicrafts, Nadezhda was leading the child's glorification. Even mark, who was 5 months that time, spent the night in the tent. Children learnt to thank the Lord for everything, to pray and to believe. The last several days, the weather was very nice. It was sunny. All of us thanked the Lord for that! That was the most interesting and joyful time for everyone: we could swim in the lake, play active games, walk in the forest, etc.

     July 11-13th
     The Youth Camp for the members of our church was conducted on the bases Children Camp. All young people of our church who could not take part in the camp organization on the reason of their job have arrived for the weekend. That was the blessed time for all of us: the forest, the lake, fresh air, playing football, volleyball, ping-pong, the service for children, prays near the fire… The main topic for discussion was that we live not for the dreams of being somewhere where we are not now, or of becoming somebody else, but not who we are at the moment. We live to please the Lord being on our own place, being those who we are now…

     September 1st
     Joanna went to school! The time flies! It seems that she was born only yesterday…
     She is a special child in our family because she, actually, grown up in the church. Starting from 3 months old and up to five years old (until our second child was born) she visited 3-4 meetings per week together with us. We did not have the Summer school, as Joanna was the only child in the church for the long time. It seemed that she was just playing during the gospels and the Bible studying. How great was our amazement, she became to share with us her knowledge about the Lord! The Word has become for her not just stories from the Bible, she has real truly faith, and her personal relationships with the Lord are astonishing! Our Lord gave her very kind heart, she is very kind to children and to people and her heart is very tender to the Lord! We remember with special feelings how blest and merciful was our Lord to us 8 years ago, when Joanna could be born with big possibility to be deaf and blind. That time the Lord has opened to us the Word: "And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly." (Luke 18:7-8). We know that our God wants us to trust Him fully all the time and to keep peace in our hearts, whatever happens.

     September- November
     "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me" (Matthew 18:5)
     We decided to adopt a child-orphan from the children's home. We decided it would be a girl of 5-10 years old. It took long time to collect all necessary documents. When the documents were ready, we faced another big and difficult question: whom to choose? We prayed a lot for the God to send us a child who would become as our own one, who would find a HOME with our family! We know that the God never makes mistakes and nothing is not in His power. We looked through the photos of kids - orphans and asked Him to point to "our" child. Finally we chose a girl of 9 and went to the children's home to meet with her. We even did not realize that it would be morally so difficult! A burden of responsibility lay down on us. We were sure that we would find "our" child, but we did not want to hurt other children. We could not answer the question how not to hurt a child who is waiting for his Mother and Father, but You did not take him?! The Lord saw our hearts and He made everything the best, as usual! The girl whom we chose to meet with, did not want to the family, she liked to be in the children's home. Other girls from her form gathered around us and Nadezhda asked them: who wants to the family the most?" it was very amazing to see such a wonderful kindness and children's love, when all the girls answered: "Ann wants the most!" almost all children wanted to the family, but they knew that Ann is crying at nights and prays for somebody to take her home. For that moment nothing meters for us: neither her appearance, or her communication skills, nor her intellect -we wanted this decision to be from the Lord. A bit later we realized that the girl fits in our family very well, and that Vlad and she are even alike. This is the story how we meet our Ann…

     October 3d
     "Two are better that one" (Ecclesiastes 4:9)
     This is the day of our wedding. We have been together for 10 years already! These are the most blessed years of our life. It seems to us that before that it was not even the Life, it was just the preparation to it…

     October 22-24th
     Lev took part in the training for the Ordinaiting Committee.

     December 1st
     Hurrah! Finally all official questions are decided - we took Ann home! The girl, whom or Lord "find" for us is very kind and homely. She studies in lyceum, she is clever. We believe that God is doing His best for our wellness. He does not make exceptions and mistakes, even if it brings difficulties, hurts us or even ruins some hopes. We pray for no problems could prevent us from us from taking care of other people. We accumulate strength by serving other people. The motto of our family is: "let somebody feel your love today!"

     December 24th
     "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you" (Luke 2:11)
     There is the Evangelization Youth Evening devoted to Christmas celebration. This is a traditional for our church project in the style of Christian caf? with Christmas quizzes, productions, music, and discussions.