Старбакс Кофе and Ukraine

 Fortunately for me and the other handful of Americans on my team here, the copyright litigation that was holding up Starbucks from entering the Russian market was settled and today there is a Starbucks at one of our malls!  As my brother Matt says to me often, "It's the little things isn't it Laura."  Yes, yes it is.  So last weekend we set off for the hour long trip to reach Starbucks and I was able to buy this great coffee tumbler that looks like a matrushka doll, and Kenyan coffee.  It was great watching the Russians try to figure out the difference between a tall, grande, and venti.  They actually have little instruction booklets to explain the coffee and sizes in Russian. 

While this was tons of fun in and of itself, I also had a blast helping a staff girl from Ukraine practice her English.  Ukraine has been a much more spiritually open country than Russia, and they are actually fully Ukrainian staffed (80 total) so Americans have been able to leave the ministry there in their hands.  And it's flourishing.  Lena is actually one of three who have been sent as missionaries from Ukraine to Russia, and she works in the city of Varonish, reaching college students there.  If you know anything about Ukrainian/Russian relations, you know that they are often extremely rocky at best.  Ukraine has suffered a lot by Russia, and it amazes me that the heart of the Ukrainian staff is to reach Russia with the gospel.  I love that the passion God gives us for others is often unexplainable.  If you think about it, pray for Ukrainian missionaries like Lena as they raise support and work to reach the universities of Russia. 

Pictured:  Our team at Starbucks; Lena at far left

One month down...

Well I’ve been in Moscow now for a whole month and by the time October comes I’ll have 9 more months left here.  It’s amazing how quickly the time goes by here!  I really love the fast pace of life in this city and the many different faces I get to see every day.  There is nothing like the energy here. 

This past month, we have been participating in a national strategy to reach college freshmen in Russia by handing out planners for their school year.  The planners are filled with good articles that are challenging to students and talk about issues from studying well to purpose in life.  They have a survey attached to the front that students fill out upon receiving them, asking them four questions about their thoughts on life.  One of the last two questions asks what their associations with the words “Christianity” and the “Bible” are, with space for them to voice their opinions.  The final question asks if they would want to meet with someone to hear what the heart of the Bible is about.  Our goal with these planners is to find Christians on the campuses of Moscow who would like to see a movement started on their campus and also to find spiritually open students in order to present the gospel to them.

Because the scope of our ministry is to college students, of which there are one million of them in Moscow alone, we are praying that God would raise up student leaders who will have a vision to reach their classmates for Christ.  We as a staff team of 13 can’t do it on our own, and nor do we want to.  Our desire is for students here to have ownership of their movements and to rely on us as little as possible.  Hopefully one day we won’t need to be here!  J 

This next month will see us finishing the planner hand-out and beginning a new phase of ministry.  Please be praying that God would continue to give us vision for what He wants us to do during the fall semester and that He would touch the lives of the students on the 15 campuses around the city we have already been to.  Pray that He would put us in the paths of believing students who want to be equipped to reach their campuses for Christ and that many students would come to faith by hearing the gospel for the first time as we meet to follow up with them.   Praise God that one of our student leaders, Masha, was able to lead a classmate of hers to Christ this past week!  Personally, for the sake of the gospel in Russia, I would rather have Russian students be the ones to lead their peers to faith.  Pray that the Lord allows this to happen here more and more. 

You don’t know how thankful I am for you and how much I want to hear about what’s going on in your lives too!  Please send me emails whenever you can! 

Four weeks to go...

As my time in Texas comes to an end, the Lord continues to show me how He alone is my provider.  Currently I have 56% of my support in.  I have a little under $1,700 monthly needed, and I am confident that God is going to bring this in.  The excitement my current supporters have for the ministry in Moscow and their gladness in giving makes me so excited to finally get to leave and do ministry!  While I have fears of homesickness and also sadness to leave friends and family, I know that God has called me to go and will use this experience in my life and in the lives of others.  I will leave Texas on August 15th, and the country just four days later.  Here are some current prayer requests:

• That God would get our visas in on time!
• That the rest of my team's support would come in before briefing.
• My team would be unified in purpose and filled with God's love for one another.
• For my team's time in the Word- that it would be daily and encouraging.

My favorite skyline

Back to Russia...

Well, it's been a very long time since I've updated this page, and I'm so excited to get to update it with this announcement- I'm going back to Russia for a year!  While spending the greater part of my senior year wrestling with where God wants me to spend my time after graduation, He has made it very clear that He wants me to return to Moscow as a STINT team member with Campus Crusade for Christ.  STINT stands for Short-term International.  I will be spending my year investing in college student's lives by telling them the Gospel, discipling them, and coming alongside them as they in turn reach their campuses for Christ.  You have no idea how thrilled (and intimidated) I am to be going back!  I miss Russia very much and am so happy to have the opportunity to spend a year there. 

Just last week I heard from a friend who is in Moscow on STINT and she told me about a young girl named Masha who became a believer recently.  She has been discipled by my friend and decided that she wanted to reach out to students in her classes.  She organized a coffee where she had several believers talk about what love meant to them on International Women's Day (very similar to our Valentine's Day).  Then Masha shared how Christ had demonstrated love to us.  One of her friends, Ira, asked how Christ had changed her personally, and after several conversations, Ira decided to place her faith in Christ!  Stories like this are becoming more frequent, and I am thankful that God is moving in this city.  It is because of stories like this that I feel a sense of urgency for Russian college students.  How many more Ira's are simply waiting to be told about Jesus?  I would like to challenge you to prayerfully consider partnering with me again to bring the Gospel to the 1.2 million college students in Moscow! 

Joyfully yours,

Laura