Gamardzhoba=) (Hello in Georgian)

I am happy to greet you in Georgian language, my friends!

Few days ago we got back from our short Mission trip to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. We spent a wonderful week there helping a missionary family there to hold two short movie Festivals with a Gospel presentation.  This week was full of blessings and joy that I am anxious to share it with you.

First I want to introduce you to some pictures of Georgia and its culture.

Our team at this trip: Vanya, Me, Rita and Julia

Old Georgian monastery

Old house from the 19th centuary



Baking Georgian bread...

Old Church

Shepherd with his flock

We held the first festival at the medical school of Tbilisi. There is a group of Christian students from India and Shri-Lanca. There are about 70 of them and there are around 1000 other international non Christian students. We joined these Christians to help them influence their non Christian friends. There were 120 new people who showed up to talk about the meaning of life at the festival. We were amazed and inspired to see the moment among those Indians. They asked us to teach them lead discussion groups and then they trained another group of leaders by themselves. They distributed the advertisement and came up with their own way of registering people at the festival.  They prayed in the corner during the meeting lifting up their friends to God while we were sharing the Good News with them. It was really touching and motivating to work alongside with them.

Indian Student leaders

Students at the festival

Inviting students to the festival

  The next day we held the same festival for Georgian students.  God gave us a great atmosphere and open conversations with them. There were about 20 new students but we were not discouraged because every student in Georgia represents at least 10 of his friends so if we reach at least few of them- it will be our chance to influence the word around them. And that happen the next night – after the festival we invited students to our place and they showed up with their friends. It’s a very friendly culture=)

I am so thankful for this trip. I could see that we helped local movements grow and influence their peers. But more than that, it was life changing for our students – Rita, Vanya and Julia.  They could experience how much joy you get when you have a chance to make a difference in somebody’s life, they saw a great example of dedication in Indian students and they got some great Bible teaching from the Missionary we spent that week with. We talked about our position in Christ, about living and serving by grace and about what it means to be dead to sin and alive for God. It was powerful!

 

Please pray for :

 - 150 students that heard the Gospel during this trip. The students and the family of missionaries in Tbilisi will continue working with these students and invite them to church. May the seed that was planted grow.

- We have a lot of new students who kept coming to our weekly meetings  in Odessa. They actively think about what they have been hearing about God these past three months. Many of them have lots of doubts. Please support them in prayer.

Thank you,

Alina.