Summer 2013 – dreams come true

    This summer God has been doing amazing things in my life and in my ministry among the students.  I want to thank Him and praise Him – that’s why I am sharing it with you.

    The first part of my summer I spent in the US raising support for the ministry. I experienced multiple blessings and all the prayers were answered. At my last ministry presentation God lavishly provided the exact amount of donations to reach the goal I set.

     While I was in the US  our students were turning the world of a student ministry upside-down. They did take their challenge seriously. Every week they had  at least four activities: a team meeting, a team prayer, a Bible study and a weekly meeting. In the end they did the analysis of their leadership and set new goals for the new semester. 

The movers of Odessa Ministry

I was amazed to see how much they grew emotionally (they learned the lesson how to work as a team and we all know how challenging it can be sometimes) and spiritually (they knew there was no staff around to help them so all they had to do – fully rely on God).

Getting together for a Bible Study

And what is even better – when I got back home - few of our new students that accepted Christ this year told me they wanted to join such a team next year and asked me to let them be active in the Ministry. Oh my goodness, I DID  NOT  HEAR THAT BEFORE. I am used to offering that opportunity and challenge students  but I am not used to being asked for it. So our spiritual student leadership movement has started. The boldness and dedication of our leaders was influential and compelling to other students around them. I can’t wait to see what else is going to happen this fall having such a team of “miracle makers” in Odessa.

But the things God has done haven’t stop there.

   Next blessing was an English Summer Camp 2013. Since 2002 (a year when I became a believer at the same kind of camp) I have been dreaming to continue such camps in Odessa. Since 2009 we tried organizing it but we didn’t have enough people signing up(nor Americans nor Ukrainians). This year we had about 45 students from Ukraine  and a wonderful group of 10 Americans from Kansas  coming to help us.

American group

Here are some pictures of our activities at the camp

Learning to play baseball

They loved American football

Baseball was both fun and confusing for Ukrainians=)

Crafts

Climbing Goverla - the highest mountain in Ukraine (1,30 miles)

English Classes and Bible Studies

Americans were sharing the Gospel and their testimonies

 At the camp we talked a lot about the spiritual growth and development. At the camp fire many students said that it was the first time in their life they actually thought about their spiritual life and witnessed how God changes lives of people. Here are few feedbacks:

Nadya: "It was the best week of my life"

Nataly: "I want to apply everything
I heard about God at this camp".

Vika is going to get baptized in the end of this month. She brought a friend to our Camp with her and she was praising the Lord for what He was doing in her life.

Kate: "It was actually the first time
in my life I talked to somebody about God." 

Dima: "After a year of coming to CRU meetings I give up - I want to know more about your God after this camp."

Nadya signed up for our camp one week before it started and miraculously got the tickets on the train. Her life will never be the same now.

Igor: " I now believe". He became a Christian at the camp.

Please pray with us

   1.   We are aware of the spiritual war and just like we fought for their souls – our enemy is going to do the same. May they never stop thinking about God and when we start the semester in September – may they come to continue growing in their faith.

      2.  Pray for our planning time with the team of staff and with the student leadership team. May God give us  ideas for evangelism this year,  wisdom how to form Bible study groups and more leadership teams.

      3.   Please pray for the repentance of my father and my step father. This is the only thing on my life that brings sorrow to my heart.

Thank you for being my faithful prayer worriers and supporters.

Oh, happy day!!!!

How exciting it is to see when a new child of God is being born! When the kingdom of God grows and when the life gets transformed! 
We were the witnesses of the baptism of three of our students who became believers this year – Nadya, Dima and Valik. Here are their pictures and their stories. 

Dima Belousov, Odessa Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture  

  I’ll start my story by saying that there were no special tragedies or problems in my life. I used to live my life like a typical student – from one session to another. On that significant day when I agreed to play paintball with my roommates I couldn’t even imagine what a great impact it was going to make on my future life. Actually at that moment I was already thinking about making some changes in my life but I didn’t know exactly what things needed to be changed. 
To my own surprise it wasn’t paintball game that attracted my attention on that day but the people showing their unusual sincerity and kindness. At that moment I couldn’t understand why they were spending their time and energy on the students they didn’t know very well. This was the main thing that made me interested and I decided to attend the following events organized by Campus. Some time later I heard the Gospel. To be honest, at that moment I didn’t realize what I was doing but my heart was open and I had a great desire to face changes in my life.  
And I really noticed the changes soon – I had a lot of new amazing friends, I felt a strong desire to develop my personality, to try the new things and look for the new directions, to open my heart to people, and the most important thing – I wanted to love God! I believe He has prepared a wonderful plan for me and my life. Before I became a Christian I used to think that God puts a lot of limits on a person but now I’m sure that He gives us only the best – the best of anything we only can imagine. 

Nadya, Odessa National University
It’s hard to say exactly when God has entered my life. Actually He’s always been with me, since the very moment I was born. He’s been with me but I haven’t been with Him all the time. I prayed every night before going to bed but I did it in an absolutely childish way. No one taught me how to pray, I just used to tell God about the passed day and give thanks to Him for it. But one day I stopped praying because it seemed to me that I was talking to myself. 

One day when I was going home from the university I met some guys from Campus. They invited me to the Pizza Party. That very night I realized it was exactly what I needed! With the help of Alina (I’m so thankful to her) I repented and began going to church. It is my second home now. I can’t imagine my life without Campus. I believe that I could take part in this ministry in the future and not just be a visitor. 

Valik, Odessa Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture 

As a child I lost my family and was taken to the Baby Home and later to the orphanage. With God’s help I began to study in the city of Odessa but things turned out much more difficult than I used to think before. It took me a long time to adapt in Odessa but I managed to overcome this problem. God helped me to find the right path. I met people from Campus and my life turned into an absolutely new direction. Campus became my second family, I had a lot of new friends, God changed my relationships with people and set a new goal in my life. Being a very shy and reserved person by nature I suddenly became a happy and open-hearted guy and now I am doing my best to achieve my goal. God showed me a lot of new opportunities to reveal myself and serve other people. Campus provides unlimited opportunities for students’ personal development and spiritual growth. I know God and also I know that fact that He will never leave me. I regularly read my Bible and I can see how powerful the God’s Word is in my everyday life.

 Please pray for these students to grow in their faith and be the powerful weapon in God’s hands in their dorms, among their friends and families.

What is love?

How do you distinguish true love from mere infatuation? How is a relationship between a man and a woman influenced by their psychological differences?
Why did God create sex? 
What is the secret of having a strong marriage?
Students heard answers to these and other questions at the meetings of our LOVE IS project. 

The meetings were held as talk shows with experts who answered students' questions. For instance, a gynecology doctor spoke about the advantages of abstinence before marriage. 

A Christian psychologist, Elena Kolker, talked about problems in sexual relationships and relationships in general.

Of course, we also wanted to talk about the spiritual component of marriage. Therefore, we invited the pastor of Holy Trinity church, Sergey Bermas, and a Lutheran pastor, Andrey Gamburg.

At one of the meetings we tried to dispel the myth about "the second half" arguing that it is impossible to find a perfect match and that we just need to work on our marriage and our own character continually. A missionary couple, Bob and Andrea, who were our experts at this meeting also told students about God's design for marriage.

The story of this couple really touched one of the students, Vika. Her parents got a divorce recently and she has lost faith in the possibility of having a strong and happy marriage where love does not die.

At the LOVE IS project Vika learned more about God's love and His desire to teach us how to love.
On a trip which we organized right after the project Vika talked about her thoughts and feelings, and after the trip she visited our church for the first time.

The students asked many questions at the meetings of the LOVE IS project. It is clear that love is one of the most important and relevant topics for them. On the left is our leader, Zhenia, who got married recently. He and his wife, Stella, came to Christ through our ministry On the right is Valera, a fifth-year student. He has been dating a girl by the name of Ania for a long time and they want to get married. Zhenia and Stella met Valera and Ania through our project and began following them up. Stella set up a personal appointment with Ania and shared the Gospel with her.

Valera and Ania also went on the trip with us, and Ania has already visited our church.
During the five weeks of the LOVE IS project we and to influence them. Talking about human love makes it easy and natural to move on to God's love.
At the end of each meeting the students filled out response cards that allowed us to stay in touch with them, invite them to other events, and share Christ with some of them in a personal conversation.

One of these students is Max (in the picture). He also went on our camping trip. Max does not believe in God. He works as a trainer, giving business seminars on planning and setting the right goals in life. He thinks that these things give hope to people but at our meetings he was able to hear about the true source of hope. 

Please pray that Max will come to Christ. He is very smart for his 19 years but he believes that the right goal in life and financial independence are the most important things.

With God's help and yours we have been able to dispel many stereotypes about love that the world imposes on young people. The students have not only heard answers to their questions but have also learned that God loves them and can change their life and teach them how to love.

Driven by eternity

Driven by eternity – this was a slogan of our Winter Bible Conference we came back from few days ago.

The goal of this conference was to motivate students consider their life in the perspective of eternity and everlasting history of God. We wanted to inspire them to live a purposeful, dedicated and sacrificial life for God. And that will certainly influence the lives of other people.

A group of students from Odessa

There was a speaker who developed this topic for us, there were seminars for students based on their level of spiritual maturity that helped students get different practical skills for life and ministry. And of coarse we had an Evangelism - we went to meet people and shared the Good News with them. It was a huge step of faith for many students. The first experience in sharing their faith.

We prepared and prayed a lot for this event. I want to share with you some feedback from our students.

 

Andrey went to this conference being an atheist. He loves hanging out with Christians but he didn’t believe God existed. Here is what he said in the end: “Seeing all these people who are in love with God it would be insanity for me to continue refuse His existence”. Andrey hasn’t found God yet but he did a huge step towards Him – he admitted God’s existence and effect in people’s lives.

 

On the way to share the Good News

Dima accepted Christ few months ago. Evangelism at a conference affected him the most. When he came back here were his words: “I could not understand why those people were so unaware of their spiritual blindness.  They have crosses and icons all over their places but didn’t want to know God personally”.  It came from a mouth of a person who was as blind few months ago until the light of The Gospel lit his soul.

Natasha has been coming to CRU meetings for half of a year. She told me that she became a believer at this conference and repented.  

 

 

 

 

As Andrey did, Dima went to this conference as a non-Christian.  He hasn’t made a decision to follow Christ yet but we when he came back home from the conference he said that life “in this world” and life around Christians is absolutely opposite. In one day after being around his old friends he was sick of cursing and empty jokes. He wants to live like we do. “Let your light shine before man”.

Nadya was literally shining all the time. I haven’t seen somebody who would be so eager to learn about God and talk about Him. Her first love for God is blooming now. I believe that God will use her at her university to win many hearts for Jesus.   

 

 

 

Valik had a hard childhood. He grew up in the orphanage and he never knew his parents and never was adopted. Last semester he became a believer.  He said: « I finally found true friends. Somebody cares for me”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please join us in prayer for:

 - Conversion of Andrey and Dima

 - Spiritual growth of Nadya, Natasha, Dima and Valik. May God give them strength to apply everything they heard and spread the Word about Him.  

 - The beginning of the Evangelistic project about relationship between boys and girls in March. We want to reach out to new students and teach our young Christians to share their faith with them.

 - Please pray for the American Summer project in Ukraine. We are in a need of Americans who can come for a short Mission trip to Ukraine in July.

 

Serving alongside with you, Alina Rudik

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.