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Anna and her granddaughter Karina wanted to come to our Summer Family Camp.

Of course, we gladly said, “Come with us, this would be great!” When they showed up on our doorstep without any mattresses, sleeping bags or blankets (we still use tents for camp), we realized that this would be a problem.

They almost decided to go back home…

I am so glad they didn’t! We found an extra tent, a sleeping bag, blankets and pillows. They were able to hear great preaching several times every day, participate in amazing worship and a lot of fun activities. Of course, there was fellowship around the campfire...

The best part – Karina accepted Christ as her Savior! She is an amazing young lady who truly loves the Lord. Please pray that God would strengthen her faith and help her to be an example for Christ in her village. As far as we know, she is the only Christian teenager there (her mom, grandmother and a couple of other ladies are also believers).

Youth Camps Change Lives!​

Do you realize the life-altering impact of youth camps? My wife accepted Christ at Sagmount Youth Camp, and my daughter re-dedicated her life to the Lord also during camp. If you were saved at camp or if God profoundly changed your life, please write me a short note, and let me know your story.

I believe God still works miracles in people’s lives … not just youth, by the way…

And He gives amazing opportunities.

We were planning to have just one youth camp this summer for about 40 campers, but God provided an opportunity to hold a separate camp for 25 orphans and 5 of their unsaved teachers in August.

My wife and I personally (as well as our Russian church) are offering scholarships to the kids who want to come to Summer Youth Camp but cannot afford it. Unfortunately, there are still 20 more young people who desire to attend, but have no finances.

Camp costs $25 per teen for a whole week of spending time with God, developing wholesome relationships and seeing other teens surrendering their lives to the Lord. This is one of the most evangelistic and fruitful times in our entire year!

Please pray for God to supply this great need by the end of July. We know that He is able!

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A Doctor a Day Keeps the Devil Away

Our team at the Bethesda Mercy Home in Kovalevo

What God can bring about in 10 days (some things you would never expect)

8 people saved, dozens of new visitors in churches, scattered all over Omsk region and 3000+km travelled.

What a trip! When I picked up this three doctor team at the airport, I did not expect such a whirlwind of activity, nor the amazing work God accomplished.

Working from dawn ‘til dusk

While this was a medical outreach effort, it was primarily an evangelism trip. When Maria (name changed for security reasons) measured blood pressure and checked lungs, she could talk to patients about their soul. It is amazing how God opened the hearts of so many unsaved and made them receptive to the Gospel.

Checking vitals and witnessing

She has “seen„ so many different people–from pastors and their wives to drug addicts, who had lost their limbs to frostbite, from surly grandmothers to children with special needs. I praised God when I noticed that almost everyone exiting her “office„ had a huge grin on their face, because the doctor not only attempted to cure a sickness, but also touched their soul with kindness and dignity.

I once was blind but now I see…

Checking how the new glasses work. What better way to start seeing than reading God's Word!

Checking how the new glasses work. What better way to start seeing than reading God’s Word!

 

Another doctor we had was an optometrist–let’s call her Anna. Truth be told, the prospect of getting free reading glasses was the driving force that resulted in so many people coming to us.

Praying with each patient at the end of the visit

Praying with each patient at the end of the visit

To decide what prescription to give each person, Anna used a chart with Bible verses! This was an awesome segue to ask “Do you understand what you’ve just read?„ Thus, a vision test became an evangelism tool. Anna and her helper, Sofia, personally led 4 souls to Christ!

Ivan is using an EvangeCube to present a plan of Salvation

While our doctors met with patients in their makeshift “offices„ Ivan and I greeted visitors, helped to maintain a semblance of order and shared the gospel with them. At one church 30 people showed up at 11 am, and some of them had to wait 3.5 hours to be examined by the doctor!

People waiting in queue

People waiting in queue

I had the privilege to lead 2 men to Christ and to present the plan of salvation to many others. One lady was very close to praying the sinner’s prayer but said she would do it at home. Please pray for Natasha to get saved!

Witnessing to people who came for a check-up. “Tell me, do you know where you are going to spend eternity?”

Witnessing to people who came for a check-up. “Tell me, do you know where you are going to spend eternity?”

We finished with a bang!

Last day was something else! Disregarding safety concerns, the church posted flyers all over the city to invite unbelievers. And they came… all at the same time! After initially being terrified at the prospect of being detained by police, we prayed and asked God to watch over us. That day we received the largest amount of patients–43. Four people accepted Christ, but the amazing thing was that we got done at a reasonable 5pm.

Selecting the right pair of glasses for a patient in the hospital

Selecting the right pair of glasses for a patient in the hospital

What we did next was as unexpected as it was awesome! Through a connection of a church member, we went to a city hospital (after visiting hours, mind you) and witnessed, encouraged and gave reading glasses to 46 more patients. Close to 100 souls heard the Gospel on Thursday. What a mighty God we serve!

I learned several precious lessons on this trip

First of all, people all around us are ready to accept Christ as their Savior. They long for someone to come and ask them the most important question in their life “where are you going to spend eternity?„

Nikolay waited for a couple of hours to see our doctors. In the end, he found Christ!

Nikolay waited for a couple of hours to see our doctors. In the end, he found Christ!

Second, it is amazing how God uses newness. After leading a man to Christ I talked to his pastor,and he confided in me they witnessed to him for 6
months. It took a new person sharing the same Gospel, but in a new light, to cause Alexander Viktorovich to call on Jesus!

Aleksandr Viktorovich accepted Christ as his Savior!

With every outreach effort we get someone new to meet, to minister and to call a friend. Because of this medical trip, every one of the eight churches where we have been welcomed new visitors to their services afterward.

There was another situation where an older man laughed off his personal need to accept Christ. However, after talking for a while he said something that shocked me, “would you please pray for and work with my granddaughter? She really needs to turn her life around.„ This grandfather, although blind to his own condition, saw a spiritual need in his family.

This grandfather asked us to witness to his granddaughter, who desperately needs Christ

This grandfather asked us to witness to his granddaughter, who desperately needs Christ

Because of this outreach, many villagers in Vasiss, Tara, Kolosovka, Omsk and other places, no longer view Baptists as a sect, but as people who genuinely care for their souls.

I call this the greatest victory of all!

To God be the glory, great things he has done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son!

To God be the glory, great things he has done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son!

 

 

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Helpful Apps and an interesting blog post

Apps
As a missionary I find that I am becoming a jack of all trades (but a master of none). Recently I was an auto-mechanic, copywriter, chef, plumber, tax expert and a counselor.
 
To help me wear these many hats, various apps became indispensable, and I wanted to share some of them with you today:
 
1. DayOne – is a digital diary and a scrapbook for memories. I often record quotes that inspired me, significant meetings and things that I learned that day. I find it very hard to journal, but DayOne actually makes me want to use it. I love the design and simplicity of this app so much that I have it both on my phone and laptop. Instant Cloud backup and automatic sync with every device you have.
 
2. Hemingway – if you write, you NEED this free app to help you be crystal-clear and persuasive! It is so easy to use and your writing will improve dramatically. You owe it to yourself to check it out!
 
3. Microsoft OneNote – a “bucket” for all your notes, articles, recipes, research and ideas that you can organize and retrieve with ease. I’ve tested all of it’s competitors in existence, but prefer OneNote’s logical organization of information. I use it daily, it’s THAT helpful.
 
One of the things that I saved in OneNote was a blog post “How to Love the Foreign Missionary Kid” by Alison Wood. Check it out – it WILL be a blessing to you!
 
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Missionaries are not just “PROJECTS!”

Missionaries are not just “PROJECTS!”

After a couple of grueling travel days, a feeling of futility crept up on me in the form of a blanket letter. It had caught up with us as we arrived in the USA for our first furlough in six years. The letter happened to be our “pink slip” from a longtime supporting church which informed us that, due to difficulties that they were facing, their always faithful church would no longer be able to support us.

My first reaction, outwardly, was in Christian compassion, and understanding. But, inwardly, I was swaying between incredulity, irritation, and a bit of indigestion (airplane food probably!). My first thought was: “Why should we keep sacrificing so much ourselves, if others have to quit?”

Why such a strong reaction on my part? Perhaps it came from wrestling with too much luggage over an eight-hour train ride, an unexpected taxi ride, a one hour subway ride, and an eight-hour international flight. Perhaps, it was battling edgy crowds in airports in London and then New York and then Orlando. Possibly it was just being overly exhausted from trying to get everything “just perfect” in our home and church before we left for a two-month absence. Maybe it was the “reverse culture shock” of being back in the USA after six years of being out of the American culture. Then, it could have been because we had just been through almost seven straight years of the toughest service that we have ever faced in all our years of ministry (still aching from the last wave of Satan’s attacks).

Although I SYMPATHIZED with the gut wrenching difficulty of writing such a letter, something greatly frustrated me as I read it. First, it shocked me that one word of one phrase of one innocuous letter could so capsize me, a normally unflappable veteran missionary, for even a moment! However, that one word just seemed to smack me right in the face. Here is the exasperating word: “. . . This will require us ending support for your PROJECTS.”

[pullquote]After 36 years of service, to think that all our efforts could be categorized as merely . . . “PROJECTS”![/pullquote]

PROJECTS” . . . nothing could have ever gutted me so thoroughly and so completely, as the implication of that one word. After 36 years of service, to think that all our efforts could be categorized as merely . . . “PROJECTS”!  Is THAT all that we really are, we are just our projects?

My first thought was: Let me give the benefit of the doubt. I am sure that kind pastor never meant to disturb me in the way in which that one word did. Just an unfortunate choice of word. (God bless him!)

Or, maybe that word’s meaning has changed in the six years that we have been away from the USA. Or, it could even be that British and South African usage is different from current American usage of this word that so concerned me.

So, I took out my trusty laptop and Googled the word “project”. WIKIPEDIA, that bastion of shared “truth”, was the first entry that popped up. It “defined” the word in this way: “In contemporary business and science, a PROJECT is an individual or collaborative enterprise, possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned, usually by the project assigned team, to achieve a particular aim. One can also define a project as a set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations. One can view projects as temporary (rather than permanent) social systems or as work systems that are constituted by teams within or across organizations to accomplish particular tasks under time constraints.”

Let me say, right off, that such a definition has never fit our Missions ministry, and I never thought that it was supposed to. I have always believed that true Biblical missions is not a business and it will not fit the “laws” of science. Yes, we ARE a “collaborative enterprise”, since we, from the very beginning of our ministry, have stressed that this is a TEAM EFFORT between our supporters and ourselves, reaching out together to our field of shared service for Christ. And, we DO try to “research” and “design” and “carefully plan” the best ways to take the Gospel to the people groups to whom the Lord has called us. We also have a particular “aim”, which is to reach people for Christ and organize them into indigenous churches. But, when it comes to terms like: “FIXED PERIOD”, “TEMPORARY” and even “TIME CONSTRANTS”, how can that ever fit with a Biblical Missions model?

Now, I understand why such a word would be very CONVENIENT. It makes World Missions so much easier, so much simpler, so much cleaner. Handling the difficulties of missionary field changes or forced retirements or even dismissals, are so much simpler, if we limit the time constraints on the length of supporting periods. Just allocate a particular TIME FRAME to finish a “missions project”. At the end of that time frame, seek a new project, or perhaps, on occasion, “re-up” with an existing project . . . that’s simple, clean, and hassle-free.

But, “project” is an engineer’s word, an accountant’s word, a businessman’s word, a scientist’s word, or a social planner’s word. If you look it up in your Bible concordance, you won’t even find it. It is NOT a Biblical word. In God’s Word, God’s plan for Missions has always been God calling out His ambassadors, who usually leave home culture, to make the message of the Gospel known to a different culture. Therefore, when a supporter chooses to support a missionary, those missionaries are living, breathing PEOPLE . . . not PROJECTS!

I believe that it is utterly useless to try to fit Biblical missions into a PROJECT MENTALITY. World Missions can never be that COMPACT. World Missions can never be that STRUCTURED. World Missions can never be that CLINICAL. World Missions can never follow a canned BUSINESS plan. NO!

 

To deal with my overflowing frustration, I began jotting down my first thoughts. Here goes:

[pullquote]World Missions gets very MESSY at times, because it involves PEOPLE! Honest people, good people, but fallible people.[/pullquote]

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than pictures on a Facebook page: we bleed . . . sweat . . . weep. The fluids of human existence ooze out of every pore of our bodies. (The smell can be atrocious at times!)  That’s simply the human part of World Missions.

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than numbers on a spreadsheet.  We are families . . . married couples . . . parents . . . grandparents.  We are more than missionary number 537 with significant other, number 538, with dependents number 539 and 540, on field number 247, who commenced service in 1980 and will potentially culminate in 2031.

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than whirring computer fans.  We breathe . . . cough . . . sneeze. We can’t simply be rebooted, reformatted, or reconfigured every time a virus shows up. A simple computer app cannot handle all of the challenges we face. One program DOES NOT fit all!

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than harvesting machines. We hurt . . . fail . . . laugh . . . triumph. Adding a quart of oil won’t do the trick.  Times, styles, and methods might change . . . Biblical Missions does not! God still chooses His servants to do His work, He does not devise new machines that will maneuver His plan.

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than paid employees. We dream dreams . . . lose hope . . . regain vision . . . press ahead . . . regardless. Missions takes time . . . God’s time . . . God’s plan . . . NOT OURS! Setting time frames simply will not work when it comes to ministry with humans in multifaceted fields of service. Each one is different and for each one you must wait for God’s perfect timing.

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than lines on a page in a Missions brochure. We are individuals who at times get exhausted . . . frustrated . . . discouraged . . . agitated . . . excited. You see, people are people, worldwide, and they all have at least one thing in common . . . they are ALL frustrating at times! We have no choice, but to constantly serve them (and it is ALWAYS immediately (or sooner) when we MUST do it!).

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than signatures on a document. We sometimes get overwhelmed by life . . . ministry . . . family. SOMETIMES . . . prayer letters, financial reports, and email replies will become casualties in the conflict. SOMETIMES . . . the ministry that our Lord gave us must trump all other things. ALL TIMES . . . we go to the field to reach souls for Christ and plant churches, and this MUST remain our emphasis. It is never lack of gratitude, disinterest, or rebellion; only a lack of TIME (and energy)! SOMETIMES . . . we must apologize, vow to do better, and move forward. That’s missionary life!

We are NOT just projects: We are MORE than a time stamped contract. Most of us signed up for life. The Lord might choose to cut it short, or even change our direction if He wills, but we were called by Him, for this particular ministry, at this particular time. And, if not for His calling, we would probably have quit, many times! However, because of His calling, we MUST always move onward.

And, as we do, we join a GREAT BAND of likewise utterly fallible HUMAN missionaries of the past:

–We sometimes feel HOMESICK just like John Mark

–We sometimes feel ENCUMBERED just like Tychicus

–We sometimes feel ILL just like Ephaphroditus

–We sometimes feel BLAMED just like Trophies

–We sometimes feel BAMBOOZLED just like Barnabas

–We sometimes feel DISCOURAGED just like Demas

–We sometimes feel OPPRESSED just like Gaius

–We sometimes feel FEARFUL just like Paul

–We sometimes feel SLIGHTED just like Seconds

–We sometimes feel BLINDSIDED (by church politics) just like Peter

–We sometimes feel MISSED just like Titus

–We sometimes feel ACCUSED just like Silas

–We sometimes feel ISOLATED just like Luke

–We sometimes feel OVERWORKED just like Epaphras

–We sometimes feel HEARTBROKEN just like Timothy

Each of us, in this band, are onlyONE THING . . . we are MISSIONARIES . . . THAT’S ALL! (and that’s enough!)

With all of this in mind, please understand that this is one FALLIBLE MISSIONARY, that constantly prays that if the time ever comes when I am no longer useful in missionary service, that my Lord will make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to me. And, if He ever does, rest assured, I will willingly step aside and await His further assignment.

But, as long as I am able, I will work diligently to make the message of Christ CLEAR and PLAIN to the people that the Lord has sent me to reach. My Lord has not told me to hang up my sickle yet. I hope that He never does. In fact, I hope that when the end finally does come, that someone will have to pry away my cold, lifeless hands from the Lord’s plowshares because I was still out there tilling in His harvest fields.

If you ever have to dismiss me as your missionary, I will sorrowfully evaluate your reason, and then CARRY ON as long as my Lord (who called me) makes it possible.

WHY?  Because . . . we are a MISSIONARIES . . . we can NEVER be just “projects”!

by Richard Moeller

Richard and Cheryl Moeller were approved as Baptist Bible Fellowship missionaries to South Africa in May 1980. In June 1997, they resigned from the field and served on staff at the BBFI Mission Office until September 2000. Richard and Cheryl are both 1978 graduates of the missions course of Baptist Bible College, Springfield, Missouri. Richard is the brother of BBF missionary to South Africa, Brent Moeller. Richard and Cheryl served their internship at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Fairfax, Virginia, and at the Calvary Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas. Richard was ordained in 1979 at the Beltline Road Baptist Church in Irving, Texas. They have two sons who are both BBFI missionaries to Scotland. The Moellers returned to the field in August 2002. In February 2009, the Moellers changed their field of service to Scotland.

Contact Richard

 

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Does eating out bring people to Christ?

Does eating out bring people to Christ?

Last Thursday we as a church attempted something that we’ve never done before: we rented a really nice restaurant in Tara (it was the ONLY restaurant in Tara 🙂 ) and invited a bunch of unsaved friends and acquaintances to come and share a meal with us. After a brief Music program brother Roman got up to preach a very clear Gospel message. Out of 35 unsaved guests, 15 prayed to receive Christ! We’ll be following up on all of our guests to help them make the next step in their journey of faith.

What about you? In this culture of being glued to our smartphones, tablets and computers we rarely take a moment to speak face-to-face with those around us. Moreover, it’s very rare to sit down for a meal with someone for an hour or two and really get to know one another. My teens would call this “retro”. Will you invite someone to share a meal with you for the purpose of introducing that person to Christ or encouraging them in their walk with Him? You never know how God can use a simple meal for His glory!

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