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Spiritual Revival

1Sa 7:3 “And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

Thank God for guiding us to learn spiritual revival and the heart of Christ through the key verses of 1Sa 7:3 and Ph 2:5.

1.   Challenge for spiritual revival – Through the CIS Directors’ Conference which was held in Egypt, God challenged us to get rid of the yeast of materialism, humanism, and hedonism, and to pray for the spiritual revival in Moscow and Russia, as in the days of the spiritual revival at Mizpah. Passing by the desert in Egypt, I was challenged by the faith of Moses, who trusted God only and served God’s flock.  We experienced troubles in the Moscow ministry such as financial difficulty, and issues in the ministry of succession.  At this time, Dr. John Jun visited us and studied John 13, about Jesus who washed his disciples’ feet.  We established a board of eight elders who would oversee our ministry’s finances.  Every Tuesday we shared testimony, read the Bible, prayed and discussed and built the vessel of the Holy Spirit. We began to pray for the ministry of succession to take place by 2013.  From this year I decided to live as a layman missionary and sought God’s leading.  When I prayed based on Romans 1:5, for his name’s sake, God helped me to get a position at Lotte’s KP Chemical starting in July and become financially independent.

2.   Thank God for training the messengers and raising new disciples – We have been praying earnestly for spiritual revival in 2011. The following leaders took turns delivering the Sunday message: Stephen Kim, Kostya Kalinkin, Alexey Belykh, Paul Zakharov, Alexey Rusannov, and rehearsed on Saturdays at 3 pm. For our Friday meetings M. Isaac Choi and I trained the following messengers: Timothy Ha, Artyom Datsenko, Genya Visitsky, Ivan Fominykh. The Sunday messengers delivered on 2 Corinthians, Acts and the first part of Matthew.  The Friday messengers shared Psalm and Philippians.  We prayed for four specific topics regarding our spiritual revival: 1) deep Bible study; 2) sincere testimony; 3) raising young disciples; 4) faithful and earnest prayer. Through this struggle the seven fellowships in our ministry were revived.  When each fellowship served GBS, testimony and fishing with a new heart, new students came to Bible study and Sunday worship service. We pray for Anton, Pavel, Ilia, Vova, Larisa, Kostya, Dima, Pasha, Ura, Diana, Rita, Masha, Rita, Lena, Pavel, Tanya, Pavel, Katya, Sasha, Kristina, Slava, Lena to grow as Jesus’ disciples in 2012.  Last year we pioneered two more fellowships.  We pray that in 2012 the nine fellowship leaders and messengers may dig out the word of deeply by the help of the Holy Spirit, and serve the campus ministry through coworking.

3.   Sending out missionaries to Riga and restoring world mission faith through WMR – we sent out Missionaries Timothy and Andreana Kang to Riga. They decided to cowork with Missionaries Caleb and Esther Kim in Riga, so we sent M. Andreana first before the WMR. In the fall, M. Timothy was sent out looking for the way of financial independence.  Thank God for their mission-centered life and sacrificial faith.  Eighteen coworkers and second gens attended the WMR and missionaries’ conference.  We thank God for saving us and raising us as a kingdom of priests.  Thank God for renewing his calling and vision to serve God’s flock in our mission field.

4. Conferences and Bible schools – We tried to find a way to contact new students in 2011.  During Easter we made a visiting course to remember Jesus’ suffering and the meaning of the resurrection and invited sheep through conversation, video, message and testimony.  We held the summer conference with the title, ‘Spiritual Revival’ for the leaders and studied John 21 and the book of Nehemiah.  Through this we challenged to rebuild the wall of prayer, the wall of 1:1, the wall of disciple-raising and the wall of building a community of love.  Through this campus fishing was reignited.  We held two ‘Bible night’ sessions in October and November with the themes, “On What Shall I Build My Life” and “Faith and Salvation.”  On December 25, we held the Christmas service with the title, “For Unto Us a Child is Born” based on Isaiah 9.  Thirty-four young Bible students attended.  We sent out our offering for PUST, North Korea, Turkey and Thailand. 

5. House church and 2^nd generation worship service – Alexey Mayx and Vera Nikolaeva got engaged in December.  Please pray for them to establish a house church on January 21, 2012.  Our second gens made a worship program in 3 teams and confessed their faith on Dec 31. Anna So entered an art school and invited friends to Bible study. Abraham Song Jr. graduated from college in the USA. He is receiving spiritual training while preparing for graduate school. Last year missionaries Sergey Shemyakin, Tanya Zhdanova, John Mulyukov, Maria Nikitina, Sarah Song Jr, Susanna Pak Jr. visited Moscow and had fellowship. I pray for them to have deep personal relationship with Jesus and to share the gospel boldly.

6. 2012 key verse and prayer topics

Thank God for protecting leaders, 2^nd gens and Bible students in 2011. At the beginning of 2012, we had a New Year’s conference and shared key verse testimonies. We had two prayer topics: first, based on 1 Corinthians 13:4 to love one another with the love of Jesus and to build a community of love; second, based on Numbers 13:2 to share the gospel with campus souls with the faith and obedience of Caleb and Joshua. We pray for: 1) Spirit-filled Matthew’s gospel study; 2) Nine fellowship; 3) New house church; and 4) Spiritual growth of 2^nd gens.

In 2011 I chose 1 Samuel 7:3 and Philippians 2:5 as my key verses, and prayed to ignite spiritual revival and prayed to fix my eyes on Jesus despite all the difficulties.  From the beginning of the year, our ministry faced several hardships.  Through this the Lord first humbled me and helped me to look up to Jesus.  Through Daily Bread and Sunday message and testimony, I learned how important it is to learn Jesus only.  By holding onto Galatians 2:19,20 and Acts 1:8, I made a decision to follow Jesus and live as a self-supporting missionary, serving campus discipleship and world mission.  At first, it was not easy to adjust to learning new job knowledge.  But when I depended on Jesus, I was able to make important contracts daily and manage CIS buyers.  Not only this, through studying the Bible with fellowship leaders, engaging in early morning prayer and 1:1 Bible studies with students, attending Board of Elders meetings, going fishing on the weekends, and delivering the Sunday message, my inner person grew in the image of Jesus.  As 2012 began, I could not but repent my lack of love for Jesus and my self-centered narrow-mindedness.  I want to learn the love of God who gave his one and only Son to die on the cross. My 2012 key verse is 1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love is patient….” My secondary key verse is Numbers 14:24, “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly….” 

Personal Prayer Topics:

1.     To daily love Jesus fervently, love one another
2.     Early morning prayer, raising disciples through faithful 1:1 and testimony writing
3.     To grow as an influential self-supporting missionary and support world mission

One Word: I want to participate in saving campus souls through the love and gospel of Christ in the New Year!

Reported by M. Stephen Kim