Youth Ministry in Izhevsk, Russia

Freshness in worship and serving to God was what the youth of different churches searched for in youth camp “Obnovleniye” (Renewal). It was the second time when the union of youth ministries of four churches in Izhevsk (The Udmurt Republic) — “Philadelphia” (Youth Christian movement “Podkluchis k nebesam”), “Delo very” (Act of Faith), “Izhevsk Christian Fellowship” and “Church of God”.

From 9 till 17 of July on the riverside of the Vala, 80 miles (120 km) away from Izhevsk, camp city was located. Beautiful nature, clean air and remoteness from the civilization prompted to seek for God in a special way, to spend more time talking with Him and to be updated in the power of Spirit. Each day there were seminars, services and small cell groups devoted to various aspects of spiritual growth and ministry of Christians, evangelization, relationships between God and people. There were different preachers, youth and senior pastors, and also pastor of the church “Sila very” (Moscow) Fares Askerov and a head manager of Biblical college “Timothy Ministry Team” Carel Albertyn (South Africa).

Carel brought a whole delegation with him — one of the ministers and five students of this college. Though they spent only five days in the camp, many succeeded in making friends with them, practicing their English, playing their favorite game rugby and learning a strange, but obviously interesting game “ninja-mime”. But above all — South-African guests brought with them a bit of the atmosphere of worship and ministry which they had in their college. They shared their testimonies and revelations, prayed for those who needed it.

At daytime the youth were busy with different sport and entertaining games — team building, sports competitions, quizzes, discussing situations from life where one has to make a choice. One day each of the campers could choose a creative “work shop”. They could paint T-shirts, decorate photo frames, make a photo collage, sand figures, think up dancing and drama performances, learn oratory, make-up and hairstyle and whatnot. They were able to represent their works at Art-meeting. Besides that, there were a lot of songs, serious and funny skits, dances, plays and so on.

At the last night the teams showed their short skits about the camp life, remembering funny moments while living on the Vala river. Afterwards Chinese lanterns were launched to the sky — amazing spectacle which was followed by a big bonfire and two-hour worship.

As many campers said, this camp differs from the previous one, because this time there were less emotions and more consciousness in decisions they made about changing and serving God. Sermons rich with important thoughts and challenges made listeners deeply think about their inner state and helped to find a way to be closer to God.

All in all in the camp “Obnovelniye” there were around 300 people from different churches and places. The geography is vast indeed: Izhevsk, Votkinsk, Mozhga, Sarapul, Igra, Selty, Perm, Chusovoy, Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Moscow, Saint Petersburg. Non-believers were there as well, and about 5 of them made up their mind to follow the Lord in the camp.

Nine days spent on the riverside of the Vala will be remembered, but main thing is that those decisions which we made there would not be lost in urban fuss. God worked with a heart of everyone who allowed Him to do it, and fruits of it will be seen in near future.

Alexander Podobedev
National Youth Ministries Coordiantor

Record Graduation in Moscow

On May 21, 2011, the Eurasian Theological Seminary in Moscow conducted by far its largest graduation. After reading of the Word and worship the Regional Superintendent & the President of ETSM Dr. Thomas W. Rosson addressed the congregation of graduates and their relatives and friends. Then National Bishops for the Russian Church of God and for the Belorussian Church of God and the National Director for Education of Ukrainian Church of God have given their word of greeting, encouraging and motivating graduates to keep on serving the Lord.

The main speaker at this Graduation Service was Dr. Samuel Solivan, Professor of Christian Theology at Professor of Theology at InterAmerican University. Dr. Solivan has been ETSM visiting faculty member since 1998. His personal testimony and high level of teaching combines theology and practical life and ministry. Students simply love him and appreciate his efforts to assist them in understanding Contemporary Theology, which would be relevant to their own ministerial context.

Following the main sermon a significant occasion took place: The National Bishop of the Belorussian Church of God, Pastor Alexander Melukhov has been awarded a honorary Doctoral degree in Church ministry in recognition of 50 years of his ministry to God and people in USSR in the past and currently in Belarus. Pastor Melukhov is one of those ministers whom we all witness and say: he is a good pastor, rooted in the Word, encouraging to people, true to his calling in life. I’ve been to his church and country many times and can testify the fruit of ministry is great in Pastor Melukhov’s life!

Following the honorary doctoral degree 59 graduates have walked the stage and received either:

1. Diploma in Church Ministry, or
2. Diploma in Pastoral Ministry, or
3. Bachelor of Ministry degree, or
4. Bachelor of Theology degree!

The graduating class consists of

• Ukrainians,
• Belorussians and
• Russians who come from Central, Eastern, North-Western, Southern and Siberian regions.

Please, keep Eurasian Seminary in your prayers: may every student who comes to be trained for ministry be:

• equipped not just in knowing the right doctrine (Orthodoxy), but also would be
• formed into ministers according to God’s heart and upon graduation have Christ-like character (Orthopathy) and may they be
• able to do His ministry (Orthopraxy) effectively and enthusiastically

Visit ETSM’s Facebook’s page for more pictures of the graduation here: http://www.facebook.com/etsmoscow?sk=wall

Ilya Okhotnikov, Rector

Russian Church of God Holds Its Premiere Youth Leadership Conference

Alexander Podobedev, National Youth Ministries Coordinator

The first Youth Leadership Conference of the Association of the “Church of God,” Russia, which took place from 7 to 9 May at the Eurasian Theological Seminary in Moscow.

About fifty people, most of whom were youth ministers, gathered for a joint search for God, communication, and learning how to start and build a dynamically growing youth ministry.

On the first evening of the opening of the conference, which was accompanied by a live worship and inspiring preaching pastor second of the “Church of God,” Izhevsk, who said that young people – it’s not just the future of the church, but now so young people must take responsibility for their own generation and preach the Gospel to reach people.

The next day began with a lively preaching pastor of the church in Moscow “The Power of Faith” Perez Askerova. In his message, he spoke of a radical Christianity in which people do not just say that they are believers, but really live for Christ and His will. Evidence from the life of Pastor Perez left nobody indifferent and encouraged young people to new solutions in their personal relationship with God.

The conference also hosted invited  youth pastors from the United States, Matthew Cornett and Josh Martin. Pastors shared their experiences of serving youth in the United States, as well as the principles of successful leadership and productive evangelism.

Practical advice on achieving young people shared the Gospel David Saveliev (Church of “Rosa”, Moscow) and Stanislav Kulov (the church “The Church of God in the Tsarina’s”, Moscow). They spoke of the fruitful work of “Alpha Course”, as well as how to organize the “Alpha Course” in the city.

The culmination of the conference was to address the National Bishop of the Church of God of Vladimir Anatolyevich Shestopalov to young people. He urged the youth to believe in God, in His power to live and to fear nothing. It was a very blessed ministry in which the Word of God penetrated people’s hearts and changed their lives.

At the end of the conference pastors prayed for the young people as spiritual fathers. They passed on the blessing of a new generation of ministers to have their case continued in the future. This prayer was a landmark for all those who participated in the conference. This was the first Youth Leadership Conference and we believe this is only the beginning.

Pictured, Alexander Podobedev, National Youth Ministries Coordinator

Mt. Paran Choir Visits Ukraine

On June, 1st the Birth of Christ Church of God in Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine was visited by the main sanctuary choir from Mount Paran Church of God, in Atlanta, GA under the direction of Mark Blankenship. Everyone was invited to an evening concert where they could enjoy the singing of a professional evangelical Choir. The church was completely filled with representatives of other churches and unbelievers.

It was a big blessing to listen to those psalms which sounded from the stage. That most touching and amazing fact which deserves respect, is that participants of the Mount Paran Choir could strongly and sincerely glorify God, despite many hours they spent in the journey. Truly, the praise to the Lord sounded very powerfully, although the choir didn’t have hundreds participants, but there was about 50 participants.

We thought that the the Mt. Paran Choir would only sing in English. What surprise we shared when after the several songs which they sang on their native language, we heard a psalm in Russian. This was not the only evening when the choir understood that they sang not only for themselves, but first of all for the glory of the Lord and for the visitors of the concert.

But the most valuable and memorable moment was when the listeners joined in singing and praising God with the choir.  The church and the choir as one whole began glorifying God – and it was truly a blessing for all.

Sergey Voznyuk, Senior Pastor
Missionary-at-Large, Church of God World Missions

International Ministry Center in Bulgaria Now Open

Paul describes the process of the growth of the Kingdom of God like that – many people do their part for a common goal. One plants the seed, another waters it, but God is the One who is ultimately in control in making the plant grow. This is how so many have worked hard for the last 11 years in seeing this wonderful Church of God facility open its doors. After years of hard work and fervent prayer, the international Church of God now proudly has another oasis for ministry.

The dedication of the International Ministry Center (IMC) took place on June 11th. We were very busy with the preparation. Thank God for bringing a great man – chaplain Steve Wallace who brought with him a team of wonderful people who all plugged straight into helping us clean and prepare the facilities for the huge and important celebration.

We were so honored to see our wonderful leaders Dr. Douglas LeRoy (Director of World Missions), Dr. Larry Hess (Field Director for Europe) and Dr. Tom Rosson (Regional Superintendant for Eastern Europe and CIS). Each and one of them had strategic key role in having this center finished and we thank them for all they have done. Along with them we were privileged to have distinguished guests from the Mission East (Rene Hartzner – Founder, Kim Hartzner – Executive Director, Leif Jensen and his wife) and from Y’s Men International (Arne Christianson). Along with that the ceremony was also honored by many Bulgarian representatives from the Christian and the public society.

The dedication service began with the official ribbon cutting at which Dr. LeRoy, Kim Harzner and Arne Christianson had the honor to participate. The official service was packed with emotional and memorable moments. The El Hanaan worship team did an amazing job leading us in worship. Then the brothers LeRoy, Hess and Rosson shared from the word of God and their impressions about this historical moment for the development of the Church of God. Our guests each expressed their joy on accomplishing this gigantic project and how God lead them to participate financially in its accomplishment. Special gratitude plaques were presented to each and one of our guests and two more were sent to be brought to two gentlemen who could not make it to the ceremony – one to Dr. Jake Popejoy and one for Dieter Knospe – the former Easter European Field director. A special plaque of dedication was presented to brother Knospe for his efforts and accomplishments for the Kingdom of God in this part of the world.

Well, now here in Bulgaria have a brand new chapter opened – a chapter to be written in the footsteps of great man and women who worked and sacrificed this facility to become a reality. I would like to thank everyone who has donated financially or contributed through time, labor or prayer toward this fascinating place for ministry. As member of the Church of God here in Bulgaria, I promise that it will be used in a way that is pleasing God and that brings glory to His magnificent name.

Dinko Zlatarov

Unprecedented Revival

I am so overwhelmed by what I experienced last week that I don’t think I would be able to express it adequately… It was an experience in the presence of the Lord among believers who seek Him so fervently… It was an experience of outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a mighty way!!! It surely will be something I will think about and share wherever I go, because it is an unforgettable demonstration of God’s power and presence among His people.

Our team of ministers from Sofia was invited to visit the village of Kostievo in the Plovdiv region. The Regional Bishop called and asked us to come, stating that something incredible was happening. Of course, we did not wait long and headed towards Kostievo.

Upon arrival, we sat down with brother Stanimir Radev and he started telling us how the local church in this small village has numbered about 15 people for many years and there had been no growth despite the prayers of the believers. However, in the past year the leadership and the believers had started a prayer chain for revival in their village and for the salvation of the people in it. Unfortunately, they did not see results right away, but this did not stop them from continuing to pray and intercede before God. Every evening all believers gathered for prayer for many for many months.

Then, all of a sudden something special and incredible happened. God’s presence fell strongly on the Christians and many started to speak in tongues as the Spirit led them. Soon neighbors who heard the news started going to church and also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A real revival spread in the church and outside of it. Originally from 15 people membership, now the church is filled with believers and the membership is up to 170 people. Every day new people join the church and services are held every day of the week with signs and demonstration of God following!  When we went to Kostievo, the church was full of people, the praise was great and everybody was anticipating the move of God. During the prayer after the sermon (a prayer that lasted for several hours) many came forward to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Ten people were baptized in the Holy Ghost and everybody experienced the incredible revival in the church and during the next few days 4 more joined them praying in their homes.

I am sharing this to tell you that this is an incredible happening, because there has not been such a revival in my country for quite some time now. Bulgaria has been undergoing a period of spiritual draught in the past 10 years, and we had just prayed and asked God to demonstrate His powerful presence. I hope that what happened in Kostievo will spread throughout Bulgaria and many people will be touched – new believers will come to the churches, and the local members will be motivated to worship God with even greater spiritual fervor. God is great! Please, pray for revival in our land and we will be sharing with you what is happening in various towns throughout Bulgaria!

Dinko Zlatarov,
Vice-Overseer of the Church of God in Bulgaria

European Conference – In One Accord

From April 7 to 10, 2011 the whole leadership team of the Church of God in Bulgaria had the unique opportunity to attend the European CoG Conference. The event was organized in the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic– Prague. Delegates from 52 countries were present.

The main topic of the conference was – Unity and Revival in the churches. The moderator of the sessions was Dr. Larry Hess – Superintendent for the CoG in Europe. He introduced the Regional Superintendents, who gave reports about the progress and the major issues in the regions that they oversee. This is was good way for us to get to know what is going on in the various parts of Europe.

Dr. Larry Hess preached a motivating sermon full of God’s anointing.He encouraged the leaders to spend more time with God in prayer and to seek His guidance for their ministry in the Word. Several pastors from different countries gave testimonies of how is using them for His Kingdom and for reaching the lost. The praise and worship during the services was led by the European youth leader and several other young people.

This conference truly boosted our love for God and our trust in His mighty power. Once again we were reminded that we are not alone in our efforts and that if we want to succeed in what we do, we have to be united in the Spirit.

Stefko Zlatarov