Thanks to Sergey and Zhenya Zaozersky, both graduates of the OMS-founded Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary (MECS), orphans in Vladimir, Russia, feel valued and loved. The Zaozerskys regularly visit six state orphanages in the Vladimir region where many of the kids would be forgotten if not for the ministry of the orphanages and people like the Zaozerskys ministering to them.
Sergey and Zhenya, with six kids of their own, four of whom are adopted, live what they learned at MECS. They recently treated the orphans to a trip to Vladimir for Orphan Fest, a fun carnival-like event. What a wonderful experience for these kids to enjoy being kids by eating pizza, getting their faces painted, making crafts, watching clown tricks, playing soccer, getting dance lessons, and receiving lots of prizes. Each child also receives a Bible at the end of the day.
In September, two of the sponsored orphans started school for the first time, thanks to generous OMS donors. It's hard to imagine what would have happened to these orphans had the Lord not intervened through Sergey and Zhenya's ministry after graduating from MECS.
This ministry shows your donations at work. The return on your investment is literally saving the lives of orphans in Russia! Thank you.
If you would like to donate to MECS today, click here.
Slava Pleskach (pictured far right), a scholarship recipient at the Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary, accepted Jesus in 1990. By 1995 he had become a missionary church planter to Siberia. In 2004, Slava planted Victory of Christ Church in Yaroslavl, Russia, and most recently, he planted a church in a neighboring country, predominantly with a Muslim population.
But Slava felt he lacked training. So, in 2016, he entered the master of divinity program at the Moscow Seminary. Slava believes family is the nucleus of and vehicle for church growth. He is married to Maria, and together, they have four children. Therefore, his classes on pre-marital counseling, marriage & family, and conflict resolution have been extremely useful for him.
"Sometimes, hard things happen in ministry." says Slava, "One year, I took a group of churched and unchurched families to a summer camp. The police came, scattered us all around, and shut the camp down. I later took a class at the seminary on church and state. I learned a lot and we have been able to have the camp every year since, with no problems whatsoever! Studying at the seminary truly helps ministry," concludes Slava.
Slava praises the Lord and thanks you for making studies at the seminary possible for him. He, along with the other 364 students at the seminary, only pays 10 percent of the actual cost, all they can afford. The rest of the tuition is covered by generous donations.
Would you like to help student-ministers like Slava study for ministry effectiveness? You can donate here.
Ivan Beshlyaga graduated from MECS (Moscow Evangelical Christina Seminary) with a bachelor of divinity degree in 2005. He then moved to Nizhny Novgorod to plant a church. A year later, he baptized Natasha, his first convert. Natasha grew quickly in the Lord and was soon leading the worship at the new church plant. A year later, Ivan sent Sasha, the rector of MECS, a wedding invitation. He was marrying Natasha! Since then, Ivan and Natasha have had three kids and planted three churches in the area. This past year, both Ivan and Natasha graduated from the seminary: Ivan with a master of theology degree and Natasha with a bachelor of counselling degree. Ivan and Natasha have now returned to church planting in Nizhny Novgorod.
Thank God with us for the ministry of MECS, and how he is using it to prepare students to reach the people of Russia.
We hope you enjoyed last night's (Sunday, Aug. 17) One Mission Stories, OMS' radio program, featuring OMS missionary Jim Hogrefe, serving with Every Community for Christ as the director of church multiplication. Jim shared many stories about his two years in Russia with CoMission and many stories about his time in India.
Everyone has a story ... enjoy Jim's!
Learn about the Loja (Ecuador) Challenge 2015! Check out the Facebook page.
PRAY: Pray for Jim and his wife Karen...and for their two adult children and six grandchildren. Pray that each would come to know the Lord and walk with him. Also, pray for the ministry of church multiplication, which is exploding! Pray for our next steps of saturating different communities with the Gospel so that every man, woman, and child would hear. We also need more partners to help fulfill the Great Commission.
BOOKS/RESOURCES: You can purchase all OMS books through our OMS store on Amazon or by contacting the OMS World HQ... call or email Barb Sandoz at 317.888.3333, ext. 313, or email bsandoz@onemissionsociety.org.
OMS Outreach magazine was also mentioned on the broadcast. If you'd like to view the magazine, you can see it online here.
To connect your kids to fun mission activities, check out our One Mission Kids website.
INFO: Tune in to next week's One Mission Stories to hear from OMS missionary Joyce Oden. Joyce spent many years establishing our ministry in the Philippines and helped start our HOPE61 ministry, helping to prevent human trafficking. If you would like to know more about any of our ministries around the world, please email us at radio@onemissionsociety.org.
If you missed this program or any of our previous programs, click here to listen to the broadcast on podbean.