God finally answered our prayers for a youth leader. He is 35 and has not married. He is the one I told you about whose father died at 98 years old. He had been a Christian for a year.  So he was married on the 7th of May. The brides' relatives were almost all unbelievers. Because our church is not big, we all participated in the program.  We even preached the gospel during the wedding service. Around 130 people came, half of whom were unbelievers. We thank God because He has a time for everything. Pray for this young family to be able to work for the Lord just as much.

On the 13th of May, I left on a trip to Kursk, Russia. I traveled with a group of 10 people who were from Romania, Cernauti, Sumy and Kiev. Kursk borders Ukraine. There are not many evangelical Christians in this area. Things are a little better in the central area.  Brother Stelica B. from Romania and sister Valentian (72 years old) visited an area called Rylsk that was inhabited by around 25,000 people. There was a church, "The Good News Church",  in that area which had 30 members. Most of them were older people. The pastor and his family who did most of the evangelistic work.  (Victor and his wife Natalia are in their 50s and have 2 children). They also raised 3 other girls from the orphanage. They were all Christians and helped with the ministry. One of them was already married and played the piano in the church.  

There were many villages around this town. Most of them were inhabited by old people who need the gospel. Pastor Victor took us to these villages and we spent one week wandering to and fro. Poor people who had worked a lifetime just to see their work degrading. We saw many abandoned buildings, houses and farms. May people had died because of drinking alcohol, some were still addicted and the young people had left to work somewhere else. The few young people that were left, were either junkies or criminals.

We worked hard that week. We visited about 35 families a day. We went both to Rylsk and the neighboring villages. Out of all the people who heard the gospel, 34 of them made a decision. The others agreed that we should pray for them. There were times when we helped the people to finish their work so that they could listen to the Word.

Other teams went to different places. Some shared the gospel with the Gypsy people. We sowed the seed in some places, while in others, we just harvested it. It is not important what exactly we do, the important thing is to do it in the name and for the glory of the Lord.  

Another category of people that were receptive to the gospel were the former alcoholics and drug addicts from the rehabilitation center. An older lady from the church had donated her house to use as a rehab center. She then moved out to a room that is part of the church building. But she was happy to have made such a decision. The social work is more and more important when it comes to reaching people.

When I got back home, I found many things that needed to be done. They had questions about the summer camps. I also had to continue the Bible study with the people that were being baptized. I found my father in the hospital and many things that needed to be done in my family. I will do my best to catch up on everything. I wrote the report later than usual because I had to take care of my father. I managed to go to Kamenska twice this month.