No crisis will slow down our work! Summer is normally a slow time anyway in Russia, but with Zoom, training has been growing, and most encouragingly among ministry leaders and pastors from a wide swath of Russia. Here are some of the testimonies we have gotten: Thanks to the tools and skills we got in…

Following is another in my series of posts from my course material, tentatively named, “The King’s Table” about how to build a true community that moves from learning how to love one another to loving those far from God. This excerpt is from a lesson on how to biblically bear one another’s burdens. Pretend that…

Lydia is finishing up studies at Wheaton College this term after three years there. She’s in a pre-nursing program that has her do the bulk of the nursing studies elsewhere. Her sense of call to serve in the area of human trafficking has not abated, but she wants to re-group this summer before committing to…

Although marriage counseling is not the center of my work here in Russia, it has always been close to my heart. It was the most rewarding part of my counseling practice in Richmond before moving here, and the way God has helped me grow as a husband is not a small part of my own…

We had no idea that coming up with a board game would be so big a project when we started back in August. The good news is that we are no less committed or excited about the potential for using a board game to help Christians grow in relational depth and to help create spiritual…

As I kept digging deeper into the nature of relationships and how we form them, I couldn’t find anywhere a list of all the places in the New Testament where we are given instruction on how to live with respect to “one-another.” I have since found others who have listed some or all of them,…

In my line of work, as is the case in life generally, you often have to sew seeds for many years before seeing any fruit. I sometime pursue a ministry or personal connection on nothing but a sense of God’s leading and don’t see anything come of it for a long time. Then suddenly, bam.…

Here is another sample from my course. In this case, it is actually little more than a Bible study with discussion questions on the subject of how we are to navigate agenda conflicts in conversation. The text we use is one that often gets Jesus in trouble, as it sounds on the surface like he…

I am thrilled to include a post written by one of our team leaders Sveta Alekseeva, who is now actively taking ownership of the need to raise personal support for the vision of our ministry.  For three days we were given the opportunity to immerse ourselves in Scripture and understand God’s view of finance.  …

Continuing my series of postsdrawing on material from my training course on building the relationships and the team work that becoming the Body of Christ requires, here are some of my thoughts on obedience.  Obedience gets a bad rap. No one likes to obey. And though we have not yet used the word with you…