All for the glory of Your name , Jesus!

We are so thankful to the Lord Jesus that He came to this earth and brought JOY and PEACE to all people. The Christmas season was full of blessings!
Thank you very much for your prayers about the Christmas project, by God's grace it went really well. This year we hosted the biggest team ever (59 people lead by Scott Werntz, the director of the “Spoken For” ministry in Texas, + 35 Russian volunteers). We all were amazed how smoothly every single detail of this project went. GOD opened the hearts of people who work for the city government. They helped in many ways and even took an active part in many events that we did for students and orphans. The team performed two shows of the play called “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” for a thousand Russian students who study English. It was a huge success. The nativity story was proclaimed very clearly and it made everyone think about the humility of our Savior.

We invited many students from different schools to be interpreters; most of them heard the Gospel for the first time. Since the project has been over, almost all of them have kept in touch with their American friends. We pray and hope that it will help them know more about Jesus.

Angelica has a very dear friend in N.Lomov handicap orphanage Kristina. She is 10 years old. Every time we come to the orphanage Angelica spends time with this girl talking and playing. As always, we came to this orphanage to celebrate New Years. When we arrived Kristina was looking for Angelica but she couldn't find her because there were too many people around. When the program was about to start, Kristina still could not find Angelica. She began to cry hard. Then she noticed that Angelica walked in the door – she shouted with all her strength, “Angelica, you came!!!” Then hugged her tightly and told her through tears how much she missed her. After that she gave Angelica a hand-made Christmas card. What a precious gift, knowing how much time and effort she put drawing and writing that card!!.
We come to the orphanages to bring Love of Jesus to the kids. Nevertheless, there are so many times when we receive HIS love from them and it really encourages us to keep going.
Scott and I (Sergey) shared our faith in Jesus with the director and her assistants. Through the years we can see changes in the hearts of people that we have known for a long time.

All the “Fireworks” youth played a big part in this project. Each of them tried hard to find their special way how to help: Dima and Alexey S. helped with technical equipment for the play; the girls (Rita and Julia) assisted Angelica in many things while she was preparing for the project. Most importantly, every one of them served the Lord side-by-side with our American brothers and sisters with great happiness. You can find many pictures of this project here.

On the last day of the team’s visit, we had an outstanding Sunday worship service at church. We all praised the Lord – singing and praying in two different languages as one. This is just a glimpse of great worship before the throne of our LORD Jesus! We can't wait for that time!
Please pray for us:

·         for the fruit of the Gospel that the Lord planted in the hearts of people;

·         for Spiritual growth of our your Fireworks youth;

·         for keeping doors of the orphanages open for the Gospel; there are so many kids and adults who need salvation;

·         for the authorities of our city who helped to organized this project; pray that the Lord would reveal Himself as He did to apostle Paul and change their lives forever.

We are so thankful for every one of you who came to Penza, Russia this Christmas and shared your hearts full of the love of our Lord Jesus.
May the Lord richly bless you.
Sergey and Angelica.