not against flesh and blood...

so, i've been meaning to write about this for few weeks now.  in the beginning of june we had the drama team from calvary chapel kharkov come out for a 2-day outreach.  they performed a number of times in different places around the city and we were able to share the gospel with many.  well, their last performance was on sunday evening after our church service was over.  as i was setting up and getting ready to open with a few songs, along comes vitya (ironically also the name of kharkov's team leader).  i'd never seen vitya before.  he looked like your run-of-the-mill alcoholic/bum gathering empty beer bottles to trade in for change.  but he wasn't gathering bottles that day.  he comes up to the stage area in front of the benches (where the drama team is in the photo above) and starts frantically waving his arms at me, motioning like he wants us to leaves.  then he does the same thing to the 100+ crowd (who all think its hysterical and are laughing at him).  i would say he was "yelling" too, only it was like yelling with your mouth shut.  he was loudly mumbling at us.  well, i asked tom and grisha (from our church) to take him aside.  they tried to lead him off, but vitya wasn't having it.  grisha knew of him and said that he was "bol'noy", essentially crazy.  i came up to him and prayed for him, but he didn't seem to react much (though he was calm while i prayed).  i decided to just start playing the songs as the opening of our outreach.  the whole time i was playing (3 worship songs), vitya was continuing to wave us frantically away.  at one point he stood for a while just a couple feet right in front of me and was waving.  as i sang, i was praying that the Lord would do something.  i became convinced that this man was demon possessed.  after i was done playing i handed my guitar off to someone on the team and walked up to vitya. this time, the Lord just gave me the boldness to speak to the demon inside this man.  as i walked up to him, he just stood there, but as soon as i said to the demon in him that Jesus Christ died for this man and come out of him, vitya's eyes turned from glazed to pure panic.  he turned around and started running away as fast as his haggard body could carry him.  for a while i followed him, wanting to "finish the job".  vitya (or maybe i should said the demon in him) kept running and looking over his shoulder at me like a beast being hunted.  after some distance, and coming to a more populated street, i decided to return to the outreach.  i was deeply impressed with the seriousness of the spiritual warfare we are in and also with the total power of Christ over all the power of the enemy.  i ended up sharing the gospel that evening with the crowd, pointing out what happened with vitya as a clear example of the power of Christ (most the audience witnessed what happened in the beginning).  the Lord used the situation to His glory.  what was even more amazing was that at church that morning we were in Acts and reading about Paul's ministry in Ephesus and how God even used the incident with Sceva's sons to glorify Jesus.  we talked about how even the demons can't escape ultimately glorifying God (no one can, its just a question of how we will glorify Him, as trophies of His grace or evidence of His justice).  so all that to say, Jesus is truly over all powers and authorities, that we are in a very real spiritual battle whether we see it everyday or not, that the Word of God is truly prophetic in our lives and also please pray for vitya to be totally freed from the grip of satan.  thanks.

back in the USSR?

i just was reading about a proposed change to the constitution of Ukraine under the article "concerning freedom of conscience and religious organizations".  for those of you who read ukrainian and are interested in the details of the proposed changes here are a few links:

read the proposed changes (in Ukrainian): click here (on this page click

Проект Закону 21.04.2008 to open the word file with said proposal)

to compare the changes (which reference the original constitutional article on religion) to the original: click here (in Ukrainian)

to read about how unhappy the Ukrainian buddhists are about this proposed law (and i totally agree with them), click here. (in English)

the basic gist is a few additions making life harder on newer churches (read non-eastern-orthodox): a proposed annual RE-registration of a new church for the first 10 yrs. of its existence (those of you in Ukraine who are even vaguely familiar with this process know that once is bad enough), and changing the minimum number of citizens necessary to register a church from 10 to 50.

in addition to that there are specific additions to make it harder for foreign leadership within the church (or at least statements which are xenophobic in nature, even if they don't change the actual way things are done).  whereas the previous article states only that foreigners are allowed to carry out ministerial functions in the churches that have invited them, the new addition states "foreign citizens do not have the right to take part in the government of religious organizations in Ukraine".  also it forbids religious organizations whose "governing center" is not in Ukraine from owning property in Ukraine (implying Roman Catholics with the HQ in Rome or Buddhists with the Dalai Lama in... where is he again?  possibly also applying to JW's and Mormons?)  This particular law would not so much apply to protestant Christians here, since there is no centralized authority center, but the principle behind it is still one step away from kicking all foreign religious workers out.

this is all suspiciously similar to what is already in place in Russia, stating that only religious organizations having existed in russian territory for 50 yrs. or more have full rights, kicking out foreign missionaries, only allowing the practice of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in all armed services, and generally Putin being the high priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

BUT in Ukraine the good news is that this amendment is only being proposed.  it was given to the Rada (Ukraine's Parliament) on Apr. 21, 2008 by Genadiy Moskal' (see pic below) with a request to take action on it within 2 month's time.  That means it may be coming to a vote very soon.  so please PRAY that this bill would not be passed (if it is the Lord's will).  it would be the beginning of possibly more restrictions on religious freedom in Ukraine.  here's the guy who put it forward, pray for his salavation, too. (oddly enough he's not on Yanukovich's team, but in the "Our Ukraine" block (the western-leaning side)).

 

"The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD,
    Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes." -Proverbs 21:1

i'll post something less political next time...

new creations in Christ Jesus!

hey, just wanted to post pictures from the baptism we had last week.  its so awesome to see people expressing through baptism the truth that our old man is dead and we are living anew in Christ!

l to r: ben, kristina, marina, dasha, sergei, nina, alyona, tom

(and no, tom and i did not plan to wear matching shirts! )

- please pray for marina and dasha who are going off to university at the end of this month.  they are young believers who have been filled with the Spirit and are taking in the pure milk of God's Word.  pray they stay rooted and grounded in Jesus' love and make a priority of being in fellowship in their new cities (its a blessing that in both the cities where they are going, kharkov and kiev respectively, there are calvary chapels)
- pray for nina and her husband sergei (who got saved a couple days after nina!) - their son is under serious oppresion from the enemy (drug addiction, hallucinations, etc.)  pray for him to be set free.  pray also for nina and sergei as they are trying to decide where to fellowship.  after learning that they gave their lives to the Lord, an aquaintance of theirs is very forcibly trying to convince them to go to another church that has some serious false teaching.  pray for the Holy Spirit to guide their decision and not be pressured by man, but led by Him.
- pray for alyona's dad.  he was once on fire for the Lord and led a Bible study at their old church, but he is now on a drinking binge and was just taken to a state detox clinic.  pray for his restoration and God's peace in the family (who are all believers) during this time.
- pray for kristina - she is actually an orphan from the internat we go to.  she started coming earlier in the summer and actually prayed to receive the Lord at our service Jul. 15 (thanks for the bday present, Lord! )  the orphans are a very tough group and its very hard to not be influenced by the ungodliness there, but kristina desires to live for Jesus.  pray for her to be filled with His power and especially for battles with anger and help quitting smoking.


thanks for praying!