“Be Still and KNOW I Am God.”

Sometimes God just wants you to rest in who He is, to be still, to be in awe of His character and be amazed at His work. In those times the believer is utterly incapable of doing anything in his own power to change a situation. The believer in Christ must rest in His peace and walk in His faith. These thoughts summarize my experience in getting to Russia. Without evoking any power on my behalf, I had to sit back and watch God work. And all I can say is that He is truly amazing. He is so kind as to show His omnipotent hand by orchestrating many events to fall into the right place at the right time so clearly all one can say is “This is of God,” “Only God could have done this.” It has been enjoyable seeing Him display His gracious kindness to Paul and I. From releasing the passports, to allowing us to get on a plane without our passports in hand, to actually receiving our passports and being checked in and have everything run smoothly as silk, without any hiccup all I can say is the Lord has been utterly amazing. And so here it is, Saturday night and I get the privilege of standing before a group of believers and tell them about the awesomeness of God. What a great honor. I will share latter after such event, but let me recap a few events that we have been doing the last couple of days.

After 16 hours of train rides, Paul and I landed in Tambov with much expectation and love. The believers here are very excited to hear the Word of God and for our visit. They are dear saints who love the Lord Jesus Christ. They often reflect on their visit to Idaho and have asked about many of you. After such talk we granted the privilege to listen to a report given by the Regional pastor, Anyatoly, on the last four years of his oversight. As I sat there listening to the many things God has done in and through these believers all I could think of is what a mighty God we serve. In a state that has roughly 1.2 million, God has risen up 10 evangelical Baptist churches to serve this state and He isn’t done. There are two more cities begging for a missionary or a pastor to come and help establish a church. The problem is and we need to pray for, is that they have no one ready to go. Yes, they are equipping men, but this takes time and the need just has to wait. God has called many unto salvation and all the ten churches are in unity as they pursue a common charge to share Christ and make Him known to the people in this state. After the rejoicing and taking a couple of naps throughout the day, Paul and I went to a concert with the soul desire of striking up relationships with other college kids to share Christ. Our responsibility was to make sure they didn’t run out of coffee, which we successful at doing. We were also able to engage some in speaking about the things of God. We were sure the odd man out. Felt like we were the Grandpas of the group, a role that we were fine with. Also felt like a celebrity as many Russians wanted to talk to us and get our pictures. Go figure. All in all our first day here in Tambov has been pleasant and enjoyable. Looking forward to the rest of the week and no doubt there will be many opportunities to see God at work. To Him be the Glory. Until Next Time, being Still, Pastor Bear