Photo gallery

I posted a link on my personal blog, but forgot to post one here too. Hope you like my 2007 Yo-burg photos.

Amazed by what He is doing

I am posting an encouraging email from Darin McFarland -- Rodney

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God is up to Something!

November 17, 2007

Dear Friends,

God is charting new waters here. Things are happening that I have never seen in 15 years of campus ministry in Russia. Yesterday, three young men trusted Christ. Excuse the hockey analogy, but I have never seen a hat trick in campus ministry (3 goals in one game/3 new believers in one day). Another young man trusted Christ last week. Also, never before has there been so many student leaders. Around ten or so students helped to lead our recent evangelistic retreat. There were a total of 85 including staff in attendance with 43 of those being students who have not yet trusted Christ. All of them heard the gospel at least three times over the weekend through film and personal testimonies of other students. I know that God is using your prayers to open new doors. Please keep praying. We desperately need your prayers!

Answered Prayers

• Since my last email four young men have trusted Christ.
• We had our best evangelistic retreat in 15 years last weekend. It was totally student led.
• The English classes went quite well despite smaller numbers. The smaller classes allowed for more discussion and closer relationships.
• The first gospel of John Seeker Studies went well last night. We had ten students attend who have not yet believed in Christ.

Prayer Requests

• That we would see more students attend our Seeker Studies on Tuesday nights.
• That we could be successful and effective in the English Club that we hope to start in the next two weeks at the Economic Institute and Mining Institute.
• That our four brand-new believers would become well grounded in their faith (Andre, Zhenya, Sergei and Kiril).
• That the others who trusted Christ this semester would get more involved with our ministry and grow in their new faith (Guzel, Gulya, Katya, Oksana, Alyona, Ksenia, Olga, Oksana and Sergei).
• That the church plant would continue to go well and that we could find a pastor. This Sunday is our first service that is open to new people.
• That God would help us to be good stewards of this constantly growing and very complex ministry. We have a lot of new challenges with the recent growth and many more are coming with what we expect God will do in the near future.
• That God would bring in a harvest of 100 students this year. This is a huge step of faith to pray this way but we wanted to ask God for something way beyond our ability to do in our own strength.
• That God would help us with organization, communication, understanding and unity on a very large, multi-national, bi-lingual team.

In Need of His Grace,

Darin

We're baaaaack!

We got in about midnight Sunday night. We had a pretty uneventful trip back ... thanks for praying!

The Forest Fun Party was great. We had some games, food, and fun before we had to get back to the hotel. Thursday and Friday was rainy, but it cleared up for the party on Saturday ... thanks for praying!

I took over 500 photos this year plus a couple of small movies ... yowsa. I'll get some up for you soon.

Das-vee-danya,

Rodney

Russia 2007 update

I just posted a Russia 2007 update. Too keep from double posting you, just follow the link.

Please pray for Jerry, Chris, Holly, and me as we go to the Forest Fun Party. Pray for safe fun and please pray for a safe return. We'll be flying back on Sunday @ 1pm (Ruski time). See y'all back stateside ... Rodney.

One more thing...

Please pray for safety and fun at the Forest Fun Party. And stay turned for photos. I have a bunch and will put them online once I get home .... Pa-ka -- Rodney.

Weekend retreat

It's been an incredible two weeks. I'll post more of my stories when I return. We made a lot of progress in the lives of individual students -- Vitaliy, Katya, Sasha, Luba, irina, Vlad, and many others. It's hard to leave, but we leave them in God's hands, and He will continue to draw them to Himself. We are His messengers, and we praise God that we could be used in this way. -- Jerry Pattillo

These two weeks have been really awesome. I have had a wonderful class full of awesome students. We have had good attendance hanging out after the classes and students wanting to meet up with us during the day. Please pray that all of our students would have a desire to attend the Bible discussions Compas will have after we leave. Please pray for safe travel as well. -- Rodney.

Last English class

Tonight is our last English Talk the Talk class. Please pray for all of us to "finish well". Pray that all our students will come to the last class and that they would come to the Forest Fun Party retreat.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. We appreciate it! Pray for energy to finish off the week and the retreat and also for our traveling back to the good ole U.S. of A. on Sundy.

See y'all soon ...

Rodney

1 came to Christ!

I almost forgot to post the best news of all, there is one more fellow believer in Ekat this week! A Russian student Igor shared his faith to another student Andrew. Andrew accepted believed in Jesus as his saviour! It's awesome to see students who are eager to share their faith with fellow students.

Please pray that Andrew will continue to follow Jesus and grow in his new faith.

Rodney

Student updates

I have an appointment today at 3pm (Ekat time) with a student and I hope to make some connections and maybe bring up spiritual topics. And on Thursday I am going out again with Ivan and Alex. Both are in the higher speaking group of my class.

During the parable about Sowing the Seed, I asked "which type of soil do you think you are"? Ivan answered that he was the good soil. And Alex said he thought he was becoming good soil. Praise God! When we go out on Thursday I am going to try and present the gospel and see what they say. They do hear the gospel in Talk the Talk, but it is shared over the two week period. And I think both of them are ready to hear it all at once. Please pray for them and for me.

Rodney

Sunday the 7th

Chris and Holly got in last night, so the team is now complete. We are looking forward to serving this next week and attending the Forrest Fun Party.

I am still excited about Ivan and please pray that I get to share more of the Good news with him 1-on-1.

Jerry and I had some quality time yesterday Saturday with his students. Please pray that Jerry continues to connect with his students and that he gets opportunities to share.

Please pray for Chris and Holly as they start their classes and as they try to connect with friends and prior students.

God bless,

The Ekat Team.

Ekat Friday update

Hello everybody!

Today is Friday and I've been running all over town and have not had much time to post any information .... which all things considered is probably a good thing. :-)

On Wednesday Jerry and I were invited to the "International Day of Translators" at the Humanitarian University. Debbie told us they might want one of us to give a brief talk. Little did we know that we were going to be VIPs on stage along side a Russian teacher and a French teacher. BTW, they wanted BOTH of us to give a talk. Luckily I don't suffer from stage fright and I got to go last <G>. We gave a little speech to ~100-150 university students. One of the students was from an old Talk the Talk class of mine. So I got to spend a few minutes after the class catching up and gave an invitation to our weekend retreat.

After the "ceremony" they had a tea and coffee reception for the speakers and staff. It was a lot of fun. I was talking to Olga who is an English teacher at the university. She told me she was in Talk the Talk classes last summer. There is "summer project" that is like our fall classes but I think the University of Kentucky puts those on. So I got to asking her if she thought the stories (parables) were real or just metaphorical? She wasn't sure and I got to talk about Jesus and the Bible with her. I think, by the end, she was beginning really think about spiritual things. I doubt I will see her again, but lift up a prayer for Olga.

I think I have a class that is really open to hearing the parables in our Talk the Talk lessons. One student Ivan is really exciting to me. He is very smart and he is very caring. When we talked about "love your neighbors", he was right there. No matter who the neighbor is, a begger, a drug dealer, a Chechnyan, etc... No matter who it was, he said he'd help them no matter what.

Yesterday, Thursday, he and some of his friends met Jerry and me and took us on a tour of Ekaterinburg. He went all out to show us a good time. He bought us ice cream and paid to take us to the top of Ekat's tallest building to its lookout point. Since students don't have much money to begin with, this was a grand jesture. After classes that night he said he wished our tomorrows to be as great as today. He also said you have "black days" and "white days" and now we will have our "white days". Please pray for Ivan.

Tonight is the scavenger hunt, which means about 1 hour of non-stop running. It is always a highlight for the students and I have a 2 year winning streak to defend. :-)) Please pray for energy and endurance for all.

I have lots of pictures to share once I get back home.

God bless .... Rodney