In Iraq this year I asked an Iraqi military officer doing joint training at an American base what was the big thing he’d come to believe about Americans in the years they’d been there. He thought. “You are a better people than your movies say.” He had judged us by our exports. He had seen the low slag heap of our culture and assumed it was a true expression of who we are.

This has been my experience in various countries. The USA exports a lot of filth (by movies, music, popular culture, etc.), and others have judged Americans by it. We need to keep this in mind when the US is criticized by other cultures. In many cases the USA is not very attractive when judged by our cultural exports.

This is also one more good reason for mission trips: people in other countries can experience a different kind of American, an American who follows God and acts in love. In this way we may, in small part, act as peacemakers between cultures.

The best thing we can do is love the Lord deeply and be the people He wants us to be. Sometimes He may then send us to other cultures be a witness of His loving-kindness. He always wants us to be a witness in our home culture.

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We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday. Since thanksgiving is not a Russian holiday, it’s a bit easier to have the meal on Sunday.

In addition to several friends, Olga’s mother and grandparents joined us. Olga’s grandfather, Orest Maxmilianovich Grotten is 92 years old, and we were very glad he could be with us. Above is Olga with her mom and grandparents. Valerie is not in the picture because she was busy having her face painted by Natasha Pavlova.

We had turkey and dressing (my mom’s recipe), gravy, mashed potatoes, and a variety of non-American dishes including Korean carrot salad and Russian mushrooms with onions. At times like this, I look back in wonder at the life God has given me. We are so very thankful for His love and guidance.

News about Valerie: we’ve submitted documents to the court regarding the removal of parental rights from Valerie’s birth mother, Oksana. We were expecting a court date this month, but the judge is on holiday and won’t set a date until she’s back on late January. So, we wait. We continue to be in touch with Oksana, helping her and encouraging her. Olga has visited her in prison several times, and we stay in touch by mail. Olga is homeschooling Valerie using some basic kindergarten material, and that’s yielding good results; Valerie is speaking better and learning her numbers pretty well. It’s fun to watch her learn and improve.

I go to the US this week; I will attend a Stoneworks board meeting in Chattanooga on December 7. Olga and Valerie will join me a little later. We plan to spend Christmas with my family in Georgia and Tennessee and then make a trip to Texas in January.

Ministry continues. We’re planning several mission trips to Russia, Estonia and Montenegro next summer. One team will be 40 teenagers! That should be fun. I’ll be in Montenegro in May with a team, in Russia with a team in June and in Estonia with a team in early July, then back to Montenegro with a team in late July (if all goes as planned). I’ve recently made several trips to Estonia and things there are going very well. I’ll have news about that soon.

I recently wrote a friend in the US something that’s been on my mind for a while: More and more, I’m feeling grounded in the knowledge that the flow of love is God’s most important action among men. The greatest commandment is to love God; the second greatest commandment is to love others; people will know we are followers of Jesus by our love for one another; God is love; He loved us enough to save us. All of these scriptures prove the primacy of real, heart-felt, selfless love.

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Today we celebrate our 10th anniversary. As a special treat on our anniversary today we both woke up sick with head colds. The start of a great day!

The picture at left was taken on the day we met. I (Mike) was hosting a dinner for Russian interpreters who had been working with mission teams.

This happened at the same time we were staffing up MIR, the Russian charity we were starting, so I invited Olga to attend since she had been recommended as a secretary/interpreter for MIR. Olga’s ‘interview’ was conducted as she and one of our board members prepared chicken in the kitchen. She fit right in from the start.

These 10 years have seen many good times and many challenges. We are so very thankful for where the Lord has led us, for the life He has given us. This gives us faith and trust that the road ahead, however challenging it may be, will certainly lead to green pastures if we’ll abide with Christ along the way. He is a good shepherd.

Here is the moment I proposed, in the garden at dacha:

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Katya and I want to thank you for your friendship, prayers and care for us. God has been so good to us to bring us through many difficult times. In the fire we have come face to face with Him Who is really what it is all about.

Recently, two very dear friends learned that I had preached at an old one room church located in Wears Valley, TN that they had looked at on their recent trip to visit us.

They then found and purchased a burnt engraved picture of that old church and gave it to us for our office. The church building is now a Historical Site and no longer is filled with the sounds of singing, praying and preaching that it did that Sunday on March 22, 1969.

Forty two years ago I drove my little VW Beetle to that one room church hidden in the Wears Valley. God showed up and we saw nearly every person in the church at the altar. It was a one room church where they pulled curtains together to make Sunday School rooms.

I wrote a note in my journal that they gave me $22.99 offering and ask me to come back in two weeks for the rest of my pay. I did so even though the trip was many hours of driving. They then gave me two chickens. May I add; two live chickens. You should have seen me driving on those dirt roads through the mountains with two live chickens in the back seat. Before I got back to campus, I believe that I would have given them back the $22.99 if they would have kept the two chickens. Just kidding.

While looking back in my old journal to find the date I had preached there I realized that I had been preaching since the spring of 1961. If I am figuring right that is 50 years. 50 years of telling folks about our wonderful Lord. You know I wouldn’t change a day of it. Even the heartaches or disappointments was really about Him. I have to say that, “The Longer I Serve Him, The Sweeter He Grows”.

I just wanted to share with you this special time for me and the realization that 50 years ago I said yes to the Lord and it has been an amazing journey that has lead us though out many countries and witnessed tens of thousands of folks come to know our precious Lord.

Please pray for us that we may continue to pursue serving Him until the Day He returns for His Church. Thank you for being a part of this journey.

Yours by His Wonderful Grace,

Dennis

www.openlightministries.org

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Hello Dear Friends!

I would like to thank everyone for the prayer and for the support! God is doing miracles! I would like to share our testimony here and to thank everyone!

In September we got a onetime allowance from the government for fostered children. We were able to pay for the rent for September and October and to buy what we needed for school and other necessities. I have tried to manage the situation in order to be able to pay the rent for November, but we had unforeseen expenses, I was ill and had to buy some medicine, and besides that the onetime allowance we got from the government was less we had thought it would be.

The time to pay the rent came closer and I was praying and sent the request to my friends. There was no sum of money to pay the rent for November. I got more and more anxious and discouraged, but I was praying and trusted God.

Usually we pay the rent on the 6th it was Sunday that is why we put it off until Monday the 7th. On the 7th there was no money either and I decided to talk to the landlady and put it off until the 8th (in our agreement the dates to pay the rent are from the 4th to 8th of every month). So I had one day to spare.

Also at the beginning of each month I need to do some other payments like to pay for additional classes for Nastya and Danik (it is about $35 – $50 for each of them) and we didn’t have them either. I decided that kids should get the investment first , besides there was not enough money to pay the flat anyway. So I went to pay the communal bill that we have to pay in addition for the rent and I paid for classes.

In the evening on the 7th there was still no money and on the way home I called Anya and shared with here my frustrations. When I came home Nastya was just returned from dance classes and was going to watch cartoons and I joined her taking the phone with me, thinking I have to call my friend and ask to lend me the money.

When I took the phone I saw an sms massage that said that somebody had offered the money for us. With this sum of money we were able to add to the rent and to pay for Danok’s classes we even had a little left to buy some food. On the 8th of November I was able to pay the rent! Praise God!

I thank Him for His continued faithfulness! I am very thankful to those people who send the offering to us! I even do not know who it was but I am thankful! May God blesses you. Thank you very much to everyone who prayed for us and encouraged us, without you support and Prayers we wouldn’t make it!

Yours Alina, Danik and Anastasia

To support Alina and the children, click here and choose MIR:Foster Family from the drop down menu.

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A young Russian lady named Lucya is working with them.  I thought you might like to read her story:

I was born in poor family. My mama was an orphan. Before I was one year old my dad asked my mama to get married but a day before the wedding he died. Then my mama started drinking. Before I was born my mama was with other men and had two other children. She gave them away to the orphanage because she didn’t know how to take care of children.

When I was born my brother came back from the orphanage to help my mama, he was 11 or 12 years old. My sister didn’t want to come back to mama so she stayed in the orphanage. This is why I didn’t know my sister very well.”

When I was 5 years old, I worked with my brother on the street. We would go and find glass beer bottles and get 5 rubles for them. Also we would go into the woods in the summer and gather berries and mushrooms and sell them in the market. We were a poor family because my mama sold all our stuff to buy alcohol. We slept on our coats on the floor because we didn’t have any beds.

When I went to school at 7 years, I tried to study very hard. Also I tried to be happy so that no one would think that I was poor.

When I was 9 years old my school teacher invited all my class of 30 students to church. This was really amazing for me. The first thing that I saw was that all the people there were happy and I thought that they had no problems in their life. When I was in church I started to know about God and that I can pray for my mama. And when I was 13 I was the leader of Sunday school in my church. And I also worked in a factory with my mama and studied in school.

My mama asked me about why I was happy every Sunday. I told her because I go to church every Sunday. She told me that she wanted to go to church with me. I thought that it was not good idea because I was ashamed of her.

My pastor came to our home to see her, and he prayed for her. And she invited God in her heart. When she first time came to church all people could not believe that she was my mama. But my mama was very changed. It was God. In the next month my mama stopped drinking. She started to be leader of home group for alcoholics.

Not long after she suddenly became sick and was paralyzed in her whole body. When we called to doctor he came and said that he would not help us because we were poor. We started to pray to God and the next day my mama stood up and went to clinic. And doctor would not believe her. When she was sick I asked God to give her back for one day to tell her that I love her. She gave her testimony in church and she told us that she saw God when she was sick. Next day she started to be worse and she went to hospital. The doctor said that we needed to buy some medicine but we did not have money for it.

I went to the woods to pick berries and mushrooms to sell. Then I came back and went to my friend who would buy them for a good price. When I was there my brother called and said he could not find mama in the hospital and the doctor said she had died. I could not believe it. I told him not to worry and that she would be back. We went to the morgue and saw her body, but still I was in shock and couldn’t believe that it was her. I was happy because I thought she would be back. Everyone in church prayed for me because they thought that I was not okay, not normal.

After two weeks I began to feel that she would not be back. And I was depressed and crying and could not see friends at church or her clothes without crying. We gave away everything in our apartment that was hers or put it on the street with the garbage. All things were old and dirty and everywhere were cockroaches and other bugs. I was 15.

Can you imagine then I was alone with my brother. I studied in school and did not have a job or money. And one day I stood in the middle of the room and prayed to God. I said to Him that in the Bible it says to all who believe and ask Jesus in their heart that He promises to them life without needs. I couldn’t understand why He did not take care of me and my family because I already had Jesus in my heart.

I promised to God that I would serve all my life for poor people and orphans like I was if I would have life without needs. I made first step and found an orphanage close to my home. I started to visit children every day and started to be friends with them.

Every day God kept His promise. On the second day neighbors came and gave us furniture for apartment. They bought new furniture and gave us the old, but it was new for us. And government came and said they wanted to do repairs in our apartment for free. Our lives started to change so fast.

When I was 18 I finished at my school and I was the worst student of everyone in English classes. My teacher told me that I would never speak English! I think she would fall down if she saw me now.

I went to the university and it was a miracle that I passed the exams to be able to study there. Only 2 people out of my class of 30 people went to the university. I studied there for 5 years and graduated with diploma for geological engineering. Since then I have also completed a second diploma with honors to be social worker.

Gary and Pam write: Lucya has become the primary core team member that we have here in Chita. She has experienced what it means to be an orphan, has worked in an orphanage, and was the sole counselor in a home for girls for five years in St. Petersburg. Every great team is built with great team members and she is a great one to build around. Thank you for praying for Lucya and the Russian team that she is assembling around herself. Thank you!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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A couple of evenings ago we had a dinner for the MIR staff at our flat, hosting 17 people. It was great to have a peaceful, fun time with our friends.

MIR has been going through a tough time financially and yet the ministry continues to expand and do good work. We’re expanding an ecological studies program, we’re planning for a big short-term team that will visit next year (40 teenagers!) and Yan and Nadya Boldyrev are becoming an active part of the core of MIR.

It’s an honor to witness such good relationships and self-less servants.

Here’s a short video of the evening:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Since our last Postcard we’ve been all over Europe. At the end of August we drove from Russia to Montenegro (you can see a photo record of the trip here). The picture above was taken when we gassed up in Augustow, Poland. We spent almost a month in Montenegro, visiting family, friends and ministry partners. Valerie had a GREAT time, especially at the beach (here is a video of her first experience of the sea).

Then we drove from Montenegro to Rathenow, Germany, the town where Olga lived for a couple of years when her father was stationed at a Soviet military base in East Germany. Olga has many good memories of that town, and it’s where she and her mom first heard the gospel preached; this happened just as the Soviet Union was collapsing. The commander of the base surprisingly allowed a group of Christians to share their testimonies.

From Germany, we went to Estonia. Olga and Valerie returned to Russia while I applied for my new Russian visa and spent time in Estonia and Finland. The picture below is of Finland in Autumn.

So, in the span of about 6 weeks we were in these countries (in order): Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia and Finland. It was quite an adventure.

Valerie is doing very well. She’s growing like a weed and speaking better and better all the time. She’s a good kid and we all love each other. We are gathering documents necessary to petition the court to terminate Oksana’s (Valerie’s birth mother’s) parental rights. We think this will happen in a few weeks. Then we can then move to adopt Valerie, however there is a six-month waiting period after termination of parental rights before we can adopt.

The ministry continues. You can see the most recent Stoneworks update here. Several projects are in various stages: we’ll host a mission team of 40-60 who will minister in Russia and Estonia; two teams from Georgia will go to Montenegro; we continue to work on Sunbeam (the center for children with disabilities in Estonia) and I hope to have some good news about that soon.

Even though the world faces difficulties and we are affected by those forces, our hope is not in the things of this world; our hope is in Christ who is a good shepherd. Remember, He has prepared good work in advance for you to do. His best is always in the future.

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For those who don’t know, I am the Executive Director of Stoneworks International, a small American mission organization that has projects in Russia, Estonia, Belarus and Montenegro. I’m also the chairman of the board of МИР (MIR), a Russia charity I helped found about 11 years ago. And, I’m a founding board member of Päikesekiir (Sunbeam), an Estonian charity that’s in the process of establishing a day center for children with disabilities in Northeast Estonia.

Here in Montenegro, I’ve recently done some preliminary planning for a mission team we’ll host in May. I’m spending time with ministry leaders and co-workers, as well as with Olga’s sister’s family. In the past, I’ve helped several short-term mission teams run summer camps here; I hope we’ll run another this coming summer. And, having an internet connection, I continue to communicate with partners in other countries.

In Russia, our ministry faces a variety of challenges, including financial short-falls and a staff in transition; I’m in regular contact regarding budgets, staffing, vision, etc. MIR has just finished a successful summer, and we’re thankful for that. I’ve also been helping a couple, Yan and Nadya Boldyrev, as they transition their orphan ministry to work more closely with us. I’m also in talks with Teen Mania about a 40-person mission team they plan to send to Russia and Estonia next summer.

In Belarus, I primarily help in decision-making regarding the future of the ministry, and I help assure that reporting (financial, ministry) is going smoothly. Other Stoneworks board members are active in helping the ministry in Belarus. Of course, the staff of our sister ministry, Spring of Revival, is great and serve selflessly. Recently, I helped our co-workers there get Estonia visas, and I look forward to the time when our friends in Estonia will meet and partner with our friends in Belarus. The ministry staff in Belarus are facing a difficult time these days; the culture is under siege and the financial markets are very unstable.

My work in Estonia continues to grow. The biggest project is Sunbeam, a center for children with disabilities we plan to build in Johvi. Right now, the city is working on zoning changes for the land they will grant to us. I’ve had several meetings with the architect, and his designs are nearing completion; it’s going to take a while to build it, but it will be great when it’s all done. I’m also in early planning for a project to build a missionary guest house in Estonia, a home where Christian workers from Russia and other ex-soviet states can take a break and be refreshed. We’ve identified a building at Camp Gideon that we hope to renovate for that project. Our relationships with people there get better and better all the time. We also now have an apartment in Estonia (our home is still in St. Petersburg), and our car is registered there, so our connections in Estonia are increasing.

This update has the word “I” quite a bit. It must be said that everything I do is in partnership with many wonderful people. In Russia, I commend Masha, Katya, Tatiana, Tanya, Yan and Nadya, Zhenya, Dima, Marina, Lyle, Peter and Liz; in Estonia, I tip my hat to Artur, Liana, Erkki, and Andres; in Belarus, the work is carried out with love by Olga, Yasha, Alesya and Masha; in Montenegro, my co-laborers are Vladimir, Marijana, and Violeta; in the USA, I depend very much on Mary Jean (who is the best!), Dave, Larry, Jill, Dan, Kirk and Phill (who is actually in South Africa). These people and many more are my co-workers for the sake of the gospel.

God sets us together as living stones, and I am very happy with the ‘stones’ among whom He has set me.

So, that’s a quick run-down of what I do. I’m also enjoying being a new father, as Olga and I are in the process of adopting a little girl who is living with us now –  a 4 year old named Valerie. And Olga and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary in November.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a flat overlooking the Bay of Kotor, on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro. Another day, another beautiful view. . . .

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