I stand in amazement during the last nine days of travel as I have listened to all that the Lord is doing among His people.
In Turkey I met with our dear friends and partners and was blessed to see their commitment to raise up the next generation who will be effective in the Kingdom. They are training multiple teams especially from Korea and Central Asia. It was a blessing to minister to a group of 22 vibrant young people from Kazakhstan during my brief visit.
From Turkey I traveled to Germany where I met long time friends Pastor Danial, his wife Kenous and their three beautiful daughters. They are pastoring Arab speaking people in several locations in Germany and also using the Live School to train some of their people. They shared with me that they are extremely busy helping refugees and migrants translate the necessary paper work for authorities. This ministry of love is opening many doors for them to share the Gospel. Please pray for them and pray that the Lord will open more doors for ministry.
On the plane to Germany, I had the privilege of sitting next to a Kurdish man. He was returning from a relative’s wedding. The main question on his mind was, “What god gives anyone the right to murder and decapitate women and children in the name of religion.” It became obvious that many Muslim people are questioning if the Koran really teaches such atrocities. My advice to him was to read and search the writings of the Koran to see what it really says. At the same time, I advised him to read the Bible where I know he will find a God of love and mercy.
In Germany I met up with one of our team members, Hennie van Loggerenberg, who was on the overnight flight from South Africa. An hour later we were on a flight to the city of Yakutsk in Far East Russia. Russia is an enormous country to say the least. To get to our destination, we flew over eight time zones. It felt like we were flying from the “ends of the earth” – South Africa to the northern part of Far East Russia. This time of the year in Russia they have “white nights” which means the sun does not set at all. So imagine Hennie and I trying to sleep in a room with no curtains while the sun is shining 24 hours a day…not easy!
The temperature was around 32 degrees Celsius. It is hot this time of the year. However, they told us that the temperature in winter goes down to -57 degrees. A difference of nearly 90 degrees Celsius! Even though it was very hot outside, we soon found out that a few meters below the ground the soil was frozen solid. A brief visit to the Eternal Ice cave made this absolutely clear. Everything in the cave is frozen and statues have been carved out of the ice. It is a winter wonderland that needs no refrigeration plants to cool it down. They even have frozen remains of Mammoths, something I did not know existed today. There is no scarcity of water in this part of the world. There are 17 major rivers ranging between 4,200 and 800 km in length. There are also 800,000 lakes in this vast territory in Russia. In Yakutsk we found the people warm, friendly, and very open to the things of God. Some of them had come 800 – 1,000 km away to be at our meetings. By the time we left, we had made wonderful friends and potential partners. A number of Live Schools will start in this distant part of the world in the next few months. One of these schools will be started in a town on the coast of the Arctic Ocean; I could never have dreamed that this would be possible. THANK YOU, JESUS!
From Yakutsk we flew on a overnight flight to Vladivostok. It is a beautiful city, which stands as the eastern gateway to Russia. Japan is only about, 1000 km from the city.
With all the time changes and flying, we slept about ten hours in five days. Please pray for sustaining strength for the last few days here in Russia before we fly to the meeting of our international team leaders in the USA. We will cross 14 time zones to get to the USA. As I usually say, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
We love you and thank you for praying with and for us.
Many blessings,
Willie