I am writing this article on Thursday, the day before Jim Gaston, Tommy Mills, and I leave for Russia. Richard Box is already there, making the necessary preparations for our arrival. We plan to meet him and Andre Sozansky, the Russian preacher we support, in the city of Volgograd this Saturday night.

Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is the capital city of the region in which we do most of our work in Russia. It has a population of one million and a good infrastructure with all the necessary modes of transportation—buses, trains, good streets, and an airport. According to my sources there is one church there with around 90 members. Richard and Andre worshiped there Sunday, and we hope to be able to do the same this coming Lord’s Day. We want to learn more about the Christians in this metropolitan area. Perhaps we will be able one day to expand our work to include Volgograd. If so, many doors of opportunity are sure to present themselves.

Sunday afternoon we plan to travel to Antipovka, where we have planted a small congregation. Last year the Sunday worship assembly had 23 in attendance, but this included six men who were a part of our entourage. The church is small, but in the last few months we have received encouraging reports from Andre. Earlier in the summer he was able to baptize a woman named Julia into Christ. She has two children. Additionally, he reports there are at least five new prospects that have been visiting the worship services on a regular basis. We pray that, in time, these also will decide to follow Jesus.

Starting Monday we will be very busy with our benevolent projects. Richard and Andre have been making preparations at the local school, hospital, and orphanage so that we can deliver much needed humanitarian aid to these places. The ladies at Antipovka will help us prepare various packages, and when that is done we will deliver them to their respective places.

Richard has also set up meetings in the school, where we will speak to the English classes, and with the mayor of Antipovka, on whom we hope to make a good impression.

I plan to teach two or three classes in the evenings regarding the use of Bible correspondence courses. The World Bible School material has been translated into Russian, and this can be used very effectively once we get it into homes in that region and follow up once the courses are completed.

These are our plans. But mission work does not always go as scheduled. Paul did not plan to deliver the relief he collected for the poor in Judea in person, but that is what happened (1 Cor. 16:3-4). He had planned to visit Rome as a free evangelist, but instead he arrived as a prisoner in chains (Rom. 15:22-24). Who knows what the Lord has in mind for our trip?

Pray for us.