No Easy Matter

Two New Births

Hearing a Voice Inside

Poetry in Motion

Baptism in a Bathtub

No Easy Matter
by Robert and Robin Crane

She was attacked, knocked out, had her boots and hat taken off, and was covered with snow to die. In the morning she was found - alive. The police were called and she was taken to the hospital. She, Olga, in addition to other injuries, suffered the amputation of her toes and part of her heel on her right foot due to the freeze injuries. Her lifestyle and activities consequently took a radical change. She and her husband were a team selling fish on the street as so many other venders do, but now they were both out of work. However, there in her hospital room she heard the Gospel through Robin, and through her roommate, Vera, the young mother from Klopka that had just recently trusted in Christ. Before long others in the Church opened their hearts and lives to this needy couple.

Olga said that it is not easy for them to believe in God. They were taught and influenced strongly against belief in God. Praise to the Lord, she is reading the Bible, attending the Church meetings and openly discussing spiritual and life issues. The Church folk are also offering practical help such as giving rides to the doctors, visiting, finding part time work for the husband, etc. Praise to the Lord, she just very recently told us that she has repented and invited God into her life.

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Two New Births
by Robert and Robin Crane

Please praise the Lord with us for the salvation of a young mother from Klopka. Vera had a very difficult pregnancy resulting in the need for a surgery and extended treatment. Healing has been so slow. During this time of pain and restriction, she reflected on the message of Christ, which she had heard so many times in Klopka. Finally, she turned to the Lord and the change has been dramatic. She began to thank the Lord for everything and to witness to her roommates in her quiet way. Robin’s visits have been a great encouragement and a reinforcement of her witness to the other women in her room.

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Hearing a Voice Inside

Vera, who we had been praying for concerning baptism, was in fact baptized. The next day, her husband Oleg began to “hear a voice inside” telling him that he too needed to get right with God. On Monday he couldn’t eat at all. On Tuesday, he met with Andre and I and informed us that he was ready to repent. He decided to wait till Sunday to do it in front of the whole church. On June 17th, Oleg became a child of God. We continue to pray that God would build him up and break the hindrances, particularly alcohol, which have bound him in the past.

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Poetry in Motion
by Robert and Robin Crane

For several Sundays now Katya has read evangelistic poems in our Sunday worship service, poems which she has recently composed. This is quite a contrast to the life she once lived under the influence and belief system of shamans (witchcraft). Her faith and changed life in Christ have given her a mission. Katya is regularly sharing Christ with her husband and she has led her daughter to the Lord. She is especially burdened for her own native peoples and her alcoholic son. ‘Why should they live in such slavery and destruction?’ she asks. Katya witnesses for Christ in almost any setting (for which she has been criticized) so that hopefully someone will turn and receive new life in Christ. Her poems, full of gospel truth, are one more instrument she trusts will help direct her people to Christ.

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Baptism in a Bathtub
by Robert Crane

“Baptism using a bathtub? Really?”

Sasha Podrez, a Russian missionary, and I have been planning a trip to Myaundzha and Susuman for some time now. The struggling group of believers in Myaundzha have often called for advice and support. We also needed to do a basic survey of Susuman, the second city of the Magadan oblast, to consider the need of having an evangelistic/church-planting ministry there.

During the last full week of May the two of us left for the 14 hour drive to Myaundzha in our van. The Lord blessed the trip with no flat tires or mechanical breakdowns. The typical choking thick clouds of fine dust generated by heavy trucks on the dry gravel roads were at an absolute minimum. The Lord had the roads nicely wetted down. Also, we only had to drive through one small river where a bridge was being worked on.

Our meeting with the believers in Myaundzha was just a blessing. They were anxious for fellowship, Bible studies, communion, and three of their group who had already repented and turned in faith to Christ desired to receive baptism as a public testimony of their new life in Christ. Due to the temperatures and conditions (great sheets of ice still on the lake), being baptized outdoors was not yet practical. We were planning to use the small local swimming pool as was done in the past, however the administration did not give its consent. It was suggested that we use a bathtub for the baptism. A bathtub? I explained that baptism should be memorable and special. Couldn't we wait for later in the summer when the temperatures would be warmer and use the lake for the baptism?

But even then, the lake water would not likely be warm enough for one of the sisters, whose health is quite fragile. After some soul searching, we agreed to have the baptism for her as part of the Sunday service in the bathtub in the adjoining apartment where the Church meets. With Robert wearing his long white baptismal robe, Olya was baptized. Then Luda, the second sister, said that she wanted to be baptized and not wait. She was joyfully baptized. Shy and tall Vasya explained that he might be out of town when we made our next visit and wanted to be baptized now as well. So, all three were baptized to the beautiful sounds of hymns sung by their fellow believers.

Thankfully the baptisms were special and meaningful to the participants and to those who witnessed them. The common was made special by the event it hosted.

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