CIS Prayer: Youth Conference Update

[CarlaSun@aol.com]

Dear Partners in the Gospel,

I am excited to send you an update on our youth conference that recently took place near Moscow.  We had 150 young people from all over this vast field gather to praise and worship their Lord.  Just writing that makes me want to stop and praise the Lord for what He is doing on the CIS Field.  I can say without any reservation that the future of the church on the CIS Field is very bright.  I wish you all could have been there with us.  What a blessing it was to be with those sharp young people.  We are so blessed!!

I asked Davide Cantarella to write you personally.  He was the one that organized the conference.  It was his "baby".  He poured a lot of himself into it.  The Lord used him in an incredible way.  I copied his note into the body of my note.  The format will be a little different that my text, but, I hope you at least get the idea from what Davide writes.  Hopefully, within a short time we will have some pictures to send you.  Stay tuned!

Thank you for your prayers.  God is using you all to make a difference in this amazing part of His world.

Sincerely and thankfully,

Chuck
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Dearest friends and Partners,   Thanks for praying for the Youth Conference this  past week. God did answer our prayers and blessed us more than we could ever  imagine. His presence throughout the event was real and powerful and I have no  doubt that many lives have been transformed. You need to know that some of the groups had to  come a long way. The kids from Central Asia, for instance, spent two and a half  days on the train to get to this Conference (in fact as I write the Conference  has been over for two days, but they are still on their way home). They had  the longest trip of all, but many of the other groups were not coming from just  around the corner. In fact we had participants from places as different as  Ukraine, Armenia, St. Petersburg, Ulyanovsk, Volgograd, Rostov, and a few more  spots on the field. With a field this size, distance is always an issue. Yet,  the kids showed a great attitude and incredible maturity. There was a strong sense of unity among us as we  gathered from such a variety of different places for three days. God  brought us together in prayer, praise, and worship. The music groups that played  during the services did an awesome job at leading us in worship. We have many  talented young musicians who love the Lord and worship sincerely. They are such  a blessing for the Field! The speakers did a great job at connecting with the  audience. Our main speaker, Erich Fischer, the pastor of the Hanau Church of the  Nazarene in Hanau, Germany - did a fantastic job. The big plus is that he speaks  Russian fluently since he was born in Kazakhstan and then moved to Germany,  where he studied Russian and became a translator before entering the ministry.  Erich was a blessing to all of us, and he is so thrilled by what he has seen on  the Field that he wants to come back to help us again. I think the highlight of the Conference was the  footwashing ceremony we held on Saturday night. Images of that evening still  accompanies me and will accompany me (and all of us) forever. Time almost  stopped as in small groups we stooped down to wash each other's feet and pray  for one another. Tears flowed down our eyes as we experienced what it means to  be a Church with the basin and the towel and we began to understand the true  meaning of servanthood. We will never forget what God did among us that night.  We will keep it in our hearts and let it grow to transform us in the kind of  people He wants us to be. Thanks for praying for this event. I am sure your  prayers contributed to making a difference in many lives. Thanks for investing  in the young people of this Field. Thanks for your commitment to God and His  Kingdom. We are building the Church together. And the Church we are building is  a Church that takes Christ's calling seriously. Miracles are happening in  countries were just a few years ago the existence of God was denied.Today its  citizens wash each other's feet in the name of Christ. To God be the  glory! I can't wait to show you pictures and videos of the  event. You must see those and rejoice with us. With great love and gratefulness in  Christ, Davide Cantarella