This is Anya dedicating to God our Emma when we were in The Republic of Georgia in 2002
My friend has just been appointed to lead an evangelism committee. She reads my blog every day from the Republic of Georgia. She asked me if I could ask my blog community if there are any new ideas or suggestions for evangelism. Here is her question: "I was wondering if you could help me... could you please, post on your blog a question on how other Corps officers do evangelism at their Corps. Maybe they can write something on what has worked and what hasn't."
My friend's name is Anya and she is originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. She was our translator in our first appointment to St. Petersburg central corps. Then later, when we were transferred to the Training school for the Eastern Europe command she became the translator for the school. God during this time called her to be an officer. During her two years in training, she translated Salvation Story into Russian and fell in love with a Georgian Cadet named Dato Kotrikadze. Dato and Anya serve together in Rustavi, Georgia with their beautiful daughter Lena. Recently she sent me a letter telling about the winter in Rustavi. I am sharing this to give you an idea of how the officers in The Republic of Georgia live and a little insight into Anya's daily life.
Anya's Letter:
We are busy at the Corps, we have more people coming, and we would like to see more young people coming. Could you please pray for us, so we can have wisdom and passion to attract them to Christ. We had a 4 day winter camp,with about 30 kids coming each day.
Last week we had a little crisis here. I don't know if you watched it on the news but we had problems with the gas, coming from Russia..and we heat our flat with gas and the electricity. So, we didn't have gas for a week and then we also had problems with the electricity. It came only in the evening and for a few hours. When there was 8 degrees in our flat, Dato decided to get a stove which works on wood.I never thought that I would ever need to use it! But it was fun and it really heated our flat, especially the kitchen area where it was.
Yesterday, at last, we had the gas coming and the electricity back to normal! I think I learned to appreciate some given things :) On the top of all we had very low temperature, like 8 below in C, and snow, for a whole week! It was beautiful but I just felt for those who couldn't heat their flats.
My friend's name is Anya and she is originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. She was our translator in our first appointment to St. Petersburg central corps. Then later, when we were transferred to the Training school for the Eastern Europe command she became the translator for the school. God during this time called her to be an officer. During her two years in training, she translated Salvation Story into Russian and fell in love with a Georgian Cadet named Dato Kotrikadze. Dato and Anya serve together in Rustavi, Georgia with their beautiful daughter Lena. Recently she sent me a letter telling about the winter in Rustavi. I am sharing this to give you an idea of how the officers in The Republic of Georgia live and a little insight into Anya's daily life.
Anya's Letter:
We are busy at the Corps, we have more people coming, and we would like to see more young people coming. Could you please pray for us, so we can have wisdom and passion to attract them to Christ. We had a 4 day winter camp,with about 30 kids coming each day.
Last week we had a little crisis here. I don't know if you watched it on the news but we had problems with the gas, coming from Russia..and we heat our flat with gas and the electricity. So, we didn't have gas for a week and then we also had problems with the electricity. It came only in the evening and for a few hours. When there was 8 degrees in our flat, Dato decided to get a stove which works on wood.I never thought that I would ever need to use it! But it was fun and it really heated our flat, especially the kitchen area where it was.
Yesterday, at last, we had the gas coming and the electricity back to normal! I think I learned to appreciate some given things :) On the top of all we had very low temperature, like 8 below in C, and snow, for a whole week! It was beautiful but I just felt for those who couldn't heat their flats.
5 comments:
And don't forget to mention that she is a Crossbearer! :-)
"How other COs do evangelism at their corps"? Hm. Well, I doubt I could tell her anything she doesn't already know! We live our lives as an open book with people. We often have people eating meals at our house, sleeping over, stopping by to play with the kids or just have a cup of tea with us.
Carole, when you were in Georgia, I prayed OFTEN that you would have water, electrictiy, and heat! I figured that others were praying for the more "spiritual" things, I so I was always trying to cover the practical! ;-)
Of course we always heat our house with wood! But we have a built-in "ahi" which is very good. But my heart does break knowing that there are so many who can't even afford to buy wood.
Our coldest temp here was -28 c. Brrr!
Rustavi is the place that I heard my calling.
I actually just posted about it on my blog a couple of days ago. There were some kids that lived only to beg for money and when they got money used it to buy bags of glue to sniff. Water was only on from 6am to 8am in the mornings. The schools were corrupt. It was hard for the people to have any hope. It breaks my heart to hear the electricity is off.
Anya, I am praying for you and Dato.
Jason Pope
Hey, I've been to Rustavi.
Can we email each other? My job is Divisional Evangelism and Adult ministries and I have a love for Georgia (sarketelo). But I need to get some more clarification on what exactly Gia is looking for. If this is ok then email me at jason_pope@uss.salvationarmy.org
Anya:
One of the best examples of evangelism is exemplified by one Carole Bate. I have a sense that with every relationship, she is leading people to Christ. An acquaintance with her, no matter how incidental, is marked by Christ. As people are drawn to her, they are drawn to Christ.
Nothing will be effective apart from prayer.
I join my brothers and sisters here in prayer for you.
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