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Eight Latvian men attended the conference “What Is a Real Man: God's Perspective” held by SRS in Jurmala, Latvia in March 2017. The goal of the conference was not to gain new members for the local Reformed church where Pastor Timur Anichkin ministers but to enter into a person-to-person relationship with men of the city to study the Word of God.
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On the photo above: from L to R: Blake Purcell, Sergey, Vitali, Evgeni Kruzhkov, Yuri Levchenko, Sergey, Anatoli, Sergey, Fyodor, Michael, Ivan, David Briar, Timur Anichkin.
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Was it worthwhile? Read Timur's report.
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For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found…
Luke 15:24
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Michael, a retired police officer
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Michael is a Latvian citizen with Moldovan roots. It is safe to say that Michael is the best fruit of our conference. I see his desire to learn more about God. We meet regularly to study the Westminster Shorter Catechism and read the Bible.
One day Michael invited my family and some of our church members to picnic at his summer house he built with his own hands. We had a great time together. Our familes became good friends. And I'm sure it helped Michael to make one more step towards the saving faith in Christ.
(The photos show how we studied the Westmister Cathechism (center) and grilled Latvian sausages (right) at Michael's summer house.)
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We had gone to the same secondary school. After graduation God had called me to believe in His Son. But He had let Anatoli experience how ruinous sin can be. When Anatoli came to our conference, he had nothing but a small bag with his personal stuff and a place to sleep in the flophouse. Because of sin and godlessness he had ended up in the gutter.
But at the conference where we talked about the role of a man in God's plan and why men do not serve their purpose, Anatoli caught his second wind to go up from the bottom of sin and despair. He stopped drinking, found a job, got a flat to live in and even met a woman he wants to marry! We try to stay in touch and meet regularly.
(In the photos we're in the cafe where we read the Bible and talked about Anatoli's life and plans for future.)
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The Reformed Church of Jesus Christ Our Savior, Jurmala, Latvia.
December 2017.
Michael and Anatoli are not with us yet. But we pray for them and hope they will join our church in 2018.
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Please pray:
- for Michael and Anatoli that God would keep working in their lives
- for me to find a way to present the Word of God to one more man from the conference in March. His name is Sergei (on the 1st photo he is on my right, in a red jacket)
- for a better place for worship for our church. We need $1500 to rent a larger room. We want to use this public place for prayer meetings and Bible Studies too.
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Dear friends! Thank you for supporting our ministry in Latvia and the men's conference in particular. The ice is broken and God does His work here. Thank you and God bless you!
With love in Christ our Lord,
Timur
Pastor of the Reformed Church of Jesus Christ Our Savior, Jurmala, Latvia
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(In the photo above you can see the famous old Latvian icebreaker Krisjanis Valdemars featured in the center of the Latvian coin)
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