Dear Friend,
We would like to pass on to you the appreciation of our friends from Bible Mission and the churches which took part in the project “One-to-Ten” last Christmas in Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. This was a tremendous time of personal evangelism by using the Scripture calendars, the Gospels and other literature which we printed for them for distribution during the Christmas period.
As Bible Mission have sent a considerable amount of news concerning this huge project we have decided to dedicate this month’s newsletter to the reports from these five countries. We trust that this will be an encouragement and blessing to you. The following is a shortened version of their news:

We thank God that He allowed us to accomplish the tasks that were set for the project “One-to-Ten”. Bible Mission was able to train over 50,000 believers who took part in the project and over 500,000 people were reached with a clear presentation of the Gospel during the 10 days of Christmas and New Year celebrations in the former Soviet Union. We are also glad that over 1,400 churches took active part in the project.
In all the countries where we work they tried to limit, by different means, any kind of evangelistic outreach. It is much more difficult to deliver literature. In some countries they check on the training material for the believers. Of course God is revealing new ways and opportunities which encourages us, but it is still harder to do things today than five years ago.
God has given Bible Mission enough experience in finding creative ways of handling problems caused by the governments to hinder the distribution of the Gospel, but also, the believers themselves have enough creative ideas as to how to resolve obeying state laws, but not break spiritual laws. We thank God for many believers and church leaders who have more fear of God than of laws passed by the governments under the pressure of Islamic leaders.

The following are some of the letters which have been received by Bible Mission from the Christians who took part in this project:
“My name is Nataliya. I am a student in the Bible Correspondence school. It was a great joy for me to take part in the “One-to-Ten” project. I wanted to tell about God and give evangelistic literature to some people, but God had other plans. One of my neighbours is an alcoholic. She lives with her daughter and sick husband. I hadn’t even thought to give them the evangelistic Christmas present, but by pure accident I met her at our house and decided to give her the literature sent. I gave the woman a calendar and booklets. On my way home I saw her reading one of the books and crying. I realised that the Lord touched her heart and now I am constantly praying for her.” From Minsk, Belarus.
“I gave out evangelistic literature sets to ten people with God’s help and there were more people wishing to have such sets but I hadn’t any more. Everybody liked the gift sets and thanked me for them. Every person that heard the Gospel was invited to attend the church. Three of them have agreed to come. One lady said, ‘I was looking for a church for a long time. I am so glad I have found one now. I like to be at the worship service and listen to the preacher and there are so many nice people in the church. It is wonderful that I met you.” From Tzoj Galina – Nalchik, Russia.

“The booklets from the evangelistic Christmas present I liked very much. I read the book ‘Meeting with God’ without taking a breath and I got to know many new things. God has showed me people who really need to get these evangelistic sets. He blessed every conversation. Frankly, I am not a talkative person so I was praying strenuously before each meeting and conversation. Everything was good. I told these people about Christ and gave them the evangelistic Christmas presents.
I would like to tell you about one of these meetings. I have to go to another town by bus for work. It takes me an hour to get to work. God told me to talk with the bus driver. At first I did not want to because I do not know the driver, but God encouraged me again and again. The conversation was short. The driver was glad to get the evangelistic Christmas present because nobody has ever given a present to him. Now when I go to work I pray for the bus driver. When he has a question I always try to find an answer.” From Bojko Nataliya, Primorski Territory.

“I think that the evangelistic literature this year is more wonderful than last year. The calendar is so beautiful. I met fifteen people. All conversations were good. Many people were open for the Lord. Many of them would like to know more about Christ. I gave the Gospel to a former prisoner and wished him to start a new life with Jesus Christ. He has never read about God and was glad to get such a present and he promised to read the Gospel.
Ten people who were my acquaintances said that they would like to visit a church. I hope more of them would also like to come. I asked my friend Maria, ‘Do you want to live forever with the Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven?’ Many people do not even know what happiness it is to accept Jesus as their personal Saviour. She has gladly responded to my question. Together, with her sister from Poland, Maria came to the church. Maria’s sister was so happy that she had found the same type of church in Serov as she had attended in Poland. I pray also that Maria will accept Jesus and constantly come to church.” From Serkova Ludmila – Serov.

“I like the evangelistic Christmas present. The material is very easy to understand for everybody. One meeting remains in my memory. The young man drank a lot. I asked him why he did it and he told me about troubles in his family and about the difficult times he has with his mother and step father. I told him about Christ, that He came to save the lost. After our conversation we met again and again and spoke about God’s mercy and grace to all sinners. The young man has repented. Praise the Lord!” From Klikinov Andrej (who is wheelchair bound), Sahalia region, Russia.
“For more than ten years members of the church have attended the hospital preaching sermons, singing Christian songs and giving presents. It should be mentioned that after the sermon and the call to repentance patients would usually eagerly take Christian literature. Their eyes shine when they receive the books and brochures because they do believe they have been visited by God. For some of them it was the first time they had heard the Gospel in Russian. We told them that they could find out more about the birth of Jesus Christ in the book named ‘Christmas reading’. We do hope that the Gospel of Mark would become the first book in their way to meeting God.
This Christmas present was also offered to the socially insecure citizens of our city who were invited to the church service. About 400 elderly people came to the church service. All those who wanted, had a chance to receive the present of literature after the service when they have experienced listening to God’s Word. Some of them have started attending the church.

“Naumova T.N. works as a watch lady at the rehabilitation centre in ‘Nadezhda’ (Hope) and I work there as a mentor. On the 11th of January both of us were on duty in the centre. When I asked Tatyana, ‘Would you like to meet God?’ she agreed and smiled. Then I gave her the calendar, the Gospel of Mark and the brochure ‘Meeting God’. She told me she had hoped to get this present since she had seen the same calendar at her granddaughter’s house.
“On Sunday, December the 21st at the church service, after watching Franz Tissen’s sermon and explaining the main idea of the project, every member of the church received several Christmas book sets. So during the Christmas holiday everybody had a wonderful opportunity to share good news and to give people a nice gift.
“At one of our church services we asked our members to share some things they had experienced after participating in the project. People shared a lot of different stories. Some went to neighbours, some went to their relatives, some to friends, but there is one testimony we would like to share with you.

“Last year the same project took place in our church. One of the sisters of our local church took a Christmas book set to her grandmother and told her about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and about His love to all the people. After that she started praying about her. She had been praying for one year. She would usually visit her grandmother, and read her the Word of God. This year she also decided to take a Christmas book set to her granny. In two weeks her grandmother came to the church service together with her daughter. When the pastor spoke about repentance the grandmother came to the front and accepted Christ as her personal Saviour.
“That day was a great day for the whole church as Jesus was born in one more sinful heart. We hope that in some time we will see more fruit of this ministry and will be able to tell you more good news about Christ’s birth in people’s hearts.” From the Republic of Alaniya, Russia.

Bible Mission are now planning to repeat this project during the Christmas period of 2009. Once again this will be a huge printing project for our ministry, which will consist of :- 500,000 Scripture Calendars, 500,000 Gospels of Luke, 500,000 Children’s Booklets and 500,000 Gospel Booklets, in the Russian, Kazak, Ukrainian, and Moldovian languages.
Work is continuing to proceed on the new building with many various aspects being worked at. These include the electrical wiring, alarm system, fire alarm, heating and ventilation, plumbing, telephone and computer systems, stud work, staircases etc. Please do continue to pray for all of this ongoing work. We have also ordered a waste extraction system to remove all the paper trimings that are produced at various machines. This will save a considerable amount of time for the staff when it is installed.
Please continue to pray for every aspect of the ministry and for the very large financial needs, for the day to day work aswell as the new building.

Yours for a Great Revival,

Samuel Adams and Clive Allen