Prayer Letter
September 2011
Dear Pastors and Co-laborers in Christ,
Mother Russia certainly
has her mood swings. One year the people love America- the next year the
people despise America. The overall sentiment of the Russians today is
against America. Economically, they will partner with ‘the West ‘as they
call America. Nevertheless, after years of America being blamed for
every problem in Russia, the hatred has finally settled in. This makes
our world an unsafe place. We deal with this reality as it is. We can do
very little to change the way the nation receives us. Despite the
adversities, our goal has remained constant: we are here for God to use
us as He seeks to save them that are lost. Praise God He still deals
with individuals within a nation. Plus, we are in good company as the
apostles were not always greeted with a warm welcome. They were
sometimes stoned, often mocked, imprisoned, and even martyred while
doing God’s will.
We endured some of these
persecutions this summer as we went North to the Reindeer people. As
soon as we got off the plane, the FSB took us to their incarceration
headquarters for ‘debriefing.’ Eventually we were able to convince them
that we came North to preach the Gospel to the Reindeer people. They let
us go, but mandated where we could go and what we could do. Eventually
we took a train to a small village of 2500 people that I had been to ten
years ago. As we prepared to get off the train, the other passengers
began to mock us, “Why do you want to go to that village? There are only
five people there!” They were almost right-there were about ten people.
But, one of those ten people was a tank driver, Elijah that I led to the
Lord ten years ago. We were able to spend the day discipling him and
gave him some discipleship material to go with the Bible he still had
from ten years ago. Elijah will be a great contact for us in the future
as my son, Joel Reasoner, plans to have a ministry among the reindeer
people. Elijah will be able to use his tank and his knowledge to take us
to many tribes on the tundra who have never heard the Gospel.
This summer we also saw
two people saved in our English camp. We had 16 teens at our summer
youth camp with many making decisions to have a closer walk with God.
Next, we returned to America to renew our visas. While stateside, we
worked at our sending church’s camp in Washington where 35 were saved.
While we were in America, our son,Joel and his wife Michelle, was here
working with Kalmykia and the ministry in Moscow. We saw six saved in
the Kalmykia camps also.
This summer we had seven
interns helping us in our ministry and that is always a blessing. This
team had a great unity about them and a mind to work. I Thank God for
people who are willing and able to give up their summer to go come to
the mission field and work to plant seeds on foreign soil.
We have 2 new arrivals in
our church. Matthew is Vitalic and Vera’s son and Hannah is Elijah and
Elanna’s daughter. Both were born this spring. It is a blessing to see
the church growing young families to serve the Lord. Speaking of
children, I would like to thank you all for praying for our
granddaughter, Reaia Joy. She had major surgery when she was two weeks
old to remove a cyst on her liver. They had to reconstruct her
intestines, but praise the Lord she is now healthy and gaining weight.
The doctors say she should be able to live a normal life.
Just a quick update on
the Reasoner clan: Joel is finishing up his deputation and is currently
in Yakima, Washington. Micah is a personal banker in Oklahoma City
serving in the church there until the Lord opens a door for him to be a
missions intern. Kevin and Keturah are interning at Corridor Baptist
Church in Hillsboro, Oregon. Hannah is teaching English in Russia and
helping us in the ministry here. Jeremiah is in his 2nd year of his
biology degree on track to becoming a Medical Doctor.
Pray for America!
Pray for Russia!
Pray for the Reasoners in Russia!
Yours for Souls in Russia,
Ron and Kathy Reasoner