From September 2-11, 2009, 5 CLBC missionaries, Keith Rogers, Bob Stogsdill, Kim Baird and Scott and Chaundra Ward, went to Vladivostok, Russia to provide prayer support for the International Mission Board Missionaries Randy and Angela Stoda. Join them in pray, as you enjoy this Virtual Prayer Guide they compiled during the trip.

Vladivostok is on the South East coast of Russia, just north of North Korea and west of the Sea of Japan. It is in the Primorsky Krai. For years it was a naval base city so exclusive, not even Russians could enter! Now, in addition to the naval base, it is filled with families and college students. Reaching young adults with the gospel is key. But perhaps an even greater prayer need is for the senior adults who have been atheist all their lives. Like the days of the book of acts, Vladivostok is full of first generation believers and people that do not know Jesus Christ as Savior.

Randy and Angela Stoda are International Mission Board missionaries in Vladivostok, Russia. Their primary partnership is with Transformation church, but their ultimate goal is to start evangelical Baptist churches throughout the Primorsky Krai, and area the size of Florida! The difficulty is that many of the smaller villages are accessible by rough, dirt roads, that become impossible to travel during the winter. Pray for God to do the impossible.

 

Immediate Prayer Concerns:

Angela is expecting their second child. Pray for a safe pregnancy and both the mom and baby to remain healthy.

Pastor Ganady, above center, is the senior pastor of Transformation Church. His primary duty is to provide pastoral leadership to the other pastoral staff members at Transformation Church. They are the ones that do all the preaching! Pastor Ganady's goal is to start enough churches that each of his current pastors will eventually be the senior pastor of one of those churches!

Associate Pastor Edward facilitates many prayer meetings, including a weekly one on the mountaintop that occurs on Sunday mornings. Currently, Transformation church has 12 small groups and about 100 members. They are praying that each church member will lead one person to Christ in the next 9 months, growing Transformation to 250 members and 70 small groups!

Transformation church currently rents a community building, and holds services weekly on Sunday from 3-5 p.m. Pray for their own building. Pray for their new children's Sunday School that began October 13, 2009, and meets during the church service. During CLBC's trip, the church began an English club for people to come practice their English with real Americans following the service. It was well attended. Pray for unbelievers to be reached with the gospel through it.

 

The congregation is probably about 70% or more young adults (30's and under), many of whom are 1st Generation Believers in their family. Pray for new believers as they often experience condemnation from family and friends as a result of her faith. A wife might be asked to choose between her husband or her faith. A teen's dad threatened to have the police come in to prevent her baptism, etc.

 

Otherwise, the service is very similar to a contemporary American service. This is unique to Transformation, as even the other evangelical baptist church's are very formal in their worship.