This email was received at the beginning of the trip.

We arrived in Nizhniy Novgorod on Friday morning.  We have been out on Pokrovka (the main walking street) for two days of outreach in our uniforms. We have prayed with several people to receive Christ so far and are really excited about what God has been doing.  I spoke with an off duty cop yesterday and led him in the sinners prayer.  Today I spoke with two guys for about an hour and led them also.  Our Team has been working together very well.  I think by tomorrow we should have the jet lag behind us.

A few things have changed in our schedule that you can be praying about. Our first day with the cops officially starts on Monday.  Ivan is going to be with us again.  I will be teaching the couples studies on Monday.  And our banquet is moved to Tuesday night.  Keith Crook from Colorado will be teaching on cop suicide on Tuesday.  We will be do some weponless defense training with them on Wednesday.  We are really excited to see what happens with them this time.  It seems that things are a little more organized than last year.  Pray for their hearts to be open.

We are blessed to be here and see God working the way He is.  Pray for us as we approach the meetings this week.  We really want to see the hand of God move.

I will try to keep you posted as the e-mail machine is available.

God Bless,

Gary

The following email was received on Wednesday...

We began our week of outreach to the Nizhniy Novgorod Police on Monday morning.  We started the day with a traditional tour of the Police Museum. However, while the team was enjoying the tour, I was being interviewed by the media.  I was able to proclaim the gospel on the evening news.  We prayed that God would use the message to reach the citizens of this city. Monday afternoon was the marriage seminar.  This didn't quite get set up the way that we asked them to set it up.  Instead of husbands and wives sitting in the seminar., it was a room with about 15 psychologists mostly women.  I had prepared a message from Eph 5 and found out who the class was when we walked into the room.  The was a room at the KGB Headquarters.  I quickly prayed and sensed the Lord saying to teach the same message I had originally planned.  At the end of the message I sensed God saying to do an alter call. Vlad about fell over when he realized he was translating an alter call @ KGB headquarters.  He couldn't believe the words were coming from his mouth. Well, none of the psychologists raised their hands, but one of the translators who has been saved for a couple of years was there with his unsaved wife, she raised her hand to accept the Lord.  The local church has been praying for her for two years.  We thought maybe the Colonel was blown away from the boldness of the message, but he went and ordered about 25 men working in the building to come to the second session for husbands.  This went very well.  We had a great time sharing with these guys after the teaching.  A couple of them got saved.

Tuesday we went to the Highway Patrol office.  Naturally we toured the facility.  They took us into a room with about 12 young officers sitting in it.  We talked with them for quite awhile a couple of them received the Lord.  That night we had our first annual Peace Officers for Christ banquet in Nizhniy Novgorod.  We had our team members and five Russian Officers and 3 of their family members in attendance.  Not a bad start, since there was some confusion about the invitation process.  It was a great evening.  On the way home from the banquet while walking down Pacrofka I saw the young man that I spoke with last year and have been praying for ever since.  His name is Albert Rodin.  When I saw him I called out his name.  He was blown away that I remembered him.  We set up a meeting time on Thursday to talk again.  God is good, I know He wants this kid for His kingdom.

Today we had our first training exchange.  The attendance was pretty weak, but we have connected with the training commander and explained what we would like to do for next year and he is looking forward to it.  The plan will be to have an entire day with a bunch of his people in a room training, eating, and hanging out together to talk. This was our desire all along. I was interviewed again by the TV news team.  This is really a trip to be able to share the gospel on Russian news. Keith Crooks for Aroura PD did a seminar on Preventing Suicides among Police Officers.   This was the largest group of people we have had in a room yet.  He did a great job with personal testimony and presenting the gospel.  God only knows the fruit that will come from his teaching.   We had church tonight.  A couple of the Police Officers we ran into on Pacrofka showed up at the service.  They were pretty uncomfortable and left in the middle of the message. However, they stayed outside to talk with me after the service.  It was a great conversation only seeds for now.  I saw Albert Rodin again on the way home from church.  He said he just saw me on TV.  Everywhere he looks he sees my face.  I told him God sent me to Russia again because He wants his soul for the kingdom.  We confirmed our appointment for Thursday.

Pray for us as we finish our week.

One final email before the return trip:

Just a quick update.  Thursday we were invited to the Fedral Special Forces of the Russian Police in the Nizhniy Novgorod Region.  These are their most trained and confidential group in the Russian Police Force. Each of our team members were involved in some great conversations about the Lord with these officers.  Many have seen some terrible things in their tour of duty and were open to hearing about hope in Jesus.  I had a great conversation with the Col. in charge of their detectives.  It was obvious that God was drawing him by His Spirit during the conversation.  We spent the afternoon on Thursday out on Pacrofka with a music outreach.  I was able to pray with a Jewish Police officers as he listned to the music from his post about 25ft from the place where we had the concert.  It was awesome to see him turn from athiest to Christian in a matter of a few moments in our converstion.  Jim Cathcart from NY was talking with a Nun from the Russian Orthodox Church for a couple of hours during  this time. He concluded by telling me that she is a born again Nun from the Russian Orthodox Church.  At the same time Walt Parsons from Colorado was sharing with a young man and pryaing with him to receive Christ.  At the same time Keith Crooks was sharing with Sergey.  Sergey is a man whom we talked with last year.  Keith picked up where we left off.  You can continue to pray for Sergey, he is very close to salvation.

On Friday we spent the morning with the Firefighters of Nizhniy.  We were able to share with several of them and give them bibles to read.  Planted some seeds for Firefighters for Christ to be able to send a team to Nizhniy.  They are ripe for the picking.  We ended our week with a 3 hour street outreach and headed to Wade & Connie's (departing pastor of Calvary Chapel of Nizhniy Novgorod).  We were blessed with Luidmila's Ukrainian Borsch.  What a blessing that was.  Dennis and Natalia, from the banquet on Tuesday night, showed up to eat dinner with us and to talk more with me about this faith in Jesus we spoke of at the banquet.  It was a great conversation.  Dennis admitted to me that making a decision for Jesus meant going against a strong athiest family tradition and need to count the cost of that before he could pray to receive Christ.  He stayed with us until we got on our train at 11:50 PM enjoying our Christian fellowship.  Pray for Dennis & Natalia a real sweet couple in need of a personal relationship with the Lord.

We arrived in Moscow early Saturday morining.  A few of us met with some Federal Officers from the Moscow region.  They were completely open to us bringing a team of cops to Moscow next year to share our faith with them. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, sightseeing and shopping.  We will depart Sunday at 1:30 PM Moscow time.

Praise report:  We were able to put a Russian language bible in the hands of over 200 Police officers and a few firemen.  We preach the gospel in places that were impossible for a Russian national to preach.  We prayed with many to receive Christ and loved on many with His love.  Our team considers this a successful week.  Pray for the country of Russian and specifically for those who have received a bible and a message of hope this week.
 

Ready to be home with my wife,

Gary