Home Groups in Krasnodar

We have had meetings and home groups every day here.  They are tremendous young family groups with great history together!  

They are usually set up for about 1 1/2 hours but I don't think any have been shorter that four hours! Yesterday I met with two groups, one from 11 am to 3 pm and then I was picked for another from 4 pm until 8:30 pm.  

Today, Sunday, I met with a men's group before church for an hour and a half, then preached for an hour- it was a tremendous time sorting out "Three impossibilities for believers"!  It was a fun reunion after the Service with dear friends! We had a surprise, crazy visit from a demon filled woman at the end and it really lit things up!  

After the Service I was taken to another home group for lunch and more questions for almost five hours!  It was a wonderful opportunity to talk about faith issues, personal beliefs and church politics!    

Actually I love it all!  It is a thrill to see people so hungry to learn more and take the next step in their journey with Christ!  I am starting to run on fumes tonight but I understand tomorrow everything is locked down for Covid restrictions, so we are going on a picnic with more friends from the church. I can use a day to catch my breath because we have more meetings after tomorrow and we start a 4 day conference this Thursday that is full time!  

These home groups are wonderful!  They help each other care for kids, they plan their vacations with each other and find ways to serve together in church! In the Saturday evening home group I was again with an amazing young doctor who works with CP kids!  His name is Victor and he said, "when you were here last time (Nov. 2019), I asked you to pray for my wife and I, we had been trying to have a child for 12 years!  Right after you left God gave us little Andre (pictured)!"

The second thing Victor said, is that when you were here last we talked about relationships between husbands and wives and then you gave us each a little money for a date cup ( I think $20).  Victor said we used it to go on a date and to help two other couples do the same!  Once we started dating the idea grew and now many of us are having great experiences in our marriages by taking time to just be with each other and having fun! (I wonder if this new idea of dating your wife had anything to do with little Andre coming along?!)     

(The picture above is the Saturday afternoon (10/30/21) home group)