Greetings in the name of Jesus!
As I told you before we were planning to have a camp. And we did have it! Praise the Lord! We had more than 50 young people from three cities coming together! We had a lot of fun, as well as awesome services at night. We had a praise and worship team made up of kids from all the churches - it was great! One of the most amazing things was that three people were baptized and 12 prayed to receive Christ! I believe that some of those who prayed were praying to restore their relationships with the Savior, but there were some that received Him! Hallelujah! One of the guys that was baptized was Sasha. He got saved one night when I was preaching and we have become good friends. Can you imagine how glad I was? We spent a lot of time talking with him about the importance of water baptism. Another guy was coming to our services for a while, but was hard to get acquainted with. All of a sudden he decided to go to the camp. He appeared to be a very sociable and open guy. We became friends during the camp. God was working in his heart and he received Christ into his heart and was baptized!!! I'm so excited! Praise Him! I can't even tell you what God has done in the hearts of young people during that week. I know some were restored, some renewed, some came to know each other. They became united and we became united. At night, sitting near the fire, I asked them to tell good things about each other. They were doing it every night (I didn't ask them to, they wanted it!) telling each other good things, encouraging one another. And do you know what they said very often? "I didn't know you before this camp..." Young people from one and the same church! Now it will be different. We also had a night of "A Young Preacher" and the "Night of Talents", where young people could try themselves as preachers or show something, read their poems, sing songs, share their testimony. Those nights were awesome. I can still hear their voices - former drug addicts, former lonely girl, former child that didn't receive love from the parents... I wish I could tell you all of them!
Well. I really have to go. Love you and remember you often. See you soon, Alex.

Alex writes:

Perhaps the greatest blessing and testimony that I want to tell you about at this time is the work that God started here in one family. There was a girl in our church who has been a believer for quite a long time. But her life turned in such a way that she backslid and fell into sin. She married a man that she was not very much in love with. Soon after she got married she felt a very deep conviction that she had fallen away from the Lord! The conviction was so deep that she started to share it with her husband. Time went by and she had a baby girl. After a while they started to come to our church. I ministered to them for several months, trying to bring restoration into her life and salvation for her husband through faith in Christ. After a while, the husband accepted Christ praying at home, being under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and they told me that they would like to dedicate their marriage to the Lord! Pastor Howard and I met with them several times and decided to help them with marriage counseling. Since I knew them better than probably anybody else in the church, my wife and I started counseling them. It's such a joy! They both seem to be so open to the Lord. At our last meeting I shared with the young man about God's plan for his life. While we were talking he was constantly saying: "Alex, the things that you share make me shake all over - I feel uneasy, it's so exciting!" I see big changes in their lives and it fills me with excitement!


I told you about the night when I was preaching and three young people got saved. One of those young men is coming to church quite regularly, so it's very good.


Right now we are praying about one idea of trying to build up a team that could work with kids and young people in a new way: creating special presentations for the kids in the schools and kindergartens. My wife and I started to do that in the school where our eldest son goes. This was our first experience like that, so we are just trying. My wife Nadya made all of the clown dresses as well as the make up. We didn't preach or anything like that - just tried to establish relationships. Once we begin relationships with these children, then we can share the love of Jesus Christ with them. Please pray about this new project. As soon as this plan becomes clearer (within this coming month) I will write you about it. As far as I can say now it's very new and no churches in the city have ever tried it! Today I had a meeting with the girls that take care of our children's ministry in the church - they really like this idea and they will be praying for it!

Still serving the Lord,
Alex

Right now there are three people in the church leadership: Pastor Howard Beam, administrator Sergey Vazhenin and praise and worship leader me, Alexey Topilin. We had to divide our responsibilities in this way for us to be more effective at this stage of the church. But each of us has a lot of counseling and pastoral care responsibilities, so we help each other a lot. Since I know people in the church better than both Pastor Howard and Sergey they ask for my help a lot, but it seems like February was a starting point of something new. What makes me think so? First of all both Pastor Howard and Sergey feel more adjusted (they both moved here to minister in the church). Secondly we, as leaders, spent a lot of time together praying and discussing the vision of the church. We even went to a "leaders retreat" for two days to watch the seminars and pray and fellowship together. God is building up our relationships!


All those discussions resulted in some priorities that we set up. Praise and worship was one of them. We feel that this ministry is very important for the church right now. So I tried to devote as much time as possible to our praise and worship team. We meet together and have practice and tea together. I have shared the vision with them a lot and I feel that they are catching it and getting fired up about it! Some of the members of the team already made their commitment to the ministry! Most of them work, so it's such a great proof of their seriousness in relationships with God and devotion to the team and ministry when they try to stay longer at work or change the day with somebody just to be a part of worship!!! So I see the people in the church start to make up their minds to "renew their strength" and walk with the Lord in a new way! I'm praising the Lord for bringing Pastor Howard back here to Kostroma and for Him using us to heal the people's wounds! Pray for us as we continue to do it and as people start to get involved into ministry!

Alex writes:
"Our church right now is just being started, so the main emphasis is to help people, minister to them and establish relationships with them. My wife and I have met with a lot of people, especially young families. People are getting saved, healed and restored, and we can feel the presence of the Holy God in our services. I spend a lot of time with my praise and worship team. We get together for rehearsals, learn new songs and enjoy praising God. Please pray for us, pray for our city Kostroma and pray for my family. Peace to you!

These are the goals that Alex believes God has for the church and city:

1. Youth Club - A place where youth in the city can meet regularly to develop a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and fulfill their desires, ideas and talents. Pray that God will provide leaders filled with love for youth and desire to see them in the Kingdom of God. Pray also for a building where the youth can meet.

2. Annual Youth Camp - A non-denominational Christian camp where the youth can meet Christian youth from different cities for fellowship and to encourage one another.

3. Street Ministry Concerts for Young People - Scheduled to start in May, 2002, this will be an opportunity to play Christian music in the streets and then preach the Word. It will provide young Christians with the opportunity to meet people on the streets and minister to them in the name of Jesus Christ.

4. Praise and Worship Celebration for Young People - The vision is to have a 3 hour, non-stop youth praise and worship night at least once a month. This would provide young Christians the opportunity to praise the Lord and also invite non-Christians to do the same.

5. Young People Helping the Orphans - This would provide young Christians with the opportunity to minister to those in orphanages. This would include developing relationships through sporting activities, etc. and sharing the love of Christ with them. Pray for youth to step up and accept the challenge to minister in this way.

6. Family Counseling Center - This would be a center to provide Christian answers to questions regarding dating, marriage and family life. With God's help, the center would help build strong and loving Christian families.

Alex with family and friends