Odessa Mission
November 2008 Newsletter
Breaking News
Many of you know that the Odessa Mission has seen the birth of two new church
plants this year. Our new church planter's name is Serge and the churches are
both about two hours away from Odessa. Due to the fact that our mission is
failing to meet its current budget, let alone meet increasing demands, we are in
no real position to offer our new churches any real financial support at this
time. That's the bad news. The good news is that a resort in Sergeyevka has
given us the use of its 400-seat auditorium on Sundays FOR FREE, beginning in
May of 2009. If that weren't enough, our other church plant in Sofiyevka has
also been handed a nice-sized room in the town's cultural center without
obligation. So God is obviously answering some prayers.
More Breaking News
Serge has been working with a man named Stepan for a while now, and we're happy
to say that it appears as though he's finally decided to be baptized. Stepan has
been attending the church in Sergeyevka and we're praying that his wife and
daughter will join him in worship eventually. Stepan evidently has a basic
knowledge of Arabic and we're considering plugging him into our tentative
missionary training program, which we're hoping to start within the next couple
of years. Due to my background as a missionary to Muslims, and because of Serge's
unwavering desire to serve Jesus Christ in a Muslim country one day, we're
thinking about pooling our resources in order to make an impact that way. So
Stepan's conversion may play a major role in all of this when all the dust
settles. By the way, Stepan's baptism will turn out to be the Odessa Mission's
tenth this year. Praise the Lord!
Cutting Corners for the Kingdom
As you know, I'm finally stateside with my family. (Whew, that was a long time
to be apart!) We're all scheduled to depart from Dulles on January 15th, 2009.
In the meantime, however, we're busy updating our supporters on some of the
great things that are happening in the Odessa region because of this mission.
Usually, while on furlough, I just rent a car. This time I chose not to, though,
not only because it would have cost close to two-thousand dollars to do so, but
also because we barely had that much in our mission budget account. (To give you
an idea about how poor our mission is right now, my family is living in the US
without medical insurance. Of course, some would call that “living by faith,”
while others would call it just“plain stupid”. But when the money's not there
then . . well, it's not there.) Had we gone that route then we would have had
a tough time covering my plane ticket. Fortunately, because Ira and I still
hadn't given all of our personal offerings to the mission for this past year,
at that point, we chose to go ahead and do that. And that made the difference.
“Well,” you might ask, “what exactly does this 'difference' look like?” First,
we were able to pay for the plane ticket. Second, instead of renting a car, we
bought a cheap one for the mission. Although it's a 1990 Mercury Marquis station
wagon, under the hood it seems to be in pretty good shape. We had a mechanic
friend look at it and he was quite impressed with its overall condition. It
appears as though the previous owners were elderly and they were apparently the
original owners. In any case, our tentative plan is to have the mission sell
the car at some point and hopefully recoup our losses. Another option would be
to keep the car for future furloughs, etc. We'll see. Either way, having your
back up against the wall once in a while can certainly help you come up with
some valuable solutions that might prove beneficial over the long haul. For now,
just pray that our mechanic is an honest one.
One Quick Prayer Request
As many of you know, Protestants have always been considered “cults” in the
former USSR and most of us have simply tried to change the culture's perceptions
by word of mouth and model behavior. Lately, though, we've stepped up our efforts
a bit and we'll definitely need a lot of prayer support in order to be triumphant.
A new Russian Orthodox book has gone to new lengths to demonize the Protestant
world and Russia's Baptist Union has filed a lawsuit against the author. A victory
in this pivotal case could turn out to be a real breakthrough for us, so please be praying.
Current Speaking Appointments
Lebanon Christian Church – November 5th
Gethsemane Church of Christ – December 7th
Ladies Missionary Society – December 11th
Olivet Christian Church – December 14th
Community Christian Church – December 28th
Williamsburg Christian Church – January 4th
Tidewater Christian Church of Christ – January 11th
Roanoke Bible College – January 14th
Blessings, The Murphy Family