Our Tel-Aviv activities go on as usual (though we have changed our schedule a bit: the Monday Bible study for drug addicts is going to be taking place on Sundays). We are also in the process of preparing a new kind of tracts for street evangelism: detailed testimonies of former drug addicts from south Tel-Aviv. We hope these testimonies would touch many hearts and encourage Tel-Aviv addicts to start looking for help. We will put our contact details on every tract, of course. Sadly, during the last two months 3 of the addicts who used to attend our Bible studies died. We hear about deaths of drug addicts all the time, but it is especially painful to loose those we have known quite well. Please keep praying.
It has been one year already since we started helping Tanya. In the beginning, when we made our commitment to support her family financially for this year, she agreed to the following conditions: 1) she will not cohabit with any man during this period; 2) she will start looking for work as soon as possible in order to become financially independent in the future. Sadly, as it finally turned out, Tanya failed to meet both of these conditions. She did not really try to find a job, and we also found out she had started cohabiting with a man. In the light of this situation we saw there was no point for us to renew Tanya's rent for another year or continue supporting her financially in any other way. I assume I will still be appointed as Tanya's trustee to pass her the allowance from the National Insurance institute, since I do not want to refuse and slow the whole process down for Tanya (in any case it may take considerable time until she starts getting the money), but we will no longer be supporting her financially in any way.
The whole situation is quite disappointing, but we still think it was good that we met Tanya and had an opportunity to show her God's love, help her meet other believers and attend a congregation in Haifa. Perhaps one day the seed that was planted in her heart will bring good fruit... Through Tanya we could also establish contact with other women who were victims of human trafficking just like her and we hold regular Bible studies for them till this very day.
The Negev
The development in our Negev congregations continues quite well. Besides our weekly Shabbat services in Beer-Sheva, we have started middle-of-the-week home Bible studies in each town: the goal we are planning to achieve through these meetings is to develop each group, strengthen local leaders and share the Gospel with new people (relatives, neighbors, friends, etc.).
Several years ago I found good sermons on the web – they belonged to Pastor Igor Tsiba from Russia and were very deep, powerful and practical. I started listening to these sermons and distributing them among our Tel-Aviv team members and believers in the Negev. This September Pastor Tsiba, with the help of our mutual acquaintance, visited us and participated in our Bible studies and Shabbat services. It was a real blessings for us. Tsiba is a well known preacher among Russian speaking believers in Russia and America, but not many people know him in Israel yet. Igor suggested that we copy and distribute CDs with his sermons here among Russian congregations. We happily agreed to take on this project and hope this good quality spiritual food will bless many believers in the Land.
Family
Please keep praying for Yossi health. His back is so bent forward that he cannot sit normally and as a consequence he started experiencing acute pains in different parts of his body – both during the day and at nights. It took several weeks to find a strong painkiller that finally gave a certain relief to Yossi. The medicine, however, may have side effects...
Though these weeks have been quite difficult for us, we saw God's help and care for us constantly. We found very good specialists who were able to ease Yossi's condition, and we also praise God for a Christian organization in Australia that has made us a wonderful suggestion: they are going to help us hire a full-time careworker for Yossi. It is a real answer to many prayers! Yossi can hardly do anything by himself now and it is very difficult for the two of us to meet all his needs. We hope to get a believing careworker.
Thank you for all your prayers for us and our ministry and may God bless you,
Dov and Olga
