Hello dear friends,
Here is some more news about our move to Norway.
We are trying to catch up. Spent last week working to fix the church building in Vardø and talking with people. In Vardø situation is very sad. There’s a church building which can sit up to 50 people, but there are no people. In Vardø everything is about witchcraft. They call it the “Arctic Witch City” or “The Witch Island”. The strongholds there are really tough.
The spiritual atmosphere there is so much different from Vadsø, even though the distance between them is only 70 kilometers. But we are praying for both Vadsø and Vardø, proclaiming the authority of the Holy Spirit there. While painting the church I was talking with people in the street and prayed for some.
I also meet and pray for people here in Vadsø. On Saturday I went to a bar and prayed for a man there. The first moment I thought I would be beaten up. He looked very tough and aggressive. But I prayed for him right there and he invited me to his home, where we had a long conversation and I prayed for him again. Will visit him soon to see how he is doing. We met some other people, too. Praying for them.
We attended a meeting last Sunday, where we were invited. It was very sad to be there. Looked like a girlish party. There were men, and some serious men, but they never said a word during the meeting. Everything was done by girls. Yes, there’s a lot of work for the Arctic Men’s Fellowship.
A couple of days ago I was at a prayer meeting with elders of another church. After the prayer I had to tell an interesting story which happened to me earlier this summer. As you know, I was a pastor in a youth camp near Saint Pete two summers in a row. We keep in touch with the guys who served there and the kids. So, a guy and a girl who were counselors there decided to get married and invited me to perform their wedding. In July I came to St Pete just to do that. The wedding was outside St Pete in a village. The village didn’t look very Russian, though. The houses looked Norwegian. I took some pictures and posted them on Facebook.
Soon I received some comments from Norwegian guys, asking if I returned to Norway again. I got interested and made a little research. I found out that a Norwegian mission built this village for foster families. And the head of the mission, Steinar Harila, was born and lived in Vestre Jacobselv, a place just 10 minutes from Vadsø! And everybody here in Vadsø area knows him. What an interesting coincidence! Now the people here are just curious how it happened.
Thank you for your prayers! They are extremely needed now.
Yura, Masha, Fedya, Vera