Ufa Ministry Update Feb 3, 2014

The Carrs oldest son Nathan returned to Ufa from Black Forest Academy (Kandern, Germany) for Christmas break Dec. 14 and went to Prague Jan 1-5 with Tim/Heather to spend the New Year holidays with friends. Nathan returned to BFA Jan 7 and will be back in Ufa in April for Easter break. The plans are for Nathan to finish his jr and sr years of high school at BFA. Tim has applied to BFA to study there starting fall 2014 (his sophomore year) and we are awaiting word regarding his application. Olivia Kalahar and Mandy Dasher, serving in Ufa via the Hands On volunteer program, arrived here on Jan. 26, 2014 and have started their studies at Bashkir State Pedagogical University with plans to be in here until early June 3 assisting our team with weekly English Clubs, Women Clubs, and other regular/periodic outreach events Chris visited the Sochi Olympics Feb 13-23 and assisted multiple times as a translator for different foreigners present and sharing the good news multiple times, as well as watching a couple of the curling matches The T4T (Training Faithful Trainers) Russian-language text was edited in fall 2013 by a team led by Chris and finally published in Ufa in late November 2014. Chris co-facilitated a T4T seminar event in Novosibirsk Dec 11-13 with 21 individuals participating. Grace Church, where Chris is co-pastor, ordained Rustem Tukhvatullin and Valera Markevich, to deacon ministry on Jan 26, during morning worship, as well as celebrating the churchs 10th birthday with a special worship time and party at House of Prayer building that evening We have a new Journeyman, Shawn Buice, proceeding through orientation near Richmond (VA) with expectation to arrive in Ufa in early April; he is currently waiting on a visa invitation from Bashkir State Pedagogical University which will lead to a student visa enabling him to study Russian language at the university Jesse Hoyer transferred to TeamUfa from Ekaterinburg (Russia) arriving Feb. 24, 2013she is assisting Eileen with homeschooling of the Carr children, assisting with special-needs and summer camp ministries via Grace Church, taking care of volunteer team logistics, and participation in a new English-language informal outreach club. Many of the small groups that were triggered by Chris doctoral project in fall 2009 have run their course either by intentionality or because of failure of the groups and their leaders to stay true to their original purposes; however, many of the groups are still meeting and building missionality and fellowship into the lives of the participants and we are looking at retooling them through the T4T approach to make much more of an intentional emphasis on reproductive discipleship that will then naturally lead to formation of small groups/churches. Grace Church in Ufa started its first Alpha home outreach group in fall 2011 and it lead to 5 individuals being pre-discipled into faith in Jesus and they were baptized on Jan 22, 2012; Grace Church started a 2nd Alpha group in Jan 2012 and had large numbers of people in that group with several new seekers already involved; less older adult involvement in the 2nd group; 3rd Alpha group went well; 4th Alpha group which finished in June 2012--there were 8 consistent participants (not including participants from Grace Church itself) and God was clearly working in their lives; House of Prayer Church started an Alpha group in 2012 and 6 not-yet-believers consistently participated each week; four more new believers who participated in Alpha groups during 2nd half of 2012 were baptized in Ufa on April 7; the most recent Grace Church Alpha group concluded meeting on April 17, 2013 in the Carr living room with six consistent non-Grace Church participants, many of them continuing to show openness to the good news ; a new Alpha cycle is planned for spring 2014. TeamUfa English Clubs are typically busting at the seams on Monday and Saturday evenings at various apartments before/after annual summer vacation breakit is an open forum time with Chris, Eileen, Jesse, & our Hands on volunteers Olivia and Mandy facilitating with probing questions which create an atmosphere of safety, openness, and camaraderie as we share life together. Several Ufa folk have become Jesus followers in the last year because of the relationships that get started/nurtured thru this approach; there are always at least two other local evangelical believers present in the meetings (by plan/intention) in order that they continue the witnessing conversations during the week outside of the English Clubs; the groups serve as initial filters to meet/engage people in initial worldview discovery and initiate friendships and witnessing relationships in the normal course of life Our team had a Christmas-themed English Club the evening of Dec. 13 in the Carr apartment with 60 individuals present; the good news was shared, Christmas songs were sung, the Christmas story read from Luke 2, the Nativity scene was explained, presents were given to all, a prayer of blessing was given for all present, and great Christmas snacks from Eileen and Jesse were devoured. Eileen and Jesse continue to have quarterly Womens Club meetings; these meetings often take on a thematic approach depending on the month; they are very missional and evangelistic meetings with a good mix of believers-seekers Eileen continues to facilitate a twice-monthly (Saturdays) womens evangelistic/discipleship Bible discussion group in the Carr apt; this group is more intimate and has good participation; some women have been influenced to follow Jesus thru this approach. Local believers Marina, Lily, and Gulnaz have recently joined the womens ministry team formed in cooperation with Eileen and Jesse. Chris & a local believer named Val continue to facilitate quarterly Mens meetings with mainly seekers participating by far; this group is growing numerically as we focus more on using movie clips as discussion-launchers about what it means to be a man, husband, father, leader, citizen; at least three of the men show visible signs of growing faith in Jesus

Matt Burks finished up his time in Ufa as a student at Bashkir State University in Jan. 2014 and is now back in USA preparing for his wedding to Alisha in May. They plan to live in Hattiesburg, MS; Matt and Alisha will be trying to address IMB-required educational requirements during the next year or so in the hope of returning to Russia (possibly Ufa) to serve longer-term via IMB in a couple of years TeamUfa is working with Grace Church to broaden ministry to special-needs folk and their families; a June 14-22, 2012 volunteer team from USA facilitated a 1st-ever summer camp for special-needs people and their families (8 special-needs kids and parents were involved as a kind of pilot project); Grace Church facilitated such a camp again in June 2013 with twice the number of participants and a 4-person team from USA, including former TeamUfa member Victor Bauer; other churches in Ufa and from nearby regions are starting to hear of the effectiveness of Grace Churchs special-needs outreach and are starting to inquire about how to start up such ministries in their locales The Hands On avenue of service has been a game-changer in Ufait has provided a viable way for American young adults to serve in Ufa via a student visa at Bashkir State University studying Russian language while discreetly but openly serving on TeamUfa; two female students (Kelsey Abbrat and Melissa Medley) arrived in Ufa late Jan. 2013 to serve via Hands On in Ufa for the spring semester; requests for two Hands On workers for four students for fall 2014 semester and spring 2015 semester have been written and turned in by Chris We are hoping to host 4-6 students to serve in Ufa via IMBs and Midwestern Colleges Fusion program in June-July 2014 Chris continues to facilitate a partnership with Bashkir State Pedagogical University (BGPU) and Oklahoma Baptist University for exchanges of students and faculty in the coming years, possibly via the Fusion avenue; a memorandum of understanding between BSPU, OBU, and the Consortium For Global Education was negotiated and signed in Aug. 2013 and a representative from BSPU flew to USA in Sept. 2013 for CGEs annual meeting, to kick off the partnership and represent BPGU TeamUfa experienced great effectiveness in spring/summer/early fall months the last two years with conducting picnics at the riverfront in Ufa as a way to connect local believers with not-yet-believers and we will resume this approach in May 2014 & will continue until late fall The assl campground expects to host three different evangelistic meetings + a float trip this summer---increasingly effective ways to share the gospel and build pre-discipleship community while meeting felt needs of youth, young adults, street kids, and children (including special-needs) There are currently 18 people at the three small assl rehab centers in Bashkortostanrehab ministry has been a boon for evangelicals heremany former addicts have gone on to become effective leaders and disciple-makers and helped start new churches and new evangelistic Bible study groups; the opening of a 4th clinic in the city of Neftekamsk in far northwestern Bashkortostan was emerging as of early 2014---we are praying for God to provide a former addict as director for this center. There is discussion going on RE moving the campground rehab center in spring 2014 to a rental house/cottage on the edge of Ufa. A street-kid ministry, headed up mainly by believers from Grace Church and Good News Church in Ufa, has had great effectiveness in connecting with young people and young adults toughing it out in the underbelly of Ufait is a difficult ministry but continues to bear fruit in new believers, restored families, kids back in school/university, less young women on the streets as prostitutes or being forced to do so, etc A Bible discussion group on Sunday evenings continues currently at the Carrs apartment. We consistently have at least 4 local Ufa folk involved weekly except in summer months, sometimes twice thatusually a 60-40 split (not-yet-believers + believers)it is an inductive approach using the book of Acts and some methodology from Discover Jesus group approach championed by Simple Church believers over in Ukraine. The emphasis is on obedience to the Jesus presented in the book of Acts, not upon attaining biblical knowledge. Weve seen some growth for each person along the spectrumthere are former agnostics in the group and its cool to see them warming up more and more toward things. House of Prayer Church in Ufa continues undergoing seriously-needed missional change; an annual budget was approved for the first time in 2012; a committee structure has been initiated to promote better missional focus and efficiency and realization of the churchs missional priorities; a vibrant youth/young adult group is deepening the discipleship of that segment of the church; Andrei Dzuba was elected to be lead pastor for a year starting in July 2012 in what Americans would term as an intentional interim setup; Andrei was re-elected in July for a 4-year term as lead pastor. People are repenting nearly weekly via House of Prayers worship and missional outreach activities! They started 6 new discipleship groups in October 2013. Marcel and Gulsina K. (from House of Prayer Church in Ufa) have started a house church in their far southeastern Bashkortostan town of Akyar. They meet every evening at 8pm for prayer and worship in Marcels and Gulsinas apartment. 8000 people live in Akyar. They have either led to faith or discovered existing believers in several small towns and villages in their county; Chris, Ufa Bible Church pastor Stas, and 3 believers from House of Prayer traveled to Akyar in January to continue T4T training for the house church and scattered believers Paul Jamieson, an Australian believer who has lived/served in Ufa as an itinerant evangelist/discipler off and on for over ten years, arrives back in Ufa in late Feb. to continue serving in connection with TeamUfa for 3 month periods of time until he can possibly gain temporary residency status; he is currently evangelizing/discipling 21 individuals via the T4T approach with 5 new believers awaiting baptism and a he also leads a weekly leadership training group Grace Church pastor Zhenya Vasileev worked with a group of local believers in conducting a strategic youth and young adult music/creativity festival in Aug 2013 at the Baptist assl campground an hour from Ufa. This huge project required focused organizational

skills, funding, and cooperation among local believers. It was a seminal, ground-breaking project among lost youth and young adults. Over 80 participants learned of the multiple missional service avenues available via Grace Church and House of Prayer Church about how to share the gospel and train local believers in new ways to share the good news. Another festival is planned for Aug 2014 with the same logistical/financial needs.

Stas and Lily Karpenko with their 2 yr-old son Timothy continue to lead Ufa Bible Church + an evangelistic Bible study group in the towns of Krasnousolsk and Tabinsk 2 hours southeast of Ufa and introducing T4T training in those two areas

Grace Church, of which Chris is co-pastor in Ufa, expanded its special-needs ministry (kids/families touched by Downs Syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, et) in fall 2012 by starting monthly special-needs club meetings and weekly team planning meetings; members from Grace go out regularly to other churches to encourage them and get them more involved in ministry among special-needs families and drug addicts and alcoholics; in fall 2012 the church began renting a 3-room apartment in Ufa to serve as an adaptation center (half-way house) for those who have finished rehab and need a place to stay while re-integrating back into normal Ufa life as they search/start new jobs, learn how to cook, how to wash clothes, get their legal documents in order, etc---funds are needed to help buy basic groceries + pay the rent/utilities for the 5 folks currently living in this setting, especially since the rent contract is up and the search is on for a new apartment We anticipate having a volunteer faculty team in Ufa from Okla. Bapt. Univ. in June; a construction/training team from the Bapt. Conv. of NM in May; and an in-city youth day camp team from Centreville (VA) in July