September Newsletter

Occasionally when I talk with friends in the states they ask me what the weather will be like tomorrow. That is because we are 18 hours ahead of folks in the states. I often wonder where time goes. Month by month time seems to be getting faster and faster. With that thought in mind, I can’t help but to think about the statement that Jesus made in Luke 10:2, “Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.” Time is flying by throughout the world and many people die each day without knowing Christ as their Lord and Savior. The task world-wide is too great for just a few to fulfill the great commission. Thank you so much for being a prayer partner for the work in Kamchatka. Please pray for laborers to come and help with the task at hand.

Family: Our family has almost adjusted to the back to school routine and of course more change is on its way. This month we will say good-bye to a dear friend and colleague, Rachel. Rachel served one year in other parts of Russia and has served the past year in Kamchatka helping our children with their home school curriculum as well as many other tasks. Rachel will be returning home to the states the first week of October. A special thanks to her for all she has done to help our children and the PK team this past year.

Fall is here and there is new snow on the volcano. Lee and Emma are both waiting on more snow so they can go to the snow slopes and get the dust of their snowboards. The fall weather is very nice and we have been on outings to pick wild berries, mushrooms and rose hips. All of those are big treats to the peoples of Kamchatka.

Ministry Opportunities: This month was a month that was primarily focused on encouraging believers up and down the peninsula. We were blessed to be able to travel to the hand full of believers who live north and have a service in each village. In just 4 short days we traveled over (1300 KM or 800 miles on dirt roads) and held worship services. Let’s travel together:

Friday 7 am – hit the road, picked up Rachel, Volodya and Uri. Uneventful until we traveled about 150 km which 60 km was on rock and dirt – First blow out occurred – changed tire and continued north to Milkovo another 150 km.
Friday 1:30 pm – arrived in Milkovo, ate lunch in Café at Milkovo and searched for a tire. No tires could be purchased to fit our vehicle, 225 km to go to reach village “E” and no spare……we prayed and headed on north.

About 60 km outside of village “E” we had our second flat…..no spare….we did have a 12 volt compressor with us and we would drive 15 km, stop and add air. Finally we made it to village “E.” Once we arrived in “E” Zhenya and I went to the only 2 “Shinomatage” and look for tires. We found a couple of slick wore out tires that we put tubes in to try and finish our journey. We also purchased an extra tube to take with us in case we needed to break one down on the road. (Remember we are in the middle of the wilderness…..no Wal-mart, not even a house for miles and miles of travel.)

Friday 7:30 pm We had dinner in village “E” and then held a worship service and observed the Lord’s Supper together at 8:15. There were 11 present for this meeting.
Saturday 8:00 am up for breakfast and hit the road north to the next village. We stopped at 2 different shinomatage again to look for tires (they have only used tires in the village). Of course, they had none. So further on north we go with 2 slick tires, a bunch of prayers and a couple of tubes for radial tires.

Saturday Noon – We arrive at the Kamchatka river and wait for about an hour on a small, old, rusty ferry boat to cross the river so we can drive our vehicle on the fairy and cross the river so that we can continue north.

Finally we arrived in the next village, Kassarevsk, where there is a small Baptist church which meets in a house. There we held a worship service, shared a delicious meal, and spent time with believers. There were 21 at this meeting. Marty preached his first Russian sermon without the aid of a translator in this village.

Saturday at 6 pm we turned south to head toward the village of Milkovo. We arrived back at Milkovo late and ready for some much needed sleep at the church.
Sunday morning we woke and prepared for the morning service……….we worshipped, took the Lord’s Supper together, and shared a meal. There were 22 at this service. We spent the remaining part of the day and night in the village of Milkovo before leaving the next morning.

Monday we began our journey back to the city of Petropavlovsk. We certainly did not want to leave the villages. We love the villages. That is where God has called us to serve and soon with the Lord’s help we will be living there. Please pray for the proper documents to be received so that we can fulfill what God has called us to do.

We had our 3rd and final flat about 200 km from PK. We changed the slick tire to another slick spare and continued on into the city. The next day I found myself purchasing tires in the city. Praise the Lord for His provisions and safe keeping. Praise the Lord that believers sharpen one another. Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”

Thanks for going on this journey with us: Please continue to hold the rope!

Language: Language is simply that, Language. Each day we strive to learn more and more and speak more and more. However, just when you think you are making progress you will say something that draws a strange look from a national. I (Marty) have seen this look many times. It is so strange how a Russian word that sounds very familiar to an English word has such a drastic difference in meaning. Nevertheless, we are making progress in our language, for example, this month Marty preached 3 sermons without the aid of a translator. Sure there were grammatical errors but when Marty preaches in English there are grammatical errors. Suzanne also sang a solo at one of the village meetings in Russian. She sang How Great Thou Art in Russia. It was awesome! (Statement by Marty)

Visa Update: The first of October we will travel to Prague for an Ebenezer conference and visa renewal. This visa renewal we will only receive a double entry 90 day visa. We have begun the process to apply for temporary residency. Once we return from Prague we will complete the process. We must submit many documents in order to apply, all of which need to be notarized and apostilled in America, translated and notarized in Russia. Please pray that we understand every step clearly. Once all the documents are submitted with the application we must wait 5 months on an answer. Please pray that God’s will is done in this situation and that He receives all the glory.

Prayer Request: - Pray for the new believers in Kamchatka as they continue their walk with the Lord.
-Pray for the believers across the peninsula that they continue to plow and not look back.
- Pray for us as we continue to search out a way to be able to live here year round.
- Pray that we will be faithful to serve the Lord on a daily basis in the midst of __________ (just fill in the blanks).
- Pray for laborers.

Thank you for holding the rope!!! We would love to hear what is happening in your ministry.

An observation from a mission team from the states who recently spent 10 days in Kamchatka:

Expect the unexpected in God

We had the amazing opportunity of experiencing the good and bad of Russia first hand. We were part of a mission team consisting of 6 people. Our team was originally supposed to head to Brazil to do evangelism along the Amazon Basin, but God changed our travel plans and sent our team to Russia instead. We prayed and prepared for our trip to Brazil for over a year, but we only had a month to plan for Russia. We knew God had His reasons for changing the plans. We didn’t understand it, but we were trusting Him! (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We faced many obstacles while praying and planning for this mission trip. If you can think of it, it probably happened. But when God’s in it, Satan can’t stop it! After the work God did in Russia, it’s no wonder Satan was working so hard to stop it.

We were told in advance that Russia was a cold and spiritually dark place, so we thought we knew what to expect. Guess that’s what we get for thinking. We had no idea how the Lord was about to change our lives. We met people who forever impacted our life and friendships that will last forever.

The Lord opened doors for us to work a youth camp in Kamchatka, Russia. What an amazing opportunity. Most of the youth at this camp were from a children’s home. They didn’t have much, but what they did have, they treasured. Not only did these kids treasure the few material things that they had, they also treasured trust and friendship. These youth longed for someone to show them some love, attention and tell them the truth.

We lived strictly primitive for 8 days on the Avachinskii Volcano. Primitive means…mosquitoes worst than you could imagine, eating things you never thought you would ever eat, living in tents, not having electricity, running water or a bath (unless it was in a creek).

Primitive wasn’t that bad. It really made us appreciate the things we take for granite every day. We were very thankful for the creek we bathed in and the campfire on those cold days and nights.

All of our time spent in Russia was memorable, but honestly some of the best memories were at the youth camp, Camp Favore. We were able to build relationships with these youth which led to trust. That trust, later led to trust in Jesus Christ. We’re ashamed to say, but we went to Russia with the expectation of planting seeds and maybe seeing 1-2 people saved. We’re so glad our thoughts and ways are not the Lord’s thoughts and ways. (Isaiah 55:8) Praise the Lord 18 youth prayed and trusted Jesus Christ to be their personal Lord and Savior. God showed up and showed out!

We apparently had little faith in what God could do. Even though Russia is a spiritually cold and dark country, God loves the Russian people and desires a personal relationship with them. We serve an awesome God and with Him all things are possible!!! (Matthew 19:26)

Visa laws are making it very hard for the missionaries in Russia to stay in Russia and share the love of Jesus. We know the Lord is not finished with this country. We’re asking you to pray with us and expect the unexpected in God!

Kevin & Jodi Nichols