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Easter outreach ideas

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation... 

1 Peter 1:3

Easter is the perfect time of the year to speak naturally and clearly about who Jesus Christ is and why it is important to believe in Him.  I’ve included a few ideas for using the holiday of Easter to talk to others about Jesus: 

·         Print out the article Beyond Blind Faith at http://www.everystudent.com/features/faith.html to hand out to classmates.  Ask them to read the article and let you know what they think.  Of course it would be good for you to read the article yourself and find a few parts of the article that you can ask them about which will enable you to talk about the importance of Christ’s death and resurrection (found in the latter half of the article).

·         You can host an event and show the film The Passion of the Christ or the JESUS Film.  Here are some questions designed for small group discussion with non-Christians after viewing the film.  One idea is to show the last half of the JESUS film to make the showing shorter and use some of the questions from The Passion for discussion.

·         Write a survey – you could include questions like, ’What is the significance of Easter?’  ‘How do you celebrate Easter?’   ‘Do you practice any of the Russian Easter traditions?’  ‘What is the significance of the traditions you practice/why do you observe them?’   ‘Who is Jesus?’  ‘Why did He die?’  ‘How does the fact that Jesus died affect your life today?’  Interview your classmates, friends, fellow students living in the dorms, etc.  Ask them if you can briefly tell them how Jesus has changed your life.

·         Get familiar with the history of Easter in Russia.  Find out what the traditions are surrounding Easter and the church (for instance, what does giving one another a red egg symbolize?  What part does it have in the Easter story?  What do the different elements of the Easter service represent and why are they important to observe?).  Understand how your culture understands Easter.  Find ways to use this information to talk about how death and resurrection of Jesus has changed your life in your conversations about Easter.

·         Consider going with your friends to a Saturday night Easter service at an Orthodox church.  Listen/look for elements of the gospel in the service and initiate a discussion of what you just experienced together.  You can suggest looking at the Biblical basis for what you experienced at the service and open your Bible to a passage talking about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and highlight or summarize why He died and rose again.  You can talk about sin, consequences of sin (eternal death), God’s love and Jesus’ willingness to be executed for us so that we can have forgiveness and eternal life with God.  Of course, you will want to explain how they can start that kind of relationship with Christ – it would be easy to use a gospel booklet at this time, especially the Сущность booklet if you have one.

Of course, in any situation, you will want to have thought through what Easter means to you and how Christ’s death and resurrection has affected you life.  Think through specific examples and be ready to give an account for the hope that is now within you!

Black Sea Summer Mission Project 2010

On the Summer Mission Project, you will:

•        study God’s Word together,
•       pray together,
•         share the gospel together,
•         be exposed to new tools for evangelism,
•         experience intense community as you minister  and live in close community                        together with 35 other students who share a similar vision as you,
•        be challenged to grow in your walk with God in new and stretching ways,
•        AND, you will have great fun together!

Just think of what you can learn and take back to your campus in the fall to help your ministry get off the ground and grow in its impact!  God, in Ephesians 5:16, tells us to take advantage of opportunities.  The Summer Project is one opportunity I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider.

Go to  http://www.letorus.ru/ to find out more.  (The application deadline is 1 April 2010.)

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Is God bigger than 4,500 rubles?

I was poor as a student – I only had money to buy very simple, humble food to live on while in college and had money for very little else (I ate a lot of ‘ramen noodles’ as a student!).   When I first heard about how much the cost was to go on a student Christian retreat, I was so disappointed because I knew that there was no way I could afford to go.  My Bible study leader quickly reminded me that God owned ‘the cattle on a thousand hills’ (Ps. 50:10) – and since He was so rich as to own thousands of large herds of cows, surely He could afford to give me the $30 (1,000 rubles) to go on the retreat.  I asked Him if He would provide the money for me.  My Bible study leader set up an appointment for me to go to talk to a business man in our community and tell him why I wanted to go to the student retreat but that I didn’t have the money to go – and he quickly pulled out his wallet and handed me $30.  I then understood that God was bigger than $30!

The next amount I had to trust God for was $200 (6,000 rubles) to go to the Winter Bible Conference…so I prayed and waited on God and talked to some believers in my church about the opportunity I had to be challenged to grow in my relationship with God – and they pulled out their wallets and I ended up with the $200 needed to pay for conference registration.  And now I was certain that God was bigger than $200!

A few years later I was leading a Bible study and a girl named Sandy was in my group.  She wanted to go the Winter Bible Conference, but money was an issue for her as well.  I told her how God had proved Himself faithful to provide for me, so we prayed, she wrote some letters (explained below) to some believers, waited to hear from them.  The day came to get on the bus to ride up to the conference site which was 3 hours away.  She had only $250 of the $350 (10,000 rubles) needed to pay for the conference…but she was so convinced that God wanted her to go to the conference that she believed He would provide along the way somehow.  In an act of faith, she start climbed up the steps to the bus with her suitcase in hand…and someone on the bus handed her the last $100 that she needed for the conference registration!  God proved Himself faithful to her!  Sandy knew that God was bigger than $350.

Over the years I had had to trust God to provide financially for me.  As a missionary, my salary is provided through people who give financially to me every month.  I once figured out that, counting all the money needed for international mission trips plus the money I received to live on as a long-term missionary, that God will provide around $1,000,000 for me during my lifetime.  I know that God is bigger than $1 million dollars!

(Of course sometimes God has provided without me asking anyone to consider being a part financially of His provision.  Most of the time, though, God has provided as I trust Him and step out in faith to ask others to help financially.)

How big is your God?  Is He bigger than 4,500 rubles?

Raising funds for conferences will direct you to some things you can do, similar to what Sandy and I did, to ask God to provide and to provide through other people. 

·         Pray and ask God if He wants you to go to the Winter Bible Conference. 

·         Check out the information about raising funds for retreats and conferences. 

·         Start following the advice listed out in the materials there. 

·         If you have any questions, please send them to me:  catalist@promail.ru.   I will do all that I can do to help you trust God in this area. 

Of course I will be praying for you and will be anxious to hear how God is showing Himself bigger than you ever imagined.  I can’t wait to hear your stories of God’s faithfulness to you!