Team Golden Ring

Thanksgiving Day in Yaroslavl

HAPPY THANKS-GIVING!!!
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We are rejoicing this Thanksgiving Day! The children are napping and the parents are snacking! We are so happy to have had such a wonderful lunch with some of our teammates. We are thankful to have found a 9 pound turkey that came all the way from Brazil to "join" us. We had all of the trimmings---stuffing, sweet potato casserole, scalloped corn, both pecan and pumpkin pies, and much, much more. During lunch, we shared favorite Thanksgiving memories and were reminded of how much we have to be thankful for.

]]> We are especially thankful this year for our family! We are so thankful for our newest family member, Mary Elizabeth. Mary has been such a wonderful addition to our family! We are thankful for the fun and joy our children bring to our day. We are most thankful for our parents and family in the states and the seven months we were all together this year. We praise God for the miracles he has done this year---especially in the life of Kristie's dad! We thank God for Barbara and Les and their commitment, hard work, and determination to not give up. Les has once again "beaten the odds" and is walking, talking, and enjoying life! What an example they have been to us. Praise God for family!

We thank God for the unconditional love, grace, and support he has abundantly shown us this year. He has taught us so many lessons and our faith continues to grow.

We hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving Day and have a minute to give thanks for all you have.

I always thank God for you... I Corinthians 1:4

We love you!
The Sullivan Family

First Joint Worship

We are thrilled with the opportunity to gather three of the new churches we starting for the purpose of worshipping together. Russians from each of the groups have integral roles in the worship service, and we earnestly ask you to pray for them and us as we launch into a new stage of our church planting movement.

Please pray for...

]]> The Praise Team -
The Drama Team - Led by Nalya and the students from the Harinka Hope in Christ Church.
The Individuals sharing Testimonies- Ira from our Saturday night group and Dima from the Hope in Christ Church.
The Small Group leaders- following the message will be a time of small groups led by various new believers from all three churches.
The Guest Speaker- Vladimir Meskevich, the Director of Missions for this area will share a message from the Lord.
Other various leaders- Mel Skinner, Keith Sullivan. There are also others who will share peoms.
The guests- we have invited many non-believers and we pray that they will sense the presence of God and be attracted to His love, salvation, and the hope of a new life in Christ.

Look for a News Update here on the Web on Monday Morning.

Expanding the Kingdom of God

This past weekend we had our winter spiritual retreat with our teammates. Our theme was "The Kingdom of God." It is our prayer that the Kingdom of God would manifest itself here in Ivanovo. Now, it is but a small mustard seed, but we pray that one day it will be like a large tree! We had a very special time of fellowship with our teammates and are amazed at how God brought us together and has knit our hearts together.

]]> Mel and Nancy Skinner are involved in kicking off two new home groups. Pray that this new church would be a lighthouse for our neighbors and friends.

In addition, the Skinners are using Scripture distribution to find folks who desire to know God better. They will start an evangelistic Bible study with those interested folks. Several weeks ago, Mel delivered a Bible to a lady of 64. While talking with her at the door, she volunteered, "Would you like me to help find people who would be interested in having a Bible? I know a lot of people." She called Mel back in the next couple of days and said she had 8 folks that wanted a Bible! This is just the kind of person we've been looking for! Pray for the Lord to raise up people who are seeking Him and that a new group would be gathered.

Our team mates, Keith and Kristie Sullivan, are working with a new church start. They will leave for furlough (stateside rest) in 6 weeks. Pray for stable, local leadership to take over when the Sullivans leave. Pray for the Sullivans as well. They are expecting a baby in May. Pray for a healthy baby and delivery. When they return in the fall they will move to Yaroslavl - still part of our team, just opening new work in a new city.

Pray that the students in the Bible study would make life-changing commitments to Jesus Christ and go on to become His church.

Our strategy hinges around small and rapidly reproducing house and/or cell churches. An important aspect of that is a larger celebration service where people from all of the groups meet together for worship. Our first such service will be February 20, 2005. Pray that God visits us in this service and that He will be glorified. Also pray that our small groups will be successful in inviting their friends and family.