teamnebel.org

Dear Co-laborers and Fellowservants,

I apologize for the long delay in getting a newsletter out, but the hard drive on my computer failed a couple of months ago and I have been busy exploring options for retrieval of data – all of which was way too expensive!  So I have reconstructed my mailing list from memory and other documents.  If you are reading this on the website and didn’t not get a copy, please forward me your e-mail so I can add you to the list.  I implore you!  If you don’t have a backup system for your computer data, get one now and back it up.  I lost four years of pictures and documents, not to mention my e-mail list.  Oh well…

Okay, a lot has happened so let me try to bring you up to date.  Two weeks from today Annabelle and I will leave for Ukraine for about a two week trip.  After arriving in Kiev on Monday the 26th, we will take a domestic (Ukrainian) flight to Simferopol.  We will be there only a day to grab our bags we left behind last year and meet with missionaries and a national Tatar pastor.  These people are targeting the Tatar people, who are the ethnic Muslims of the Crimean peninsula.  Our goal is to map out a strategy to assist them in this difficult ministry.  I have a good friend who is Arabic and has a ministry to Muslim people, so we will try to arrange some sort of a joint ministry function in the coming year.  Pray for this.  Tuesday afternoon we will load our 6 bags on the train in Simferopol and take the 20 or so hour ride to the other side of Ukraine to Zhmerinka.  If you remember, Pastor Valera holds a Bible Institute there every year from January to March.  I have taught there before and he has invited me back.  We have a great relationship with these dear people and the church there.  Here is an excerpt of a letter I received from Pastor Valera recently:

God laid on my heart to share with you with the experience I got during the evangelizing trip to Russia I’d been on for two weeks. I’ve been to the Southern part of Russia and it is Rostov region. The town I was in is called Zernograd. The population of the town is about 30 thousand people. There is only one Baptist church in the town. There are about 60 people who go to that church. Half of them are refugees from Georgia. During that time God showed me in what a sad state many Christians are now. “Being churchpeople and calling themselves Christians” they don’t know the Gospel of Jesus Christ at all. We’ve visited many families there, where God helped the believers to open their hearts and bow before Him admitting not having known him at all. Many of them told they’d got tired of living such a formal and superficial Christian life. We had about seven meetings altogether and at every of them someone would go forward and open their hearts to God. They repented of dead formalism, wishing to live a new life. I spoke about Christians dying for himself and that Christ didn’t save us in order to correct us but to live IN us. It seemed to awake many. Sometimes we would open the Scriptures and talk on these topics until late at night. My heart was breaking when I saw the LORD fill the church with His Holy Spirit. And believers didn’t want to go home and asked me to stay longer because the time passed very quickly. How remarkable it is to have the presence of the lord at church. There is no commercial needed. People just come themselves. Now being in Ukraine, I am rejoicing about the blessings of the Lord we have here. I haven’t been thankful enough to God recently for everything he’s done for many years in my life. Many people don’t have it. We’ve remained friends with the church in Russia. We’ll be keeping in touch with them and praying for us to know how to help the believers there.

Dear brother I am thankful to God for you! I appreciate all the lessons which God taught me through you! You’ve become more precious to my heart now! I am sorry I can’t send you any pictures from Russia, my camera broke. But I hope that my letter will encourage you to go on in following the Lord.  I was glad to hear from you.  I am glad that you will be able to visit us in Zhmerinka.  I think that the students will enjoy seeing you as well.  Most of our students this year will be new, and for that reason it is a little difficult to say what we will be teaching.  As I see it, what really helps people grow a relationship with God, is a good atmosphere and helping the students to obey, humble themselves, and discipline.  I know that you have much experience listening to God and doing what He would like.  I would like you to prepare some lessons from your life, and second, from the life of Jesus Christ, because some of the students may be unsaved.  It would good to get them acquainted with the Savior.
We are ready to work this school year.  We are feeling bold, and though we have several troubles, God is helping me to lay it all on Him.  We are waiting to see what the Lord will do.

As you can read, this man has a heart for God and the mission of God.  He is exactly the type of pastor we asked God to allow us to work with – a national with a heart for reaching nationals.  Pastor Valera is an ethnic Romanian, who did ministry work in Moldova, married and Russian wife, and now has a church/ministry in Ukraine.
Annabelle and I will be there a week.  Along with teaching in the Institute, Pastor Valera and I will be talking about some ministry events in the upcoming year.  The church in London would like to do a missions trip this year to Ukraine and we will work out the details of this event.  Pray for this.

While we are in the States for the next year or so on this extended Furlough, we will be asking God to allow us opportunity to go back into the former Soviet Union and minister to the needs of  believers, pastors, missionaries, and to continue with evangelism and discipleship.  Perhaps this is something you would like to participate in?  Pray about it and lets do it.  We put this mission statement on our first prayer card:  “Our vision is to evangelize and disciple Russian speaking peoples;  to scripturally equip them to reach their own countrymen.”  That remains our vision.  Please continue to pray for us as we seek God’s divine appointments.

Finally, our financial support is now being handled by Central Missionary Clearinghouse.  You can look them up on the web at http://cmc.missions.net/ for any information about them.  Their mailing address is PO Box 219228, Houston, TX 77218-9228

We anxiously look forward to what God has for us in 2009!  May God richly bless you this year, too!

Pressing toward the mark,

The Nebel Family
Missionaries to Russian Speaking People