urgent prayer request

 

Dear Friends,

 

We just got word from my brother Fred and my sister, Liz who live in Vernon, B.C. Canada that my mother is very sick (Sara Michalski's mom).  We had just returned less than two weeks ago from visiting mom & dad in Canada due to mom's terrible infection in her leg.  The Lord had touched her miraculously, where there were running sores and small holes in her leg, with excrutiating pain for over a month.  After prayer her wounds began to heal quickly and new skin was forming within days and mom was able to walk without pain. Praise God. 

 

However, my mother has been losing weight continually and my brother said that due to her skin turning jaundice,  they took her into the hospital yesterday only to find out that she has stones in her gall bladder and a huge, cancerous tumor on her liver.  The doctors will try to sonically try to break the stones up. but said the liver was inoperative.   The doctors have given my mother at the most two months to live as they say that the bile that has accumulated in her body from the tumor is so much that various parts of her body organs  are shutting down.

 

Despite the reports from the doctors, we are believing God for another major miracle for my mother's health condition and are believing that Jesus is going to raise her up again.  We are asking you, our dear friends and anyone you know to pray for my mom, (Nadia Ilyin).  My father is taking this situation quite hard as they have been married for 66 years, worked together side, by side and ministered in the Tundra and Siberia the last 9 years and then had the opportunity of ministering in China last year.  We are praying for God to intervene with His power to heal as He has done so many times in the past.  May His will be done. 

 

Yours in Christ,

 

Sara & Richard Michalski

“SCRUB A DUB DUB,” WASH MACHINE BROKEN, GOT TO USE THE TUB

Deep in the heart of Siberia, sixteen time zones from the West Coast, we met a Church Body that captured our hearts. Like so many other precious new church plants in Russia, dedication and sacrifice was the norm among our brethren in the Far East. Luba, the pastors wife, a mother of six children had been hand rinsing and ringing clothing for her family. Besides her own family, she was also washing and ringing the bedding and clothing for a total of nearly 70 others in the church's children's orphanage and women and men's Rehabilitation Center. She has been doing this faithfully for years as unto the Lord. Although her hands are raw, we noticed a song in her heart every morning, a smile on her face and a love for God's people and the privilege to serve. While in Angarsk, Siberia, 40 kilometers out of Irkutsk, she served us three meals a day and didn't miss a single solitary meeting which sometimes lasted five and six hours.

It is this kind of dedication that stretches our own commitment level and draws us into wanting to participate with their vision, burden and calling. I thought of a great hymn of the Church with the theme, "Little is much when God is in it". Just for the mere cost of a washer and dryer, this church could be advanced in its challenging young men and women to become free from drugs and alcohol and employ several people in the area of the laundry industry. A commercial washer and dryer would retail for approximately $1,600 U.S. dollars. Some of these funds have come in which will free up some of the most dedicated people in God's Kingdom for that church and that region to minister in other affective areas. These Rehabilitation Centers are in actual fact, training centers for future pastors and Christian workers as has been the pattern throughout our travels in these parts of Siberia.

Something as little as a washer and dryer could be a launching vehicle for major church plants and ministry throughout the area in days to come. We saw over 53 church plants in the Siberian region over the last several years with scores of others being targeted by year end. Your contribution, great or small would be eternally appreciated by these precious ones so full of the joy of the Lord which is their strength.

Richard & Sara Michalski
With Impact Ministries
P.O. Box 2500
Redmond, WA. 98073-2500
Tel: (425) 882-0761 or cell: (206) 321-2407

Operation Precious Pearls

Thank you so much for partnering with us in the vision of God's heart. Where Russia was in the early 70's as pertained to need for Bibles, so China is presently. An area of prayer is that at the highest levels of Russian and Chinese government, somebody who is affiliated with our ministry is talking to high ranking Soviet officials about a gesture of good will in view of the up-coming Olympics in China. Russia is looking at importing 2 million, full Chinese Bibles as an official gift to the Chinese people, celebrating their Olympic games in 2008. These Bibles will be youth oriented with pictures of Olympic events. The printing will cost approximately $3.00 each Bible delivered into China. Impact Ministries has been asked to be directly involved in over-sighting this project. We are praying for God's wisdom and sealing of God's grace as to what direction to take.

If we embrace this Chinese new project, we will call it, "Operation Precious Pearls". Please pray with us for God's leading, for people and personnel and finances to make it all happen. Thank you for your mutual concern for China and thank you for the offering that will be taken for the warehoused Chinese New Testaments which we are still able to buy out at five per dollar.

Yours in Christ for Myriads and Millions Lost,

Richard & Sara Michalski
with Impact Ministries
P.O. BOX 2500
REDMOND, WA. 98073-2500
Tel. (425) 882-0761 email: impactmini@aol.com

SLEIGH-BELLS RING

As the mission's Mercedes van pressed its way, two hours out of the city of Perm, in the heart of the Ural Mountains, the roads became covered with compact snow and ice. To our stunned amazement, coming the other way on a little country road were three sleds driven by one horse each. We stopped to take pictures, only to be invited by the lead sled to take a ride on this typical Russian, Siberian sleigh. With an arched, wood harness and sleigh-bells gently jingling, the horse responded to the tug on the reigns and off went Sara, her brother Fred and Merlin, our team member. About ten minutes later upon their return, we had discovered that the proprietor of these sleds and horses was a local mayor and former Communist Party director. He had offered these sled rides to the local orphans out of the goodness of his heart just to cheer them up at this Christmas Season. As Fred and Merlin departed to take better pictures, Sara pressed the conversation from the temporal to the eternal. It wasn't long before the Holy Spirit did its work in drawing men to Jesus. In just a few moments time, this divine appointment, due to our obedience, turned out to be, NO DISSAPOINTMENT!

Just like the encounter of Philip and the eunuch in the book of Acts, the man's inquiring heart said, "What must I do to be saved?" This truly was a miracle encounter as the Holy Spirit convinced this man, his good deeds; even to the least of these orphan children was not adequate for his salvation. As is so often the case, after three generations of Communism and Atheism, Sara had to help him formulate a sincere heart-felt sinner's prayer.

Upon completing his calling on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, noticeable tears were brimming at the corners of his eyes. His heart had been touched and transformed by the presence of Jesus Christ. Now his good works would have eternal merit, as they were done in the Name of the Lord. He would now be showing forth God's goodness and mercy to his generation and to the least of these little ones. Truly, our steps are ordered of the Lord, even chance encounters or so we assume they are, can be divine appointments by the directive of the Spirit of God to the salvation of friends, family and total strangers.

Our hearts greatly rejoiced as we solidified the encounter with a prayer of thanksgiving in our vehicle as we pressed further to be part of an orphanage outreach in the next village. All the while, our hearts were overwhelmed in reflection on heavens rejoicing for one sinner who repented. Daily encounters such as these were evident due to the covering of prayers of God's people. Some had sown, some had watered and this was God's hour to bring in the increase. Siberia is ready for a mighty harvest of salvation. Prophetically, God spoke that Siberia would become as a watered garden, blossoming and blooming abundantly, filled with abounding and remaining fruit at every frontier.

Help us sow water and harvest in the vastness of this grand land with its great people, twice the land area of the Continental United States. The church plants in the last ten years can still be numbered in the low hundreds. Millions await their first time hearing of the Gospel and the planting of their lives in a local Church Body with pastors after the heart of God. Impact Ministries is called to work alongside these indigenous churches, lifting up their hands as Hur and Joshua did for Moses, until the battle is won and the victory is the Lord's. Thank you for participating with your prayers and with your giving.

SIBERIAN HEATWAVE

Sara, Merlin and I have just returned from a 21 day, Siberian ministry tour which was a balance between crusade services and leadership conferences. The astounding weather factor played a key role in increasing the attendance of all the major events. It should have been twenty below zero, snowing and blowing as a norm for this region, but the sun was out almost daily and the temperatures were in the mid to a high twenties Fahrenheit. This was so unusual that bears in remote areas were coming out of hibernation, lakes and rivers which are normally frozen, were frost free and permafrost in many parts of the Tundra was melting. The local people kept commenting that the records showed that there has not been weather like this in a hundred years. We believe all of this was answered prayer to the petition of God's people as we saw hundreds saved, healed and touched by the power of God's deliverance.

One village church that comes graphically to mind had been allowed to build their wood-plank sanctuary but had exhausted their revenue in one crucial area and that was a central heating system. The piping and boiler works were in place but the cost of tapping into the local gas line was something that the church cannot afford. Needless to say, this church was extremely thankful for the warm weather and for the close fellowship of their small congregation, bundled together in their winter clothing. What a statement could be made to their community and to the surrounding villages of Siberia that the Body of Christ is more than just a local representation, but around the world, It has family members who genuinely care. The Word declares, "When one part of the Body suffers, we all suffer." The Word encourages us to rejoice with those that rejoice. What would happen if the greater Body of Christ helped pay their $2,000 dollar, gas hook-up charge?
What a resounding testimony this would be to both the Redeemed and the unregenerated of the community.

Nestled deep in the Northern Ural Mountains, this church is waiting on God, believing for a miracle and thanking God for every new day where the temperature doesn't plummet to minus 40. We could warm the coggles of their heart and cause the heavens to rejoice by participating in this divine opportunity in Yanina, Siberia.

Sara and I are prayerfully planning on returning to this area in March and both personally over-see the gift of your kindness and generosity. This would be a life changing statement for this church, their people and their little community. We hope to hear from you as God directs.

Yours in Christ,

Richard & Sara Michalski
With IMPACT MINISTRIES
P.O. BOX 2500
REDMOND, WA. 98073-2500
Tel: (425) 885-0761 or cell: (206) 321-2407
Email: impactmini@aol.com